Edge & Christian, Regal and More Signing (29/07/2017)
Apr 11, 2017 14:25:07 GMT -5
Grumpyoldman, marino13, and 7 more like this
Post by Lego Customs! on Apr 11, 2017 14:25:07 GMT -5
Inspired by TheChamp617's excellent thread, I thought I'd post my report of the above signing.
My cousin and I attended London Film & Comic Con on Sunday 30th July, it was the first time I’d gone to a convention of this size and despite being the ‘quiet’ day, it was packed! The convention was split over two floors, the ground floor had all the traders and a few exhibitions while upstairs had the signings and photoshoots. We spent some time browsing the traders stalls which was made up of the usual stuff, pre signed memorabilia, overpriced Vinyl Pops, fantasy weapons and so on. A few stalls had wrestling figures though, one in particular was staffed by people dressed as The Undertaker, Finn Balor and Alexa Bliss, the Finn Balor guy was particularly impressive. I did get some good deals from those guys, Elite Rick Rude, Magnum TA, basic Sting, Emma, Iron Sheik and the Ric and Charlotte Flair 2 pack for £30, all MOC. Also picked up loose TTL Chyna, Jim Ross, CS One Man Gang and Papa Shango. Anyway, on with the signings.
We headed upstairs to the signing area and after a bit of a walk (there were a lot of celebrities and long queues there) we found the wrestling section. Unfortunately most people were away to lunch or doing photoshoots but that didn’t matter because the one wrestler who was there was William Regal, one of the wrestlers I’ve wanted to meet most. The queue was quite short at that time but Regal had time for everyone. He asked us where we were from (Oxfordshire) and mentioned that he’d wrestled at Oxford City Hall a long time ago. I handed him my Lord Steven Regal figure to sign and he asked if I’d like it signed as William Regal or Lord Steven Regal, although I asked for Lord Steven, he signed it as William but nevermind! As he started to sign he said to me “There is something I should tell you about this figure… I’ll tell you when I finish signing…” away he signed, then he sat back and looked at me and said “Now, if you hold onto this figure and take care of it, in about 40 years’ time, it will be worth… £2.50” I laughed and asked if I could get a picture with him, which he happily obliged. I thanked him and he thanked me for coming. Good firm handshake.
Just as we finished up with Regal, the two guys I mainly came for just got back to their table… Demolition! As we approached their table, Smash complimented my Terry Funk shirt “Funk U! That’s real Terry Funk! That’s one of the real classic wrestling shirts” Ax and Smash both told us what a great guy Terry Funk is. My cousin mentioned that we had met Tugboat, Bushwhacker Luke and Brutus Beefcake in June and upon hearing the name Brutus Beefcake, they both groaned “Ugh, don’t mention that guy” I laughed and asked what the story behind that was “There are too many stories, he’s just an idiot” said Ax “Yeah, there are about loads of stories, he’s always doing something stupid!” replied Smash “The only thing we’d say to him is Funk U!”. After getting a photo signed and having a picture taken with them both, in a state of “oh my god, I’ve just met Demolition!” I started to walk away without picking up my picture, I realised and turned back, “I almost forgot my picture!” “If you’d gone without that you’d say oh Funk!” said Smash. They were fun and aside from the hair, I don’t think they look like they’ve aged a lot (maybe the face paint hides it well?)
At this point, no one else had returned so we decided to have a wander around to spot some celebrities to kill time. We checked the event schedule to see what time everyone else was doing their photoshoots to get an idea of when they should be back at their tables but I spotted that we were about 10 minutes away from the free entry event which was the recording of the Edge & Christian podcast so we headed straight to that.
I won’t write in long form what was said as most of it should be on their podcast which you can listen to word for word. This will include a great story from William Regal about a time that he, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton were travelling to a little fairground wrestling show back in their WCW days, a Q&A session. Regal was very funny, actually, they all were, it’s worth a listen.
Not sure if it will be on the podcast as I haven’t listened back to it but they were introduced on stage as “Christian and The Edge” which Christian teased Edge about. Edge said “Well thank you, The Host” the host joked “I thought you were the guy from U2?”.
Afterwards, all the wrestling fans poured out of the stage area and over to the wrestling area which was now packed (earlier there were a handful of us). Now, the order in which we met the following wrestlers gets a little muddled in my memory but I think we saw Victoria next who had almost no queue (Edge’s was huge, Christian’s was about half). She was brilliant! So engaging and down to Earth, we basically just had a chat about the event rather than Wrestling so much. She had a WWE Women’s title with her and I asked if that was an original, she said it wasn’t as WWE doesn’t give you anything to keep like that but a fan had gotten this replica for her. She had all the time in the World for us… sadly that might have been down to the lack of queue which amazes me. I saw Demolition had no queue, Victoria almost no one before or after us, SoCal Val didn’t when she returned… it was all about Christian and mostly, Edge. But hey, it’s everyone else’s loss!
I think at this point we joined Christian’s queue which wasn’t too long at that point. Christian asked what I watched and I said that I mostly rewatch a lot of the old stuff as the current WWE product just doesn’t interest me. He said that there are a lot of good British promotions out there these days which are worth watching. I do need to actually watch some British wrestling as I hear that from everyone.
As Edge’s queue was ridiculously long and SoCal Val had gone again, she was doing some recordings for the event promoters like a roving reporter type thing I think, (although we’d met her before, she was so nice last time we just wanted to say hello) I went to meet a celebrity I had my eye on, she was a special guest at Wrestlemania XI… Pamela Anderson!
Anderson had a panelled off area as she was one of the big headliners there, so I went over and one of the event staff was calling out for virtual queue ticket holders but nobody was coming forward, so she asked me “Are you in the virtual queue?” “No, but can I be?” She just looked around and seeing no one about said to me “just go in” so I entered and there was maybe one person ahead of me, other than Anderson’s security entourage or whoever. It was kept kind of brief, she asked me how I was doing, signed a photo from BarbWire I chose, thanked me for coming, “nice to meet you” and all that business. I shook her hand and swooned like any 90s guy would. (okay, maybe not that far).
When I got out, SoCal Val was back so we headed over, she looked up and saw us and her face lit up and she pointed to us and said “I know you guys!” didn’t quite remember our names but knew when and where we met her so that’s good enough for me. I said we’d just come to say hello as she was so nice last time and we just had a chat really and she said “have you met my friend Lisa yet?” gesturing to Victoria who was sat at the table next to her, we said we had and at that point, Victoria came over and joined us. She said that she wanted to see Pamela Anderson but “she’s never at her table” to see if she remembers arm wrestling her one time. I said that I’d just been to meet her so she was there (Anderson’s area was a few meres opposite). As I said that, one of her people was putting up a sign to say “Taking a break – back at 3.30” which was 45 mins away at that point. “I think she’s taking another break…” said either Victoria or Val “What, another one?!”. From what I heard and read, Pamela Anderson was getting there late, leaving early and taking a lot of breaks.
Victoria asked “did you get a photo with her?” I said I hadn’t. Your own photos weren’t allowed, it was a professional shoot only deal with her. “You need to see them! The exposure is set so high to hide her wrinkles that her fans are just looking washed out” this turned out to be true, I’ve seen the photos, Pamela looks great in them but her fans look like they’d seen ghosts or watched Impact.
Victoria and Val joked around and Victoria told us about a time at a house show when a local indy guy wrestled The Undertaker and after the match the indy guy complimented Undertaker on a great match and gave him the wink and gun. You can just imagine Undertaker’s reaction to that. Afterwards apparently it became a joke amongst the boys to give him the wink and gun after matches. She also told us about being taken to wrestler’s court for taking a first class seat with Trish Stratus instead of offering it to her seniors first as is the done thing. I got a signed calendar from SoCal Val, each picture signed, including the cover, so that’s 13 autographs plus a birthday message on the July page, all that for less than the price of 2 autographs. I was pleased with that deal!
And finally, we met Edge who still had a very long queue. Edge looked at me and said “hey, you know who you look kind of like?” I laughed and said “I think I can guess” I get this each time I go to conventions and heard the same thing several times already that day… “Jesus from The Walking Dead” said Edge “Haha, yeah, I get that a lot” and told him that I’d actually been given a business card by a convention zombie guy who said he could get me look alike work. I do look a hell of a lot like him actually. I told Edge that when I was younger my older brother used to pretend to be him while beating me up when we’d wrestle, he apologised for that. It was great to meet him, despite the length of the queue he didn’t rush anyone.
Various Wrestlers - Dinner / Signing UK (1/6/17 - 4/6/17)
On Thursday 1st June, I attended WWF Legends Night, the line up was originally going to be Marty Jannetty, Bushwhacker Luke, Tugboat and Brutus Beefcake however getting closer to the day Harry Smith was added to the line up and then on the day I found out that Jannetty had dropped out at the last minute which was a shame. The event organiser said that he had a 5th person as a replacement which I guessed might be SoCal Val as she was attending the Comic Con yesterday and today which the Legends Night was a part of and she did indeed turn out to be the mystery guest.
So the itinerary was as follows, arrival drinks, a 3 course dinner with the wrestlers, a free photo shoot, Q&A session and finally a photoshoot / autograph signing that you had to pay for. This evening was limited to 240 tickets by shockingly they only sold 23! So it was a rather intimate evening. Tickets were £75 but due to slow sales the prices were reduced to £50 with a few days to go and anyone who bought the tickets at full price were given a refund of the additional amount.
The arrival drinks were just for the fans to meet I suppose, no wrestlers involved at that stage but it wasn't long before we were led into the dining room (this was all held in a hotel) where we were told to sit at any table we liked, I suppose there were 7 tables, maybe, between I guess around 30 people including the guys running the event, but to leave one seat free at each table as the wrestlers would swap around at the end of each course of dinner. There were more tables than wrestlers so we didn't have a wrestler for every course but 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
Once we were settled the organiser announced each wrestler as they made their way into the room and Bushwhacker Luke made his way over to our table for the first course.
Luke had plenty to tell us about the territory days and took all our questions. He told us how he is still wrestling to this day, or at least until a couple of week ago when his knee pretty much came apart so he's due for surgery next week I believe. He complimented my Hotrod shirt and told us he was great friends with Roddy Piper. I asked him how Butch was doing and he said he's been doing better which is great to hear. He told us a great story about a plane trip from Reno Nevada which involved Ultimate Warrior shaving a bunch of people's heads while they were passed out. Before he could finish the story all the wrestlers were asked to switch around but he finished the story before left and told me he had a great Roddy Piper story to tell.
We didn't get anyone for the main course but Harry Smith joined us for dessert. He was great to talk to. Unfortunately because I didn't watch a whole lot of WWE around the time he was involved, I didn't really have much to task him but the other guys did. He told us a story about Big Show and Khali getting into a 'fight' backstage over who would do this big karate chop and how to sell it or something along those lines and one thing led to another and they ended up pretty much falling over each other and onto the floor. It just sounded funny, more hapless than dangerous. He also told us about some grappling competition he's been involved with in Las Vegas, I don't know any details about this if I'm honest so I'm going to have to Google it but it sounds interesting and impressive. He also old us that Dynamite Kid isn't doing so well physically and is blind in one eye now but they get along well and that he is actually a pretty nice guy and not as bad as some people make him out to be.
After dinner we had the free photoshoot. We were all given a ticket at the start of the evening and one by one the wrestlers went up and you just went up when the wrestler you wanted your picture with was there so I decided to go for Bushwhacker Luke, I actually met him when I was 9/10 years old but lost my autograph which bugs me to this day so that's why I wanted to get a picture.
Got to hold his own custom belt and wear the Hall of Fame ring.
Next was the Q&A session which was about 20-30 minutes... I can't recall any questions that really stood out... I mean that in a sense that if I was to repeat anything (that I do remember with this shocking memory of mine) it wouldn't be anything that you guys probably don't already know.
After this we went onto the autograph signing and pay for photoshoots. The photoshoots worked in the same way as earlier but this time it was £15 a time though the pictures were signed for free. There were 8x10s for sale at £15 which included getting the autograph so it was probably best to get a photo since its the same price and more personal but it only really clicked after Brutus Beefcake and Harry Smith had been up so I decided to get photos with Tugboat and SoCal Val
Tugboat was great, a very funny guy and by far the biggest character in the room, he was wearing these massive luminous yellow trainers (sneakers) that everyone must have spoken to him about (apparently he has a big shoe collection... a big collection of big shoes).
I have to say SoCal Val has overtaken Sunny and Mick Foley as the nicest wrestling person I've met. Don't get me wrong, everyone I've met has been fantastic but she managed to up that level! She was so friendly and personable, it felt like she wanted to meet you rather than the other way around. She asked if I was going to be going to the Comic Con and I said I might go on the Sunday, "I hope to see you there, Sunday Fun-day!".
I bought 8x10s of Harry Smith and Brutus Beefcake for signing. Smith has a proper handshake, I could feel that one for about a minute afterwards, he's just muscle.
As it was my sister's birthday and she loved Hogan and Beefcake, I asked Beefcake if he wouldn't mind recording a happy birthday message for her and he happily obliged, he offered to do a phone call but unfortunately my phone couldn't get any signal there but hey, the video lasts forever right?
There was supposed to be an auction as well but as we'd overrun they decided not to go ahead with it which was a shame but we had a brilliant evening so my cousin and I left very happy that evening.
Skip ahead to today, I did attend the Comic Con as well as there were a couple of other people who I wanted to see, unfortunately the main person dropped out at the last minute as well but anyway... I walked into the main hall which had been divided into 3 different rows so I walked into the first one and SoCal Val happened to be sat right by the entrance, I looked over and she happened to look up and her face lit up and she said "Danny! Did you just get here?" so I had a quick chat with her, it was great that she remembered me and by name, even if it was only a few days since I first met her. Tugboat was wandering about, Luke wasn't at his table but Beefcake was sat alone and I went over and said "I met you on Thursday night and you recorded a happy birthday message for my sister, she loved it so thank you again for that" and he pulled a slightly confused face and said "Yeah, I can sign happy Birthday..." and I said "That's okay, I got your autograph on Thursday night at the dinner..." I'm not sure he understood and said "Well... I bet you don't have one of these pictures..." he sounded a little sad so out of politeness (being British can be a curse) I bought another autograph, this time for £20!
I'm not sure if he was confused or was Virgiling me but anyway, it was great to meet him.
I moved on and went to look for Chris Barrie (Rimmer from Red Dwarf) who was meant to be there but there was no sign of him, so I waited and kept checking back but he wasn't there, though a guy who played his brother in one episode of Red dwarf was sat at the table he was meant to be at and I overheard him say he was 'parachuted in at the last minute' so I put 2 and 2 together and I guessed he must have dropped out. Had a look at he other stuff going on, not a lot of interest to me, then decided to make my way out. I stopped by Virginia Hey's table as I'm a huge Mad Max fan, I've met her before so just wanted to say hello again really and we ended up chatting for ages, she's a really wonderful woman and just so easy to talk to.
She was sat just up from the wrestlers so going back I saw Luke and I said that I'd met him on Thursday and that he said he had a good Roddy Piper story to tell, so he told me a couple and I shook his hand and told him it was great to see him again. Finally I said goodbye to SoCal Val who was still just being great.
Mick Foley, Lita & Bobby Heenan Signing UK (9/4/17)
My cousin and I attended London Film & Comic Con on Sunday 30th July, it was the first time I’d gone to a convention of this size and despite being the ‘quiet’ day, it was packed! The convention was split over two floors, the ground floor had all the traders and a few exhibitions while upstairs had the signings and photoshoots. We spent some time browsing the traders stalls which was made up of the usual stuff, pre signed memorabilia, overpriced Vinyl Pops, fantasy weapons and so on. A few stalls had wrestling figures though, one in particular was staffed by people dressed as The Undertaker, Finn Balor and Alexa Bliss, the Finn Balor guy was particularly impressive. I did get some good deals from those guys, Elite Rick Rude, Magnum TA, basic Sting, Emma, Iron Sheik and the Ric and Charlotte Flair 2 pack for £30, all MOC. Also picked up loose TTL Chyna, Jim Ross, CS One Man Gang and Papa Shango. Anyway, on with the signings.
We headed upstairs to the signing area and after a bit of a walk (there were a lot of celebrities and long queues there) we found the wrestling section. Unfortunately most people were away to lunch or doing photoshoots but that didn’t matter because the one wrestler who was there was William Regal, one of the wrestlers I’ve wanted to meet most. The queue was quite short at that time but Regal had time for everyone. He asked us where we were from (Oxfordshire) and mentioned that he’d wrestled at Oxford City Hall a long time ago. I handed him my Lord Steven Regal figure to sign and he asked if I’d like it signed as William Regal or Lord Steven Regal, although I asked for Lord Steven, he signed it as William but nevermind! As he started to sign he said to me “There is something I should tell you about this figure… I’ll tell you when I finish signing…” away he signed, then he sat back and looked at me and said “Now, if you hold onto this figure and take care of it, in about 40 years’ time, it will be worth… £2.50” I laughed and asked if I could get a picture with him, which he happily obliged. I thanked him and he thanked me for coming. Good firm handshake.
Just as we finished up with Regal, the two guys I mainly came for just got back to their table… Demolition! As we approached their table, Smash complimented my Terry Funk shirt “Funk U! That’s real Terry Funk! That’s one of the real classic wrestling shirts” Ax and Smash both told us what a great guy Terry Funk is. My cousin mentioned that we had met Tugboat, Bushwhacker Luke and Brutus Beefcake in June and upon hearing the name Brutus Beefcake, they both groaned “Ugh, don’t mention that guy” I laughed and asked what the story behind that was “There are too many stories, he’s just an idiot” said Ax “Yeah, there are about loads of stories, he’s always doing something stupid!” replied Smash “The only thing we’d say to him is Funk U!”. After getting a photo signed and having a picture taken with them both, in a state of “oh my god, I’ve just met Demolition!” I started to walk away without picking up my picture, I realised and turned back, “I almost forgot my picture!” “If you’d gone without that you’d say oh Funk!” said Smash. They were fun and aside from the hair, I don’t think they look like they’ve aged a lot (maybe the face paint hides it well?)
At this point, no one else had returned so we decided to have a wander around to spot some celebrities to kill time. We checked the event schedule to see what time everyone else was doing their photoshoots to get an idea of when they should be back at their tables but I spotted that we were about 10 minutes away from the free entry event which was the recording of the Edge & Christian podcast so we headed straight to that.
I won’t write in long form what was said as most of it should be on their podcast which you can listen to word for word. This will include a great story from William Regal about a time that he, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton were travelling to a little fairground wrestling show back in their WCW days, a Q&A session. Regal was very funny, actually, they all were, it’s worth a listen.
Not sure if it will be on the podcast as I haven’t listened back to it but they were introduced on stage as “Christian and The Edge” which Christian teased Edge about. Edge said “Well thank you, The Host” the host joked “I thought you were the guy from U2?”.
Afterwards, all the wrestling fans poured out of the stage area and over to the wrestling area which was now packed (earlier there were a handful of us). Now, the order in which we met the following wrestlers gets a little muddled in my memory but I think we saw Victoria next who had almost no queue (Edge’s was huge, Christian’s was about half). She was brilliant! So engaging and down to Earth, we basically just had a chat about the event rather than Wrestling so much. She had a WWE Women’s title with her and I asked if that was an original, she said it wasn’t as WWE doesn’t give you anything to keep like that but a fan had gotten this replica for her. She had all the time in the World for us… sadly that might have been down to the lack of queue which amazes me. I saw Demolition had no queue, Victoria almost no one before or after us, SoCal Val didn’t when she returned… it was all about Christian and mostly, Edge. But hey, it’s everyone else’s loss!
I think at this point we joined Christian’s queue which wasn’t too long at that point. Christian asked what I watched and I said that I mostly rewatch a lot of the old stuff as the current WWE product just doesn’t interest me. He said that there are a lot of good British promotions out there these days which are worth watching. I do need to actually watch some British wrestling as I hear that from everyone.
As Edge’s queue was ridiculously long and SoCal Val had gone again, she was doing some recordings for the event promoters like a roving reporter type thing I think, (although we’d met her before, she was so nice last time we just wanted to say hello) I went to meet a celebrity I had my eye on, she was a special guest at Wrestlemania XI… Pamela Anderson!
Anderson had a panelled off area as she was one of the big headliners there, so I went over and one of the event staff was calling out for virtual queue ticket holders but nobody was coming forward, so she asked me “Are you in the virtual queue?” “No, but can I be?” She just looked around and seeing no one about said to me “just go in” so I entered and there was maybe one person ahead of me, other than Anderson’s security entourage or whoever. It was kept kind of brief, she asked me how I was doing, signed a photo from BarbWire I chose, thanked me for coming, “nice to meet you” and all that business. I shook her hand and swooned like any 90s guy would. (okay, maybe not that far).
When I got out, SoCal Val was back so we headed over, she looked up and saw us and her face lit up and she pointed to us and said “I know you guys!” didn’t quite remember our names but knew when and where we met her so that’s good enough for me. I said we’d just come to say hello as she was so nice last time and we just had a chat really and she said “have you met my friend Lisa yet?” gesturing to Victoria who was sat at the table next to her, we said we had and at that point, Victoria came over and joined us. She said that she wanted to see Pamela Anderson but “she’s never at her table” to see if she remembers arm wrestling her one time. I said that I’d just been to meet her so she was there (Anderson’s area was a few meres opposite). As I said that, one of her people was putting up a sign to say “Taking a break – back at 3.30” which was 45 mins away at that point. “I think she’s taking another break…” said either Victoria or Val “What, another one?!”. From what I heard and read, Pamela Anderson was getting there late, leaving early and taking a lot of breaks.
Victoria asked “did you get a photo with her?” I said I hadn’t. Your own photos weren’t allowed, it was a professional shoot only deal with her. “You need to see them! The exposure is set so high to hide her wrinkles that her fans are just looking washed out” this turned out to be true, I’ve seen the photos, Pamela looks great in them but her fans look like they’d seen ghosts or watched Impact.
Victoria and Val joked around and Victoria told us about a time at a house show when a local indy guy wrestled The Undertaker and after the match the indy guy complimented Undertaker on a great match and gave him the wink and gun. You can just imagine Undertaker’s reaction to that. Afterwards apparently it became a joke amongst the boys to give him the wink and gun after matches. She also told us about being taken to wrestler’s court for taking a first class seat with Trish Stratus instead of offering it to her seniors first as is the done thing. I got a signed calendar from SoCal Val, each picture signed, including the cover, so that’s 13 autographs plus a birthday message on the July page, all that for less than the price of 2 autographs. I was pleased with that deal!
And finally, we met Edge who still had a very long queue. Edge looked at me and said “hey, you know who you look kind of like?” I laughed and said “I think I can guess” I get this each time I go to conventions and heard the same thing several times already that day… “Jesus from The Walking Dead” said Edge “Haha, yeah, I get that a lot” and told him that I’d actually been given a business card by a convention zombie guy who said he could get me look alike work. I do look a hell of a lot like him actually. I told Edge that when I was younger my older brother used to pretend to be him while beating me up when we’d wrestle, he apologised for that. It was great to meet him, despite the length of the queue he didn’t rush anyone.
Various Wrestlers - Dinner / Signing UK (1/6/17 - 4/6/17)
On Thursday 1st June, I attended WWF Legends Night, the line up was originally going to be Marty Jannetty, Bushwhacker Luke, Tugboat and Brutus Beefcake however getting closer to the day Harry Smith was added to the line up and then on the day I found out that Jannetty had dropped out at the last minute which was a shame. The event organiser said that he had a 5th person as a replacement which I guessed might be SoCal Val as she was attending the Comic Con yesterday and today which the Legends Night was a part of and she did indeed turn out to be the mystery guest.
So the itinerary was as follows, arrival drinks, a 3 course dinner with the wrestlers, a free photo shoot, Q&A session and finally a photoshoot / autograph signing that you had to pay for. This evening was limited to 240 tickets by shockingly they only sold 23! So it was a rather intimate evening. Tickets were £75 but due to slow sales the prices were reduced to £50 with a few days to go and anyone who bought the tickets at full price were given a refund of the additional amount.
The arrival drinks were just for the fans to meet I suppose, no wrestlers involved at that stage but it wasn't long before we were led into the dining room (this was all held in a hotel) where we were told to sit at any table we liked, I suppose there were 7 tables, maybe, between I guess around 30 people including the guys running the event, but to leave one seat free at each table as the wrestlers would swap around at the end of each course of dinner. There were more tables than wrestlers so we didn't have a wrestler for every course but 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
Once we were settled the organiser announced each wrestler as they made their way into the room and Bushwhacker Luke made his way over to our table for the first course.
Luke had plenty to tell us about the territory days and took all our questions. He told us how he is still wrestling to this day, or at least until a couple of week ago when his knee pretty much came apart so he's due for surgery next week I believe. He complimented my Hotrod shirt and told us he was great friends with Roddy Piper. I asked him how Butch was doing and he said he's been doing better which is great to hear. He told us a great story about a plane trip from Reno Nevada which involved Ultimate Warrior shaving a bunch of people's heads while they were passed out. Before he could finish the story all the wrestlers were asked to switch around but he finished the story before left and told me he had a great Roddy Piper story to tell.
We didn't get anyone for the main course but Harry Smith joined us for dessert. He was great to talk to. Unfortunately because I didn't watch a whole lot of WWE around the time he was involved, I didn't really have much to task him but the other guys did. He told us a story about Big Show and Khali getting into a 'fight' backstage over who would do this big karate chop and how to sell it or something along those lines and one thing led to another and they ended up pretty much falling over each other and onto the floor. It just sounded funny, more hapless than dangerous. He also told us about some grappling competition he's been involved with in Las Vegas, I don't know any details about this if I'm honest so I'm going to have to Google it but it sounds interesting and impressive. He also old us that Dynamite Kid isn't doing so well physically and is blind in one eye now but they get along well and that he is actually a pretty nice guy and not as bad as some people make him out to be.
After dinner we had the free photoshoot. We were all given a ticket at the start of the evening and one by one the wrestlers went up and you just went up when the wrestler you wanted your picture with was there so I decided to go for Bushwhacker Luke, I actually met him when I was 9/10 years old but lost my autograph which bugs me to this day so that's why I wanted to get a picture.
Got to hold his own custom belt and wear the Hall of Fame ring.
Next was the Q&A session which was about 20-30 minutes... I can't recall any questions that really stood out... I mean that in a sense that if I was to repeat anything (that I do remember with this shocking memory of mine) it wouldn't be anything that you guys probably don't already know.
After this we went onto the autograph signing and pay for photoshoots. The photoshoots worked in the same way as earlier but this time it was £15 a time though the pictures were signed for free. There were 8x10s for sale at £15 which included getting the autograph so it was probably best to get a photo since its the same price and more personal but it only really clicked after Brutus Beefcake and Harry Smith had been up so I decided to get photos with Tugboat and SoCal Val
Tugboat was great, a very funny guy and by far the biggest character in the room, he was wearing these massive luminous yellow trainers (sneakers) that everyone must have spoken to him about (apparently he has a big shoe collection... a big collection of big shoes).
I have to say SoCal Val has overtaken Sunny and Mick Foley as the nicest wrestling person I've met. Don't get me wrong, everyone I've met has been fantastic but she managed to up that level! She was so friendly and personable, it felt like she wanted to meet you rather than the other way around. She asked if I was going to be going to the Comic Con and I said I might go on the Sunday, "I hope to see you there, Sunday Fun-day!".
I bought 8x10s of Harry Smith and Brutus Beefcake for signing. Smith has a proper handshake, I could feel that one for about a minute afterwards, he's just muscle.
As it was my sister's birthday and she loved Hogan and Beefcake, I asked Beefcake if he wouldn't mind recording a happy birthday message for her and he happily obliged, he offered to do a phone call but unfortunately my phone couldn't get any signal there but hey, the video lasts forever right?
There was supposed to be an auction as well but as we'd overrun they decided not to go ahead with it which was a shame but we had a brilliant evening so my cousin and I left very happy that evening.
Skip ahead to today, I did attend the Comic Con as well as there were a couple of other people who I wanted to see, unfortunately the main person dropped out at the last minute as well but anyway... I walked into the main hall which had been divided into 3 different rows so I walked into the first one and SoCal Val happened to be sat right by the entrance, I looked over and she happened to look up and her face lit up and she said "Danny! Did you just get here?" so I had a quick chat with her, it was great that she remembered me and by name, even if it was only a few days since I first met her. Tugboat was wandering about, Luke wasn't at his table but Beefcake was sat alone and I went over and said "I met you on Thursday night and you recorded a happy birthday message for my sister, she loved it so thank you again for that" and he pulled a slightly confused face and said "Yeah, I can sign happy Birthday..." and I said "That's okay, I got your autograph on Thursday night at the dinner..." I'm not sure he understood and said "Well... I bet you don't have one of these pictures..." he sounded a little sad so out of politeness (being British can be a curse) I bought another autograph, this time for £20!
I'm not sure if he was confused or was Virgiling me but anyway, it was great to meet him.
I moved on and went to look for Chris Barrie (Rimmer from Red Dwarf) who was meant to be there but there was no sign of him, so I waited and kept checking back but he wasn't there, though a guy who played his brother in one episode of Red dwarf was sat at the table he was meant to be at and I overheard him say he was 'parachuted in at the last minute' so I put 2 and 2 together and I guessed he must have dropped out. Had a look at he other stuff going on, not a lot of interest to me, then decided to make my way out. I stopped by Virginia Hey's table as I'm a huge Mad Max fan, I've met her before so just wanted to say hello again really and we ended up chatting for ages, she's a really wonderful woman and just so easy to talk to.
She was sat just up from the wrestlers so going back I saw Luke and I said that I'd met him on Thursday and that he said he had a good Roddy Piper story to tell, so he told me a couple and I shook his hand and told him it was great to see him again. Finally I said goodbye to SoCal Val who was still just being great.
Mick Foley, Lita & Bobby Heenan Signing UK (9/4/17)
This was at the Wales Comic Con in Wrexham, Kevin Nash and SoCal Val were also scheduled to appear but unfortunately Nash got caught up in the Delta cancellations and couldn't attend which was a great shame. I'm not sure what happened with SoCal Val, I'm certain that she was on the line up when I checked a couple of weeks ago but she wasn't there, I see from her Twitter page she's in the US, no mention of cancellations on her part though... hopefully I'll get to meet her in June at a convention a lot closer to home.
In hindsight maybe that was kind of a helpful thing because the autograph prices had been raised to £30 each for Foley and Lita, plus £10 to take your own picture so I ended up spending double what I expected on them, I think I'd have ran out of money if Nash was there. Heenan's prices stayed the same at £20.
Unfortunately we arrived a little late and missed the wrestling Q&A which I think was the first Q&A session of the day so I can't report on that. The convention was held at a university campus and things weren't very well signposted so after finally working out where to exchange our tickets for wristbands and getting a map we headed for the signings building. We walked around having a look at a few merchandise stands selling Mattels(RSC Cactus Jack going for £90), while keeping an eye out for the wrestling contingent.
Finally I spotted posters for Lita and Mick Foley and a decent sized yet slightly disorganised queue right under them. Lita and Mick were both doing their professional photoshoot sessions but I caught a glimpse of Bobby Heenan and went to join the back of his queue. A guy from the event staff approached us and said "Are you queuing for Mick Foley?" "Well I will be but I wanted to see Bobby Heenan first" "Oh okay, well since Mick isn't back yet, I can offer you a place in our virtual queue which allows you to walk around and when I call out 'numbers up to xxx' over the tanoy, you can come back and keep your place" "Ah, that sounds good, thanks" "By the way, this isn't the line for Bobby Heenan so you can go right up". There was no queue for Heenan! I was shocked, it's Bobby Heenan so I unrolled the poster I had printed and headed over. I know Bobby isn't up to too much interaction these days so I didn't really ask anything of him, he didn't seem up to talking as it was but still, what an honour to meet him and I'm glad to say he still has a firm handshake.
Excuse the poor picture, the camera on my phone is crap. I'm awaiting delivery of some frames for this poster and Lita's
After a short wander around, the voice came over the tanoy to tell people to head back to Mick's queue. While waiting in a fairly long line for Mick, I saw only one other person, maybe two, go over to Bobby Heenan and not many more over to Lita, it was a real Foley crowd!
Mick was really engaging with his fans and was fun and friendly. I've read reports in the past that seem very mixed about him but I'm glad to say that on both occasions I've met him, he's been brilliant. I took my copy of Christmas Chaos to be signed, I thought Mick would appreciate a Christmas related item and he did. He asked my name "Danny", "Danny!" and started to sign. He started out slowly drawing two side ways S kind of shapes and I was starting to think "I'm certain he said my name right just then..." then he joined the lines together into a rather fancy D, he then explained that he had been practising his handwriting to make it look more interesting and grabbed another piece of paper to show us how his Ds had progressed. He then took out a red calligraphy pen to write a Christmas message, his handler told us that was his special Christmas pen. Finally I got a picture with him, despite the coming hip operation he was getting up out of his seat and standing for everyone.
I wanted to show him some pictures on my phone of the King of the Deathmatch GI Joe set I made, as seen in my sig and ask him if he had could tell me anything about that day that he didn't put in his book but that just went out of mind... A real pleasure to see him again.
Last but not least, Lita. There was no one queueing for her which struck me as odd, the people there for Foley all seemed around my age / older so it wasn't like a bunch of kids who only knew Foley from his recent run or so I would expect. While putting my book back in my bag and getting the poster for Lita, a lady and her daughter approached me, she had spoke to me in passing while I was at the back of Foley's queue to tell me that I look just like Jesus from Walking Dead... I actually get that a lot, I've never seen the show but from what I see on Google Images, yes, I really do look like him, anyway, this time she asked for a picture with me so I obliged. I would later get stopped by a Pink Power Ranger who told me I should cosplay as this Jesus character. Maybe I should work on fake Tom Payne autographs...
As I approached Lita's table I felt a sense of awe growing or perhaps it had something to do with having a crush on her since I was about 9 years old turning my mind to mush. She didn't really say very much, unlike Foley who engages you straight away but in fairness, I couldn't get anything out either. She signed my poster and then some guy came over who I think was event staff and just cut right in talking to her and then I think realised I was waiting for a picture and took a step back but Lita was now checking something over on her phone, so went round to stand by her but giving her space to finish up whatever she was doing. When she was done, she said "Come on" in a friendly manner I must make clear, and beckoned me to kneel down next to her... she wasn't leaving her seat for anyone. My sister took the picture and I said "It was really great to meet you" - the best I could come out with at that point, and she said the same which sounded sincere and offered me her hand to shake.
So that was a little mixed but I'd love to meet her again but next time take a breath and actually come out with some questions or something to say!
In hindsight maybe that was kind of a helpful thing because the autograph prices had been raised to £30 each for Foley and Lita, plus £10 to take your own picture so I ended up spending double what I expected on them, I think I'd have ran out of money if Nash was there. Heenan's prices stayed the same at £20.
Unfortunately we arrived a little late and missed the wrestling Q&A which I think was the first Q&A session of the day so I can't report on that. The convention was held at a university campus and things weren't very well signposted so after finally working out where to exchange our tickets for wristbands and getting a map we headed for the signings building. We walked around having a look at a few merchandise stands selling Mattels(RSC Cactus Jack going for £90), while keeping an eye out for the wrestling contingent.
Finally I spotted posters for Lita and Mick Foley and a decent sized yet slightly disorganised queue right under them. Lita and Mick were both doing their professional photoshoot sessions but I caught a glimpse of Bobby Heenan and went to join the back of his queue. A guy from the event staff approached us and said "Are you queuing for Mick Foley?" "Well I will be but I wanted to see Bobby Heenan first" "Oh okay, well since Mick isn't back yet, I can offer you a place in our virtual queue which allows you to walk around and when I call out 'numbers up to xxx' over the tanoy, you can come back and keep your place" "Ah, that sounds good, thanks" "By the way, this isn't the line for Bobby Heenan so you can go right up". There was no queue for Heenan! I was shocked, it's Bobby Heenan so I unrolled the poster I had printed and headed over. I know Bobby isn't up to too much interaction these days so I didn't really ask anything of him, he didn't seem up to talking as it was but still, what an honour to meet him and I'm glad to say he still has a firm handshake.
Excuse the poor picture, the camera on my phone is crap. I'm awaiting delivery of some frames for this poster and Lita's
After a short wander around, the voice came over the tanoy to tell people to head back to Mick's queue. While waiting in a fairly long line for Mick, I saw only one other person, maybe two, go over to Bobby Heenan and not many more over to Lita, it was a real Foley crowd!
Mick was really engaging with his fans and was fun and friendly. I've read reports in the past that seem very mixed about him but I'm glad to say that on both occasions I've met him, he's been brilliant. I took my copy of Christmas Chaos to be signed, I thought Mick would appreciate a Christmas related item and he did. He asked my name "Danny", "Danny!" and started to sign. He started out slowly drawing two side ways S kind of shapes and I was starting to think "I'm certain he said my name right just then..." then he joined the lines together into a rather fancy D, he then explained that he had been practising his handwriting to make it look more interesting and grabbed another piece of paper to show us how his Ds had progressed. He then took out a red calligraphy pen to write a Christmas message, his handler told us that was his special Christmas pen. Finally I got a picture with him, despite the coming hip operation he was getting up out of his seat and standing for everyone.
I wanted to show him some pictures on my phone of the King of the Deathmatch GI Joe set I made, as seen in my sig and ask him if he had could tell me anything about that day that he didn't put in his book but that just went out of mind... A real pleasure to see him again.
Last but not least, Lita. There was no one queueing for her which struck me as odd, the people there for Foley all seemed around my age / older so it wasn't like a bunch of kids who only knew Foley from his recent run or so I would expect. While putting my book back in my bag and getting the poster for Lita, a lady and her daughter approached me, she had spoke to me in passing while I was at the back of Foley's queue to tell me that I look just like Jesus from Walking Dead... I actually get that a lot, I've never seen the show but from what I see on Google Images, yes, I really do look like him, anyway, this time she asked for a picture with me so I obliged. I would later get stopped by a Pink Power Ranger who told me I should cosplay as this Jesus character. Maybe I should work on fake Tom Payne autographs...
As I approached Lita's table I felt a sense of awe growing or perhaps it had something to do with having a crush on her since I was about 9 years old turning my mind to mush. She didn't really say very much, unlike Foley who engages you straight away but in fairness, I couldn't get anything out either. She signed my poster and then some guy came over who I think was event staff and just cut right in talking to her and then I think realised I was waiting for a picture and took a step back but Lita was now checking something over on her phone, so went round to stand by her but giving her space to finish up whatever she was doing. When she was done, she said "Come on" in a friendly manner I must make clear, and beckoned me to kneel down next to her... she wasn't leaving her seat for anyone. My sister took the picture and I said "It was really great to meet you" - the best I could come out with at that point, and she said the same which sounded sincere and offered me her hand to shake.
So that was a little mixed but I'd love to meet her again but next time take a breath and actually come out with some questions or something to say!
