WRESTLEMANIA AXXESS FAN REPORT & PHOTOS PART 2
- 04/13/2013 (10:06:27 pm)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
Hello again everyone, and welcome to part 2 of my report on my Axxess experience from Sunday afternoon.
Our original plan was to use lunch time to return to Wrestlecon to meet William Regal. What a foolish idea! First of all, I was told afterward that the Regal line was moving very slowly, as he was talking at lenght with everyone. And to our dismay, the line outside the Izod center for the afternoon session was INSANE! It was at least 10 times bigger than the morning line, so we not only gave up the Regal idea, but we gave up eating a bite as well.
The doors were supposed to open at 12h30 this time, but we got in at 1:05. My son wanted to meet Antonio Cesaro most of all, and just like in the morning, it was the first line we came across when we got upstairs. So this time we decided to go our separate ways in order to meet our favorites, as Ricky Steamboat was just beside in one of the 3 legends booth. He was the one I was there for, so since we had the good idea to bring each a camera, we splitted right there.
Steamboat was gracious and took time to exchange a few words with me, and he even broke the rule by signing 2 items instead of one. I also was granted a picture taken by a staff member. That little minute made my whole week-end ! In the meantime, my son Mathieu was able to meet Cesaro and get a picture as well. He barely made it tough, as the 2 hours deadline was fast approaching. It wouldn't have been too bad however, since the following wrestler in that booth was Christian! Mathieu tried to get in his line right away, but they had already closed it. Not surprising, with such a huge turnout. Meanwhile, staff member were screaming for people to get in line for Curt Hawkins, without any success. Other stars on hand included Tamina, Alex Riley, JTG, both DiBiases and Layla.
I continued my journey looking for legends with Sgt.Slaughter, another one who was not announced ahead of time. The Legends lines were shorter than the current WWE stars lines, so I had time to meet many of them. Slaughter was in good spirits, signed my friend's cane and choked me with it for the picture. Then I wen for Terry Funk, but as I entered his line, I was told thet most likely he would leave before I get to him, so I would meet the next legend. It turned out to be Harley Race AND Mil Mascaras (totally unnanounced) , so it couldn't have been better.
In the meantime, my son made another short wait to the photo op booth with one of his favorite, Justin Gabriel. Other photo ops that we didn't made were Ezekiel Jackson and Aksana. We also took time to visit the Hall of Fame collections, showing memorabilia from Backlund, Bruno and Foley. We also stopped by the various championship belts display. On a side note, when we left at the end of that session, all 3 current belts were gone (IC,World heavyweight and WWE) so I suppose they were the actual legit belts that they took out of the display for the upcoming Mania matches.
All in all a wonderfull day, even if we had to make some hard choices, we still met most of our favorites. I definitly recommand that experience to anyone when Axxess comes to your area !
Our original plan was to use lunch time to return to Wrestlecon to meet William Regal. What a foolish idea! First of all, I was told afterward that the Regal line was moving very slowly, as he was talking at lenght with everyone. And to our dismay, the line outside the Izod center for the afternoon session was INSANE! It was at least 10 times bigger than the morning line, so we not only gave up the Regal idea, but we gave up eating a bite as well.
The doors were supposed to open at 12h30 this time, but we got in at 1:05. My son wanted to meet Antonio Cesaro most of all, and just like in the morning, it was the first line we came across when we got upstairs. So this time we decided to go our separate ways in order to meet our favorites, as Ricky Steamboat was just beside in one of the 3 legends booth. He was the one I was there for, so since we had the good idea to bring each a camera, we splitted right there.
Steamboat was gracious and took time to exchange a few words with me, and he even broke the rule by signing 2 items instead of one. I also was granted a picture taken by a staff member. That little minute made my whole week-end ! In the meantime, my son Mathieu was able to meet Cesaro and get a picture as well. He barely made it tough, as the 2 hours deadline was fast approaching. It wouldn't have been too bad however, since the following wrestler in that booth was Christian! Mathieu tried to get in his line right away, but they had already closed it. Not surprising, with such a huge turnout. Meanwhile, staff member were screaming for people to get in line for Curt Hawkins, without any success. Other stars on hand included Tamina, Alex Riley, JTG, both DiBiases and Layla.
I continued my journey looking for legends with Sgt.Slaughter, another one who was not announced ahead of time. The Legends lines were shorter than the current WWE stars lines, so I had time to meet many of them. Slaughter was in good spirits, signed my friend's cane and choked me with it for the picture. Then I wen for Terry Funk, but as I entered his line, I was told thet most likely he would leave before I get to him, so I would meet the next legend. It turned out to be Harley Race AND Mil Mascaras (totally unnanounced) , so it couldn't have been better.
In the meantime, my son made another short wait to the photo op booth with one of his favorite, Justin Gabriel. Other photo ops that we didn't made were Ezekiel Jackson and Aksana. We also took time to visit the Hall of Fame collections, showing memorabilia from Backlund, Bruno and Foley. We also stopped by the various championship belts display. On a side note, when we left at the end of that session, all 3 current belts were gone (IC,World heavyweight and WWE) so I suppose they were the actual legit belts that they took out of the display for the upcoming Mania matches.
All in all a wonderfull day, even if we had to make some hard choices, we still met most of our favorites. I definitly recommand that experience to anyone when Axxess comes to your area !
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