I met a wrestler.

[Lindy]

I figure the majority of people who post in this subforum have had some sort of encounter with a wrestler either before or after a show and have interesting anecdotes/stories/pictures to show off. I figured this would be the place to do that:

1. Because I think stories like this are really interesting and I want to hear what everyone has to say.

and

2. I want to brag about what happened to me tonight.

So let me get to that.

Cleveland All Pro Wrestling (the place where I will be training very soon) had a match tonight and a meet and greet beforehand. Abdullah the Butcher showed up at the same time as me and was the only major guy there yet (the rest were local wrestlers), so I get stuck standing in line for a half hour as everyone sets up. While we were waiting to get in, we had Sumie Sakai running around with a video recorder asking people to say hi and who they thought was going to win between Samoa Joe and Rhino.

Apparently, Joe was stuck at the airport and Rhino, I guess, was driving since they kept saying that he was about an hour away. I checked out Abdullah's table and found that his Colonel Tom Parker like manager was charging $5 for an autograph (if you had something to sign, which I really didn't other than cheap paper) and $10 for an 8 x 10 or a polaroid. Not knowing who was going to charge for what, seeing that the other two wrestlers I had come to see weren't there, I waited it out until Joe got there.

Joe finally got in about a half hour later and went and sat down right away and started signing stuff gratis because he is really one of nicest guys I've ever met. I wait in line with my shirt, get to the front and shake his hand. He recognized me from last week and I thanked him for taking a picture with me and just briefly chat, thanking him for putting on a great show everytime I've seen him and basically being one of the people who inspired me to go to wrestling school. I even told him about how my picture with him turned out looking goofy because I was talking when it was taken, so he offers to take another with me and I end up with this:



which I am very happy with.

So I go and poke around for a bit because I was really, really happy and excited, find out that because of time, Rhino is only doing polaroids and signing them and it's $10 a pop, so I figured that was out of the question. While I was sitting, I look back and see Abdullah and remember the money I had in my pocket. I approached his manager and told him that I only had $5, but I had a digital camera. I asked if I could just get a picture with him and pay that much for it. He tilted his head back and thought and then agreed. I climb around the table and as I do so, I mention that I have a fork, if it would be okay for him to pose with it. I had taken a fork from Denny's in Chicago at request of Pholby, but I forgot to give it to him, so it was it in my purse. His manager stops me and smiles and says, "Listen here. I'll make you a deal! I will take you two pictures for the $5, if you let him keep the fork."

I'm not stupid. The fork was his for the keeping and I ended up with these two gems:



and



Hours later, my fork was used to stab some guy named Michael Hellborn repeatedly in the face. I have video of it, even.

I am proud of my trade.
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shrieking raccoon on a jetpack

[pholby]

That's so ridiculously awesome. Words don't even begin to cover it.
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"You're a pussy, Strong!"

"Woah woah woah."

[Jim]

I was jealous enough the first time you got your picture taken with Joe. Now, not only do you have a picture with Joe (where you don't like a dork ), but you got to sell a fork attack from fucking Abdullah the Butcher. And not only that, but said fork was then used to take out some goon.

That's me. That's me being completely and utterly green with envy.

I have already told of my quick meetings with Nana and Delirious at my first ROH show back in February. I'm going to make sure to keep a digital camera with me for the post-show later this month. Even if I don't get a picture with Joe, hopefully I can get one with Nana or Claudio, or hell... I'd even settle for Jimmy Jacobs.
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[Rusty Cooledge]

I met Christian a little over a year ago at a hotel I was staying at.

Me and a group of friends were staying the night at a hotel after seeing a Raw house show which saw Ric Flair getting his pants pulled down by Shawn Michaels and Face Orton cleanly beating Heel Batista, who was already getting massive cheers. We get to the hotel and we discover some of the wrestlers were staying there. One thing we have never let a friend live down was declaring "I JUST SAW EDGE" and marching like a zombie down the hallway only to discover he only saw an old lady with long gross hair.

Next morning my friends wake me to tell me they saw a bunch of wrestlers in the lobby but were too scared to approach them, such as Orton "being a prick" and Jackie Gayda, and Maven apparantly signing autographs for hotel personnel even though none of them knew who he was.

We decide to go for a morning swim in the pool when suddenly another friend of ours busts in yelling CHRISTIAN IS IN THE LOBBY LETS GO! so we all rush, soaking wet, out into the lobby, with one of my friends wearing a towel and shirtless, to catch Christian outside the place at 11 A.M. in Minneapolis in the middle of February.

I felt kinda bad to be honest. I could tell Christian was tired and didn't expect to be dealing with some asshole kids on his way out of town. But he obliged our nervous requests for autographs and complimented my newly purchased Captain Charisma shirt, asking my shirtless friend where his was. That got plenty of dorky ass laughs out of us. We told him we liked his match and omg your so cool man etc.etc.

All in all, very cool and exciting, and his autograph sits on a shelf in my bedroom above my computer to this day.


My proof, on shitty notebook paper due to time constraints.
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[Shamrock]

I've never actually met a wrestler, but I did see Samoa Joe as one of the wrestlers beating up the contestants on Distraction on Comedy Central. I thought that was neat.
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[subvulture]

God, that's so great. Abdullah would be cool even if he was a dickhead; the fact that he's such a nice guy just makes him a thousand times more awesome.

I don't have very many wrestler meet-and-greet stories, except this one, which sounded good enough in my head to repeat here:

I went to an ECW show at a hockey/arcade/domed thing many years ago with the only guy I knew who was into wrestling enough to do such a thing. Can't remember the year, but they still had the Dudleys, Spicolli hadn't gone to WCW yet, and uh, yeah, hope that helps.

Anyway, it was a great event. Great in that I'd only seen WWF/E events up until that point, and had never previously experienced the intimate ambiance that comes with seeing a promotion like ECW in a venue like the same place one would rent out for their seven-year-old son's birthday party. So, so cool. A lot of the matches spilled out into the crowd, and one particular match -- Brian Lee versus someone-I-can't-remember -- went all the way into the hockey rink at the other side of the "arena." So, everyone's scrambling over there, but I notice Paul Heyman waddle out from the hilariously modest backstage area. I was taking pictures throughout the event, and when Paul came out, I signaled him down for a photo op. He gave me the "one minute" finger, but after three or four went by, he retired to the back.

Now, I don't know what kind of idiotic voodoo compelled me to do what I did next, and I really can't make any excuses for it, because it was just a balls out STUPID thing to do. Maybe my body and mind were having trouble coping with this foreign concept of adrenaline, but as soon as Paul went backstage, I hopped over the tiny rope and followed him. Followed him with my giant camera in front of my face, snapping away. I walked right backstage without a care in the world.

What happened in the next sixty seconds or so is still a blur. I remember snapping pictures of all the wrasslers sitting in a circle, and as you'd imagine, this was definitely NOT COOL with anyone back there. Next thing I know, there's New Jack with a lacrosse stick, begging the now-onto-me security guards to let me back there so he could, I presume, beat the holy shit out of me.

Cooler heads prevailed, and they instead just took my film and escorted me out. Brian Lee's match finished up during this, and he stepped outside a minute later. I didn't confess my sins, but I did lead him to a payphone. He signed my bag in return.

On the cab ride home from a show that wasn't even over yet, I looked down. "Man, all that trouble and all I got was Brian Fucking Lee's autograph."

[kliq]

Ive met quite a few wrestlers at the Can Am wrestling training facility when I used to train. I was trained by Scott D'amore, Petey Williams and Tyson Dux (indy guy) and I the biggest name I met was Rhyno. It was actually kind of cool, the first day of practice he walked into the building and I was pretty shocked as he was still with WWE at the time.
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[Jon]

I once held the door for Kurt Angle without knowing who he was. About five years ago, I was a freshman at U of L, and he and Bradshaw came to campus to give some sort of presentation. He was walking behind me carrying a box and asked me if I could hold the door open, so I did. Later on, someone pointed him out to me on stage and I realized who he was. This was right after 9/11 and was some sort of Rock the Vote thing, which I didn't really understand since the nearest Presidential election was years off. Can't remember which one it was, but one of them kept referring to the war in Afghanistan as "bringing it to the towelheads".

[dlomyhero]

I'm going to have to guess that was Bradshaw.
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Asked yesterday whether it would eventually release a revised edition of "Opal Mehta," a little brown spokesman declined to comment.

[Blake]

I went to a Brian Pillman memorial show god knows how long ago and met a shit ton of wrasslers before the show.

Kevin Nash who accused me of owing him money in some Real Estate Deal.
Dean Malinko who told me to kick my brothers ass.
Saturn
Eddie Guerrero
Justin Credible
Vampiro?
DLo
And a few others I can't remember. I have my picture with all of them and most of their autographs.

I was sitting right by the entrance, and as DDP was leaving he took my camera and took a picture of us.


Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My brother used to work at a sports memorabilia place that used to have wrestlers come in for pictures and stuff.

I met Stone Cold, DDP, Sunny, and Sable there.

They had DLos Intercontinental belt in there for whatever reason, he was getting it framed or something, so theres a picture of me wearing it kicking around somewhere.
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Hey guys, guess who just became lactose tolerant!

[Brokenlamp]

Abdullah the Butcher has a BBQ resteraunt here in Atlanta. I think one of the Steiners is an elected official here, too.

Eric Bischoff's daughter danced at the same place as my sister.
When I worked at a movie theater, DDP was a frequent guest.
I watched a PPV over at the home of Glacier.

My friend (an indy wrestler here in GA) got to go backstage at a TNA pay-per-view and meet eeeverybody. Said the only person who didnt act like he was too cool to be there was Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe was the only wrestler who walked up to him, shook his hand and introduced himself. Everyone else expected guests to be in reserved awe.
...What sucks about this is that I had been invited to go with my friend to the PPV, but I didnt bother answering my phone.

[dlomyhero]

[Jim]

I got a message from Colt Cabana on Myspace today. Does that count?
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[Lindy]

Feel free to be jealous of me.

Tonight I went to an AIW show to see Low Ki, Jimmy Jacobs and Colt Cabana all for free. I was able to get right in the front as there were no seats. For an indy fed they put on a good show. When I arrived I was traeted to Cabana promoting his friends who are a rap duo from Chicago. I unfortuantely didn't get a chance to meet Jimmy Jacobs, but when he came to the ring I made sure to comment on the state of his gear and ask where Lacey was. (She was at home, according to him).

[Jim]

My envy is starting to turn into hatred, Lindy.
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[Greg]

One of these days I'm gonna end up at a BK with Prince Nana or Kenzo Suzuki or Scotty 2 Hotty and I'm not even gonna know it.
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[The BeeJ]

I actually saw you outside Gray's after the ROH show, Lindy. However, I was on my phone, you were on your phone, and I thought it might be weird. So I didn't say hi.

I did not get cool pictures
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[Lindy]

You should've said hi. If you ever see me at a show or some place don't hesitate to walk up and introduce yourself, I won't bite.

If you did, I probably would've asked you to shuttle me back to my car. I had to walk all the way out past the CSU convo by myself after I left. I was a little freaked out.
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shrieking raccoon on a jetpack

[The BeeJ]

Oh, really? That's terrible, the parking absolutely sucked. Sorry about that. But still, downtown Cleveland, even near midnight, isn't all that dangerous. Glad to see you didn't die... or something.
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[dlomyhero]