Post by Pennyroyal_Tea (admin) on Oct 26, 2003 7:26:13 GMT -5
(From NYNews.com)
Wrestling royalty wed with dignity
By FRANZISKA CASTILLO
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 26, 2003)
SLEEPY HOLLOW — Trading body slams and smackdowns for kisses and cake, World Wrestling Entertainment stars Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were married here yesterday in a low-key ceremony.
Emerging from St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church a little after 4:15 p.m., the bride, daughter of WWE chief executive Vince McMahon Jr., and groom, a 260-pound human behemoth also known as "The Game" or Paul Levesque, embraced to the cheers of a herd of 12-year-old boys on dirt bikes.
Much to the boys' disappointment, Triple H did not perform his signature "pedigree" move on his new wife, but instead graciously helped the bride into an understated black limousine before disappearing himself behind the car's tinted windows.
The princess of wrestling's first family, who has been known to fight even her father in the ring, had already married Triple H on TV in 1999, an affair that involved a mysterious drugging and a videotaped Las Vegas ceremony.
Yesterday's real-life union was far more sedate — and private.
Eight Sleepy Hollow police officers and six state troopers kept fans from getting closer than a half-block from the wedding.
McMahon, of Greenwich, Conn., wore an ivory gown with a fitted bodice and moderate train, and the groom a simple black tuxedo with a maroon pocket square. Trailing them out of the church was a group of wrestlers, dressed in suits that strained to stretch across their outsized pectorals, biceps, and triceps.
Even the 400-pound, bleached-blond Samoan wrestler Rikishi, who normally wears a huge black thong to perform his trademark "Stink Face" attack, was suitably formal in a black knee-length tunic adorned with a neck garland of black and yellow flowers.
From the small crowd assembled behind police barriers, neighborhood fans called out their favorite wrestlers' names and waved. "Sgt. Slaughter! Ric Flair! Hey, Big Show! My God, he's taller than the freakin' sign!"
Also in attendance were wrestlers Booker T, Shawn Michaels and 1996 Olympic wrestling gold-medalist Kurt Angle.
Wrestler-turned-fiction-writer Mick Foley pronounced the wedding "excellent."
"Much better attended than my own wedding," Foley said as he signed an autograph for a freckle-faced boy.
And why Sleepy Hollow? "I think Triple H is a big Washington Irving fan," Foley said, referring to the community's prominence in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
"Me siento muy emocionado," said 28-year-old wrestling fan Oscar Ortiz — "I feel so emotional," in English — as he watched the guests enter six vans to drive to the Tarrytown reception. "Ever since I was little, I always watched them."
News of the hush-hush event had spread through the village the day before when McMahon and Triple H were spotted outside the church by neighbors, including the Herrera family.
"My brother told me, and then I told him," Cynthia Herrera, 12, said, pointing to her friend, Michael Traylor, also 12. "And then he told me," said Chelsea Williams, 12, explaining how the "top secret" news had been publicized among so many in the local middle school set.
As the guests drove away, police took down cordons and let the children inside the church. A few lingered in the pews so recently occupied by their idols. Others grabbed bouquets of blush and cream-colored roses to save as souvenirs. Most of the children and teenagers agreed that Mick Foley had been the nicest, and that The Rock should have come but was probably busy working on some movie.
"I know it's all fake, but I love it," said Jackie Ruffler, 21, of Sleepy Hollow, who said she would dry her bouquet and keep it forever, along with the somewhat distant pictures she took.
And then it was 5 p.m., time for the next Mass, and the children filed out. Elderly parishioners entered, wondering what all the ruckus was about. And Sleepy Hollow went back to being, well, sleepy.
This pleased Lt. Barry Campbell of the Sleepy Hollow police, who had worried that crazed fans from other towns would create a mob scene along Beekman Avenue. He was "ecstatic," he said, to find only about 80 well-behaved people, almost all from Sleepy Hollow, craning their necks for a look at the wedding.
All had gone well, Campbell said. "The kids were good, no one got out of hand, and they got to see their heroes."
Wrestling royalty wed with dignity
By FRANZISKA CASTILLO
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 26, 2003)
SLEEPY HOLLOW — Trading body slams and smackdowns for kisses and cake, World Wrestling Entertainment stars Triple H and Stephanie McMahon were married here yesterday in a low-key ceremony.
Emerging from St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church a little after 4:15 p.m., the bride, daughter of WWE chief executive Vince McMahon Jr., and groom, a 260-pound human behemoth also known as "The Game" or Paul Levesque, embraced to the cheers of a herd of 12-year-old boys on dirt bikes.
Much to the boys' disappointment, Triple H did not perform his signature "pedigree" move on his new wife, but instead graciously helped the bride into an understated black limousine before disappearing himself behind the car's tinted windows.
The princess of wrestling's first family, who has been known to fight even her father in the ring, had already married Triple H on TV in 1999, an affair that involved a mysterious drugging and a videotaped Las Vegas ceremony.
Yesterday's real-life union was far more sedate — and private.
Eight Sleepy Hollow police officers and six state troopers kept fans from getting closer than a half-block from the wedding.
McMahon, of Greenwich, Conn., wore an ivory gown with a fitted bodice and moderate train, and the groom a simple black tuxedo with a maroon pocket square. Trailing them out of the church was a group of wrestlers, dressed in suits that strained to stretch across their outsized pectorals, biceps, and triceps.
Even the 400-pound, bleached-blond Samoan wrestler Rikishi, who normally wears a huge black thong to perform his trademark "Stink Face" attack, was suitably formal in a black knee-length tunic adorned with a neck garland of black and yellow flowers.
From the small crowd assembled behind police barriers, neighborhood fans called out their favorite wrestlers' names and waved. "Sgt. Slaughter! Ric Flair! Hey, Big Show! My God, he's taller than the freakin' sign!"
Also in attendance were wrestlers Booker T, Shawn Michaels and 1996 Olympic wrestling gold-medalist Kurt Angle.
Wrestler-turned-fiction-writer Mick Foley pronounced the wedding "excellent."
"Much better attended than my own wedding," Foley said as he signed an autograph for a freckle-faced boy.
And why Sleepy Hollow? "I think Triple H is a big Washington Irving fan," Foley said, referring to the community's prominence in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
"Me siento muy emocionado," said 28-year-old wrestling fan Oscar Ortiz — "I feel so emotional," in English — as he watched the guests enter six vans to drive to the Tarrytown reception. "Ever since I was little, I always watched them."
News of the hush-hush event had spread through the village the day before when McMahon and Triple H were spotted outside the church by neighbors, including the Herrera family.
"My brother told me, and then I told him," Cynthia Herrera, 12, said, pointing to her friend, Michael Traylor, also 12. "And then he told me," said Chelsea Williams, 12, explaining how the "top secret" news had been publicized among so many in the local middle school set.
As the guests drove away, police took down cordons and let the children inside the church. A few lingered in the pews so recently occupied by their idols. Others grabbed bouquets of blush and cream-colored roses to save as souvenirs. Most of the children and teenagers agreed that Mick Foley had been the nicest, and that The Rock should have come but was probably busy working on some movie.
"I know it's all fake, but I love it," said Jackie Ruffler, 21, of Sleepy Hollow, who said she would dry her bouquet and keep it forever, along with the somewhat distant pictures she took.
And then it was 5 p.m., time for the next Mass, and the children filed out. Elderly parishioners entered, wondering what all the ruckus was about. And Sleepy Hollow went back to being, well, sleepy.
This pleased Lt. Barry Campbell of the Sleepy Hollow police, who had worried that crazed fans from other towns would create a mob scene along Beekman Avenue. He was "ecstatic," he said, to find only about 80 well-behaved people, almost all from Sleepy Hollow, craning their necks for a look at the wedding.
All had gone well, Campbell said. "The kids were good, no one got out of hand, and they got to see their heroes."