Last weekend was the New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and Fan Fest.  There were many different wrestlers from all over and different eras.  It was a great time in East Rhode Island.  Joe and his crew did a wonderful job and made the crazy weekend great. 

Fan started to arrive around 8am.  Fans travelled from all over New England to be apart of the convention.  Many fans came up from Philly , NY, and NJ.  One fan came in from Japan.  Sho is known around the convention scene fans.  He was in the Northeast for a week and a half then he was going to Vegas for the C.A.C.  He is extremely nice guy and always had gifts from the wrestlers.  Sho would bring magazines from Japan that featured the wrestlers.  As an example he had different magazines for Bryan Clarke that featured Kronik.  Sho would get the oaktag mats signed by the wrestlers.  The mats are highly respected in Japan.  Sho is a super nice guy, I got to know him and he came for the hall of fame he gave me a magazine with Muta and Chono because he knows that I am a fan of them.

The weekend started on Saturday morning.  Doors open at 9am.  When doors open different vendors sold DVDs, photos, t-shirts and other wrestling related items.  Bryan Clarke, who is better known as Adam Bomb in WWF and Wrath in WCW, arrived around 9:30 am.  Wrath had a special custom title belt that had dates and places that he and Brian Adams won tag team titles.  Clarke talked talked highly about his time in Kronik.  Clarke seemed to enjoy his time w.i.th the fans at the convention.  Clarke spent a good amount of time with the fans that went to meet him.z

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Bryan Clarke's former manager Ox Baker made a rare appearance to his old friend.  Ox managed Clarke when he wrestled as Nightcrawler.  The two of them shared many old stories.  Ox had photos, DVDs, t-shirts, and cooking aprons.  Baker wrote a cook-book, in the cook-book he wrote about wrestlers that have died.

Brian Clarke signed between 9:30 and 11:30.  Between 12 noon and 2 pm it gave fans time to meet other wrestlers that were vendors and see what items sellers had at there table.  Matt Borne was a vendor.  He had his face painted as Doink and his hair was painted green, it made from good photo ops.   Matt had different photos of him from his days in the WWF as the Heel Doink and one photo of him as Big Josh in WCW.  Local female wrestlers Barbie, Tealer, Amber and Lucious Latasha.  All the girls were wonderful and the fans seemed to enjoy meeting them.  Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka spend the day signing and taking photos with the fans.  

The second group of signers started to arrive around 1:30pm.  The signers were John Cena Sr., former WWE Raw star "Heart-Throb" Antonio Thomas, former WCW Television Champion Larry Zbysko, and former former AWA Champion and multi-time tag team champion Rick "the Model" Martel.  The different talent talked to each other for a while before the signing started.  The signing started at 2pm and it was a good amount of people.  Martel had with him the original WWWF Tag Team Title that he and Tony held.  The signing was great.  the fans enjoyed meeting the wrestlers almost as much the wrestlers seemed to enjoy being with the fans.

Around 2:30-3pm Mick Foley arrived.  This was a huge surpise.  Foley working a show with Matt Borne in Boston, so he just came to the convention for a short term.  Foley may have been for an hour and half, then just left a fast.  It was a great surpise and it made the day, just a little more crazy.

Around 4:30 was the start of the Q and A.  It was a good time.  They talked about there favorite matches, feuds, places to wrestle, and so on.  A fan asked about action figures, Rick and Larry talked about the old AWA figures.  Larry said he was happy to say that he signed an agreement with Jakks about the new line of classic NWA figures.  Larry was going to he a title and the black jacket with the "Z" on it.  Zbysko said he was looking forward to the figure release and that he hoped it would be a big success.  Martel said he was happy with his classic figure because it is something he could give to his 9 year child.

The next day was the Hall of Fame.  Doors opened at 1:30pm.  This was a huge success.  many wrestlers and fans appeared for this.  A special signing started at 2pm.  Appeared was local stars Shockwave, Kenny Casanova, Melissa Coates, Amber, and Robbie Ellis.  Former WWF "jobber" The Duke of Dorchester Pete Doherty walked around signing autographs and was taking pictures with the fans.  Also signing was Larry Zbysko, Jimmy Snuka, former WWE tag team champion Kenny, the Savoldi family, former WWE ref Tim White, and Dangerous Danny Davis.

There where many great local talent at the hall for the dinner and speeches.  NECW promoter Sheldon Goldberg, Matt and Kyle Storm were in the hall making speeches for Paul Richards and Billy Black.  It was good to see them.  The local wrestlers seemed to enjoy the speeches more than the fans.  The Hall of Fame is for the wrestlers for more than the fans.

The new WWE Ency was a big success for the convention.  Everyone from was in the book.  Martel was in it 4 times.  Clarke was in it twice.  Zbysko was in the book twice.  Antonio, Jimmy Snuka, Danny Davis, and others others had a place to sign.

It was a great weekend and I need enjoyed it.  I look forward to what is next.

Thanks

Chris Sullivan