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Wrestler run-in stories on Deadspin

Scott, this is poster Brian_Bayless from the blog. I do not recall seeing these segments on the blog but they are becoming popular on Deadspin. Its readers writing about their encounters with pro wrestlers. The John Morrison story is great and they always close the segment with a Virgil story. Anyway, here is the link to the newest installent.
 

Coolness.  Road Dogg seems like a fun guy to hang out with.  

Comments

  1. Like many young boys in the 90's, I thought Sunny was the hottest woman in the world, and wished that I could some day have her....now she's on my facebook and I don't think the adult me could handle her in real life. It's weird seeing someone who you see as being a famous successful superstar having the mental capacity of an unstable teenager on facebook.

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  2. wow shawn was a really a prick b4 he found jesus

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  3. Christopher HirschJune 21, 2012 at 10:16 AM

    Met Road Dogg on an elevator at a Holiday Inn in Orlando about 5 years ago. I was hesitant to tell him I recognized him but he was real cool about it. Seemed like a nice guy and actually since he was in TNA at the time seemed happy I knew who he was.

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  4. Christopher HirschJune 21, 2012 at 10:17 AM

    Met Chris Jericho at a book signing last year, he was as cool as someone can be at a book signing where you are accomodating hundreds of people.
    Saw Mick Foley at Kings Dominion but he was with Dewey so didn't say anything. Ted DiBiase tried bringing a church group into a restaurant I was a busboy at, right at closing time and the manager said no. Probably would have been an awesome tip.

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  5. Man, so other than the Road Dogg one, every other one of these were "dude was a jerk" story. Dissapointing, but not exactly surprised.

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  6. I've never had a bad experience meeting a wrestler. Met Jericho in '99, and he was awesome. Mick Foley was great at a book signing in 2001. Daniel Bryan was incredibly cool and gracious last year, even complimenting me on my American Wolves shirt and asking if I'd seen the previous night's ROH show. All the Dragon Gate guys were cool. 

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  7. Did you just completely ignore the Piper/DiBiase stories?

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  8. Morrison saying 'go fetch' to the 4 year old girl sounds pretty damn douchy, even for a heel. And Brian Lawler's story was the worst.

    The Virgil story is hilarious.

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  9. I can't seem to recall any horror stories of meeting wrestlers either... except for one that I triggered myself, but I'll get to that.


    Met the trio of MNM at an OVW house show; Melina and Nitro/Morrison were cool, didn't even talk to Mercury. Met Mickie James a few times at the OVW arena; total sweetheart, love her to death. Had a group dinner at Steak'n'Shake with Nigel McGuinness and his wife, along with Brent Albright (Yeah, living in Louisville had its perks for wrestling fans, what of it?). The top of the crop, though, has gotta be the time I met RVD at an airport in Dayton during a layover on the way home from Orlando. It was weird seeing him in street clothes and glasses, but I recognized him right away. Awesome dude, posed for a picture, and went to his autograph signing at GenCon 2005 a year and a half later. Amazingly, he recognized the photo, so of course, ever the humble one, he posed for another.
    The only bad story was, again, my fault. I was in a crowd of people getting autographs from Al Snow after an OVW show (great guy, and I've even talked to him and his wife since). But for some reason, on this particular day... I had the gall to jokingly bring up the Kennel from Hell match. I couldn't tell you why, but I felt like turning in my fanboy card that day. I was that ashamed, in hindsight.

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  10. Me: "So, being a pro-wrestler must be pretty badass."
    RD: "Ehhh…it beats the shit out of diggin' ditches."

    Sure beats being in Iraq for no good reason too.

    From these stories it seems like most wrestlers are dicks, which is weird because I've met countless wrestlers and they were all nice to me. Probably the worst experience I had was with Triple H in a bar, who basically told me to go away so he could watch the game, but even he shook my hand an offered to sign something (didn't have anything for him to sign). Best encounter with wrestlers was meeting Hall, Nash, and Waltman at the bar at the airport. Hall and Waltman were drunker than Ryan Murphy and acting like idiots, and Nash (in no shape to drive himself, but he was at least coherent) said something like "You can't take these fuckin' clowns anywhere!" 

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  11. Sounds like a hell of a childhood experience. Can't say I'm not jealous.

    I've actually gotten that same impression of Scott Hall from friends who have met him. A friend of mine actually attended WMX8 live in the Skydome, and he and his friends ran into Scott Hall and... someone else backstage, can't remember who. I remember my buddy saying Hall commented on him "looking gay" or whatever. I was like o_0 when he mentioned this, but apparently my friend just laughed it off. So they bumped into him later and my friend was like "Hey Scott, remember me?" and Hall said "Hey yeah, you're that gay kid."

    Scott Hall: Total Class Act.

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  12.  And I like how the guy who told it said it was the greatest thing ever. He sounds like a guy who goes to house shows and "cheers the heels and boos the faces" if you know what I mean.

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  13. I met Jericho outside of the Fillmore in SF waiting in line for Metallica's 30th anniversary shows. Just briefly shook his hand and told him to enjoy the show, he said thanks man and went on with walking to the end of the line (seriously - he waited in line). Got to meet RVD in the hotel lobby I was staying at the morning after One Night Stand '06. He was very cool and even motioned me and my friend over to him since he could tell we were waiting for him to check out so we could meet him. Some lady walked up to us as we were chatting and asked "Are you famous?" and we all chuckled and he told her "Yea, I'm Bruce Willis." 

    Met a lot of indy stars at PWG's Battle of Los Angeles 2006, my first real "getting to meet the wrasslers" experience, and I was on Cloud 9. Everyone was really just standing around talking to fans during intermission and after the show - Cabana, Hero, Claudio, my favorites being Homicide and the Briscoes after the show. Homicide was drunk as hell sitting at the bar telling me how much Jeff Jarrett sucks and was planning on breaking up LAX because they sell more merch than he does. Having a beer with the Briscoes and one of their cuts coming undone mid conversation was pretty memorable, too. Poor guys have to use superglue for that shit. Every time I've met Danielson he's been very cool and laid back, very nice guy. 

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  14. I had a website just like this a few years ago, but wrestling fans were too lazy to send in stories. 

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  15. Sounds like Morrison was playing it up as a heel on purpose, you know, putting on a show. That seems like the reason for his explanation of the story.

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  16.  It's one thing to heel it up, it's another to be a dick to a three year old.

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  17. I thought it was pretty funny myself.

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  18. TheRealCitizenSnipsJune 21, 2012 at 1:16 PM

     Straight out of The Onion, I bumped into Jeff Hardy at the Mall of America once, and gushed something like "Oh wow, I'm such a big fan." Later I thought, "Hey, I don't even really like the guy that much."

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  19. I worked a program with her on a show a few weeks back. She's a relatively nice person, but the idiot who tried to hit on her had a new asshole ripped for his effort.

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  20. Christopher HirschJune 21, 2012 at 1:16 PM

    Faces suck and are boring, I've cheered heels all my life.

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  21. Met Bret Hart and and Anvil at a card show back in 2008. Bret was nice enough to let me a take a pic with him prolly because I talked Calgary Flames hockey with him. I think he was happy someone wanted to talk about ANYTHING other than WWF/Owen/Montreal/his career etc etc etc etc.

    Met RVD at the same show. He was exactly like his character. He even asked us where a bathroom was and we pointed him in the right direction. He came back like 45 minutes later just STINKING of weed. Like, melt your face off skunky.

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  22. I've read constantly that Scott Hall is a dick in general. In Bret's book, by the end of his WWE run, guys went out of their way to make Hall's life a living hell because he was such a dick (and an embarrassing drunk that guys like Nash and Triple H had to take care of constantly). Perfect shaved his eyebrows off after he passed out, which you can see happened right before Royal Rumble 1996, as Hall's eyebrows looks like they got burned off in a fire. Savio Vega went and cut his ponytail off during one of the overseas tours after Hall made a racist remark at him, again, after he passed out.

    And if I'm not mistaken, didn't Jericho beat his ass in WCW?

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  23. I've met both Bret Hart and Ric Flair at autograph signings at ROH shows in Toronto. Bret came to the building with his agent wearing shorts, a t-shirt and a backwards ballcap. He walked up the front walk and got huge cheers before humbly waving and going inside. He was a great dude who seemed genuinely grateful to the people who came out, and of all things what I spoke with him about was also being at the Memorial Cup in 1999 when Ottawa beat Calgary 7-6 in overtime. I said it was probably the greatest game I've ever seen, to which he jokingly replied that it "wasn't so much for (him.)" In retrospect that was actually a gutsy question for me to ask, because Owen died that night but talking hockey didn't seem to bother him.

    Flair, on the other hand, arrived in a limo for all to see with an entourage of about six guys wearing a full suit. He also got cheers but seemed to ignore the fans as he walked in. That said, one-on-one he was a very nice guy.

    Driving to ROH shows at the Ted Reeve Arena is interesting because you can't walk from the parking lot to the front door without seeing a whole bunch of wrestlers. I spoke briefly with Nigel McGuinness last month and he was very classy. A couple years back before the DBD PPV I saw Jim Cornette and shouted "CORNETTE! YOU'RE THE FUCKING MAN!" He laughed and thanked me and my friend for coming. I've seen a maskless El Generico park up with Kevin Steen, the maskless Super Smash Brothers putting gear into their car (and speaking French while doing it) right by mine and countless guys having smokes or warming up (since the arena can get extremely hot.)

    But there's one instance I can remember from being at those shows that was almost surreal. Walking by and quickly talking to one of the wrestlers is one thing - camping out and waiting for them where the car loads are dropped off is another. I see all these guys waiting to mob the wrestlers when Jerry Lynn drives up in a van, gets out and steps in front of it. He gets swarmed as I'm walking by the mayhem by walking past the side of his van. I'm paying no mind when suddenly the door of the van opens and Lance F'n Storm steps out a metre in front of me. For whatever reason, even though Jerry Lynn is right freaking there, I am starstruck. I have enough of my brain left to know that Lance doesn't like being bugged but doesn't mind it as long as you're respectful. I quickly ask to shake his hand, then move on - something people had to pay for at intermission. It was awesome.

    (Later someone got him to sign a Kenner Startrooper figure, then got a picture with him doing the Impact Players pose. Brilliant.)

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  24. I still say meeting Jericho on my birthday during a book signing was pretty awesome. We spent about ten minutes talking about Indiana Jones.

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  25. I actually went to college with Ted Dibiase, Jr. (we called him "Teddy").  While in college, I was delivering pizzas and also delivered a couple pies to the $Million Man's house, as well as attend the same church.  Super nice family.  


    Met Piper at a book signing.  We got a picture with him and we got him to put my friend in a sleeper...he legit passed my friend out with it, and this was *after* we got him to deliver a nasty chop to my friend's chest!  Too funny.  Piper was very nice and gracious.

    Met Austin at RAW taping in '03 and he was super cool to us.  He signed whatever we had for him and posed for pictures.  I also met Molly Holly (I love her) and she was so very pretty and sweet.  I got Vince to wave at me, haha.  

    I'm thinking there are a couple more meetings, but I can't recall at the moment.

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  26. oh, I also met Road Dogg and he was, like everyone else has said, very cool.  Billy Gunn was also at that show and while I didn't get to meet him, I interacted with him a bit during his match and he was very funny.

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  27.  Seriously, the more I hear about Scott, the happier I am that he's a miserable piece of shit now.

    He was my hero as a kid, and he truly couldn't have been a worse one I keep finding out.

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  28. Hanging out with drunk Kevin Nash seems like it was be the greatest time that you could possibly have. 

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  29. Huh?  Where's the Shawn story?

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  30.  Oh man, Sunny was IT when I was 10. I went to a Raw at the Key Arena back in 95, or perhaps 96...anyway, waiting outside the crowd did a "Sunny, sunny!" chant at least 3 times. I even got a Sunny t-shirt, the one where she has the pool cue. Every lad I knew was jealous.

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  31. I used to work at the Blockbuster in Orangeville, Ontario, the original hometown of Edge & Christian, and was completely starstruck the night Edge actually walked in there to rent "Beyond the Mat". He told he hadn't seen it yet and since this was around the time that Vince had been ordering his talent not to endorse of talk about "Beyond the Mat" in interviews, all I could think was that Edge went all the back to his hometown so that he could watch the movie without Vince finding out.

    He seemed to get a bit agitated at a co-worker who whined that she didn't "get" wrestling, and responded with: "What's there to get? That's like saying you don't get movies!". But a very nice guy overall, and everyone in town who knows him personally says success never went to his head at all. You can even see him and Christian touring my old high school in the WWE's "Before They Were Superstars" DVD.

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  32. Around the summer of 2000 a friend set up an autograph signing with a bunch of ECW guys. Everyone was pretty friendly but the ones who stuck out the most were Dawn Marie and Roadkill - both were very cool. Dawn Marie hilariously shut down a fan who wanted a hug.

    The one thing I remember about Roadkill is that he kept saying he was an "anomaly" in the business and that he was just a couple of matches away from being an ECW main eventer. ECW on TNN was canceled about a month later.

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  33. Was that the one the night after IYH: International Incident in 1996?

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  34. It's here: http://deadspin.com/5917834/goldust-stays-in-character-at-toys-r-us-more-wrestler-run+ins?tag=virgilbag

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  35. I've had a bunch of shake hands say hi type moments at shows with guys, and I told the story not long ago about kinda dancing with Mark Briscoe. Outside of shows or the autograph sessions a buddy of mine sets up (which are sparsely attended and thus really fun as far as just getting to stand around and talk to someone. I spent a while with Jay Lethal in April and Jesse Neal just this past weekend) are where I met most of them. Jerelle Clark who was briefly in TNA used to be a sub teacher at my high school, and I hung out with a friend of a friend who had trained with Earthquake and kept in close contact with him before he died. But the most contact I ever had with any wrestlers was James Vandenburg/Father James Mitchell/Sinister Minister, who was good friends with my mom's ex boyfriend and whose wife worked with my mom. They used to go out drinking with him all the time and bring home autographs, I think I ended up with dozens of bar napkins with Sinister Minister autographs on them. My mom also was kind enough to tell me that his oldest daughter isn't really his because his wife cheated on him with her ex, and he doesn't know
     

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  36. Drunk Sandman is pretty fun too.

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  37. When WCW came to London like 10 years ago a bunch of fans were loitering outside the venue afterwards. Normal Smiley actually came up and startled us, saying "Oh! Who wants an autograph?". He signed all our signs and ruffled my hair then jogged off to some other fans. 

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  38. Me too, with a couple exceptions.

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  39. Met Lita at SXSW a couple of years ago. Her band was playing, and I was hanging out with some dude who was friends with the Luchagoros somehow. I was drunk as hell, and didn't want to come off as a mark so I didn't mention wrestling. She introduces herself to me, "Hi, I'm Amy." I'm trying to play it cool meanwhile I'm going crazy inside. My friend (who is not a wrestling fan) is like keep cool dude, the whole time.

    So since I was drunk I was just going nuts during their show, dancing wildly and whatnot. The band loved me for it b/c no one else had my energy. So after the show I mustered the courage...

    "Um, Amy, you were great...and uh, also...I really enjoyed you as Lita." She smiled, and in my stupid drunken mind we were either going to be BFF's or we were gonna end up hooking up....I know, I'm a dummy.

    She was super cool though. And I don't just mean that as in she was nice (which she was), but that she just had that aura of cool.

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  40. Most people are when they are that fucked up on drugs.

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  41.  You were 35 at the time...

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  42. No wonder that Royal Rumble 1997 crowd was so quiet in San Antonio lol

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  43.  He would have stuffed it in your mouth!

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  44. I've never met any wrestlers but I would be all in for getting drunk with Road Dogg and Nash.

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  45.  Ha!  I am not sure why but this really made me laugh reading this.

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  46. I interviewed Nick Aldis (Magnus in TNA) back in 2007. At that point he was about to leave his home village in West Norfolk to go to a training camp run by Simon Dean. He was only about 21/22 and seemed like a pretty decent guy. He was also very appreciative of speaking to a journo who knew something about the business.
    The piece I ended up doing for radio ended up being slightly homo-erotic on my part (I commented on how big his muscles were) but he was a decent bloke.After that, I booked him to appear on our breakfast show several times. The girls loved him - he's a good looking guy.The last time I spoke to him was just as he was signing for TNA. He had some quite interesting views on the talent he was going to be working with, but I won't expand on that as it was an off-the-record chat.Really pleased that he's doing well, and a couple of weeks back, he was back on Radio Norfolk. It was my day off, so I was listening in the car. But it was fair to say, there was moistness coming out of the speakers. The women (and men of a certain persuasion) love the guy.

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  47. I've never had any encounters with wrestlers, but I did see Ron Simmons at an airport in Atlanta back in 2003. Was too nervous to say anything though, lol.

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  48. My god, the Sad Virgil stories keep pouring in from all over the country.  I kinda feel left out for not having one.

    I used to live in the same town as Tony Atlas in Maine.  I'd see him shopping in Wal-Mart and the supermarket..  He was kinda hard to miss. 

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  49. Yeah, I am starting to worry they are true.  I always heard Virgil was doing well outside of wrestling, but it sort of seems like he's lost his mind.

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  50. Damn !

    (Sorry - had to)

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  51. "Do you see this guy here? That's my daughter and her boyfriend. He'll be dead by sundown."

    Man, Piper is the shit.

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  52. my friend eric cobian (who was also in the wrestler) was the maryland championship wrestling heavyweight champ recently... other than that, i met a guy who kinda looked like ric flair...

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  53. hey there was a down time in my life when i was experimenting and being a deadbeat (clean now, besides the occasional marijuana cigarette), anyway I found myself to be a nicer guy when i was drunk n had a couple substances in me... fwiw

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  54. Awesome story. I saw Edge walking through a mall in Oshawa back in the late '90s. He was ridiculously tall.

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  55. I met Christian and the Hurricane at Comic-Con in San Diego a few years ago.  Both really great guys, had plenty of time for everyone, just seemed to be having fun with everything. 

    The main thing that struck me was how small Christian was.  I mean it's one thing for him to look small on TV surrounded by giants but even among regular people he was average to below average size and looked downright thin.  Your average guy off the street would have no way of knowing that that guy makes a living in wrestling.

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  56. Yeah Bryan is real nice. He was signing autographs at an ROH show during the Final Countdown Tour, and I was standing nearby as he was getting up to leave. I yelled "Bryan!" but my voice was off because of the cheering and stuff from the matches so I thought he didn't hear me, but he looked right at me. I hesitated and then yelled "You're the best in the world!" as if he didn't know, and he just laughed.

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  57.  Is there any other kind of Sandman?

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  58.  You gotta have dedication to the craft! Take no prisoners.

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  59. I felt the same way when I saw Edge in person in street clothes.

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  60. That must have been a great last meal for that guy.

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  61. Two run-ins. First was when Ric Flair came down to Sydney in 2003 to hype the annual house shows they have in Australia. He was doing an autograph signing. I said "Thanks, Naitch" and he said "No problem, man".

    Second was DDP this year. Flew out of Miami after Wrestlemania 28 to go home. Saw him talking to someone with a camera about DDP Yoga so did not go up to him.

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  62. Sort of. There's normal drunk Sandman, and there's falling-down-drunk shitfaced Sandman. Good time either way.

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  63. Let's hope he's not reading this blog.

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  64. Four run-ins, one happened to one of my best friends, three happened to me. 

    1) My good friend Doug is a HUGE wrestling fan and his uncle went to a card show and got an autograph from Mick Foley. Foley made it out to Dogless.

    2) Foley wrestled at Kings Dominion and I got to meet him. Really, really nice and personable guy considering I'm an awkward 13 year old.

    3) Through some connections I got to meet Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in Richmond. I was a YOOGE mark for the guys and it's one of the best fan interactions of my life. I tried to play it cool and failed miserably. I was just gushing... It was embarrassing. 

    4) Last week I got to meet Bret Hart! He was signing autographs at a minor league baseball game and was really nice. I told him he'd been one of my heroes growing up and that I really appreciated all that he'd done and sacrificed in the ring. He thanked me and said he always did it for the fans. 

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  65. Favourite part of that articles is the majority of the stories refer to the WWF.

    WWE sucks

    WWF was the bomb.

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  66. Every interview I hear with Bryan he seems like a really down-to-earth, humble guy. Part of why he's my favorite wrestler is that he seems like an awesome person.

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  67. Oh! Also got to meet JT Smith, he used to work at the Comcast store in a local Richmond mall. Super, super nice guy. 

    Interestingly, I've never had a bad experience meeting a wrestler.

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  68. I had one series of wrestler interactions back in 2004.  I attended the University of Miami and WWE had a big presence during the first presidential debate that year, including their own mock debate with Mick Foley and JBL.

    The biggest presence on campus was Chris Nowinski, who was still employed and involved, post-concussion.  He was an extremely nice guy as I ran into him several times over the course of the week.  At one point I told him, "For a guy who went to Harvard, you're not a dick" and his response was "For a guy who goes to Miami, you're not dumb."  I thought that was fair.

    My actual favorite interaction with him was when he hosted/moderated some debate between Miami students and another school's team (they may have been like, British exchange students or something, if I recall).  Afterwards, I went up and was chatting with him and some WWE PR woman comes up with a folder and goes, "Would you like Chris to sign a picture for you?"  Now, besides the fact that I'm not an autograph guy, at all, I was also attempting to talk to him as equals.  So we both kind of look at each other awkwardly, and I go, "Uh, sure."  And she opens the folder and hands him a picture - which is of course him in just his wrestling trunks, completely oiled up.  Extremely awkward.  He signs it, writes something mildly clever, and hands it to me, and I asked him, "So, where exactly am I supposed to put this?  It's not exactly frameable," and he says "Just don't put it in the drawer where you keep your condoms or you'll never get to use them."

    Mark Henry was on campus and I had two interactions with him, both of which were pretty hilarious.  At one point during the week, Nowinski and Henry were manning a table in the student union - just like every other silly event or club would do to get attention.  I walked through on the way back from a class with headphones and sunglasses on, pretty focused on where I'm going with a pretty good pace, so I didn't notice them.  Nowinski noticed me after having talked to me a couple of times and wanted to remind me to attend the mock debate, and so all of the sudden I feel this giant strong hand grabbing me around the bicep.  I pull my headphones off and look over and, hey, it's Mark Henry!  He almost tore my arm out of its socket and he barely touched me.  He says "Hey, Chris wanted to talk to you for a second."  It was baffling and awesome and yes, a bit painful, all at once.

    I have more stories - including McMahon interactions! - but I'm tired.  I'll get to them at some point (I promise I'm not trying to keep anyone in suspense, I just need to head to bed, it's 1 AM here).

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  69. I met some wrestlers at Calgary Comic Con- Jake Roberts was hilarious, screaming at everybody in a "fake angry" sort of way. When we posed for a pic, he flipped off the camera, and told me not to grab my ass. When I told him I hated him as a kid because he feuded with the Macho Man, he said "Aw, I figured you were a Macho BITCH!" and laughed.

    Ted DiBiase FINALLY answers a question that's bugged me for years. It's Mike RotundA, not RotundO.

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  70. Southern_DiscomfortJune 22, 2012 at 1:13 AM

    Oh man, I have a few.

    Me and my girlfriend actually ran into Bryan Danielson at a Barnes and Noble here in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago. She saw him first, and said "hey he looks like Daniel Bryan" and I was like "nah, they were here days ago, there's no way" until someone moved out of the way and I got a good look at him. Apparently I just stopped and stood there with my mouth gaping open while he got help at the service desk. We then followed him at a distance, waited for him to find his book, then asked for a picture. I mentioned watching him in ROH. He was cool, but really quiet. We only talked to him for like a minute.

    A few years back after an ROH show in Chicago me and a friend went to Rosa's, this pizza joint/bar where some of the wrestlers hang after shows. I bought one of the Briscoes (I was drunk enough to not remember which but I think it was Mark) a shot ("Fuckin' A, of course Jim Beams is alright, brother!") and took a picture with Necrobutcher. He was looking dapper in wire-framed glasses, a lavender dress shirt, and slacks, but when I walked up to him and asked for a photo he got right up to my face and said "I'm drunk, I'm covered in liquor and I just elbow-dropped a puddle of whiskey...but if you ain't ashamed, I ain't ashamed." It was amazing. One of the refs got shot down by some girls when he tried to get drinks off them so I bought him a beer and he ended up being cool as hell. We traded cigarettes because someone had bought him Parliaments, which I guess was a problem.

    I'd met Cornette at an earlier ROH show, and it was my first ever wrestling interaction so I just freaked out and stammered for a minute before just going "YOU'RE AWESOME." He laughed his ass off and asked if I wanted a picture. I said yeah and while I was showing the woman who I guess is his wife how to work my ancient flip-phone camera I accidentally took a picture of the floor. The reboot time was forever so we just stood there awkwardly until he grabbed my phone and smacked me on the back, yelling "shit boy, the least you could've done was take a picture of her fuckin' tits!" It was awesome.

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  71.  Yeah. I remember being at a food court and seeing people with wrestling shirts on, and it blew my mind. I'd never seen anyone wearing one before, awesome stuff.

    Then I heard people talking about how they were at the IYH the night before, and that a fan had jumped into the ring to save someone. Of course, it ended up being Steve Blackman. I felt like what comic book fans must feel like going to Comic-Con, I was home.

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  72.  Hey a fellow Cane! Let's Go Canes! :)

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  73. Cornette is basically the man in every way possible. I met him at the OVW Arena before an ROH house show, and I managed to get a picture of him, pointing to my shirt. I can't find a picture of it online, but it was a TNA licensed shirt from the Weekly PPV era. It had a blurred out middle finger dubbed over the "uc" in "Fuck" and was stylized to read "FUCK VINCE!" as a double entendre (McMahon was obvious, and Russo was the booker/on-camera heel authority figure at the time.

    Considering how much Jim HATES Russo, I figured he'd appreciate it. It was good to be right.

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  74. You're too good for us now to share those Vince stories?  You think you're better than us--is that it? It's been like 13 hours now...

    Seriously, though, cool stories.  Would still love to hear the Vince ones.

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  75.  I'm really glad that you didn't say what kind of shoes Necro Butcher has on, as I like to imagine he stays in character and goes everywhere barefoot.

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  76.  Ha, sorry, I just got home from work.  I'll try and type them out this afternoon.

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  77.  Very few people are more different from their character than Necro. The guy is a father, husband, and certified Mensa member. And I've heard he generally insists on people calling him "Dylan Summers" rather than "Necro Butcher", because he doesn't want to put on airs and pretend to be Mr. Kayfabe.

    ReplyDelete
  78.  

    Since the McMahon stories were asked for, specifically, I'll
    go with those interactions (the Foley and JBL
    stories weren't great, they can go in the paperback as a bonus chapter).


     


    After the debate was over, the WWE contingent was floating
    around at a little reception.  That's
    where I had the Henry/cookie interaction, and where Nowinski was fluttering
    around asking everyone for feedback (he was involved in everything that week).


     


    The McMahons held court at the reception.  The crowds were massive, so I ended up
    talking to Linda first.  She was nice and
    overly chatty, which made things a bit awkward when I tried to break away (it
    wasn't Virgil levels of awkward, though).  The only really notable exchange for me was
    when I noted that, "Other than Shane, the whole family is here" and
    she said, "Well, Shane and Triple H." 
    I attempted to cock my eyebrow and said "I'm sure that's what you
    call him around the dinner table at Thanksgiving" and she kind of laughed
    and was like, "No, no." 
    Admittedly, I would probably be scared to ask him to pass the water...


     


    Next, I got in line to talk to Vince.  If I was smart, I would have asked him for a
    job.  I'm not smart.  If I was clever, I would have asked him a
    question or teased him about his announcing or anything else.  I'm not clever.  When it was my chance, I walked up to him and
    shook his hand, and said something like, "It's a bit sad to say, but I
    think you've had way too big of an influence on my life up to this point"
    and he gave that fake Vince guffaw.  We
    talked for another few seconds, and he asked me what I thought of the event.  Took a picture with him (my friend's comment
    when he saw it - "Vince looks plastic!") and that was it.


     


    Then, I had the opportunity to talk to Stephanie.  My friend and I waited in line while the guy
    in front of us had her sign like 5 pictures. 
    I think she was relieved to see us come up empty-handed.  We chatted for a second and I asked her if
    she planned to put herself back on television anytime soon.  She asked, "I don't know, what do you
    think?" and I said, "Well, that depends...if you come back, could you
    use your inside voice?"  She laughed
    at this (and unlike with Vince, I recall it being genuine laughter) and put her
    hand on my shoulder to take a picture - and almost wrote on my face with the
    Sharpie she'd been using to sign the previous guy's pictures.  She started laughing and apologized profusely
    to me.  She was genuinely very friendly
    and sweet, which I thought was impressive - she'd been out there for 45 minutes
    by the time I worked my way over to her.


     


    (My favorite part of this is actually the picture, in which
    this black cop is standing behind us with the most hilariously douchey and smug
    grin on his face.  I'm not REALLY
    inclined to share it - particularly because I look horrendously terrible in
    every picture from that night - but that guy makes the picture for me.)


     


    Anyway, that's my story.

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  79. Southern_DiscomfortJune 22, 2012 at 6:18 PM

    The only reason why I remember how well he was dressed is because it was so...weird. And not right.

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  80.  Awesome stories, the Mark Henry one in particular about the cookie lol

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  81. Thanks for the in-depth stories.  Very cool.

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  82. Didn't he also sell your mom crack or something?

    I thought you hated him...

    ReplyDelete

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