Hi Georgie, thanks for taking the time to read my e-mail.  First, I would like to thank you for always keeping your readers up to date on all of the latest signings.  Thanks to your website I have been able to build my collection of signed Classic Superstars, which is up to 17 now.  I wanted to address the fan fest from San Francisco this past weekend, which I've read quite a bit about on your website over the last few days.  I first read about this event in February, and my ticket was purchased in March, about seven months before the event.  I purchased the VIP DDT pass, which at the time was $350.  To say the least, I had very high hopes.  There was the promise of 100+ superstars, question and answer sessions with the wrestlers, dinners, parties, you name it they advertised it.  Over the last seven months, wrestlers names have appeared and mysteriously disappeared from the www.wrestlefanfest.com website, which I checked at least four times per week.  That should have been my first clue as to the lack of organization.  In July, when I still hadn't received my ticket for the event, I e-mailed the promoter and asked when I should expect my tickets; his reply was that I would just need to take my receipt to the will-call window at the Cow Palace and my ticket would be given to me.  Easy enough, right?  Well, things changed.  General admission tickets worked that way, but not the passes.  At the beginning of October I received my information packet in the mail, which laid out the events to take place over the weekend.  For some reason, they changed the policy to receive your pass; to get your pass, you had to drive to the Sheraton hotel in Burlingame (about 20 minutes away from the Cow Palace).  I have no idea why that was done, but it was very inconvenient.  The Sheraton, as your readers probably know by now, is where the wrestlers and the promoter were staying for the weekend.  Now, on to the show...

Thanks to your website, I already knew that Kurt Angle and the Outsiders wouldn't be there.  Apparently the Outsiders didn't get paid.  Strike 1.  I drive the 20 minutes from the Sheraton to the Cow Palace, still with the high hopes that this event will be all that was promised, with 100+ superstars, etc., etc.  Upon arrival, I learn that Lex Luger wouldn't be appearing due to a health issue.  Therefore, before I even get my first signature, I am leaving three Classic Superstars in the trunk of the car.  Remaining optimistic, I roam the vendor tables and decide to start getting the signatures.  First victim, Brian Knobbs of the Nasty Boys.  I get up to receive his signature, thinking it was ok to just show my pass.  Wrong!  You have to get autograph and photo-op tickets before you get to the wrestlers.  Um, was someone going to tell me this at some point?  Keep in mind, I had already driven to the hotel, received my pass, and was told that I was all set; nobody mentioned autograph tickets!!  Fine.  Strike 2.  Luckily, being the great guy he truly is, Knobbs says "screw it, you are already here, what's your name and I'll sign your figure so you don't need to wait".  Class act!!  (As a side note, when I took a pic with him later, he let me wear his Nasty Boys jacket and sunglasses.  He was the best out of all the talent there over the weekend).  I go to the table to get my tickets, and had to argue with three different people just to get my Steve Austin and Christian ticket.  Let me back up...my pass included 10 autographs "of choice" as stated right on my pass.  When they handed me my ten autograph tickets, they were for the $10 signatures of non-headliners (which meant no Stone Cold or Christian); luckily my brother was with me and had printed down from the website what exactly was included with the pass.  I want to mention that I was given the tickets VERY reluctantly by the staff, however the situation was made right.  Now here is where it gets crazy.  You know those tickets that I had to get?  When I entered the main autograph area (more on that in a minute), not one person was using their ticket.  People were walking right up to whoever was up there, be it Sunny or the Dudleys, and receiving photo-ops and autographs.  That's great, but where is the organization of ticket = meet and greet?  The wrestlers were obviously not told where to go or how to take a ticket, so they just stood there and met everyone!  And there was NOBODY there to do anything about it.  There were a few photographers there, and I saw them take a few tickets here and there, but they were useless that night and the entire weekend; they even screwed up my Christian pic as seen below (I told the girl I wanted my camera used by my friend, but she snapped a pic anyways and Christian was looking at her camera instead of mine). 

I won't ramble any more about it, but needless to say the event fell apart, I think, because of a lack of advance planning and organization.  100+ superstars?  Not even close!  Those talents that didn't show were smart!  By Sunday, the event was in such shambles that about 60% of the vendors didn't even bother to show up, and the wrestlers were no longer accepting those tickets that were so important - they were asking for cash instead!  So basically if I wanted a signature, which I had already paid for with my pass, I had to pay an additional $10 or $20 depending on the talent; a friend of mine tried to hand Slick a ticket for a signature but was told to put it away and grab 20 bucks.  I can't blame the talent one bit.  This event was a mess, but not a strikeout; the bottom line is that I was able to meet with many of the wrestlers, or at least just say hi, and I was able to gather signatures and photos that I will be able to look at and tell a story with.  The only talent that I met that was outwardly angry was Animal (he wasn't angry towards the fans, just at the situation) and the woman he was traveling with (not sure of her name); they didn't get paid, and had no transportation to get where they were going; all of the other wrestlers were more than gracious and seemed to really enjoy meeting their fans.  It's safe to say that there will never be another event of this magnitude in my area.  So feel lucky the next time you go to a convention and there are a lot of wrestlers there, on time, paid, and where they are supposed to be as advertised!

From:  SLAPPER97

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I can tell you we will be hearing another very sad story from one of the vendors who has a Sports Memoriblia stores.  The reason most of them left, was because they saw the mess, first they were afraid their merchandise would be stolen, and secondly were afraid that possibly the Cow Palace might confiscate their merchandise for lack of payment by the promoter...

Also someone in charge of looking to press charges against the promoter, told me to tell any fan who feels they were totally ripped off on what was promised, contact PayPal or your credit card company with your complaints, usually those companies will try to rectify the problem.

Georgie  [email protected]