Hey there,

Here is my WrestleReunion II Weekend Report...

Where to begin!  It was an incredible weekend.  Valley Forge is about an hour and a half drive from my home in Pennsylvania.  My brother and I had no trouble finding the place.  The weekend started off amazing enough as the second we walk in the hotel on Saturday morning we see Bruno Sammartino, Domenic Denucci, Samu, LA Smooth, Bob Armstrong & Brad Armstrong in the
lobby!  Just amazing to see. 

We get up to the room (everything and everyone at the Radisson Hotel Valley Forge was just great by the way the whole weekend) and then we decide to head down to get our VIP tickets.  I was told by those people who went to WR1 in Tampa that it was much smoother this time picking up the VIP tickets.  I just said my name, they looked at a print-out and handed me my envelope, that simple.  Then we went to our first of very, very long lines.  I was expecting it but I didn’t expect a minimum of a 2 ½ hour wait for each line to even get to the start of the autograph lines.

I must say that all the anger & frustration of standing in line all went away the minute you got you first autograph.  The first table had Steve Corino, Larry Zbyszko, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers), Stan Hansen, Harley Race, Nick Bockwinkle, The Blue Meanie, Terry Funk, Wendi Richter, Matt Borne, Diamond Dallas Page, Tito Santana & Tom Brandi.  Dory Funk Jr. was there for a while, but by the time we got there, he had left (but he was at the WrestlingClassics.com table on Sunday, so I got my autograph then).  I believe the The Thunderfeet (David Isley & Gene Ligon) were as well, but they were not there when we got to the end (I didn’t really care if I got there autographs anyway).  Every one of the wrestlers I came into contract the whole weekend was nice.  Not one bad experience with any of them.  The coolest on this line were Steve Corino,
Steve Williams, The Fantastics, Stan Hansen & Nick Bockwinkle.  My brother handed Steve Willams an old UWF VHS cover to sign and he was laughing telling us about Herb Abrams.  Steve looked great after his battle with cancer and even with the voice box...was so nice to talk to.

The second session was a nightmare I thought it would be.  The minute I saw all the big names in this one session, I knew it would be bad.  This session had The Dudley Boys, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Joey Styles, D-Lo Brown, Jim Cornette, Dennis Condrey, Stan Lane, Bobby Eaton, Dusty Rhodes, Rhino, Lance Russell, George South Jr., Test, Amy Love, Ivan Koloff & Matt Hardy!  The session was supposed to be from 2-5.  We waited in line from 2-5 & we were not even at the first table yet.  So, then they announced that they were extending the signing from 5:30.  We got to the first table at 5:25  I was getting so pissed.  Then they announced at 5:30 that the wrestlers “had to go back to their rooms before the wrestling show tonight.”  I was meeting and getting autographs from The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette when they made the annoucement.  Jim Cornette said “that’s horse sh*t!  I’m not
leaving!”  Stan Lane & Bobby Eaton echoed Jim’s comments saying that’s not fair.  In all, Lance Russell, George South Jr., Test, Amy Love, Ivan Koloff & Matt Hardy all left at 5:30.  I really wanted Lance Russell, Ivan Koloff & Matt Hardy’s autograph, but I didn’t get them all weekend.  Bret Hart, D-Lo Brown & Ivan Koloff all left this session at 5:30...but all came back for signings the next day.  But, Ivan left before I could get his again, so that sucked.  Rhino left at 5:30 but he was cool about it because he walked through the lines seeing if he could sign anything for anyone before he left so I got my autograph from him.  I heard from a fan that Rhino was a black eye of the day for them as he wouldn’t shake hands and was impatient with fans when they didn’t have their item ready to be signed.  But he was very nice and cool to me so I don’t know.  I thought Dusty Rhodes would be the first to leave at 5:30 since I always heard horror stories about him at conventions, but to his credit he stuck around.  He looked like he didn’t want to be there, but he stayed and signed.  By the time I got to Mick Foley
they were rushing people through but he was super nice.

We had time to get up to the room, relax for about an hour and then go down to the wrestling show.  The show was amazing for a huge wrestling fan.  We had a blast.  It was not a great wrestling ROH show.  It was super fun, entertaining 3 hours.  The first match was Don Muraco & Joe Muraco vs. Bob Armstrong & Brad Armstrong. This was Don’s first match in like 10 years I believe.  I was always a big Muraco fan, so it was cool seeing him again. 
There was a bunch of “beach bum” chants which he seemed to eat up.  He didn’t take any bumps, but worked well with “Bullet” Bob.  Brad is in incredible shape and did the job for Don’s son.  Next up was Wendi Richter, The Patriot (Tom Brandi) & George South Jr. vs. DC Drake, Gary Royal & Amy Love.  This was cool for me and my brother as DC Drake used to run show in our home-town so we him.  I thought DC Drake was the best heel on the show (although Rhino was a good heel too), really working the crowd.  This was
cool for me as it was so refreshing see a match where they were using the Referee in the match and doing stuff behind his back.  It made the match so much more enjoyable.

The Ivan Koloff w/Nikolai Volkoff vs. Dominic DeNucci “Russian Chain Match” was disappointing.  Not that I expected a great match or anything.  But, Dick Whoerle & Dominic DeNucci kept forgetting it was a chain match that you had to touch all four turn-buckles to win, meaning no pinfalls.  DeNucci went for like 3 pinfalls and Dick Whoerle kept counting.  I believe Ivan was trying to tell him not too.   Whoerle even counted a 1,2,3.   If this match
airs on PPV, it will have to be heavily edited.  Dominic did look like he was having fun out there though.  I think the combined age of all four men in this match was 350.  Nikolai Volkoff sang the Russian National Anthem before the match which was really cool.

Next was The Fantastics vs. Samu & LA Smooth vs. The Thunderfeet vs. Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere.  The Fantastics looked really good.  The Thunderfeet shouldn’t have been in this match as they didn’t add anything.  Acid/Kashmire did some cool spots with both The Samoans & Fantastics.  Bret Hart then came out and did a short interview talking about how it was cool to be there and said “this ain’t SummerSlam, but it’s the next best thing.”  He mentioned his WWE DVD will be first class for the fans.

Diamond Dallas Page w/Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko w/Ivan Koloff was next.  Match was pretty basic as everyone there just wanted Larry to win and see Bruno come in.  When Larry went outside and hit Bruno, nobody was expecting it and they all went “OOOHHHHHH!” and then went silent looking at Bruno.  Match ended and Bruno came in and threw some punches and choked
Larry until he was pulled off.  I wanted more from Bruno, but I never in million years thought I would see Bruno Sammartino in the ring again throwing punches.

The eight man tag of Dusty Rhodes, Tom Prichard, D-Lo Brown & The Blue Meanie vs. Steve Corino, Test, The Masked Superstar & Matt Borne was probably the worst match of the night in my opinion.  Just too many people in the ring.  Test got some "Hunter killed your push" chants.  The Blue Meanie was way over and got “Bradshaw sucks” chants.  Matt Borne looked good and even Dusty gave him an arm drag (and Dusty was actually in wrestling
trunks).  The baby-face team all did The Blue Meanie dance after it was over.  “Dr. Death” Steve Williams vs. King Kaluha was next.  Steve got on the mic and said “I told you I would make my comeback” using his voice box. 
Powerful moment.  Steve looked good and gained a lot of weight back from a year ago.  Pretty short match but Steve was working hard.  After the match, Steve went on the mic again and said “with faith and heart, you can accomplish anything.”  He truly is an inspiration.  This was Steve's first match since the Genichiro Tenryu/Steve Williams vs. Arashi/Nobukazu Hirai match in All Japan on 7-22-04.

Tito Santana vs. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/Jimmy Hart “IWA Championship Match” was next.  This was their 1985 feud, 20 years later.  Basically their match in slow motion, although they were working hard.  Tito took a big bump outside the ring actually.  Big pop for Tito’s flying forearm.  Next up was Mick Foley, Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan vs. The
Midnight Express (Stan Lane & Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton) w/ Jim Cornette.
  Super fun match!  Foley was hilarious before the match talking about how “he usually only does a match when that humanitarian named Vince opens up his check book and writes down a lot of zeros.”  But, then he said “to have an opportunity to wrestle The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette and team with The Funks with Bobby Heenan and his manager was too much to pass up.”  Mick
went on to say “but I DO have problems with my opponents.  Dennis Condrey borrowed 10 bucks for me years back in Alabama and never paid me back, Jim Cornette had the audacity to run a wrestling promotion that’s based on storylines that make sense and good wrestling, Stan Lane ruined Mick’s innocense by sleeping with so many women in hotel rooms next to his and
Bobby Eaton (well, he couldn’t think of anything bad to say about
Bobby...and then Terry Funk said “I sure as hell can make something up about him.”), so he was mad a Bobby “for reasons yet to be determined.”  It was funny as hell.

The match itself was a lot of fun.  Foley wrestled a lot more than I thought he would and really worked well with Stan Lane.  Dory didn’t look good at all and blew the few spots he did.  Terry Funk ripped off Cornette’s pants and gave him a wedgie for good measure.  Super fun match!  The main even was Team 3-D (D-Von & B.R.D.) [a.ka. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von) vs.
Matt Hardy & Rhino.  It was a very good, super stiff match.  Everyone worked hard.  Rhino was a good heel.  Even JJ Dillon in his Q&A said this match was stiff to the point people were asking if there was legit heat which is what wrestling is missing.  Bubba said after the match “yesterday was our last day in YOU KNOW WHERE.”  And “no matter what you call us, you know who we
are.”  Matt Hardy said this was his last show before going WWE fulltime, which drew some boos to which Matt said “Yeah, I’ll boo that with ya.” 
There was a “F*ck Johnny Ace” chant to which Matt said “I’m not going to dispute that.”  Overall a great show.

We went back to the hotel and got some sleep.  The next day the lines were little shorter but still a 2 hour wait to get to the top of the line.  The first session had Don Muraco (& his son Joe), Afa The Wild Samoan, Samu, LA Smooth, JJ Dillon, The Masked Superstar, Larry Sharpe, Gary Royal, DC Drake, Diamond Dallas page, Bret Hart, Nikolai Volkoff, Bob Armstrong & Brad Armstrong.  The nicest guys here were The Masked Superstar (who was incredibly nice), DDP, JJ Dillon & The Armstrongs.  My brother & I had really cool conversation with DC Drake since he used to run our town, great guy.  Brad was super cool with everyone.  The last session of the day only had about an hour and a half wait but there was only Trent Acid, Johnny Kashmere, King Kaluha, Jimmy Hart, SoCalVal, Domenic Denucci & Bruno Sammartino signing.  Tom Prichard was there in the beginning, but left (he was walking around a lot both days, but I never got a chance to get to him for an autograph).  Of course, everyone was waiting for Bruno.  Bruno was great with everyone all weekend, just an honor to shake his hand, get my picture with him and just meet him.  Bobby Heenan did a Q&A and because he didn’t want to snub anyone who waiting in line and didn’t get him, he went to a separate table and signed everything anyone wanted and took pictures. 
Dick Whoerle was walking around Saturday.

They had the Q&A’s at the same time as the autograph sessions so I only got to see one (the JJ Dillon one, which was excellent).  The Q&A’s didn’t draw that well since most people where in line but the Bobby Heenan one had a lot of people as I could hear them all laughing.

Plenty of people there not advertised and vendor’s tables and the like such as Ivory (who was the definition of fan-friendly), The Sandman, Balls Mahoney, ECW Referee Jim Molineaux, Tammy Sytch, Sumi Sakai & TNA’s Jeremy Borash.  Bill Apter was walking around and was super cool with everyone and signed my two items I brought for him to sign.  I was amazed the only no-show was Sika The Wild Samoan, everyone else was there.  I don’t believe Greg Valetine did a autograph session the whole weekend though.

One of the funniest moments was when Bruno came up to the photo area where Matt Borne was (dressed as Doink The Clown). Matt said "Hi Bruno, great to see you again." Bruno said "well, I don't know you, but it's nice to see you." Matt said "yes you do, I'm Matt Borne." Bruno goes "oh my, um, is that you? Wow."

Overall it was a great weekend.  The lines were brutal.  I would suggest that they, in the future, allow the VIP ticket holders to go first through the line.  They said cameras were banned from the Autograph rooms.  That didn’t happen at all.  Everyone was going behind the tables to pose for pictures.  While I think you should be able to snap a photo from the line. 
Everyone posing just took forever and is why the lines went so slow.  I wish WrestleReunion had better security to check for VIP passes as well as police the lines more.  Other than that, no complaints.  It was a once in a life-time experience I will never forget.

Scott

Pictures:

Steve Corino
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/6618/corino20sy.jpg

Steve Williams
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/2140/dsc003042fr.jpg

Stan Hansen
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2320/dsc003062eu.jpg

Terry Funk
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2148/dsc003071ps.jpg

Nick Bockwinkle
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8343/dsc003097ux.jpg 

Tito
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/6098/dsc003104sd.jpg

Bobby/Dennis
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/5332/dsc003204uy.jpg

Jim Cornette Laughing
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/9577/dsc003212tn.jpg

Borne/Tommy Rogers
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/4003/dsc003171lg.jpg

Matt Borne
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/4214/dsc003181sz.jpg

Bret Hart
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/9706/dsc004636sx.jpg 

Bubba Ray
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8744/dsc003220np.jpg

Joey Styles
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/1543/dsc003247bl.jpg

Don Muraco
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2218/dsc003544vi.jpg

Chain Match
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/5587/dsc003718dt.jpg

Fantastics
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/4890/dsc003862cy.jpg

DDP Larry
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/6202/dsc003940cb.jpg

DDP Larry 2
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8031/dsc004014ge.jpg

Bruno
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/2927/dsc004067jm.jpg

Dusty Arm Drag
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/7274/dsc004119et.jpg

Dr. Death
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/8908/dsc004273wa.jpg

Greg Tito
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/103/dsc004314bd.jpg

Foley
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3995/dsc004469mb.jpg

Foley 2
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/3865/dsc004524me.jpg

Team 3D
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/5829/dsc004582el.jpg

Thanks to Scott for this great report and photo's.

 I would like to add that Bret Hart left the autograph session on Saturday immediately at the two hour mark.  The reason he left right away, he was very tired.  I believe he got everyone on Sunday.

Thanks to everyone for all your reports, emails, phone calls.  Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time.

Thanks to promoters Sal Corrente and Rob Russen for a fabulous weekend, everyone seems to have had a great time......