BURLINGTON -- Police from four towns were called to the Marriott Hotel on Middlesex Turnpike Saturday afternoon when about 1,200 wrestling fans grew angry due to overcrowding at an appearance by a professional wrestler.
Police said the crowd was on hand to see World Wrestling Entertainment champion John Cena, but the event was overbooked and people grew angry.
Twelve police cruisers from Burlington, Billerica, Wilmington and Woburn were called to the scene at 1 Mall Road to keep the peace. There were no arrests, though one person who was struck by a car in the parking lot suffered minor injuries, police said.
I would like to a take a moment to relay to you the horrible experience I had at the John Cena signing that was put on by memorabilia lane at the Burlington Marriott this past weekend, April 15th, in Burlington, MA. This long twisted story starts long ago when I originally saw this event advertised. It was to take place at the store from 2:30 to 4:00 with only 200 tickets available for only $10 each. I immediately bought my tickets as this was a great deal and the timing was perfect as I was going to the Big Time Wrestling show in Lynn, MA 20 miles away that very evening.
Some time passed and I checked the memorabilia lane website and advertised was a John Cena signing at the Burlington Marriott with what was billed as a wrestling trade show scheduled for the same date and time as the one I had bought tickets for, however now there were 300 tickets available and not 200. So I called them and asked about this. It was explained to me that because of the high demand for tickets it was moved to the Marriott where they were going to have vendors and WWE gave them a big box of stuff to raffle off and it's only $10 to get in. However, because I already bought my tickets for the signing, that they were now selling for $30, I could get admission to the event for only $5. Basically it meant that because they changed the location of the signing after I bought my tickets I now had to spend more money to get my autograph. It was only $5 and maybe I could get a video tape or two so I bought the discounted admission tickets.
A few days later I received an e-mail from memorabilia lane that advertised the Cena signing listing 400 tickets was the limit.
At the day of the event I arrived shortly after 10 am when the doors opened and people were already standing in line. As I was picking up my tickets I noticed that they were selling tickets to the show for $10, tickets for autographs where now up to $50, also for $50 you could by a family photo ticket, and for $150 you could buy a ticket for a private meet & greet with John Cena, also it was now advertised that he would be signing from 3:00 to 4:00. My first thought was, an hour for 400 autographs seems a bit rushed.
John Cena arrived around 1:30 and they started the private signings. At 3:15 he finally made his way into main room to start signing for the rest of us that had been standing in line for upwards of 5 hours. By this time the line for buying tickets was almost as long as the line for people who already had tickets, and this was advertised to end at 4pm.
At 3:45 we had yet to move forward even a foot. People in line were getting angry because we saw plenty of people coming out with autographs but were not moving forward at all. The reason for this is because the event organizers were so unorganized they were letting people that had just gotten there go ahead of the people that had been standing in the line for hours.
They had the two lines when you walked in, one for ticket holders and one for people buying tickets. They had the lines set up so that they were side by side, each against a wall in a hallway leaving a space between. People were supposed to buy their tickets for the signing and the trade show and then go back outside to the end of the line that twisted down the block. Cena was signing in the same room where the vendor tables were located. Inside that room was a line inside roped off area for people waiting to get things signed by him. Everyone else that was waiting inline for the signing were out in the hallway to leave room for people to look at the vendor tables. What was happening was that people were buying their tickets and then going into the room to look at the vendor tables and apparently no one was paying attention so they simply got inline for the signing cutting ahead of everyone else.
Finally enough people complained that the police that were there for crowd control and the hotel staff got involved and put an end to that. Also I heard one of the organizers talking to the hotel staff who questioned how many tickets were sold and they told them 1500!! 1500 tickets to an event that originally advertised only 200 tickets would be sold, and was supposed to last an hour. How did they expect to get 1500 people to have there stuff signed in an hour. When it was finally my turn to get my item signed we were rushed through because they wanted to get as many people as they could through and they didn't allow us to take pictures with Cena. I only paid $10, well $15 with admission, and I wasn't very please with the event. I could imagine paying $50, well $60 with admission just to be rushed through.
This was very unorganized and very unprofessional. This same company had events advertised through the summer and including a big show in August with Rey Mysterio, Torrie Wilson, Carlito, Candice Michelle, and Trish Stratus advertised as being there. If they were this unorganized and unprofessional with only 1 WWE Superstar there, I can't imagine how it's going to be with 5. Personally I will not attend another event put on by them. I feel that I was misled and lied to, and I feel that they cheated a lot of people with the ridiculous prices they were charging.
I want to make it known that at no time do I feel John Cena is to blame for this, I'm not sure if he signed for everybody or not, but I didn't my autograph until almost 4:30pm and there was still several hundred people waiting in line.
On a side note Antonio Thomas was noted to be there and he wasn't. When I asked the people at the NECW Table why he wasn't going to be there I believe what he said was that the people of Memorabilia Lane wanted $1,000 from them for him to be there. He could of said that it was Antonio that wanted the money, but I doubt it. That night at the BTW show Antonio was only the card and when he came out at intermission he signed my cards for me without charging me. I also witnessed him singing things for people and posing for photo's with people without charging them anything.
The silver lining of the whole ordeal was Tracy Brooks. She was at the BTW vendor table for a couple hours signing autographs and posing for photos. She was very nice to everyone and that evening at the wrestling show she recognized us from earlier and made a point to say high to us and make small talk. She is in my opinion a truly nice person.
Thank you for your time, I apologize for rambling. Mike Labbe
And this is the letter sent out by promoter of show:
| John Cena Information ! Memorabilia Lane & Promotions Inc. | | |
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