Live from WR 6!

[Vegas]

Jan 30, 2012 10:01:42 GMT -5 Swarm said:

Great pics. Why was Maryse there? I thought she didn't want to be in the wrestling biz anymore? I might have to meet up w Mr. Vegas and hit this up next year.

Maryse and the Miz live together nearby in the LA area, I think Maryse just means she is done working in wrestling for a fed on a regular basis as she is now in the fashion industry.

On a side note, Maryse was nice to meet, but I actually really liked meeting Nitro Girl Spice alot more. During the autograph sessions, Tommy Dreamer's table was right before Spice's and he grabbed my 8 X 10 photo I bought for Spice to sign (since she is not in my WWE Encyclopedia) and Dreamer asked me as Spice listened whether I think Spice looks better now or then. I said I think Spice (who as you guys can see in one of the photos in the link on the above post indeed really does look amazing) looks great both now and then and Spice started laughing as Tommy Dreamer said "Good answer, good answer."

[pikemojo]

Sounds like alot of fun.

Are you able to share the number of signings that were made?

[neilybob]

Number yes

who no

[j]

Jan 29, 2012 23:28:22 GMT -5 Vegas said:

Jan 29, 2012 23:07:24 GMT -5 j said:

sounds like a great time!

both versions of Jimmy Hart? i thought the wrestling card was just online?

the wrestling card of Jimmy Hart was also a PDF in the January Promoter

On a side note, Jimmy Hart really enjoyed seeing his cards and Toasterboy gave him some copies of his card too.

oh! i completely forgot all about the new promoter coming out in January the stress of buying a house and moving into it must have gotten to me these last 3 weeks!

[cman]

Geez I am slacking on my recap. Like Vegas said, it was another awesome Wrestle Reunion weekend. Swarm, you really should come out with us next year. I got to the hotel Thursday night so I could be ready to go for friday morning. After watching a bit of tv in my sweet room, I headed to the bar to see if anybody was down there. I did see Colt and Billy Graham walking around, but I didnt realize that all the wrestlers and other people were at the OTHER bar. There is a bar inside the Daily Grill restaurant which I sat at, and on the other side of the wall by the lobby is the other bar. Opps!

Friday I got my VIP stuff and went inside the vendor area to see what was going on. They were getting the ring set up for the shows, and only a couple of vendors were there at the time so I walked aorund a bit then went upstairs with Mr. Vegas and Toasterboy for the History of LA presentation. After that we went back down for an ArenaChicks mini show which was pretty good for an hour. Colt did his podcast after that with Mikey Whipwreck as his guest. Like Vegas said, he did a great impression of Terry Funk, and told a story of how Terry decided to screw around with him one day and he didnt find out until later that night from Paul E that Terry was messing with him.

Following the podcast Vegas went back to the airport to get his lost bag, and I hung around for a Q&A with the New Age Outlaws and Mick Foley. These guys were great to listen too, and they told a bunch of funny stories about their road days. At 5 I was back down to the convention and more stuff was happening before I got my bikini picture with Shelly. Vegas and I then hit up the bar before the Dragon Gate show and saw a few people. Dragon Gate ended around 1am and it was time for bed.

Saturday morning was the really fun time. I got my Finlay card signed, took a picture with Tori, Traci Brooks and Rosita, got my Brutus and Valentine cards signed, and got a picture with Sid, but my camera decided to be stupid and the picture never came out. By that time though I was through the VIP line getting pictures with all the VIP guests. I went back to try and get another picture with Sid but he had already left, so I was SOL there. I was pretty much done and hung around while Vegas was waiting in line to get a picture with Mike Tyson. He was 2 hrs late getting down there because for some reason he needed to have like 8 people in his entorouge escort him from where he was upstairs to the ring area downstairs. After that we went to the Grill. Now my only complaint is that the food at the Westin is WAY more expensive than it was at the Hilton. I was already on a limited budget so I got the cheapest thing on the menu $7.50 garlic cheese bread.

Finally the PWS show started. It was a really great show and I cant wait for the DVD. Before the Steiners vs NAO match, some fans were flipping Scotty off and telling him F you. He got in one guys face and then spit in the guys face. A friend of the guy threw his can of beer all over Scott which caused Scott to jump the guardrail and punch this guy. Some other fan, that was not security got between the guy and Scott who piefaced the dude anyway and then got back to the start of the match. Eventually the fans that got into it with Steiner got drunk did some stupid stuff and got kicked out. After the show, Vegas and I were waiting for the elevator and got on with some other fans, Shelly and Kevin Sullivan. He said and I quote "I bet you are all wondering why I called you here today. Well production has been low, things have been bad, and it is time to thin the herd." At this point the elevator stopped on the 3rd floor so I could get out and I said "Well I am the first to go." That got a laugh from everybody and Kevin looked at me and said "I am glad you said that, it makes my job easier." As soon as I got to my room, I was hungry so walked down to Subway to get a sandwhich then back to my room to eat and go to bed.

I had to miss out on the Breakfast so I just slept in and then waited around for Vegas before we stood in line for the PWG show. It was another solid show by PWG and makes me really miss going to their shows every month or so. You already know the results so I wont bore you with the details. After that Mr. Vegas left and I went to my room for the rest of the day, before getting up at 5am monday morning to make my flight home. Again, 3 years I have done Wrestle Reunion and it has been great all 3 years. I hope they do come back to LA next year, and I have a feeling they will.

Total Legends Cards signed: Brutus Beefcake, Greg Valentine, Finlay, Molly Holly, New Age Outlaws, Kevin Sullivan

Pictures: Bikini pictures with Shelly Martinez, Brooke Tessmacher, and Spice, regular pictures with Honky Tonk Man, Tori, Traci Brooks and Rosita, Mascarita Dorada, and Lanny Poffo. Plus pictures with all the VIP guests.

Total Legends Signings for me: 0


Also, I was standing in line getting pictures, and after my picture with Tommy Dreamer he asked where I was from. I told him Minnesota and he mentioned that he was at his first Twins game last year. He also said it was a nice place but noticed there was only white people around, so he asked if we were racist people. I said no we hate everybody equally and he said Oh ok, which got a good laugh out of Spice as well.

[swarm]

excellent recap Cman. You guys make the event sound like a real blast.

[pikemojo]

I really like that Kevin Sullivan story. Its cool that they actually interact with the fans not just sit and sign autographs

[Vegas]

Jan 31, 2012 2:35:14 GMT -5 cman said:

Like Vegas said, it was another awesome Wrestle Reunion weekend. Swarm, you really should come out with us next year.

Wrestle Reunion however may not be returning to Los Angeles for a 4th year. Although they sold out their VIP passes, on the Wrestle Reunion website they said they were primarily disappointed in 1) the level of merchandise sold- reportedly High Spots won't even break even on the gas they need to drive the truck back to North Carolina, it was also mentioned that most of the vendors made little or any money 2) the sharp drop off in attendance for the Friday and Saturday shows.

Well, when you bring in that many vendor guests forcing many of the attendees to pick and choose where they spend their money, I think it is obvious you are going to sell less merchandise (especially with the lack of DVD specials they had in previous years) and that the vendors are going to make less money.

I also think more vendors should have kept their tables open on Sundays like the last two years instead of just on Friday and Saturday as I for one was waiting until Sunday as I do every year to see how much money I had left before buying alot of merchandise. If RF Video had still been around on Sunday, I definitely would have bought some more things from them (but I did get the new Finlay DVD shoot from them earlier in the weekend.) If you limit your sales to 2 days instead of 3 days, obviously you are going to make less money.

However it sounds like Wrestle Reunion is taking steps to address that problem by preventing any new vendor guests being announced within 15 days of future conventions (for example Mike Tyson was only announced a mere 12 days before the convention and at a price of $99 per photo op which meant I suddenly had to allocate $99 of the money I had been saving for Wrestle Reunion for Tyson who I personally really wanted to meet the most of anyone there instead of to 6 other vendor guest wrestlers who typically charged $15 per autograph. Announcing a major name like Tyson earlier would have been really helpful and I would have saved more money over the past year as a result.)

As for the major decline in attendance at the shows, I think they need to get rid of the PWS show (which also limits the selection of wrestling guests because it forces Wrestle Reunion to focus more on guys who can still wrestle) and just put the Legends in something like a Rumble match as part of the PWG show and in various other matches against the top Indy wrestlers like they did at Kurt Russellreunion I and II the past two years ago when they had over 1,000 people in the crowd at both shows. Granted, they would have to wait about 3 months before the start of the convention to determine whether ROH was running somewhere that weekend to ensure they could have the PWG show on Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon and finalize the overall schedule of events.

I also think not holding Wrestle Reunion the weekend of the Royal Rumble would help alot too.

I am now guessing that they will probably not have Wrestle Reunion in Los Angeles next year. But depending on the date and the location, I might still go because I like Wrestle Reunion alot (although it would suck that a Wrestle Reunion in at least most other cities would not have a PWG show as part of their events.)

[Vegas]