On Saturday, March 15th, I traveled to Sports City in Harrisburg, for one of the easiest events to get to that I have ever been at, as this was approximately 20 minutes from my house. A local wrestling promotion, UWE (Ultimate Wrestling Experience) was having their annual "Knight of Glory" event, which included special guests Kevin Nash & AJ Styles.
AJ Styles is a well-known wrestler who spent majority of his career with TNA (Total Nonstop Action)/Impact Wrestling. In fact, he was with the company since its inception 12 years ago. However, due to poor management and recent bad financial decisions, his contract with TNA was not renewed when it expired at the end of 2013, which is a shame because the man is a gifted performer and athlete as well as a genuinely nice guy. Prior to this, I had met him once before at a TNA event in Delaware, which would wind up being one of his last. At that time, I got 1 figure I had of his signed, and my picture with him. This time, I wound getting a figure of his signed that came out during the holiday rush (one could assume his last figure) based off of his "lone wolf" persona, he portrayed until his exit from TNA.
Also at the UWE event, was Kevin Nash, known for his tenure in WWE as "Diesel" and as a member of WCW's infamous Outsiders & nWo (New World Order) factions. Since those days almost 2 decades ago, Kevin has made rare surprise appearances as an entrant in WWE's annual battle royale, the Royal Rumble. While I didn't get my picture with Kevin (I wish I did in hindsight), I did get both my Diesel & Kevin Nash figures signed. Mattel (the current manufacturers of WWE figures) released these two figures back in 2012 as part of Wave 16 of their collector-centric Elite line. These two figures are widely-considered some of the rarest figures in the entire Mattel WWE line, due to a poor decision where 2 separate case assortments were made for retailers (1 containing Diesel, the other containing Kevin Nash). The Diesel boxes were what ultimately made it to most retailers, driving up the price of the Kevin Nash figure due to its scarcity, and it only showing up in select WWE holiday shippers sent to K-Mart of all places. I just happened to luck out and find it at a K-Mart, the only time I ever saw it in a store. Anyway, Kevin Nash was a quiet but really cool guy in person. He knew of the stories about the figures I brought for him to sign. My aunt (who I told I was meeting him), asked if I could ask him if he was in for Magic Mike 2, since he was in the original. I did and he thought it was a funny question, especially coming from a guy.
The following weekend, I traveled to Voorhees, New Jersey, to meet one of my favorite groups of guys on WWE television today, The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, & Roman Reigns). These guys play a faction on television, dressed in riot gear, bringing "justice" to WWE. I have seen them since their debut, and have enjoyed their presence on TV, especially their recent feud with fellow 3 man faction, The Wyatt Family. Sadly, it has been teased in recent weeks that the group will split and pursue singles careers, but it made this trip that much more special since it was potentially the last time all three guys would be together at one signing. Because they are among my favorite active wrestlers, I went all out for this trip, buying a VIP pass that entitled me to a picture with all 3 guys, and numerous signatures from them as well.
Despite having a villainous presence on television, all three guys were very humble in person. I chatted briefly with Seth Rollins (Right) & Roman Reigns (Center). While Dean Ambrose (Left) was the quietest of the bunch (ironic given he is the leader of the group on TV), he was hilarious, making faces for everyone's pictures, mine included (as seen above). I wound up getting a K-Mart exclusive triple pack, individual Elite & Basic figures signed by each guy. Here are just a few of them:
Finally, this past Saturday, I traveled to Langhorne, PA to meet a wrestling legend of years past, Rikishi. This was somewhat of an impromptu trip as his debut Mattel figure happened to be in the current Elite wave hitting retail, 27, I found it days prior to this event, and he was within reasonable driving distance. Ironically, I wasn't a big fan of his growing up. Again, another wrestler who was very kind and upbeat in person. It is always great to see friendly celebrities in person as more often than not you read horror stories about them and rarely hear about the good ones. I got my picture with him and my figure signed.
What was funny was he asked me if I preordered his figure online, usually the fastest way to get these. I had told him about how I found it at Target to which he replied "Are you serious?" I said yeah and again this was a case where the figure was short-packed in the cases and difficult to find as a result.
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