WFWF General Discussion 2019

I've met Jerry Lawler and John Cena's dad. Nothing can beat that combo.

Johnny Fabulous (Cena Sr.) latches on to shows up this way all the time. He's made a name for himself on being Cena Jr.'s old man, and a bit of a rep as a bit bragodocious, but he's nothing if not enthusiastic.

I met Kurt Angle a LOOOOONG time ago. Almost 20 years ago, it was the year after he won the Gold and he was the big "come see this person" at Pittsburgh's Independence Day parade.

I met The Miz in 2014 after the Royal Rumble here in Pittsburgh. My friend and I hit up a local 24/7 pub that's kinda famous, and he came in maybe an hour after the show was over. There were a couple of straggling WWE fans who were at the show that he talked to while waiting for his food. He asked no photos or autograph requests since he was about to eat, but he had no problem shooting the sh*t with the few of us that were there. He was awesome.

Also met Jinder a couple of months ago, best wrestler experience. It was an in passing sort of thing in the parking lot after the show. My buddy was trying to collect autographs and he was my ride so I was just sort of there. There'd been an issue with a special needs kid who was I guess in attendence as a guest of Daniel Bryan's with Connor's Cure because that's the shirt the whole family was wearing, kid was I guess supposed to meet someone and either got blown off or forgotten about by the superstar, Jinder gave the kid his knee pad cover from his bag and signed it for him. Dunno if the family was told to hold up after the show and Jinder was asked to do that or if he just heard through the grapevine and did it, but he was the epitome of class. Didn't talk down to the kid, didn't make it seem like he was doing this simply on a request/because he had to/because he felt bad. When he was done, he turned to my friend, signed the poster he had, saw me with my Maharaja shirt standing next to him and did that inhaling smile/head nod thing he does. I said I'd been a fan since the Khali early days, and was glad he finally found big time success and he got a big grin and said he really appreciated that. Could tell he meant it too. So between the kid and the in passing convo, I don't think anyone will top Jinder Mahal for me unless they save my cat from a fire or something. Not who I ever would have expected to have the most memorable celeb encounter with, but when you put yourself on the level with everyone else and don't look at yourself like your crap don't stink, chances are you'll gain a bunch of fans even if they're on the hardcore fandom end. I enjoyed him beforehand, but after the kid and the convo I could never root against him, and will continue to buy merch because someone like that deserves the big merch check.

Oh, I also met Norman Smiley after a WCW show in Minnesota some 20 odd years ago. Love that dude.

Did he do the Wiggle?

I may well be his only fan. But even so, you reading that and finding out that he's not just a cool dude but an overly nice dude won't make you rethink his terribleness in the ring but it should keep you from pleading for his firing or preventing ylur "please retire" chants or your wishing of a serious injury on him so he gets off of TV or something which is a start I guess. XD

If I didn't have a shirt of his, after seeing that even if he didn't acknowledge me I would have purchased something of his for the merch check. Wrestling is full of more dbags than nice people I've learned from going to local indy shows, need kinder people who respect the role of the fans. Less tools like Lesnar, who I've never heard a good thing about, and more nice guys like Jinder. Just make sure they also have talent.

Also, I've never heard a nice thing about Taker. I understand one of his pet peeves, people calling him Mark instead of Taker that he doesn't know. Respect the kayfabe a little bit people. But even when he wasn't living the gimmick and was ABA and did signings more frequently I heard he was OK with kids but was cold towards older fans. Not sure how true that is or not. And you can't even blame it on the era he started in. Guys like Hogan, Flair, Warrior etcetera did dumb crap when kayfabe was alive and well in the 80s and early 90s but were still good with fans.

...well, maybe not Warrior until he got older and mellowed out, but still.

He did not. 😭

Some of y'all (most notably bad guy™) will recall my recent excursion into the unknown, accompanying my wife to Anime Boston in spite of my being a total non-fan of the medium at large (I have, to date, watched one anime to completion).

Shawn and any of his closeted weebs will be happy to know that I'm nearing the finish of my second complete series. I'm into it thus far, but like anything, I'll reserve judgement until the bitter end, lest it wind it pittering out like some Stephen King novel.

You have my attention.Pretty sure he said Evangelion, could be wrong though.