It was Wrestlemania Week, and Madison Square Garden is not only the home of the New York Rangers but also professional wrestling and boxing. The Garden has seen some incredible wrestling matches at the Garden, the home of WWE. It saw another memorable match between Kurtis MacDermid of the New Jersey Devils and Matt Rempe of the New York Rangers.
In the 1980s, Madison Square Garden was the home for the most anticipated match, the War to Settle the Score between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan.
Well, on Wednesday night, April 3, 2024, the War to Settle Score 2 occurred between MacDermid and Rempe. It was built like a professional wrestling match between these two men. There was a main event feel to this one.
Matt Rempe plays the Bret Hart role, a heel outside New York but the babyface inside the Garden. Similar to Piper in Portland. Kurtis MacDermid enters the building as the heel but the babyface for Devils fans. Something was going to give, and something had to be done.
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For those who have not watched this rivalry this year, the tension was high, and it was at a boiling point. In the build-up to Wednesday night, Matt Rempe had been ejected twice for two hits in prior games with the Devils. In his first game against the Devils in February, he was ejected for his hit on Nathan Bastian. There was a little scrum with Jonas Siegenthaler, but the issues were far from over.
In the last meeting between the Devils and Rangers, a new face entered the fold in Kurtis MacDermid. MacDermid was looking to settle the score in that game on March 11th. However, Rempe did not answer the call and then was ejected for his hit on Siegenthaler and suspended by the league. MacDermid was looking to go after that hit. However, the linesman got in, and as the parties were being separated, Rempe waved “bye-bye” with his hand to MacDermid.
MacDermid has some choice words for Rempe cutting a promo after the game.
“You don’t do things like that when you’re in your first year in the league,” MacDermid said after the game on March 11. “I lost quite a bit of respect for him tonight.”
This brings us to what happened Wednesday night. It was time to settle the score. Rempe had been out of the lineup for the previous three games before returning to practice on Tuesday. According to interim Devils head coach Travis Green, Kurtis MacDermid had been out of the lineup nursing an injury and was getting close.
MacDermid returned to the lineup and started the game with the rest of the fourth line. Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette matched MacDermid with Rempe to get things out of the way. Two seconds into the game, the main event happened. Well, it happened after the undercard where Curtis Lazar and Jimmy Vesey got things going before MacDermid and Rempe squared off.
It was an excellent fight between two big heavyweights of the game. This one ended in a time-limit draw, with a rematch, maybe at another place and time. Eight players were ejected two seconds into the game.
New Jersey Devils players Kurtis MacDermid, Chris Tierney, Kevin Bahl, and John Marino were ejected to start the game. Meanwhile, New York Rangers saw players Barclay Goodrow, Matt Rempe, K’Andre Miller, and Jacob Trouba ejected to begin the game. Rempe 5:03 time against the Devils 47 penalty minutes and three ejections.
Even the coaches got into this event as they needed to settle some scores there.
Rempe earned MacDermid’s respect on Wednesday night. We will see if this is over, but the score has now settled at Madison Square Garden.
Again, there are many similarities between the NHL and the world of pro wrestling, and the storyline between Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid is another prime example.
This article was first seen on Full Press Wrestling.
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