A Night to Remember: My Autistic Perspective on Attending WWE Friday Night SmackDown in Montreal
I'm so glad I didn't tap out of this experience.
"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble gum." - "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, They Live, 1988
Like many children of my generation, I was a huge fan of pro wrestling under what was then called the WWF, later rebranded as the WWE. My schoolmates and I loved watching the televised matches of larger-than-life wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, the Undertaker, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, and Bret Hart. There were action figures, video games, T-shirts, and even children's free weights emblazoned with their likenesses. Many of these wrestlers appeared in Cyndi Lauper's 1985 music video for The Goonies 'R' Good Enough, the live-action segments of 1989's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and Hollywood movies like 1987's The Princess Bride and 1988's They Live.
Being a lifelong lover of all forms of campy pop cultural entertainment, pro wrestling was a lot of fun. After all, it doesn't get much campier than seeing sweaty, muscular men and women in gaudy costumes hurling insults at each other before literally hurling each other in or out of the ring. I continued following the WWF and its WCW/nWo rivals until sometime after high school, gradually losing track between the end of the Rock's tenure and the beginning of John Cena's. Flash forward to early January of 2026, when my support worker asked me if I'd be interested in attending WWE Friday Night SmackDown at the Bell Centre in Montreal later that month.
This was such an incredible offer and one I certainly wanted to accept, though I had to consider the risks of the experience overwhelming my anxiety metre and triggering an episode of sensory overload. My support worker and I would be carpooling to the event with a few other people, which was another concern to consider should I suffer a panic attack far from home. My support worker reassured me that in the event of the event becoming too much for me to handle, we could always leave the arena and grab a coffee somewhere in Downtown Montreal. Great, that resolves one potential issue, but what about being away from my home and family for approximately ten-hours? That's much longer than I'm comfortable with. Hmm, what to do?
I decided to shift from negative to positive thoughts; one of my goals for 2026 is to continue opening myself up to new experiences I'd normally avoid, and here was an exciting opportunity that might come once in a blue moon. What if, instead of being a mess, the outing was a success? Thus, I accepted the invitation, reminding myself that I used to attend similar events in Toronto during my younger years without incident, such as concerts, the theatre, baseball games, the cinema, museums, and even night clubs. I now hoped to channel some of my previous adventurous energy for one long night in the big city.
While I'd visited Montreal once before, it was way back in 1996...in summer, so this would be my first exposure to their allegedly harsh Quebec winters. I decided to dress extra warm before heading out. The drive to Montreal wasn't too bad aside from us bring stuck in a Montreal traffic jam on the highway for what felt like an eternity. Thankfully, traffic on the highway eventually moved again, the drive through Montreal's streets went smoothly, and we found a parking spot within the Bell Centre's indoor parking lot, sparing us the hardship of being exposed to the arctic temperatures outside.
Unfortunately, navigating the Bell Centre's halls on route to our seats proved to be the most stressful part of the evening, as security guards herded us into a series of line-ups while occasionally separating us into different queues altogether. This made me nervous that I might lose sight of our party amid the crowds and chaos. Further complicating matters is the fact that I don't speak French, which can be a major hurdle when visiting, "la belle province." As such, getting lost in Montreal wasn't even an option for me. Thankfully, my childhood love of Where's Waldo? books came in handy, granting me the observational skills needed to keep track of our party until we safely reached our seats. Phew! We'd made it!
It sure was surreal gazing down at the actual ring I'd previously only ever seen on TV. As mentioned, I haven't kept up with the current roster of wrestlers, so I mostly relied on the cheers and jeers of my fellow audience members to ascertain the babyfaces from the heels. I got the impression that one wrestler in particular, a gentleman named Sami, was the big draw in Montreal, given the excitement he elicited from the fans whenever he addressed them, coupled with all the posters around the Bell Centre of him wearing a Habs jersey. While I generally struggle with noise and crowds for prolonged periods, I genuinely enjoyed the energy of the audience and how invested they were in each of the matches. I was also impressed with all the cool lighting effects and pyrotechnics.
As for attending WWE Friday Night SmackDown itself, I've always been aware that pro wrestling is more performance art than blood sport, with choreographed fights and scripted outcomes. I've long known the feuds between the "good" and "evil" wrestlers are just fun storylines and that many of these "sworn enemies" are good friends in real life who go out for beers together afterwards, like Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog from Looney Tunes. Now, while the fighting may be fake, the injuries that can result from botched suplexes or piledrivers are undeniably real. As such, I have tremendous respect for these pro wrestlers, who are not only tasked with putting on a good show, but also with being extremely careful in how they throw or land on their opponents. These men and women are real athletes living rough lives, no doubt about it, and I find it sad how many of them pass away at such young ages.
Well, that pretty much sums up my WWE experience in Montreal. It was cool being in the city where André the Giant began his North American wrestling career in 1971 and sitting in the same arena where Bret Hart was infamously screwed over by Vince McMahon in 1997. I made sure to purchase a souvenir WWE Friday Night SmackDown T-shirt with the location and date on it to remind myself of the fun I had and that it was worth pushing myself outside my comfort zone. In the process, I also learned something new about how some noisy and crowded environments affect my autism-related social anxieties differently, which I'll discuss in-depth in an upcoming post. In closing, I'd like to thank my support worker and the other members of our carpooling group for such a wonderful time. It was indeed a night to remember! As always, thanks for reading!
Do you have any thoughts on this post? If so, feel free to reach out by leaving a comment, dropping me a line, or signing my guestbook to share your opinions on this or any other topic. To receive the latest updates on my work or to directly interact with my content ("likes" or comments), follow me on Neocities. Also, feel free to press the "like" button if you enjoyed this post, as "likes" help me gauge audience interest in the content I post. After all, I don't want to bore anyone, ha-ha. Until next time, love, peace, and chicken grease!
Posted in "Autistic Perspectives" on Tuesday, February 3, 2026.