Hi again everyone, and welcome to my report on WrestleReunion 8 from Toronto.

Let me start by saying it was an incredible event, 3 days of wrestling the likes of which only WrestleReunion seem capable of bringing. All my respect and gratitude go to Sal Corrente and his crew for their hard work.

It all began at noon on Friday, as all the various vendors set up their tables of wrestling merchandise and memorabilia. It included a wide choice, from photos to belts, along with hundreds of DVDs, action figures, shirts etc. The only thing missing were magazines, as I'm always looking for old issues, and there were none of it.

Then us VIPs were invited into a private room for an afternoon of Q&A sessions, featuring some of the best talkers of the business. It started with Bill Apter, who shared with us stories about Andy Kauffman, Fritz Von Erich and many more, including some of his renowned impressions. Second came Jimmy Hart, with his inimitable laugh, who talked about his debut, many of his protégés, plus a once in a lifetime experience he had encountering a murderer. Next was JJ Dillon, who very emotionally shared with us his recent Hall of Fame induction, among other topics. Finally, Rowdy Roddy Piper gave nothing short of a one-man-show. Starting things off smoothly, the Hot Rod talked about his upbringing in Toronto, the various legends who taught him the ropes, like Andre the Giant, and became very animated toward the end, reaching a climax with his Mr.T and Wrestlemania 1 stories. I mean, there's nothing he wouldn't do, including running around, banging his head on the wall, screaming... One of the highpoint was when he decided his language was not appropriate for a lady in attendance, and decided to pay her a dollar for every foul word. Even tough he restrained himself by that point, he still gave her a five dollar (Canadian) bill when it was all over !

Right after that came the time of the video op. This is when you can cut a promo of your own alongside a famous manager or wrestler. Me and my buddy Bert bought one with JJ Dillon, and another one with Jimmy Hart. They were both very gracious with their time, and the end result was such a unique souvenir, I'm really glad I went with it. Everyone else I saw who bought them were very satisfied as well.

After a quick rest and some food, it was time for the first of two wrestling cards of the week-end, starting Friday night with EVOLVE. I won't get into much details here, since I am not familiar with most of the talent, and on top of that we arrived late, but I can say that everyone worked real hard, and the matches were all spectacular. The two main events were great, with Low Ki pinning El Generico in a spectacular, crisp match, and Fit Finlay making Callahan submit in a match extra-stiff. All in all, a very good evening of wrestling.

We then had the surprise of a lifetime a few moments after the card was over, when none other then the newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame Edge showed up at the hotel, most likely to hang out with some of his wrestling buddies. He was very nice and gracious, taking a few minutes to shake hands and pose for pictures. Talk about an unexpected bonus ! Edge actually showed up again saturday night.

After a very short night, it was time for another fun-filled day, as the convention opened up at 9 o'clock. It was the day where what they call ''Deluxe'' photos were taken in the ring, with the likes of Vader, Mean Gene, and even TNA's Miss Tessmacher, wearing her trademark bikini. For our part, we had the opportunity to get a photo with Japanese legend Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, for what must have been his first-ever Canadian appearance. In fact, we met a couple of fans who travelled all the way from Japan for WrestleReunion 8 ! And a little while later, we made a lifelong dream came true by getting into the ring with 3 of the ECW originals, Raven, Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas. For just 5 dollars, we were able to get the photo printed on a 8x10 and autographed, which was my better spent 5$ ever.

The star of the week-end, Rowdy Roddy Piper, once again stole the sow, with a line of people stretching all the way around the huge room, and lasting more than 3 hours. A few days shy of his 58th birthday, with all his surgeries and injuries, Piper took the time to chat, shake hands, sign stuff (lots of it) and pose for pictures in front of his famous Piper's Pit interview set. I had to do the line twice in order to have my freshly printed photo signed, and I can tell you he was just as friendly and smiling at the end than he was at the beginning. The Hot Rod really impressed me that day.

There were also other video ops on Saturday, this time involving Vader, Howard Finkel, Raven and Shane Douglas. For my part, I bought one with Mean Gene Okerlund, so I had the chance to pretend to be world champion while being interviewed by the all time best at it. Mean Gene was, too, very gracious and would go along every programs that people would bring him. We just had to be ready for some ad-libing......

Meanwhile, some vendors had brought a few guests along with them, so for various prices, we could meet such stars like Maria Kanellis, DDP, Nikita Koloff, Robbie E, Necro Butcher, Honky Tonk Man, The Destroyer, El Generico and Lufisto & Kalamity from the Femmes Fatales all-women promotion. Spice from the Nitro Girls was also advertised but was nowhere to be found. Sunny didn't show up either, but that was announced a few days before the event.

It was a real thrill for me to meet Nikita Koloff, who didn't came too often to Canada in his younger years. He was a really nice guy, as I had the chance to ask him a few questions, and he even spoke to me in his famous Russian accent. The only letdown was he didn't bring in his new book, which I was really looking forward to read. Dallas Page's line was awfully slow, as he took the time to talk with everybody about wrestling, yoga, and anything people would bring up. That was very nice of him, but slowed thing up quite a lot. The Destroyer was his usual self, very nice and patient with everyone. Unfortunately, since the last time I saw him, he now needs a walker to get around. But we could tell he was very happy to be there.

After dinner, the time came for the Pro Wrestling Superstar live card. There were a lot more people than Friday, as they had to add up more chairs and create a whole new section. It was one of the best card I saw live, not just for the matches, but most of all because of the emotion of seeing guys we idolized in our youth, and knew would likely never see again in action. Here are the results:

-Tito Santana beat Shawn Spears. Santana is in tremendous shape for his age. Martel was in his corner, in what may be his second to last appearance in a ring, as he was advertised the following Monday at an indy show.

-El Generico beat Michael Elgin in a spectacular match.

-The Super Smash bros. won a 4 way tag-team match. The last part of the match was real good, although that kind of a match did not fit well in a legends card.

-Roddy Piper hosted a Piper's Pit with Bruno Sammartino and the looser of the previous match, Konley.

-Harry Smith beat Finlay in what you really could call a WRESTLING match. With Finlay back in WWE, that may be his final match.

-Vader beat Necro Butcher in a short match with a chokeslam. Vader's entrance was thrilling.

-Shane Douglas and Dominic DeNucci (who must be in his 70's) beat Lord Zoltan and Shawn Blanchard, who subbed in for Larry Zbyszko. Douglas won for his team after a belly-t-belly suplex on Blanchard. All four tried hard, but that match was long. To their credit they never lost the crowd, and after the match Douglas gave a good, heartfelt tribute to both DeNucci (who trained him) and Bruno, who was in their corner. Dillon was in the heels' corner.

-Femme Fatales champion Kalamity pinned Lufisto to keep her title in an extra-stiff match. They did a tremendous job to get the fans to care about them as the match was building, even ending with a ''this is awesome'' chant.

-Roderick Strong pinned Thunder Liger in another great match. That finish came as a total surprise to me. I just wish they gave Liger more time for his entrance. It would have been nice if they had done Japanese style introductions, and let the fans throw streamers for example.

-In the main event, Tommy Dreamer and Rhino beat CW Anderson and Raven when Dreamer used a DVD to crash Anderson through a table. Even tough it was billed as an extreme rules match, there was not much in term of extreme, beside some brawling on the floor, the use of a chair and the finish, with no blood. Which was fine for that kind of an event. After the match Raven blamed CW for the loss, only to be superkicked. The shown ended with Raven telling the fans that he didn't like coming to Toronto.

All in all a fantastic show well worth the price of admission.

That wonderful week-end of wrestling concluded with the Titans in Toronto breakfast, an event designed to honour the old timers as well as raising money for the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, NY. (which is a place you really have to see if you never did). We were lucky enough to be granted our first choice of table, so we had breakfast with none other than Roddy Piper. Once again, he went on with more great stories, including some of his earliest territory in Montréal in the early 70's. Many old timers from the areas were on hand as well, like Chuck Simms, with whom I could chat about his days as International tag-team champion in the late 80's in Montréal. Other names at the breakfast included Sweet Daddy Siki, Jimmy Corderas, Bobby Bass, the Wolfman and some more. Bruno Sammartino, who was the star of the event, gave a humble speech about Toronto being the place where his career really took off, and thanked all his most famous opponents. Since most of the wrestlers had a plane to catch, and some arrived late after a short night, the event seemed a bit rushed, but overall it was a really fun atmosphere and well worth the price.

Of course, you cannot run an event like that without encountering a few problems here and there. But I will not get into that, because I want this week-end to be remembered for what it was, a very positive experience. So I want to personally thank, from the bottom of my heart, some of the guys who went above and beyond the call of duty to be nice, generous and simply amazing to us fans: Rick Martel, Shane Douglas, Mean Gene Okerlund, Jimmy Hart, Tommy Dreamer, Roddy Piper and Nikita Koloff. And to Bill Apter, words cannot describe how funny, nice and knowledgeable he is.

So in closing, thanks to all the fine folks at WrestleReunion for a once in a lifetime exprerience.

Frank