Tag Archive for Zack Ryder

WWE Raw Philly And Hershey Smackdown 3/25/13-3/26/13

CM Showstopper / March 26, 2013 / No comments

Anyone who has ever gone celebrity hunting or marking out knows there is a risk of failure. There is a certain percentage, no matter how experienced, well taught or intelligent one might be, they may just come up a day late and a dollar short. And if there was a theme for this report, I think “Day Late, Dollar Short” would certainly sum it up accurately. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes…..the bear gets you.

With nothing more than a single goal to make the weekend….one focus…one word….ROCK. It was the return of The Great One to Philly and DJKnightRida and I would not miss it. The weekend started off well. Scored a front row, on cam ticket….sold my 4th row off and was excited for Raw and meeting Rock again. We packed up my new beast mobile, 2012 Ram 1500 Laramie edition (the perks of working at a dealership), and we were off. The weather was slightly cool with the sun rising. The weekend was looking bright and sunny.

Unfortunately, it would be none so once we reached the cesspool known as Philly. :melopain: What was expected highs in the 50s quickly turned to 20s with a windchill that was breathing below zero temps. We made our first stop the hippo for Rock. Braving the bitter cold air and winter like breeze, we waited outside hoping for that single moment it would all be worth it. Sadly, after a few hours I could no longer feel my genitalia and decided that evidently Spring was not here and a wintery weekend was approaching. So we decided to head to Walmart to score some gloves and an extra layer.

After visiting one of the WORST Walmarts I have ever seen, we headed back. But not before some fool who left a shopping cart in the parking lot, would have said cart smash into my driver side door. Leaving your carts in the parking spaces is just plain laziness. Ultimately, Walmart should know better and have people going out to get the carts. This ALWAYS seems to be an issue at this store, where others actually have their employees out there collecting the carts.

Anyway, we were in a hurry, so the time to sit around and cuss out the monkey piss service of a cesspool city’s Walmart was not one we could afford. So we headed back and took our place out front….waiting. Minutes seemed like hours. And hours seemed like days, as the cold only got worse and worse. By midnight, we knew this was NOT gonna happen this night. So we packed up and headed to tv and see who might be able to score. For this night, we had minor captures in Damien Sandow, who came in sporting an Edge hat. I asked for a photo, which he granted. I told him I loved his hat and he thanked me before whipping it off right before the flash. :ruserious: Also snagged a Mark Henry auto before Mark once again got pissed at DJ about his silver running dry.

Now before we called it a night, one of the former WWE writers came into lobby and asked for some of the pizza. We gave him some and he said he wanted to sit and “shoot with us”. We talked about Vince’s “bear skin rug” and just who has taken a “magic carpet ride”, Abraham Washington, under utilized talents, stories and whats wrong with WWE. I wish I could tell you this was a long detailed hour long chat, but it lasted no more than 10 mins and he was gone. He stumbled off into a cab.

We decided to call it a night. It was getting close to sunrise and we needed to be up for another shot at Rock in the morning. So we headed back to our hippo to get a few hours of sleep and try again in the morning.

We were up at 8am and looked outside to find a Winter FREAKING WONDERLAND!!!! Are you kidding me?! Late March and there is an inch of snow on the ground and with a heavy pour down among us?! No way could we hang too long at Rock’s. We swung by, but spent no more than an hour and decided to head back to tv where we could be warm….or so we thought. Once inside tv, we found the staff kicking out all that did not have a room there. Have a room, you stay inside. No room, out you go. We headed outside for a few minutes before I decided I wasnt taking this no more and went inside and got myself a room. I was not getting shut out. Shortly thereafter the hippo staff tossed all the marks outside off the property. Names like Kofi Kingston, Khali, Mark Henry, Prime Time Players, Big E Langston and Bray Wyatt were all down. Wyatt and Langston were nice gets for me in my NXT Program. I also snagged a Bo Dallas for my program. Saw legends like Bret Hart and Dusty Rhodes, which was very unexpected. Got Dusty in my NXT program and got Bret in the WWE E and a first time photo with him.

One of the highlights was Zeb Coulter, who came into the lobby and told us “Dont Get Up or I’ll Kill You.” :yikes1: As he headed to the front door, he stopped and called out to us to come and get a photo. WOW! LOL!!

My biggest want was The Shield. They came in from the gym, but Ambrose went to get a snack, as I talked to Rollins. Ambrose snuck off by the time I had a chance to try and get a Shield photo. Rollins said he would see if he could make it happen when they came back down. Unfortunately, when they came back down Rollins and Reigns were in the lobby with Dean missing again. Rollins hung out for a bit before it was getting late and Reigns went to load the rental. They couldnt wait any longer, as Ambrose came down a few mins later. I did get Dean and Seth to both sign my Shield vest and Dean to sign my NXT program.

The Shield was gone and we were about ready to call it. I wanted to give it just a few more minutes and besides Jerry Lawler was coming in and I had a program for Jerry. Once I was done with Jerry, I over heard him and Harvey Whippleman talking. Jerry wanted to know what Harvey was doing here and he said he was here to give “Paul Heyman a ride to the arena”. WHAT!?!?!?!? The evil genius himself…Paul Heyman is actually here?!??! It wasnt but a minute when Heyman came down. Got him to the sign the WWE E and got a pic with him. Another first time meet and a nice grab.

This pretty much concluded this round. We needed to head to the AP for JBL and grab some lunch AND make a couple of quick stops for supplies. We were crunched for time, but scurried along as quick as possible. We made it to JBL in plenty of time, as his plane was delayed. We spent a good 2 hours waiting and but he never came off the bird as far as we could tell. Another instance of coming up short on the weekend.

It was time to head to the arena for Raw and pickup my front row seat. The show itself was ok at best. Nothing spectacular as far as matches went. I did get a chance to try out my new DSLR camera. Canon 18mps with a 6400ISO. Once the show was over we were gonna take our final shot at Rock. We headed to the hippo. We were stopped at the traffic light to turn on the street when we got the call that Rock was inside already and that a few friends already got him.:ehh: Literally about to turn on the street and we just missed him. A day late….a dollar short.

Our spirits were beaten. With nothing else to really do, we headed back to tv. Perhaps a chance at Shield. When we got there, pretty much everyone had already come back. Caught Sandow and got him in my new WWE program. Outside of that, it was empty and dead. DJ retired to the room to catch a nap an hour earlier and I decided it was time to pack up and make the trip home. I headed up, packed everything and came back down. At this point I was alerted that Shield had JUST stepped into the elevator and had come in together, signed and did Shield photos. :saswhat: Day late….dollar short…….AGAIN.

I shook my head in non surprised disgust and headed to the garage. It was gonna be a LONG drive home. My only companion would be the sorrows of missed opportunity and the tears of personal regret. Like I said sometimes you get the bear and sometimes….the bear gets you.

 

P.S. The last photo was taken from WWE.com for the Raw Sign Of The Week.

http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/fan-signs-photos-2013

 

Category: Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WWE Raw State College 9/21/12

CM Showstopper / September 21, 2012 / No comments

Wolfpack co-founders, myself and DJKnightRida, took a short trip to do a little WWE marking out today. Considering how little WWE I watch and how little WWE recent merchandise I had, I still came away with a nice haul. DJ and I had the run of the mill, as we were the lone marks. Always makes for a more relaxed and enjoyable time. About the only drawback, is when one flying machine unloads with a half a dozen talent……you begin to have to pick and choose. But overall….all went well.

Got to the spot a tad after 8am. Sat down and setup camp. The first to arrive was scheduled to be Giant Bernard…aka Lord Tensai aka A Train. He was a TOP want for the day, as I was trying to get him to sign my NJPW Wrestle Kingdom Program…..the one from this year that Prince Devitt gave to me. I missed the last time I had a chance at him. He booked by too quickly and I was preoccupied with someone else. When his time came…..he was not there. Hmmm….the board didnt help. It simply stated he was still “on time”….yet we were 15mins. passed his time. This became concerning, as we needed to move along to the next contestant on “The Mark Is Right”. We gave it another 5 and had to call it. No one else came off his flying machine either. So we reorganized and prepared for contestant #2….The Miz.

Miz was not a top priority, but I had semi interest in a bearded Miz pic….and had 2 old programs. So when it was Miz’s time to arrive…..he too was not here. 10 mins. passed and nothing. Once again, no one from his flying machine had come down either. I checked the board and there was no update. Everything just showed “on time”. Finally, we started seeing a few people heading down to pick up their bags. I confirmed that this in fact was his flying machine arrival. But he was no where to be seen. I started to wonder if my watch AND cell phone werent working right. Contestant #3 was scheduled to be landing soon. We started seeing all the other passengers getting their bags and leaving. Finally, the carousel was empty. As we almost packed up, we spotted him coming down. PHEW! His bag was already off the carousel and sitting there, so he was definitely gonna book out of there. Headed over and per the usual, Miz was awesome. He was glad to sign, pose for pics and chit chat for a quick second. I told him I liked his new look with the beard. And he said its taken him 3 months to get this far with it and its still not filled in. And he aint lying. It definitely looks better on tv or wwe.com than in person.

The same carousel started turning, as Miz was leaving and we headed back to our camp. Thats when I spotted Giant Bernard! :yes: I dont know how or why…..but nothing short of a Baldo Bomb would stop me now. Grabbed my NJPW program and my WM 19 program and headed over. Ira would tell me later that he has had and heard of nothing but horrid experiences with him since his return. He quiet, but pleasant. He signed both my programs and posed for a photo. I told him I missed Bad Intentions and hope to see him and Machine Gun back together soon. He smiled.

I was done with a top want and now my #1 was scheduled to COME ON DOWN! Rey Mysterio. A man who I have seen many a times and many a times have had nothing for him. But since his injury and a dry run of him right before his injury, I began to backlogged. Now my Mysterio items are nearing 10. And this is after banging out 3 at Axxess. Ok….so we were prepped and ready to go. And when it was his time….nor he nor the rest of his flying machine arrived. :saswhat:Seriously?!?!?!? This one too. Unfortunately, this one would only become worse. As we waited and waited, having a gap between Rey and the next contestants…..I went to TSA and asked. I was told that his flying machine was ordered BACK to where it took off from and would not be landing here today. :EEEEEEK:

My top want was gone. The next contestant was one we had not much hope for. Do I even have to name him? :virgil: Mr. CM Punk himself. So Punk pretty much arrives on time and heads outside to catch his bus. I expected him to get his bags, but he did not. Lucky, he even came this way. We went outside with him and caught up with him. Asked in the proper manner and he signed for both of us. You could tell he had no desire to engage in conversation. I asked him for a photo….he grumbled, put his headphones on and walked away. I’m guessing thats a no? :exasperated:

We got a surprise visit from Zack Ryder and Dean Ambrose. Had no info. on them, but happened to see Ryder tweet about boarding a flying machine. He doesnt usually use these in my area b/c he is usually forced to drive. I had one major need for him. I had one or 2 other things I needed done, but I had seen a number of tweets from him complaining about marks and have witnessed the abuse he has taken from marks that just dont seem to get that he aint going to sign 25 of your trading cards cuz he knows you are ebaying them. Unfortunately, I think Zack has been soured by ebayers who cant seem to accept 1 and need to press for 25. And no 25 is not an exaggeration. I saw it first hand.

I had one major need, WM 28….so I wanted to ensure I got it done and not press the issue. And yes, he did indeed come off that flying machine I had guessed and I went right over to him. He was happy to sign and pose for a picture. I wished I had brought my Curt Hawkins Cane….would have made for a rad photo op. Oh well. 28 was done. Ambrose was there too, but I was bit preoccupied with Ryder and actually had no real need for him outside the inside cover of the WWE E. So I went back to camp and prepared for the big flying machine to land.

When I say big flying machine, I am talking about the one that was supposed to have like 8-10 people coming off. This is where having a few other marks can help. Some marks with one person, some with another. Then you can switch and get more quantity. That was not the case, so we would have to navigate these waters ourselves. The last one happened to land on time and the first person I spotted was Damien Sandow. I already have a photo with him and since no one else came down, I quickly took care of the inside cover…..not even trying to for an Idol auto. He was done and then I spotted Layla and Aksana. Had 2 programs for Layla and also wanted a photo. As I headed over, I spotted Claudio come down and AJ Lee. Then it was Brodus and Naomi. OH SHEESH!!! Layla was happy to sign and then began to engage into convo. telling me about how she made this outfit for her and this for Kelly….she made this one…she designed this….she was a Miami Heat Dancer….she loves tea…..I felt like I was speed dating. My head was on a swivel as Brodus left….Naomi left. AJ grabbed her bags and was beginning to leave. Claudio was headed for his bags. Oh that was it. Cannot miss Swiss Money. I excused myself and headed for Double C. Got him to to sign the Chikara Yearbook from 2004 that I had been holding onto for awhile, never working on. It wont be a priority item….but being this is from the days I was hardcore into Chikara…..why not. I got a pic. with him, as I dawned my Chris Hero tshirt as well. The NEW Kings Of Wrestling. :smirk:

And lastly, AJ happened to still be there texting on her phone. We waited patiently until she was done. She looked up and saw us and we headed over. She was nice as nice can be. She asked if we were waiting for her and we said yes. She said…..aw you dont have to wait. I was just sending a text. Told her we wanted to wait till she was done. She signed the inside cover of the WWE E. and I got a pic. with her. AJ is such a sweet heart.  She asked if we were going to the show and I said we were not.  And she said well, at least you could come here to meet everyone.  Its better than nothing.  I’m happy for her success, even if the show itself is crappy as all hell and I hate the role she is in now.

And that was pretty much it. Nothing super amazing. Nothing inexcusably wrong. Sad to miss out on Rey, but happy to get Ryder in WM 28. Got some photos and got a nice haul in autos. All was well on this eastern front. :like:

 

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WWE Raw Brazil 5/22/12

CM Showstopper / May 22, 2012 / No comments

*NOTE: This story does not take place in Brazil, but rather in an undisclosed location, as WWE was headed for Brazil.*

 

This is the story of one of my more successful adventures in marking out. Not measured in numbers, but by quality of names vs. pressing item to be done. My good buddy Honest Dave, please pray for him as his cancer has returned, headed down to our nation’s capital for the Raw crew’s flight to Brazil. Dave called this a checkmark on his bucket list. :smh: We arrived in PLENTY of time, but it gave us an opportunity to scope the place out. Not the first time being here, but always want refamiliarize myself with the lay of the land. Once we did that, we took a seat and waited for first sign of life. It was a good hour and half in and we spotted our first sign. Charles Robinson. It took Charles quite awhile before he got his bag checked, as it wasnt as easy as you would think to figure out how to goto Brazil. 20mins later he was all set. He saw us sitting off to the side and came over to say hello. Nice to see Charles again and we wished him well on his trip.

It was soon after that one of the headliner’s was coming through…..John Cena. Oh boy! Recent reports, as recent as this past weekend, were Cena was in a foul mood. I’m never one to fear being told no. Asking someone for an autograph is just that…..what are they gonna do, club me over the head like a baby seal? Of course not. Once Cena was done checking in, I headed over to him with my WM 27 program and politely asked him for an autograph. He stopped….looked at me and looked at what I wanted signed. He reached for the Sharpie and signed it. Dave didnt need anything and really just wanted a photo, so he got my WM 28 program done and I took his photo. Cena spotted my…..um….cane and started the theme of the night of…..”Curt Hawkins’ Cane?” What I failed to mention that my #1 want was Curt Hawkins. Hawkins hooked me up with the person who sold him his cane and I was able to get the exact replica. I brought it in hopes of getting Hawkins to sign it, along with my 5 other items. LOL! But I digress. Cena spotted the cane and asked if I had had an accident and hurt myself? I told him no and then realized my cane was in my bag. I told him it was a Hawkin’s Replica cane. I told him I was a huge Hawkins fan. His eyes kind of got wide and he smiled…..”so you’re his 1 fan”? :damn: Wished him a safe flight and Cena was off. WOW! Cena and Punk were the 2 biggest names on the roster for today and we scored 1 right off the bat. 2 Cena’s….my top 2 items for him….done.

Not long after was R Truth and Mike Chioda. Had nothing for either and they too had trouble with checking in. While they were trying to figure out how to get on the plane, Epico and Primo were up next. I blundered when I spotted Epico and asked Dave “Is that Epico or Primo? I cant tell…..they all look alike”. And then Primo walked right by me. :facepalm: Dave thought it was rich coming from me. :huh:

Now all 4 were having trouble with check in….oh boy. Its really not their fault either. It was crazily set up. Finally they were done and all 4 looked like they were coming at once. Not sure what happened, but the Colons stopped and it was just Truth and Chioda coming now. Got a photo with Truth just for kicks, he too spotted the cane. “Hey man….dat Curt Hawkin’s cane?” Snapped the pic with me and the cane….and Truth was off.

Primo and Epico were coming over now. Had nothing for Epico, but wouldnt have minded for a group photo. Had 1 for Primo, but my auto sealed the fate on the group photo. Primo stopped, Epico left and I got a pic and auto. “nice cane.” Not long after, another big want of mine came up and it was Dolph Ziggler with Zack Ryder. They headed over to check in and once again had quite the issue. Now here is where our little tale begins to go south. They left the check in booth they were supposed to check in at….same one Cena, Charles Robinson, Truth, Primo and Epico all did and went to another. We fully expected them back, but they didnt come back. So we headed for the other booth, the one that actually made sense…..and NOW they were checking in. OH NO!! Now there are 2 places to check in where there was only 1 before. So we had to station ourselves at security. We waited for them, as they started to head over. But suddenly, they ducked down another corridor and were gone. I went over to see where they went and found them headed for security. I had to head back, get my stuff and…..it was too late. They were through. NOOOOOO!!!!!! Not Ziggler!!!!!!!!!

We were about to try and find more of a middle ground, when Kelly Kelly came up the elevator with what seemed to be luggage for 8. HOLY CRAP!! She headed for the same booth as Ziggler and Ryder. Oh no! We also spotted Alex Riley come in and he went to the original booth. 2 booths are handling check in….just depends which booth you goto. :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :angry4:

After Riley left, I turned and started to head back but spotted Punk motoring towards security. OH NO!!!! Where’s my item?!?!?! By stroke of luck I actually had my WM 28 program in hand. I turned and headed for Punk, while Dave stood probably pissing himself. :shrug: C’mon!!! I politely asked Punk for an autograph and he stopped, looked at me, looked at the item and signed my program. I turned to see if Dave had joined me….sadly, he was watching from afar and Punk was gone. No picture. :thumbsdown:

We did our best to keep an eye on both. Naomi and Cameron also were checking in with Kelly Kelly and then Mason Ryan strolled through. Riley started heading for security. Headed over towards Riley and he spotted me right away. He smiled and said “Man I see you everywhere. Tell me your secret….how do you know exactly when each time?” Ummmm… :confused: :yikes: :( :oops: :ughh: :dead: ”Is that Curt Hawkins’ cane?” :like: Got a picture with Riley, wished him a safe flight and headed back to check on Kelly. She seemed to be no further complete then when she arrived. Normally, Kelly is not a big need. But WM 28 program is one of my major projects and I needed her in it. Tick, tick and here comes Mason Ryan, as we spotted Otunga and Laurinitas headed to other booth. Got a pic with Mason, as I havent gotten one with him before. Wished him a safe flight and off he went. Kelly was still checking in, as Laurinitas with full crutches comes hobbling to security. We started to approach him, but felt I would not make it there in time. Called out to him, about 10 feet away and he saw turned, looked at us. Abandoned the crutches and took off through security. :smh: really?! 2 of us and now you looked like you were blessed by Tim Tebow and were healed.

Joe Hennig  came in and headed for check in. Checked on Kelly and she was still struggling away. Spotted Brodus as well headed for the original booth. Both his dancers were done and I was able to get Cameron in WM 28, as she was the only missing one I needed from that page. Checked on Kelly and she looked pooped tired and still wasnt moving. At this point, the stars seemed to have aligned, b/c low and behold Dolph Ziggler reappeared. He headed back to the booth and few minutes later he walked right over to us. I got him on both my pressing items, WM 27 and WM 28 programs. Thunderous success! Oh so lucky….. and a picture and a “Wait a minute….why do you have Curt Hawkins’ cane?” DAMN!!! Knew I forgot something. Wanted to get that in the picture and failed. Oh well. Safe flight and Dolph was gone.

By this time Brodus was headed for security and we missed him. Oh well. Spotted Jericho arriving. He saw us and said hello, as he headed for check in. Looked over and saw Kelly WAS STILL checking in. At this point, we are going on 40 freaking minutes. Kofi Kingston started to head towards security….so we hustled over and got Kofi….WM 28 and a picture and….”Does Curt Hawkins know you have his cane?” Kofi wanted to check it out….so he did. “Thats not the real cane. Curt’s head is loose.” :yikes: ”The cane’s head is loose.” Kofi laughed and headed out.

Otunga, who seemed to have dissappeared,returned and headed our way. Got a picture with him and “whats with the cane?” I told him it was Curt Hawkins’ cane…which he promptly shook his head at. Yeah…..dude with a coffee mug is going to shake his head at a cane. :smh: Bye Otunga. Though strangely, he didnt head to security. Instead, someone tapped him on the shoulder and he went down the escalators to baggage claim. Never saw him at security.

Finally, it seemed like Kelly was finishing up. She started to gather herself and headed our way. Got Kelly on my WM 28 program and let her be on her way. No Hawkins cane comment. :sad4: Jericho finished up and came right over to us. He was happy to sign and take pics, but insisted on a personalization. No problem for me, I prefer it, but dont always want to trouble someone for it…especially in a program. If it was an 8×10, poster or whatever….I would have asked. Got the picture and the auto. “That’s a sweet cane. Does Hawkins know you have it?” Jericho was off and that just leaved 3 AWOL. Beth Phoenix, JTG and……. :boo: Curt Hawkins. How could this be? We waited another half hour and then Punk tweeted and that they were waiting to board the plane and he was with Curt Hawkins. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! :angry4: :angry4: :angry4: :angry4: :angry4: :angry4: :dead:

Got no explanation on how I missed him…none whatsoever. Best guess would be in the fiasco with Ziggler/Ryder. With the quality of names, gets and now being a measley 4 names (HHH, UT, Michelle McCool and Trish Stratus) away from completing WM 27 program and 7 names from completing WM 28…..it worked out really well. I love these trips when there are just a couple of marks there…..you just cant beat it.

Sadly, after we left and headed up the road…back in Maryland, we got wind that the flight was cancelled and all the talent headed right back up to where we were.:dead:

Even with the 3 misses, we struck gold.  Like a leprechaun and the end of the rainbow.  Autos, pictures and another successful mis adventure.

 

Category: Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wrestlemania 28 Miami, FL 3/27-4/1/12

CM Showstopper / April 1, 2012 / No comments

I forewarn all…..THIS is gonna be a LONG and I mean LONG read.

Landed in Miami on Wed. with DJKnightRida. Probably should have come in on Tuesday, but figured that since the WM conference is held in NY every year…..Wed. would be the day. We got in around 11am…..later than expected. Both DJ and I were crammed in like sardines on the plane. Sitting in the last row of seats is not an advantage. Our knees were smashed into the seats in front of us. And then once we landed, evidently the plane ran out of fuel on the run way and needed to be towed in. Not off to a good start. Once we landed and gathered our luggage, we headed for the rental car area to get our car. DJ found this low level BS joint called Sixt. In all fairness, they were half the price of renting than Enterprise and required no downpayment to reserve the vehicle. Once we are there we goto check in when the next strike of bad luck happens. They want a $1000 as a deposit to rent the car. HUH?!!?!?! I am not getting a fucking Ferrari. Its a damn full size sedan car. They said they take 4X the rental price and since we were renting for 6 days…..Well, this wasnt going to happen. Perhaps we should have swallowed our pride and just paid it….but we decided to move along to another agency. 40 mins. later and twice the rental price…..we had a car.

Off we went to our one night stay before we met up with the rest of our party for our regular Hippo. DJ booked this joint…..the fucking Rundown Inn. Right by the airport and almost as bad as you are thinking right now. Complete with farm animals, Turkey Vulture Prostitutes and someone almost running down DJKnightRida. Once we got our room and got settled in, we grabbed some grub from the IHOP and then headed to the airport for the few flights coming in today.

First up was Edge. It was great to see him again. Got 5 autos and a picture with him and he was happy to sign for everyone. Baggage takes forever in Miami, so he had plenty of time to chit chat. He is going to be returning to the tv show Haven, as he has been contracted for several more episodes. Said he doesnt watch wrestling anymore and doesnt even keep up with it. We talked about his movie Bending The Rules, which he didnt know was just released on dvd. By the end of our conversation, he had made it abundantly clear that his wrestling life is over and he really has no interest in wrestling at all. He wants to spend his life growing old in the mountains with his dog and his woman. Said he will explore the acting thing a little bit, but honestly would much rather just become a memory.

Next up was Shawn Michaels Spot, which also included Tully Blanchard, Afa and Rikishi. Shawn was awesome. Signed for everyone and even put a TSA agent in her place when she said this large group was causing a disturbance in the Hippo. Shawn seemed genuinely annoyed at her and explained what was going on. She didnt seem to care who he was or why people were surrounding him. She just wanted everyone gone. But Shawn was cool and took care of everyone. I got 2 autos from Shawn, including my Rockers promo finished. Went to Tully next, got him in the WWE E to finish off Brian Busters entry and a pic with him. Really cool to see Tully. Both Rikishi and Afa were having none of it. They wouldnt sign or take pics. Afa told people he wasnt Afa and was a nobody.

From Shawn we moved to Flair. It was a long trek across the Hippo, but we made it. It didnt turn out well though, as Flair changed his flight and decided to come the next day per Tully’s hot ass daughters. It was a bust. So we packed up and headed back to the Rundown. We relaxed until dinner and decided to go back to that IHOP. The IHOP was amazing in the afternoon, top notch service and good food and crap in the evening. Service was horrid and the food was a joke. The waiter tried to tell me that the reason there is no bacon on my bacon cheeseburger is b/c the bacon is mixed in with the ground beef. :facepalm: The point of this story is after we left, we walked back and decided to stop at a convenience mart to get some drinks and this is where DJ got tapped by a car in the crosswalk. No apologies or anything. Dude tapped DJ in the leg and then put the car in reverse for a second. CRAZY!

In the morning we were up and got a tip on JBL. So we headed for the airport again and there he was! Freaking JBL! He was nice as pie. Got 2 autos and a photo with him. He pretty much signed for everyone and things went really smooth. Great way to get the day started. We decided to pass at trying for Flair again, considering he probably wouldnt sign anyway. Instead we got some good and then left for Axxess, Edge VIP style. I bought mine about a month ago at $150. I was happy with my price. The day of the signing…..DJ bought 2 Edge VIPs at $60 a piece. WOW! Once we got there, it was still pretty damn packed and that was around 4pm for a 6pm Axxess session. We got into line and waited. I was gonna get my shirt given to me by Edge from Extreme Rules resigned with Deco Paint Cloth Marker and have him inscribe it with the date. Since we had VIP, we decided to hit up the other auto lines….however, we needed to hit the merch stand for the Tyson photo first. We got there and were within the first 20 people. They were $25 and WELL worth the price. Scored the Tyson and headed for Axxess auto lines. First stop was station 2, which turned out to be R Truth. We were 5th in line. Decided to stay in it, cuz the other lines were huge and I still needed Truth in the new WM 28 program which is awesome looking. Probably one of the better ones they have done. Got Truth in the program and we were off to station 5 for Swagger and Vickie. This line took FOREVER!!!! But once we were through, we saw the session was coming to an end, so we took off for Edge VIP. When we got there, we were told that we might not get Edge due to the line and when the session is over. Explained we had VIP and that guarantees us 1 auto and 1 photo. The guy working the line said there are no guarantees and was instructed to tell us where we could get a refund if we miss out. WHAT!??!?!!? What if I paid $500 for this ticket…you refunding that?!?!??! Needless to say, it was all for not in panic. We made it through the line safely. When it was my turn, I reminded Edge about the inscription. He said…yup, I remember. But the handler stepped in and said we didnt have time for all that. Edge stopped, looked up at him with a stern look and said…we have all the time in the world. He then hit him with the jackpot smile he has and finished up my shirt. Everyone who did the Edge VIP got a Bending The Rules poster, 11X14 I believe on the way out. I already own the 27X40…so this really did nothing for me. But still was nice to give out.

We finished up the session with other autographs, including Christian, Kaitlyn, Sin Cara, and a few others. A lot of the week blends in together, so some of this might actually be out of order. It was a long day, but we got a lot done. Added several names to the new WM 28 program, got JBL and got to experience my first Axxess. Tomorrow would be my easy day at Axxess. No VIP….just a chance to experience the actual event and what it has to offer and do a few auto lines. Well…that didnt go down as expected.

Once out of Axxess, we headed for our regular Hotel…..45 motherfucking minutes away! Never again do we allow someone else to book our accomadations. While you couldnt beat the price, it wasnt worth the hassle and headache and travel. It was late, so we stopped at Checkers for dinner. Have seen it on tv and it always looked good..,…but never had the pleasure of dining there. But then I did and it was amazing. It was like an orgasm in my mouth. Wait….that sounds ambiguously gay. Anyway…the orgasm in was barely worth the orgasm on the way out. The next day I did 4 rounds with Checkers and man, Checkers kicked my ass…hole.

Day 3 saw HHH VIP day. DJ had one…I did not. I despise HHH and really could care less. But he was going and I figured this was my chance to take in Axxess. In the morning we got wind of Daniel Bryan and Kane signing at the WM Super store at Sun Life. So we headed over there. Sadly, it was 2 different signings…..so we did Daniel Bryan and I got him in WM 28 and then I stayed for Kane, while DJ headed for Axxess. He was not missing HHH. The Kane line took forever. Easily more people there for him than Bryan. Once I was done with Kane, I headed for Axxess. Went to the box office and was standing in line waiting to buy a GA ticket. Then a friend of mine popped over and wanted to know if I wanted to buy a HHH VIP. I told him I wouldnt pay prices he would want and will stick to GA. He said I could have it for $80….I negotiated to $60. I think I did pretty good. $46 with fees was the GA price…so essentially I paid $14 for HHH. Decided to hit HHH first to get him out of the way. Line took a bit…but got through Got HHH in WM 28 program. Once I was done, I hit up a couple of lines….like Ziggler for the photo op and then spent the rest of the time checking out the attractions and taking photos.

Day 4, which was Saturday, was the day we decided we would try the tv Hotel. I think we all originally planned to do tv more often, but just never really felt like it. So we headed over in the morning. Got some good gets in Mil Mascaras, Christian, Ric Flair, John Laurinitas, Otunga, Miz, Brodus Clay, Shannon Moore, and Harley Race etc. before we ended up breaking for lunch. We hit up Buffalo Wild Wings…which is a place I love, but this location outside of Miami was horrid. HORRID. After BWW, we headed back to the Hippo to get showered and changed for the HOF. I dawned my fully pimped out all red, 3 piece suit, minus my cane which sadly could not come due to being desperate for space in the suitcase. We were off to the HOF. I’ll never understand why WWE does not enforce their dress code at this event. Showing up in a tshirt and shorts, bringing signs, and eating snacks are ridiculous. But I cant blame the fan fully, as WWE contributes with selling popcorn, beer, etc and even having merch. stands. Anyway, the HOF was really cool to witness. JBL and Christian had the 2 best induction speeches. Both were full of emotion and you could tell just how proud these 2 men were of their counterparts. Tyson was just fucking funny. And the Horsemen was a good listen. A fitting finale to Edge’s career, as he now rides off into the mountains.

After the HOF we headed back to tv. We did not stay long. But it was cool to socialize and mingle. Got a few pics with Nattie, Hillbilly Jim and Rhino. And of course I was involved in the Foley/Moxley scuffle. Here is what really went down for those who were curious and only seen the HEAVILY edited clip.

Foley had come out and WWE staff encouraged people to go up to him to ask for autos, pictures or just converse. They wanted a good crowd around Foley. I was going anyway, as I am working on my Wrestle Vessel photo, which has Mick on it. When I got up to him, he was being “interviewed by a fan”…which was actually WWE staff. They asked typical fan questions like how was Miami, when are you coming back, etc. I had my photo in my hand and Foley looked at and asked me what I had. I showed it to him and he was stunned to see this. He started to recount some of the stories, making him just the 3rd person (Edge and Big Show before him) to really remember the photo/cruise. He started to talk about how they really abused Big Show on this cruise and thats when Moxley came over. Foley was brushing him off, as Moxley ranted about how Foley was responsible for the death of an entire generation of his friends. Foley asked him what are the names of his friends and Moxley just continued to rant. Foley had my photo in his hands the entire time, even through the shoving match. I thought Moxley was gonna yank it and tear it up. But eventually, Foley fired off a good shove that sent Moxley stumbling almost into the fountain and then some “random guy” held Moxley back, as other “random guys” held Foley back.

Foley then returned to the group and asked where was I….finished his story, signed my photo and continued to sign and take pics for everyone. Note Ed Koskey, head writer, was also present.

We had an early morning to get to. Ended up scoring a pair of Sheamus VIPs for REALLY cheap, so we had those to go along with my 2 Big Shows and 1 Rey…..God I loved buying my VIP tix the last week of Mania…..$50 and under. So we left the Hotel early, ended up missing a host of good names like Vince. Oh well.

Day 5 came and we were up early for the VERY long day. Unfortunately, we ran into a bike race. Yes a bike race. This absurd idea to shut down streets of Miami leading into Axxess during WM week is more than annoying. We got there right at 8am and got inside. Here we found out that b/c of the bike race….all of the talent was running behind. The 8am session did not start till almost 9. I started in the Del Rio line to get my WM 27 program signed by him. We left Del Rio for Sheamus VIP line as the session was coming to a close. I was kind of hoping we wouldnt get there and get refunds considering I paid so well below face. But they said b/c of the delay, Sheamus would stay and finish the line and they moved Big Show to a different table. Several names that were advertised were no shows like Roddy Piper and Kelly Kelly. Got through Sheamus fairly quickly. Once I was done, I was lucky enough to head over to the ring to catch Seth Rollins aka Tyler Black face Leo Kruger. I really wanted to see Rollins and Cesaro….but missed it on Friday. I was determined to get him to sign my 8×10 and get a pic with him. His match started and he came down high fiving and I told him I came over to the ringside area just to see him. He took a few steps then came back and gave me another high five saying that he came back to give me this high five just for me since I came over just for him. LOL!! After his match, he came over and signed for me and took a pic which turned out awesome. I told him I couldnt wait to see him on the main roster and he said its gonna happen sooner than later. Good things poppn for the former Tyler Black.

After Rollins/Black, we headed for Big Show. Was able to get 2 from Big Show on my own, while Dan got my WM 27 program done. I showed Big Show the Wrestle Vessel photo and he was happy to sign that along with my program. NIIICCCEEE!!! Big Show is always a cool dude. Was able to do more checking out the Axxess events, including the entrance video. I wanted to do Edge, but he was not available….UNREAL. So I went with The Rock. Not as good as I had hoped, but oh well. This VIP sesssion ended pretty quickly, as they moved onto Rey. Started this session with Layla and what was also supposed to be Kelly Kelly. Needed Layla in WM 27, so it worked out. Then moved to Jimmy Hart before hitting up Rey. Was able to get 2 programs done by Rey….so was very happy about that as well. This session was about dead. Lines were pretty well nothing. Derrick Bateman and Maxine finished their line in 15 mins…so they left. So I ended up getting a pretty hungover Alex Riley, Hawkins and Reks, Million Dollar Man and Dory Funk Jr. I also decided to try out for The Marine 3….so I did that. And I left the session right at half way. This session definitely moved the quickest and was the most laid back.

After finishing up the last Axxess session, grabbed a quick bite to eat and made our way to WM. When we arrived we were met with the stiffest parking expense I have ever encountered….$40!!!! Good thing we had 4 people in the car. OUCH! I was guessing $25 since it was Mania, but really $15-20 is all that should be charged. We originally joked that it might be $30 to park. :smh: But we were excited to be there. We made our way through the parking lot, encountering tons of tail gaters. Tail gating is not for me. The idea of it sounds cool….but the setup with the grill and sitting out in the sun, while strangers come by and eat your food just doesnt sound appealing. Once inside, I saw the merch stand had an exclusive WM poster, old school style. The kind you would find hanging on a telephone poll many, many, many years ago. I WANTED IT!!! I hit 4 merch. stands, including the big one on my level. ALL were sold out. Ugh. Of course the one and only thing I wanted is sold out. I probably couldnt have kept it safe at Sun Life anyway….as Sun Life had less knee room than the airplane we came down on.

We took our seats and I absorbed the view. My first Wrestlemania. I know many our shocked by this….but this was in fact my first WM. I had 2 major reasons to go…..Edge’s HOF induction and The Rock returning to the ring to save the WWE from Cena, even if it is just for one night. I took damn near 1500 photos during WM week, including 600 just at WM. Our seats were ok. For the price we wanted to pay…..I think we got about as good as a seat as we were gonna get.

Now I start my complaining. Oh yeah…plenty to complain about. The seats are the seats. I am fairly used to sitting down and finding my knees squished in. So you deal. BUT what I cant stand are ignorant people. We are in elevated seating. Each level sits one step higher. This is done to people’s views are not blocked by the person sitting in front of you. What this means……STOP STANDING UP DURING THE EVENT!!!!! I get it….a big spot is coming or someone’s entrance. But there is no need to be on your feet for 15mins. straight. SIT DOWN!!! You can see just fine sitting down. You have completely defeated the purpose of the Architecture of Sun Life Stadium.

Lastly, stop getting up every 5 minutes to get another beer when you are sitting in the middle of the row. Are you a person who doesnt stay to watch the event and spends more time at the snack line?! GET A FREAKING AISLE SEAT!!!!! Not to mention they had a beer man coming by every 6 minutes selling the $9 a bottle beer. I get why these places sell beer…..they make a freaking FORTUNE!!!! These fools are buying 10-12 beers for the night. They spend $100 on a half a case of beer. So sad. I stick with their over priced $4 a bottle water and I had 2…..THE ENTIRE NIGHT! AND I didnt get up and leave the event and spend 30 mins trying to get it. I grabbed 2 before I sat down. But wait…..it gets worse. Those same sad people dont just get up to get another beer cuz they cant wait a minute for a beer man to come by……they also get about every 10 minutes cuz their god damn BLADDERS are so full!!!! Up and down, up and down….all night long. These guys had to have spent half the freaking night or more in between bathrooms and beer lines. And they never seemed to have an issue with how they were bothering everyone else in the row. And to the hot blonde in the halter top…..yes I grabbed your ass and stared at your tits. ;) You can get up as many times as you want. 8-)

The show as a whole I would rate as a 4/10. From HORRID booking to poor matches, the show was more than underwhelming. I wont spend too much time on it….but here is my quick review.

Tag Title Dark Match: One of the best matches of the night. SHAME this was not on tv. Outside of the Gabriel botch, I really enjoyed it. Fun, exciting, suspenseful and the crowd was into it.

1. Daniel Bryan/Sheamus: A travesty. Bryan is SUPER MEGA over. Sheamus drew boos eventhough he was the baby face. But to book this match’s finish in 18 seconds is SOOOOO disrespectful to both men and the World Title. Daniel Bryan looks like a chump. Sheamus looks like a champion who won via a fluke and the world title was basically recognized as nothing more than 10 pounds of afterthought. The crowd was not happy.

2. Orton/Kane: Decent match. I liked the booking. Really thought Orton was going over. Nice to see Kane get a win and this feud can progress. A lot of potential here for a strong feud that both men can come out looking good. Plus 1 to WWE for this match.

3. Big Show/Rhodes: Decent match from both men. My only issue was the finish. Cody Rhodes was damn near approaching a year as IC Champion. He has been built with so much strength, I would have liked to have seen him finish the year reign. Big Show doesnt need the IC Title. I would have preferred to see a DQ win for Big Show, followed by a WMD punch, knocking Cody out and giving Big Show his WM moment and both men walking off into 2 different directions looking strong.

4. Divas Tag: Beth Phoenix is the Divas Champion, yet she tags with Eve and they come out to Eve’s music. So wasteful and worthless. Outside of the need of a filler match…..this was a damn train wreck. The highlight of this match was Maria Menudos shitting herself. Thats my story and I am sticking to it! :rofl: Finish was highly predictable and Menudos contributed absolute nothing, minus my section laughing at her dooky.

5. UT/HHH: All the talk of this being a MOTY candidate I find to be ABSURD!!! It was what I expected….lackluster and boring. But wait….it was actually worse that I expected. We basically saw the same match as last year with same spots and the same ABSURD number of kicking out of finishers. Kicking out of everyone’s finisher doesnt make you look strong, it makes the finisher look weak. Not to mention it crapped on the main event and stole spots from that. The live crowd LOVED this match…..I was falling asleep. Props to the cool ass entrances, but outside of that….this was about as good as the damn divas match. Feel free to hate on me.

6. Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy: For a filler match, this went off fairly decently. I hated seeing a talent like Dolph Ziggler being relegated to this, but it had some cool spots, meaning and a decent finish. At the end, it also kicked off the next chapter in the Ryder/Eve saga….so all in all things seemed to work out. Good to see Laurinitas’ team win as well.

7. Punk/Jericho: One of the matches I have really enjoyed being built and was excited to see. IT DISAPPOINTED!!!! And I mean it REALLY disappointed. I expected a masterpiece between the 2. Instead I felt like what we got was just the first chapter in this feud and that they didnt give their best at Mania in order to further this feud. You can further the feud without having to hold back. The last 5 mins. was REALLY strong and had what I was looking for during the match, but the rest of it was lackluster at best. Too bad.

8. The concerts: Nice to see Diddy make an appearance. I enjoyed the mini concerts. After Punk/Jericho, which the crowd was into….we needed a moment to catch our breaths and get ready for the main event. MGK was doing just fine until he started talking out his ass about Cena being an underdog and then trash talked The Rock. WHOOPS! Boos reigned down for MGK, who clearly has no concept what an underdog is. If anything, Cena is the epitome of what an underdog is NOT. Flo-Rida was next. Same thing….did a fine job in his mini concert. When he said “Put Your Hands Up”, I started singing “Pull Your Pants Up”. No…seriously. Why wear a belt made of diamonds if your pants are hanging off the bottom of your ass. How do you even get them to stay like that?

9. Rock/Cena: One of the 2 reasons I came here. The electricity was amazing. Cena was booed out of the building. Lots of Cena Sucks/Lets Go Cena chants. I despise this. Why? B/c of this WWE has decided to push Cena differently with the whole “no one conveys more emotion than” BS. Best way to get Cena gone is for no one to care about him. Dont like Cena….cheer for the other guy. The more they hear Cena Sucks/Lets Go Cena….the more we get the “same old shit”. I did kind of dig his new shirt though. When The Rock entered….IT WAS CRAZY!!!! If there was a roof, it would have blown off. AWESOME to see The Rock in the ring again…LIVE!!!! I thought WWE did a fantastic job in making this match, from the spots, finish and ending. Shame that we just saw a match filled with everyone kicking out of finishers….but I just ignored that and stuck with this match. I liked how Cena looked really strong most of the match….its when I really started to feel like Rock was going to win. I also liked Cena’s expressions following 2 AAs that failed to put The Rock away. I liked the spot where Rock is going to the top rope, showing the desperation to win, hits the cross body, but Cena rolls through and deadlifts The Rock into the AA. I thought that was it. I bought it….hook line and sinker. THATS how you make a show. When the crowd has a thought and all of the sudden believes they are wrong and here is the end. Excellently done. Going into Mania I believed it was 55/45 Cena to win. During the match it was more like 60/40 Rock to win. But at that moment…..it was 95/5 Cena wins. I also liked when Rock spit into his hand and then missed the right, Cena countered into the AA. Good spot there. Earlier in the match, we saw Cena kick out of the Rock Bottom…but he did it after a few second delay as Rock was trying to get over to make the cover. Thats how you kick out of a finisher. And then there was the Cena going for the People’s Elbow. STRONG way to finish. Cena makes ONE…ONE mistake, gets a tad cocky and it costs him. Rock Bottom and win. Like a little kid, I was jumping for joy. Highfives all around. AWESOME!!! Rock did it. He vanquished the evil John Cena…the man who is the face of a generation of WWE that is so bothersome to many. Awesome moment. About my only real complaint here was Cena immediately rolling out of the ring, pouting on the floor. It was an epic match. I’m good with giving The Rock the ring to do his thing and celebrate. Roll out and stand outside to applaud him. Then reenter the ring, shake his hand and hit the showers. You werent buried. The finish was strong and you have a creative way to move into your next story….which would happen on Raw with Lesnar. Instead you looked like a baby. I think Cena made himself look bad in the end.

This pretty much concluded my WM week.  Enjoy the pics!  For me….next stop Orlando.

 

Category: Celebrity, Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ringside Fest New York City, NY 10/29/11

CM Showstopper / October 29, 2011 / No comments

The day started out smooth as smooth can be. Wish it ended that way too. Nate and I decided to take the Amtrak train up to NYC as we saw it as a better option than driving. The cost was probably only a tad bit higher or even possibly about the same depending on mpg. But the convenience and comfortability could not be matched. So Amtrak it was. Train left at 7am to arrive right before 11am in NYC. Since we were only attending for Punk, we should be there in plenty of time to be one of the first GAs through the line. Hmmm….wished it was true.

We got in a little past 11, as Jersey and NY seemed to be having weather that PA was not. We left to dry air and came up with a little rain. Once we arrived, we worked our way through Penn Station and found the subway. The people in NYC are SO MUCH nicer than Philly. When we werent sure which subway to take, there was someone there to help us and not make us feel stupid. So we got on the subway and it was just 2 stops uptown till we hit 50th St. We came off the subway and entered a WINTER FUCKING WONDERLAND! HOLY CRAP! Clearly, it had been snowing for awhile at this point as we saw some shop keepers outside shoveling. Luckily, Hippo was straight ahead. We got to Hippo and saw the line for Carolines. It looked bad, but it could have been worse. Right at the front was a buddy of mine, so we stopped to talk to him. I asked him how much longer till they were letting people in and he explained that people have already been let in and that Carolines only holds so many. So you have to wait outside till people leave. WHAT!?!?!?!? Do you not realize that is snowing, sleeting, raining, hailing….THE RAPTURE IS HERE!?!?!?

It was what it was. So we hit the end of the line and started the long wait. After about a minute, I spotted a newspaper stand guy with an umbrella. $20, 25…it doesnt matter. I MUST have it in order to protect me shit. I hit the guy up and he told me $4. $4?!?!?!? For an umbrella. HELL YEAH! I quickly snatched it up, expecting holes in it, which was fine. As long as it did the job for $4?! It worked. Viola! RSF was nice enough to see us suffering and accomadated us by bringing us inside and wait along the stairs and entrance. So we were out of the elements, thank God! Big ups to RSF for bringing us in for Armageddon.

Once inside, we had a long wait. It was about 12:30, but we were happy just to be inside and drying out. I got to take a look at what RSC brought for sale. Sadly, missed Alberto from Elite 12, as he was sold out by the time I was inside. But I also got to look at all the prototypes and new figs coming out and take some awesome photos of them. Saw Ringside Tom and we had a nice chat about the event, the weather and new figs. Tom is a fun cat and its cool to have a chat with him.

At a little after 2, they started to get the line moving towards Punk. VIPS went through first, which I think next time I am getting regardless if I need anyone else but 1 person. The line actually moved fairly quickly, especially once we got inside the main room and they had us take a seat. Punk looked in great spirits and seemed to be relatively happy to be there. I had 4 autos and a photos, so I had my stuff ready to go when it was my turn. As I approached the lady sitting next to Punk was taking your items, so she could slide it over to him. Since he had Sharpie in hand, I handed my WM 26 program over, already opened to the page. She then asked what else I had and I told her I had my WM 27 program, 8X10 and poster. She then asked why I didnt have the page opened for WM 27. HUH?! I got 4 items and 2 hands AND I had to have my camera out and ready to hand off to the other staff member. Besides, I put my 8X10 in there to make it easy to open right up to it. Seriously? We are wasting time having this conversation. I opened the program, very easily to Punk’s page and it was slid over. I took my camera had it properly zoomed in from where the staff member was standing and then handed it off. I put the 8X10 in front of Punk and handed him a gold Deco. I asked him to personalize it to me with the gold and he did so happily. When that was done, I opened the poster and handed him a silver paint Sharpie and asked him to inscribe Best In The World and again, he was happy to do so. My items were done and it was picture time. I went to pose for the photo and watched the staff member take 5 steps backwards. WTF?!?!? Dude, I had it setup just the way I wanted it and now you just unzoomed the zoom. I truly hate not having a friend take the photo vs. passing my camera off. Luckily with the power of photoshop, I salavaged it. Still pretty happy with it.

So I gathered up my stuff, let the paint dry off to the side and then Ringside Tom came over. Met Tom had BFG Fan Fest a couple of weeks ago. We recognized one another, exchanged a few words and went about our business. But when Tom came over, he wanted to check in to make sure everything went smooth and that I enjoyed myself. I have to say that is a MAJOR PLUS in the customer service department for RSC. To have a recognizable face of your company to check in and see how the customer was doing and whether they were enjoying themselves goes along way in providing what seriously lacks in so many businesses…..making the customer feel comfortable and at ease. Tom deserves major props for taking that responsibility on and seeming genuine in his desire to know. I told Tom the good and the bad. Loved the fact that RSF wanted to get us in from the snow and keep us warm. Loved that they brought CM Punk in as a guest, being this was my first RSF. They couldnt have chosen a better guest than Punk right now in wrestling. Did complain about the setup a bit and the my photo being unzoomed. Tom asked how I would have set it up and I said for a guest of Punk’s magnitude, they would be better off to line everyone up and do photos first and have those folks exit out and restart the line with autos. I think people will get better photos and RSF will get the line to move a lot quicker. Everything will be setup like a conveyor belt. When its your turn, you walk over, hand your camera off, pose, get your camera back and leave to get in line for the auto. When its your turn for the auto, you hands your stuff over and it gets slid along. No stopping for a photo. The guest doesnt have to pick up and put down markers. The staff can concentrate at one task at hand. I think its a true win/win for everyone. Once again, big ups to Tom for caring.

After the event was over, we said our goodbyes to friends and headed out to brave the weather. We headed to the subway and got on the 1 train back to Penn Station. The subway was much more crowded on the way back, but no biggie. My feet were soaked and slushy b/c of the weather. Oh well….still high on the CM Punk signing. We got to Penn Station, got some food and waited for the train home. Here is where disaster strikes. So the train home leaves at 7:15, so we got to Amtrak around 6:30. Here we find out that our train is CANCELLED! WHAT?!??! Please be a joke. They said it wasnt and that they would only take us to Philly. I quickly reached out to my buddy DJKnightRida, who was begrudgingly happy to come pick us up in Philly….a 2hour drive down and a 2 hour drive back. So we got on the train, got into Phily and was SO LUCKY to have a good friend like DJKnightRida to come and get us. Thanks again buddy.

 

Category: Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , ,

WWE Royal Rumble Boston, MA 1/30/11

CM Showstopper / January 30, 2011 / No comments

I took the 7.5 hr. drive to Boston at 3am Saturday morning. We had some stops to make in Rhode Island, as our original plan was to attend the Miz signing. But we ended up getting flight info. late and had to book RI and pass on Miz to get into Boston. We hit the hotel around 1:40pm and got there just as Ted Dibiase, R Truth, Drew McIntyre had gotten their bags. Ted was extremely sick and wasnt signing. In fact, he told R Truth to take the rental and he would get his own. He looked half dead, standing off to the side by himself and trying to avoid contact with anyone. You would have thought he had the plague. I got 2 from Truth in 2 programs I needed him, but missed Drew as he went out the door. Evidently, Tiffany was with Drew as she had some indy events she was doing in the area. I didnt see her though.

After that, we hotfooted it to Randy Orton. Sadly, we got a bit lost, as the airport was huge and confusing and missed Orton signing for people. We saw him on the escalator, but we were on the opposite side. Oops.

Next up was Eve Torres, who was a first time meet for me. So I was very happy to nail Eve. See what I did there? :celebrate1: Got an auto my 2009 program and a photo. David Otunga was next, he had Jennifer Hudson with him. Sadly, Jennifer took 2 pics before her security guard chased everyone away, while David stood and signed about 30 autographs. Crazy how David signs and takes photos and Jennifer turns her back. Got Otunga inside cover of WWE E.

At this point, we had a few hours before the next wave, so we decided to go get a cheap hotel in city of my birth in Saugus, MA. We chose a standard run of the mill place, no need to blow a spot. Checked in and immediately headed to to the drug store to get some disenfectant, as this play smelled like someone died in it. After getting a bottle of carpet room deorderizer and couple bottles of Febreeze, we got some dinner and headed back.

Sheamus was first in the next wave. Sheamus seemed to be back to his old self, signing and taking photos…..not even personalizing unless you requested. I finished everything on Sheamus last week at the signing, so I just got a photo. But I did get a chance to talk to him about Prince Devitt, a fellow countrymen. Sheamus said he knew Devitt very well and heard he was doing phenomenal in Japan. I told him he was coming over for the New Japan tour and Sheamus and shocked and asked me about where the tour was. He said he might have to swing by and stop, if he can.

After Sheamus, a swarm of NXT 4 came in, along with Michael Tarver. I didnt have anything for these folks and the place became swarming in people. I got a pic. with Brodius Clay, as no one else was around. He asked me for my vote for NXT. Interesting. Perhaps the votes do count in some capacity.

Next up was one of the best meets of the weekend….BIG DADDY COOL DIESEL! Kevin Nash came in and you could feel the buzz in the air. Nash was SUPER friendly, very happy to sign and take photos. Luckily, I decided to bring my TNA program….just in case and got Nash to sign it. Still need him on a number of things, as I thought this was a long shot at best. I told him it looked like he stepped out of a time machine from 1995 and he laughed, saying its a miracle what a little hair color can do for a man. Someone asked for a photo, saying he probably will say no cuz of him being a surprise entrant for RR. Nash said sure, as he wasnt here for the Rumble. He said he was here to hang out with under privledged kids and began winking. So I snagged a photo with Diesel. Stellar moment. Nash stood around talking and people followed and listened. I was also able to get my WWE E Diesel entry signed….thanks Dave!

While everyone was crowding to listen to Nash, Cody Rhodes, Layla and William Regal came out. Very few people were going up to them, as they were still with Nash. So I went to Cody and got him in WM 26. He had a big bandage on his nose, so I asked him what had happened. He annoyingly said someone broke it. OOok. Cody was always cool before, guess it hurt real bad or he was really mad about the fact. Who knows. Layla was crowded and Regal, who per usual was standing off to the side watching everyone else sign. I hear this all the time. People see Regal and he stands off to the side and watches with a look of sadness. Everyone wants an auto with Cody Rhodes and Layla, 2 people Regal could wrestle circles around. Being a big admirer of Regal I went up to him and made sure to express my admiration for him, as I got my 2009 program and 2010 program dones. I’ve always heard Regal will sign as much as you got….but I didnt want to press too hard and was happy with 2 and the photo. Regal was fairly sick as well, but was still very appreciative of the few who did ask for his auto. I was going to Layla next, when Max came up to me and said he had nothing for her and wanted to lend a hand in helping me. I was very appreciative and handed him a program. I grabbed my other, but sadly missed Layla. But Max scored! Big ups to Max for lending a hand. In all honesty, Max turned out to be a pretty damn cool dude. I look forward to marking out with him again and I’m not one to easily make friends with.

Michelle McCool was next. She was VERY friendly. Met her a few times, this was definitely the nicest I had seen her. I got my 2010 program done and helped a friend out with his WM 26 program. Alberto Del Rio was also there, I did not approach him as others complained that he didnt just say no, but cussed them out. And he used to be SO friendly before he got to tv. Sad.

Main event time for me…..as Edge was next. We waited patiently, all kind of huddled up. Funny. Edge comes down and no one seems to move. I was kind of in the middle of the pack and looked around, as people just looked on. I was going to let everyone else go first, as I didnt want to hold up everyone else cuz I wanted a few minutes to talk to him about the dvd compilation I made of his career and see if he had watched them from the last time I gave them to him. I also had 3 more dvds, 26, 27 and 28 in his career comp. to give to him plus a dvd of his last 2 years on the indy circuit. But no one moved. I pushed through and decided I would lead the pack of wolves in. LOL! I moved, they followed. I think everyone was basically waiting for me to approach first. I went up to him and he greeted me with a big smile, asking me how I have been before I could really say anything. I handed him the dvds and he looked down at the numbers and remarked how crazy that his matches, promos, etc. take up 28 dvds. He saw the title of the last dvd, being indy footage from 96 and 97 and he was pretty shocked. He asked how I had gotten this and I told him I had it on VHS since 1997 and just never even thought about putting it on dvd to give to him. He said he couldnt wait to see this. I told him some of the stuff on it and he laughed about Rhino being inducted as an honorary Canadian in Thug Life. He asked what I had him for him to sign and I pulled out WM 26, an 8X10 photo and my favorite cover to WWE Magazine, the Edge Superman cover. He signed it all and I got a photo with him. I asked him if he had a chance to watch any of the dvds and he said he watched a lot of it. In fact, when his feud with Kane started…..he used my dvds to look at old matches he had had with Kane to see what he could use for a blast from the past in his feud with Kane. I told him how much I enjoyed the feud, but he wasnt as happy with it. He felt more could be done. He did say he loved the Last Man Standing match blow off to it though and used my dvd with him vs. Cena Last Man standing to get ready for it. I was like a little kid who just won a spelling bee in school. Blue ribbon for me! I told him my favorite part of that last man stadning match with Kane was when Striker gave him the assist. Edge said it wasnt planned and was just something that happened during the match. He said it was also Striker’s. LOL! I told him I wasnt sure if I was the bigger fan or Striker. He said it was close. LOL! Well…..I think the 10 minutes I took was enough and certainly did not want to infringe upon others opportunity, so I gracefully bowed out. Told him to have a great match with Ziggler at the Rumble and moved along.

It worked out for me to go first, as Morrison and Masters were also there and had been waiting the entire time. Since everyone was lined up for Edge….I went to Morrison. Got him in WM 26 and made sure to get a picture, first with bearded Morrison. My friend Dave used his camera, so I anixously await my photo. Hint, hint Dave. I told him how much I enjoyed his feud with Sheamus and the match on Raw against Miz. He has been the highlight of Raw for most of the year and one of only the few brightspots. I told him I really wished he and Miz were at the Rumble though. At this point, I felt like I was ding a shoot interview with Morrison. He said he the same thing, while rolling his eyes and was honestly shocked that it wasnt. I told him I was tired of seeing the same ol same ol Orton or Cena. He rolled his eyes again. He said exactly…..thank God other people get it. I told him there was nothing else for Miz/Orton to do as they have had a poor feud. Miz looks weak as champion against Orton and Orton isnt doing anything to make Miz look good. He nodded his head and said he doesnt write the show. It was cool to get some candid and honest comments from him and wished him luck in the Rumble. By this time others had began to come up.

I rolled over to Masters who NO ONE seemed to even have desire for. I got my 2010 program signed and he was in an extra friendly mood. I met him before and he was nice. But he was really talkative this time. I was gonna walk away after my auto, but he asked if I wanted to do a photo too. I said….ok. And he said cool. I took the photo and told him I had been loving Superstars as of late, mostly b/c of Curt Hawkins. I told him that Curt had been talking about him on twitter. Masters started to laugh and wanted to know what was being said. I told him not much and he wasnt accepting. He said…please let me know….this will be good. So I just told him Hawkins was making fun of him and tweeting that he was gonna find the key to the masterlock. Masters laughed and I left. Hawkins is probably gonna get pounded next time. EEk.

From here it was onto Jack Swagger. I had a number of things for Swagger and by the end of the weekend, I completed all my Swaggers. Jack was pretty nice and I got him in WM 26, while my buddy Dave helped out and got him in my 2009 program. I completely forgot I missed him in that and 2009 is always my priority. I think I only need like 13 names in that one now.

The night was coming to an end, as Chavo was the last on my list. Would have been a first time meet. Sadly, he signed for 1 girl and told us he doesnt sign for guys. Ooooook. Night was over and we headed back to the hotel. Found a bunch of marks in the hotel lobby and was confused. I got inside and was told Swagger just checked in. Huh?!?!? Jack Swagger is staying at this dump?! I was pretty tired and just headed to bed but was getting the 411 about all the people who were staying here as the tv hotel didnt have enough rooms and people got bumped out. But here?! NOOOO!

The morning came and I hit the lobby. Probably about 10 in all of us marks there. In really no order, R Truth, Gail Kim, Rosa Mendez, Wade Barret, Heath Slater, Hornswoggle, Dolph Ziggler and Zach Ryder were all staying there. Ryder and Ziggler were 2 big wants and first time meets. Gail and Rosa ran out the back door, not stopping for anyone. Hornswoggle signed and took photos. Sadly, I still never can get him to personalize for him. 3 times I have gotten him and 3 times no personalization. Yet others constantly get a personazliation. I think the person behind me got his promo personalized. Barrett and Slater signed, but were in a hurry so only a few got stuff. I had nothing for them, but missed a picture.

The last stop on the Boston trip was Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He had a free autograph signing in town, so we went there. I got my WCW US Title signed, my WWE E and my 2009 program. 2009 program and US title are 2 major projects for me, so adding Hacksaw was huge for me. He was very cool and confirmed the guy who keeps tweeting me is not Duggan, as Hacksaw does not tweet. So if you get a tweet from HacksawJDuggan….its not him.

That pretty much concludes the adventure to Boston. Awesome freaking trip! Great meets, got tons of stuff done and some great photos. LONG trip, but well worth it. Enjoy the photos!

 

Category: Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WWE Raw Draft 4/26/10 Richmond, VA And Jericho Signing

CM Showstopper / April 26, 2010 / One comment

After the ppv, we drove the long drive to Richmond. Brutal. Got in around 3am. We pull into the hotel and there is a stretch limo there and Pat Patterson is sitting with the window open. JF went inside to check in and we waited outside for info. on where to park. He came out and told us it was valet. So we got out and started to get our bags, when Vince McMahon pops out of the limo. He heads inside. We quickly get our stuff and I go inside and wait for Vince. Vince walks up the counter and its empty. He begins to yell out…..anyone home? Someone comes out and checks Vince in. I walk up to him when he is done and get an autograph in my WWE Ency. I told him I enjoyed the ppv and he asked what my favorite match was. I told him Edge/Jericho. He looked at me perplexed and said REALLY? He asked me why. I explained it told a fantastic story, citing how Jericho had a chance to win, but came back into the cage anyway b/c of how arrogant the character is. I told him Edge concentrated on making sure Jericho could not escape and to punish him. Vince seemed interested and liked my reasoning. He asked me about what other matches I liked….told him Punk/Rey and said they had great chemistry. I think he wanted me to say Cena/Batista. But I didnt. DJKnightRida and I got a great pic. with Vince and Vince was so awesome. He wished us a goodnight and off he went.

We got our bags and got on the elevator to our room. There was something wrong with it and we got off on the wrong floor and pressed for a diff. elevator. When the doors open, a man in a suit with blonde hair is standing there. We get in and he is going up and we need to go down. After he exits JF asks if I knew who it was. I told him he looked familiar, but couldnt recall. It was Johnny Ace. UGH! We went to our room and got a few hours of sleep.

Monday morning came quickly and we headed for the lobby. Spotted Jamie Noble, Dean Malenko and Michael Hayes. Unfortunately, I was not quick enough and failed to get anything. Vance Archer stopped and signed for my buddy and we saw the NXT guys leave. We were scheduled to meet up with Edge before Raw, so we left the hotel. Later on we found out security told everyone they needed to leave and go outside anyway. We headed to Edge’s hotel and waited for him. The lobby was under construction, so we waited outside. Saw Drew McIntyre and Tiffany pull up. They just got back from the gym, so we waited until after they came back down.

Edge came out with Zach Ryder, Dolph Ziggler and Christian. We walked up to them and Christian was giving me the evil eye. At least thats how I felt. Not sure what was up. I said hello and asked him how he was doing. Edge saw me and saw that I had his shirt. He said he was glad I caught it. He told me he came down the aisle and spotted me immediately. He nodded at me to try and give me warning he was going to give me the shirt, I didnt notice it. Oops. He walked to the cage door and launched the shirt. He said after he threw it, he was worried it wasnt going to make it to me and he didnt know what he was going to do. Its not like he can just walk over, grab the shirt and then hand it to me. But it did make it and he signed the shirt. I told him he would never know how much I appreciate that he did that for me. And he said he owed me for the dvds and that he wanted me to know how much he appreciated the dvds and me just being a fan. Strangely, Edge asked me if I had called his room at 10am. LOL!!! He said he got a call and then the person hung up. Thats rude. And then he said someone called Christian’s room at 11am and did the same thing. We suspect some marks were either playing a joke or they wanted to see if they were there. Big no, no in this hobby. Christian was majorly irked by this. Well, at least if those guys wanted graphs or whatever, they didnt get them cuz we were the only ones. We talked a bit, as everyone else jumped into the rental. When they started the suv, Edge said he had to go cuz they were going to leave without him. We said goodbye and said we would see him in Hershey.

We headed for the Jericho signing. FYE ran it fairly well. About 200 people I would guess were there. Line moved fairly quickly. I got a picture signed and the cd and also a picture with Jericho, which is what I wanted the most. Jericho was cool and everyone seemed to leave happy.

We drove home that night, figuring talent were going to leave for Hershey. Turned out some stayed in Richmond and we missed out. We got home around 4 am and were back up at 9am. Headed out, but didnt do very well. Saw no one, cept a guy who looked just like HHH. It wasnt him though, we later discovered.

Our trip came to an end at Smackdown in Hershey. The show was pretty damn good. I sat next to Bryan Danielson’s sister, who left after his match. When we got to Hershey, our seats were messed up and we were no longer on the rail. I went to guest services and they quickly remedied the situation. They upgraded us to front row!!! So cool. But back to Danielson’s sister, she was to my right and asked me what I thought of Bryan and the other rookies. I told her, thank God I didnt say anything too bad. But I did say that WWE wont use him right and in a year he will be released and/or shunned with the Lance Storm dancing gimmick. She agreed. It wasnt until she was leaving at the end of Bryan’s match, did she tell me she was Danielson’s sister and was there just for her brother’s match. I was shocked.

Lastly, the kid next to me had a sign for Big Show. Big Show saw it after Smackdown went off the air and loved it. He waved the kid to come to him. So I helped the kid go over the rail. Security intervened and put the kid back. Big Show became angry and said let the kid go. Security said it was not allowed. That was shocking as well. But it is Hershey. And they are the most strict of any arena I have ever been. Big Show said after his dark match, he would come to the kid. After it was over, he began to leave and then remembered and Show came back. He walked over to the kid and said hello and even took a picture with him. I said to Big Show to give the kid his shirt and Big Show was like this shirt…..and I said yeah. He was like…I can do that. He took it off and handed it to the kid. It was freaking HUGE! Big Show shook my hand before he left. As they we taking the ring down, Matt Striker came into the crowd and was signing autographs and taking pictures. He spotted me and said hello. Thanks for the read and as always, enjoy the pics!

 

Category: Music, Wrestling / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
 

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