The dreaded ‘work’ part of this WWE sponsored ‘vacation’ arrived with a THUD. Normally on these shows, I am sort of an insurance policy. In case something happens to Randy – the poor soul that has been mixing WWE audio since the days of Marconi – something such as taking a vacation needing a kidney transplant, I can step in and mix the show. And if not, it’s all pretty much a paid vacation for me. Well, as I found out a few days ago, Randy’s illness forced him to take this whole two week European trip off, the ‘Frenchy insurance policy’ was cashed in, and I was field promoted to the audio mixer, or A1 chair.

Time to do the Italian Job!

Back at home we have a custom built, state-of-the-art TV truck that we use every week. When we travel to Europe, we hire a company called Visions to provide us with their state-of-the-art trucks. Without getting into TOO many boring technical details, I’ll just say the states of the “art” between the US and the UK are WORLDS apart. Fortunately, we hire a crew of British guys to work with us, and they know their odd little TV trucks and the very odd WWE show pretty well. Of course, they all speak British at us, which is similar to, but not the same as English. A truck isn’t a truck, it’s a ‘lorry’… elevators are ‘lifts’, the router in the TV truck is the ‘rooter’, ect. At times I have been asked by the UK crew to translate something into ‘American’, which always makes me laugh.

For an example, when we have a problem with a piece of equipment at home, we generally say something to the effect of, “Yeah, that piece of shit is fucked up,” but in British, it just “gives a bit of grief.” Cheers, mate!

Anyway, we had all day Saturday and Sunday to get set for Monday (also known in British as Monday) night’s show. The first day passed quickly and uneventfully, the second was almost as uneventful as the first.

That made me very nervous.

After two days, about five miles (three thousand four hundred fifty-two millimeters) of cable snaked throughout Milan‘s DatcheForum to put our little show together.

Spaghetti anyone?

Large Italian flags hung by the entrance with care, in hopes that Mr. McMahon would soon be there (and be in a good mood.)

Some of the crew diligently preparing for our first ever televised show from Italy. They look calm, but our two uneventful set days led to a chaoticically eventful show day, with multiple changes throughout the day, and of course, lots of yelling. Typical fun stuff!

What the hell do all these buttons do anyway?!?!

Show number one, sometime in the middle. That’s the best smile I could muster. Yeah, in any language, it was pretty much a disaster.

At least there is another show to look forward to on Tuesday… then… mercifully… PRAGUE!!

Author: frenchy