Hey now.

So, there’s one thing everyone should know about me: I love attending autograph signings.

Seriously, if there’s one person who gets massive enjoyment out of forking over his hard earned money just to meet a fellow human being for roughly 2 minutes, it’s me!

My very first autograph signing started at a very young age: 5 or 6 years old. My parents took Little Me to FAO Schwarz in New York City to meet Marc Brown, the author of the very popular Arthur series. While I can’t recall the specifics of meeting Brown, I do remember the excitement of being there. I remember waiting on the congested line and seeing Arthur and Buster (Arthur’s bff) mascots taking pictures with the hundreds of children in attendance. Afterward, I remember looking at my autographed books and thinking, “Wow. This is pretty cool.”

It would be another 5 years or so before my next autograph signing, one that was completely unexpected. It was a random Sunday afternoon and, as was customary in my life, my parents dragged me to the mall. The Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ, to be more exact. Except this day would be different. A small billboard stationed outside the mall advertised an autograph signing with WWE Superstar…Shawn Michaels. I met HBK that very day and I would meet Torrie Wilson (right after her first spread in Playboy) and Mick Foley months later at that very mall. Then, sadly, the signings came to an end as the Sports Memorabilia store that hosted them would go out of business.

Thus, it would be even longer before my next autograph signing. Truth be told, I sort of fell out of love with wrestling. The WWE circa 2005-2013 was pretty much the pits. Plus, it just wasn’t “cool” to watch wrestling when I was in High School and College.

But Brock Lesnar’s return in 2012 re-ignited my interest in wrestling. I wasn’t a hardcore fan of the product again but the WWE has regained my interest. 2014, however, would be the year that my love for autograph signings would be re-ignited.

In November 2014, I saw that Chris Jericho was having a book signing at a Barnes and Noble in Carle Place, Long Island. I decided to attend the event and I was not disappointed. Jericho was absolutely great and signed whatever memorabilia  you had (in my case, his DVD compilation). His generosity brought back the good feelings, the good experiences Little Me had of meeting Marc Brown.

I saw that a store in Flushing, Queens called The Wrestling Universe was having a Scott Hall and X-Pac signing in January. That, coupled with my brand spanking new WWE Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, was enough for me to make the trek.

And I haven’t stopped since. I’ve spent a lot of money and have dedicated a lot of my time to going to these signings but, to me, it’s been worth it.

So what, loyal readers (lol all 0 of you), is the point of this post? Well, it’s fairly simple. I’m going to be blogging – A LOT – about the autograph signings I attend. I don’t plan on getting too personal with my tales because, well, who the hell cares? But I want to share my experiences because they’ve been overwhelmingly positive.

Matter of fact, I think a future topic will be about attending conventions and/or fanfests…