ANOTHER FAN SLAM REPORT
- 06/23/2008 (4:19:49 pm)
- Georgiann Makropoulos
….
Hello Georgie,
I just wanted to give you a report of the 15th Anniversary Fan Slam Wrestling Fan Festival from this past weekend. What a BLAST this event was. Everyone that was advertised showed up and everyone went out of their way to make sure the fans were having a good time. There was so many different things going on that it made your feel like you're at a State Fair. It was really different and really creative. The promoter Tommy Fierro is someone I'd like to discuss about to you because he was probably the person I was most impressed with the entire day. I'll get into him later.
First off everything was ran so smoothly. Everything went off without a hitch. Everything was right on time (with the exception of JJ Dillon-who was about 45minutes late but that was due to traffic) and everyone advertised appeared (outside of Nicole Bass-but that was a vendor guest). Everything was set up so professionally, including balloons with "15th Anniversary" written on them and professionally made signs hanging up for the 15th Anniversary event on it. Professional banners were hanged around the convention advertising it as the 15th Anniversary event. Even the 8 by 10 pictures were really cool, they had the event and date on them as well. There was even a DJ there playing wrestling songs all day. You can tell that a lot of the "little things" were covered.
I'd first like to say that the attendance was no where like I thought it was going to be. It was decent, somewhere aroung 350 or so, but I'm sure it's no where what Fierro wanted. I was shocked. This convention was promoted every where and a ton of people were talking about it. It had a lot a hype behind it. It was advertised on all of the major websites, every wrestling radio show, local newspaper ads, etc. With gas prices being so bad, I'm sure this didn't help fans from out of the area coming. Also the ratings are at a all time low right now, another sign that the wrestling business isn't hot right now. However, the fans that didn't make it missed out on what was without question the best convention I ever went to. There was something for everyone there to do.
The day started out with what was the highlight of the day. The Pro Wrestling Tricky Tray. Man was this cool. There were so many autographed items spread out around the ballroom that fans purchase tickets for and put their ticket into the bucket of the prize. If they picked your number out-you won that prize. Some of the prizes that they had included a ladder that was signed by Jeff Hardy and John Morrison and was used in their actual Raw match a few years ago, Roddy Piper signed boxing glove and signed kilt, Jake Roberts signed tights, Demolition signed trunks, Bruno Sammartino signed robe, and more. Even Kevin Kelly was going around putting tickets into the buckets. Such a unique concept.
That was followed by something that was just as unique--Pro Wrestling Jeopardy. This was so fun. Kevin Kelly hosted the event and there was a really nice Jeopardy board made and hung on the wall. Three fans were picked and they played the game just like you would see it on TV. It was a ton of fun and Kelly did an awesome job. He even got the entire crowd and hum the Jeopardy theme several times. What a riot. You can tell Kelly was having a good time. Everyone was.
The Worm contest with Scotty 2 Hotty was next. Several kids gave it a try and there was some big guy dressed up in a baby outfit called Baby Hughie who kept interrupting the show. He had a cigar in his mouth and kept screaming and booing the kids. Finally he gave the worm a chance and it was really funny. Very entertaining. The crowd was getting a kick out of it.
Now onto the promoter Tommy Fierro, who was the person I was most impressed with. I remember going to one of his events maybe 5 years ago and the difference in him was night and day. He looked motivated, focused, and carried himself like a total professional. I saw him going around and shaking fans hands and thanking them from coming. I saw him let a kid in a wheel chair and his parents in for free because Fierro was being nice to the kid in the chair-total class act. The best part was me and my friend came from Baltimore and Fierro bought us a beer at the hotel bar afterwards. He thanked us for coming all the way to see his show and said he'd like to buy us both a beer if he could. What a really really cool guy. He also talked to us about how he's back in college and really wants to try and get a job working for WWE in the future. I think there's no doubt in the world that he will work there one day. He knew his stuff. Another classy thing Fierro did was the back page of the program had a picture of the late Dennis Coralluzzo and it said "leave the memories alone, don't change a thing- I will hold you here, in my memory. I know that you are here today." I'm guessing the two were really close.
The wrestlers were so cool. Scotty 2 Hotty was such a great guy. Axl Rotten was really friendly as well and looked to have dropped some weight. Samu was really big in person and very friendly. Kevin Kelly was so nice and seemed really excited to be there. Tomko was the most popular guy there and had the longest line by far. He seemed out of it. Bill Demott was nothing like he was on Tough Enough. So nice and friendly. Eugene dressed in his super hero outfit. John Cena's father was so nice and friendly. Super nice guy. Al Snow was very funny. Howard Finkel was walking around saying hello to all of the main talent. He was one of the vendor guests along with Awesome Kong, Angelina Love, Jerry Jarrett, Buddy Roberts, and tons more.
All in all it was such an amazing experience. I just wish more people would have came because they really missed out on a special day. When I get my photos printed I will be sure to send you them over.
Thanks again Tommy and Fan Slam for a wonderful day.
Mike C.
Pompton Lakes, NJ
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