So here's a recap of my third consecutive ROH weekend.........Crazy ups and downs weekend and visiting my buddy Zeke in Vegas.
Vegas.
I went to bed Wed night while watching the Pac12 Basketball tournament day 1 action, and had planned to attend to all 4 games on Thursday in Vegas. Went to bed early around 9 or so as I had to be up early around 4am to make an early flight to Vegas. At 11pm, got a notice that the games would have no fans......so oh well, was mainly going for wrestling and the Pac12 day is just a bonus. By morning all games had been cancelled in the tournament. I got into Vegas in the am and had not much to do but hang around Sam's Town. This is a day that a lot of the wrestlers tend to show up as historically I have seen them hanging around all over the casino. Ended up in an elevator 1 on 1 with Cary Silken around noon. Introduced myself as a big ROH fan and he was real worried, even telling me "I don't think we are going to be able to do this, based on whats going on and public perception. By 3pm or so that afternoon both ROH shows had been cancelled. So as you can understand I was really dejected at that time and was fully expecting Vegas Toycon and FSW events to be cancelled. Even had a line on a $68 flight back to Seattle Friday and was fully expecting to head home.
Things then turned a bit positive as later Thursday both FSW and Toycon said they were continuing as planned, so I decided to hang out the day and see. By Friday at 4pm Vegas Toycon had opened, though it was only a few of the celebrity/guests there, but I did get a chance to meet and get a photo op with Fred Ottman (AKA: Tugboat, Typhoon, Shockmaster). Was a real great guy and had some good wrestling conversation with him. After checking out Toycon for a couple of hours, headed out to Holstein's at the Cosmopolitan to meet with Zeke for dinner. Had a great time, drank lots of beer and spent about three hours talking wrestling, the game, etc, etc.
Saturday: By now, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had cancelled.............but had been replaced by guys that lived in Vegas: Greg Valentine, Sefa Fatu, Sabu, and TJ Perkins. Not a bad tradeoff as I hadn't met any of them before. Started the morning by meeting and talking to Hacksaw Jim Duggan, got his FG card signed and 8x10. After talking to Hacksaw for quite a long time actually, went and talked to Greg Valentine, got his FG card signed, 8x10, followed by Sabu where I purchases his book and got it signed, not much of a conversation with him. Then onto Sefa Fatu whowas great and very personable. He took some time to talk about his family (Rikishi and the Uso's) and even told me that Rikishi would have been there if it wasn't for the virus. Later in the day Zeke met me at Toycon and we had lunch as well.
Saturday evening: FINALLY had a wrestling show where FSW put on a good show with some local talent. Hammerstone wrestled on this card, which was highlighted by Chris Bey vs. Tessa Blanchard. We only expected to get 3 matches, but ended up getting about 6 matches I believe. I got Tessa's card signed at a pre-show meet and greet, and have met Chris Bey many times as he as been the Champion of my local fed : WAC in Everett Washington for the past 6 months. Another thing that was cool was Flip Gordan and Jay Lethal headed over from Sam's Town to the Eastside Cannery for this show. They hung around a bit but didn't see them stay long. Daga was also there watching Tessa's match from out in the hall.
Sunday morning: Back to Toycon as we were all wondering if the main wrestler for the weekend Sting would make it. He did and I ended up getting a photo op with him as well as Werner's art provided by my friend Rob
Swarm. He was the the only wrestler that I hadn't met yet at Toycon so was the only reason for heading back on Sunday. Did spend more time talking to Greg Valentine again during the morning slow times and had a great conversation with him. He's not the most energetic guy like a Hacksaw or Sting, but we talked a lot of Seattle area stuff as that is where he is from, though he lives in Vegas now.
Sunday Afternoon: Matt Hardy ended up cancelling who would have been another highlight as well as Brian Pillman Jr. who had to cancel due to flu like symptoms. These were both supposed to be signing in the afternoon at a sports card shop.
Sunday Evening: The main Wrestling event of the weekend FSW MECCA VI, which had a good meet and greet where I was able to get autographs from Austin Aries, Michael Elgin, Chris Masters (who also put me in the Masterlock for a photo), and Daga whom I had sign a blown up version of his Werner art from the upcoming best of Mexico set and the 8x10 photo that matched it. The wrestling card was great, though I usually leave that up to
Vegas Zeke that does a better job at the play by play recap stuff than I do, but there was 9 great matches I believe on this card.
I will say that the one wrestler that I was only vaguely familiar with before the weekend that really "stood out" as far as ability, offense, the "it" factor and hopefully the next Chris Bey like star to come out of FSW was the women's champ Lacy Ryan. Really impressed with her and she more than held her own with Tessa at Sunday's show. Also saw her on the Saturday show and was equally impressed.
Though this annual tradition may be altered next year as I most likely will be going to Wrestlemania weekend in LA next year in March, I would highly suggest if anyone from the FG board wants to come hang out and join us some year it is usually worth it with the wrestling talent in Vegas and would be great if more could join.
All in all, I got 9 FG cards signed that I didn't have before: Brody King and Cheeseburger who I ran into at Sam's Town and signed. Tessa, Greg Valentine, Hacksaw Duggan, TJ Perkins at Toycon. Austin Aries, Michael Elgin at the FSW Meet and Greet and Willie Mack after the Sunday night show.