Wrestlemania 34 Weekend for Havoc updated w/autos
Apr 10, 2018 10:29:05 GMT -5
HHH316, koreygunz, and 11 more like this
Post by havoc7179 on Apr 10, 2018 10:29:05 GMT -5
So, I tried to do a vlog, but the files ended up getting corrupted 
. It's ok though as it was mostly recaps of the day, which I can type up. I'm uploading pics while at work, so it may take a while to add them here.
Day 1, Friday
The start of my journey began with me living vicariously through my friend who missed his nonstop flight from Ft. Lauderdale. He ended up having to take a connecting flight to Orlando to get to NOLA. The lucky (insert descriptive) ended up sitting next to Tomasso Chiampa and sharing a plane with Taynara Conti (sp?); EC3; AoP; Lars Sullivan; and other NXT wrestlers and personalities (estimate was 25 people). Meanwhile I got to NOLA around 7pm local time after delays on the runway.
Day 2, Saturday
Thus began the whirlwind of a Saturday. Woke up at 530am local time so I could be at Axxess to try and meet Becky Lynch and then AJ Styles. As fate would have it, I got to do just that. Ended up getting my Walgreens Exclusive Becky Lynch figure signed and my AJ Styles Network Spotlight figure signed. Becky had no problem personalizing it. I did the Post-It trick where I just attached a post it to the figure with my name on it. It almost didn't work on AJ because it was PVIP signing that required you to hand the memorabilia to the handler first. When she said "We don't allow personalizations, not enough time" AJ said "Hell yeah we do. It's a small name. Rob. Come on now. If it was something long like Roberto Aguilarera Constantine it may not fit on the figure, but we'd still add it." SO AJ made the autograph out to me while the handler rolled her eyes. While I was doing this, my buddy was meeting Asuka.
We ended up ducking out of AXXESS at exactly 9:00 as planned. And went to Wrestlecon. WHAT A MESS. First, it was too cramped, and the A/C was not strong enough to deal with that many bodies. Lots of bad BO going around. I was sweating after being in there 5 minutes.
Ended up first meeting Brooke and Taryn Terrell. I will just say that I am so glad I'm never meeting them, or any of the former Divas again. First, with the exception of Brooke, they don't care to be there. Taryn barely said a word to me, just took the photo and resumed talking to a friend. I was going to do autos, but decided to just leave.
From there I met Ellsworth who I talked to for a few minutes. We did a quick photo, but then I asked if it was too late for him to put me in a headlock. He said "no, let's do it." So I ended up getting a headlock from chin the takes the pin. Excellent, humble guy.
I then got in line for my pro photo of Goldberg. Pleasant experience. I asked for a headlock, he said no, but that he can pretend to punch me. So that photo came out pretty cool.
After that, it was pure pandemonium. Tried to meet as many wrestlers from the first Women's Royal Rumble. Met Vickie Guerrero who was an absolute delight. She seems to really care about her fans. (Forgot to get a pic with her thought)
As for the rest, not so much. Kelly Kelly was too busy texting people to be bothered. She was texting while signing. I was shocked she actually put her phone down to do a quick photo. Her booth was adjacent to Summer Rae. After waiting in line while Summer and K2 talked for about 10 minutes, she turned around and said sh had no merchandise for signing but said it was coming in about 5 minutes. Came back to her table 20 minutes later and nothing was there. Waited in line just to get a photo with her, and then when I was 2 back, she left without saying a word. At that point, I was done with her. Not a fan.
After that, I tried to find X-Pac and tried to get Edge and Beth Phoenix. Well X-Pac late due to traffic and Edge and Beth Phoenix had lines out the door. So, I went for SCSA's autograph. Line was far worse. Luckily my friend waited in line for me while I tried to get more.
Ran into Torrie Wilson who was scheduled to only be there Friday. Very sweet and nice.
After her, I moved on to get Austin Aries' auto. I definitely embarrassed myself before him. Told him I was a big fan and loved his days in TNA. He then said "You know I'm still there right? I'm the champion" and I said "Of course, but it's not TNA anymore." Truthfully, I forgot he was still part of that company that was once TNA. We did a photo and he signed my NXT Figure.
I then tried to wait for Trish and Lita but they weren't there yet, and the line was already huge. By that time, my friend had gotten us the prepaid autos from Austin so I decided to call it a day and head to lunch with him and my fiancee as we wanted to go to AXXESS at 1pm.
After we ate lunch at the St. Roch Market which was amazing, we all discovered that our cell phones needed to be recharged as they were all but dead and we were relying upon UBER to get us around.So, instead of going straight to AXXESS, I went back to wrestlecon to try and grab some more sigs. It was then that I met Trish and Lita for autos. As I previously got Lita's pic at Florida Supercon, I only needed a pic with Trish.
I then met X-Pac who was shockingly extremely pleasant and humble. Very fan friendly.It was shocking as I always pictured him running his mouth like his characters. After that I left and headed to Axxess.
Got to Axxess at 2pm. Best future advice I can give: Meet factions. Same amount of waiting. Double the autographs.
Thought I'd be able to meet Rusev and English, but their line was huge. I was planning on waiting but then saw that the Revival was already signing, and their line was short. So I jumped in there to meet the Top Guys,.and then jumped in line to meet Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. All four of them are great people to talk to. Tried to get Lana's auto after that but because the Bella's went long and Lana was the one to takeover their booth, the event staff closed down the line.
Afterwards, I went to Galatoire's 33 Bar & Steak with my group and then NXT Takeover before calling it a night.
Day 3, Sunday
Finally, the day I get to meet Stone Cold Steve Austin. I began the day walking to Cafe duMonde for some beignets. We then stopped at Cafe Beignet for some coffee. While it may seem odd, this was an approach told to us by a local Uber driver who swore it would be the best. It wasn't. But it was still fun to do. We then went back to the hotel so that I could meet a fellow WFIG member koreygunz to give him a Wrestlemania 17 poster to get Austin to sign, and then came by again to give him a NOLA 3:16 shirt for signing.
I then headed back to the hotel as my photo op wasn't until 11. I returned to wrestlecon at 1030, and the line for the op by that point was twice the size for Goldberg. While we were waiting, my friend and I were thinking back to how we had planned to have Austin drink a beer with us in the pic, but failed to buy any. We looked around and saw that literally no one had beers, and at that point thought how unique a photo it'd be. It was already about 11:25 by then, when someone in charge came out and said that the photo op would be further delayed by about 15 minutes. I knew then that God had given me a small window to track down 3 beers for the pic. 1 for me, 1 for my buddy, and 1 for Austin. So I ran down to the Sheraton's bar, and convinced the bartender to sell me 3 unopened cans of cold beer. He said sure, on the condition that if it works, I show him the pic. Done. Easy.
After waiting about 45 more minutes with the beers in a makeshift cooler, we got to Austin. I handed him a beer as I cracked open mine, told him we brought him something to cool him down so let's toast. He didn't open it, but he did hold it for the pic. Before it could be snapped I chugged a decent amount of it, so I'm standing by the claim I had a beer with Stone Cold.
Pics of my autographs will be up later.
. It's ok though as it was mostly recaps of the day, which I can type up. I'm uploading pics while at work, so it may take a while to add them here.Day 1, Friday
The start of my journey began with me living vicariously through my friend who missed his nonstop flight from Ft. Lauderdale. He ended up having to take a connecting flight to Orlando to get to NOLA. The lucky (insert descriptive) ended up sitting next to Tomasso Chiampa and sharing a plane with Taynara Conti (sp?); EC3; AoP; Lars Sullivan; and other NXT wrestlers and personalities (estimate was 25 people). Meanwhile I got to NOLA around 7pm local time after delays on the runway.
Day 2, Saturday
Thus began the whirlwind of a Saturday. Woke up at 530am local time so I could be at Axxess to try and meet Becky Lynch and then AJ Styles. As fate would have it, I got to do just that. Ended up getting my Walgreens Exclusive Becky Lynch figure signed and my AJ Styles Network Spotlight figure signed. Becky had no problem personalizing it. I did the Post-It trick where I just attached a post it to the figure with my name on it. It almost didn't work on AJ because it was PVIP signing that required you to hand the memorabilia to the handler first. When she said "We don't allow personalizations, not enough time" AJ said "Hell yeah we do. It's a small name. Rob. Come on now. If it was something long like Roberto Aguilarera Constantine it may not fit on the figure, but we'd still add it." SO AJ made the autograph out to me while the handler rolled her eyes. While I was doing this, my buddy was meeting Asuka.
We ended up ducking out of AXXESS at exactly 9:00 as planned. And went to Wrestlecon. WHAT A MESS. First, it was too cramped, and the A/C was not strong enough to deal with that many bodies. Lots of bad BO going around. I was sweating after being in there 5 minutes.
Ended up first meeting Brooke and Taryn Terrell. I will just say that I am so glad I'm never meeting them, or any of the former Divas again. First, with the exception of Brooke, they don't care to be there. Taryn barely said a word to me, just took the photo and resumed talking to a friend. I was going to do autos, but decided to just leave.
From there I met Ellsworth who I talked to for a few minutes. We did a quick photo, but then I asked if it was too late for him to put me in a headlock. He said "no, let's do it." So I ended up getting a headlock from chin the takes the pin. Excellent, humble guy.
I then got in line for my pro photo of Goldberg. Pleasant experience. I asked for a headlock, he said no, but that he can pretend to punch me. So that photo came out pretty cool.
After that, it was pure pandemonium. Tried to meet as many wrestlers from the first Women's Royal Rumble. Met Vickie Guerrero who was an absolute delight. She seems to really care about her fans. (Forgot to get a pic with her thought)
As for the rest, not so much. Kelly Kelly was too busy texting people to be bothered. She was texting while signing. I was shocked she actually put her phone down to do a quick photo. Her booth was adjacent to Summer Rae. After waiting in line while Summer and K2 talked for about 10 minutes, she turned around and said sh had no merchandise for signing but said it was coming in about 5 minutes. Came back to her table 20 minutes later and nothing was there. Waited in line just to get a photo with her, and then when I was 2 back, she left without saying a word. At that point, I was done with her. Not a fan.
After that, I tried to find X-Pac and tried to get Edge and Beth Phoenix. Well X-Pac late due to traffic and Edge and Beth Phoenix had lines out the door. So, I went for SCSA's autograph. Line was far worse. Luckily my friend waited in line for me while I tried to get more.
Ran into Torrie Wilson who was scheduled to only be there Friday. Very sweet and nice.
After her, I moved on to get Austin Aries' auto. I definitely embarrassed myself before him. Told him I was a big fan and loved his days in TNA. He then said "You know I'm still there right? I'm the champion" and I said "Of course, but it's not TNA anymore." Truthfully, I forgot he was still part of that company that was once TNA. We did a photo and he signed my NXT Figure.
I then tried to wait for Trish and Lita but they weren't there yet, and the line was already huge. By that time, my friend had gotten us the prepaid autos from Austin so I decided to call it a day and head to lunch with him and my fiancee as we wanted to go to AXXESS at 1pm.
After we ate lunch at the St. Roch Market which was amazing, we all discovered that our cell phones needed to be recharged as they were all but dead and we were relying upon UBER to get us around.So, instead of going straight to AXXESS, I went back to wrestlecon to try and grab some more sigs. It was then that I met Trish and Lita for autos. As I previously got Lita's pic at Florida Supercon, I only needed a pic with Trish.
I then met X-Pac who was shockingly extremely pleasant and humble. Very fan friendly.It was shocking as I always pictured him running his mouth like his characters. After that I left and headed to Axxess.
Got to Axxess at 2pm. Best future advice I can give: Meet factions. Same amount of waiting. Double the autographs.
Thought I'd be able to meet Rusev and English, but their line was huge. I was planning on waiting but then saw that the Revival was already signing, and their line was short. So I jumped in there to meet the Top Guys,.and then jumped in line to meet Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. All four of them are great people to talk to. Tried to get Lana's auto after that but because the Bella's went long and Lana was the one to takeover their booth, the event staff closed down the line.
Afterwards, I went to Galatoire's 33 Bar & Steak with my group and then NXT Takeover before calling it a night.
Day 3, Sunday
Finally, the day I get to meet Stone Cold Steve Austin. I began the day walking to Cafe duMonde for some beignets. We then stopped at Cafe Beignet for some coffee. While it may seem odd, this was an approach told to us by a local Uber driver who swore it would be the best. It wasn't. But it was still fun to do. We then went back to the hotel so that I could meet a fellow WFIG member koreygunz to give him a Wrestlemania 17 poster to get Austin to sign, and then came by again to give him a NOLA 3:16 shirt for signing.
I then headed back to the hotel as my photo op wasn't until 11. I returned to wrestlecon at 1030, and the line for the op by that point was twice the size for Goldberg. While we were waiting, my friend and I were thinking back to how we had planned to have Austin drink a beer with us in the pic, but failed to buy any. We looked around and saw that literally no one had beers, and at that point thought how unique a photo it'd be. It was already about 11:25 by then, when someone in charge came out and said that the photo op would be further delayed by about 15 minutes. I knew then that God had given me a small window to track down 3 beers for the pic. 1 for me, 1 for my buddy, and 1 for Austin. So I ran down to the Sheraton's bar, and convinced the bartender to sell me 3 unopened cans of cold beer. He said sure, on the condition that if it works, I show him the pic. Done. Easy.
After waiting about 45 more minutes with the beers in a makeshift cooler, we got to Austin. I handed him a beer as I cracked open mine, told him we brought him something to cool him down so let's toast. He didn't open it, but he did hold it for the pic. Before it could be snapped I chugged a decent amount of it, so I'm standing by the claim I had a beer with Stone Cold.
Pics of my autographs will be up later.
