August 20th – Autograph Signing @ Hot Topic in Garden State Plaza; Paramus, NJ

I arrived at the Garden State Plaza at roughly 4:20 PM for Hot Topic’s Kevin Owens signing. You had to purchase his t-shirt to score a wristband; I believe only 225 wristbands were being issued although people were being placed on waitlists! That’s pretty awesome of Hot Topic though not surprising. An employee told me they were sent 300 wristbands.

I was curious how this signing would go down considering Hot Topic is a VERY small store. How would they contain the line? Well, they actually managed to pull it off with a little creativity. The store is located downstairs, right near the food court. The line started upstairs, right above the food court/hot topic. They lined everyone up along the railings and brought people downstairs about 15-20 at a time. Here’s a photo of the line when I first got there:

The line went fairly quickly. A little over an hour, which was nothing considering the Ryback & Charlotte line. Plus, I made a friend while on line. Anyways, I was brought to Owens as he was chugging a bottle of water. He chugged too much and some of the water spilled on his t-shirt as I introduced myself and rained praise upon him. He finished drinking his water and says, “I spilled some water on my shirt. The lengths I go through to please you people!” Owens was AWESOME.

I asked him if he would sign his profile in the ROH Global Wars ’14 program as Kevin Steen and he said “Sure man, no problem! Whatever you like!” He then remarked that his Steen and Owens signatures were nearly identical. We took this picture:

Perfect signing. The staff was great, the GSP security handled the line terrifically, and I left a happy customer. Here’s what he signed:

Hey now.

August 20 – Autograph Signing at ToysRUs Times Square; NY, NY

The next day began bright and early. The WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins & Paige would be signing autographs at the ToysRUs Times Square location. You needed to purchase $30.00 worth of WWE merchandise at that particular store to score a meet & greet ticket. I got mine insanely early (I was issued ticket #17). Luckily for me, ToysRUs gave me a 2nd ticket because they didn’t have ANY Paige or Rollins merchandise the day I purchased my 1st ticket and when I went back and tried to exchange my original purchase for a Paige elite and a Rollins basic, they just issued me another ticket instead. TWO autographs! Awesome.

I arrived to ToysRUs at roughly 10:00 AM to find a small line formed outside the ToysRUs. There were several other lines once you were brought inside. The first floor line looked like this:

The Special Event staff escorted about 15-20 people at a time to an elevator. Once you were off the elevator…you waited on another line. But we were close! I saw where Rollins and Paige were being housed. They even had a Special Event staff member ask every person if they wanted their item personalized. In fact, you can see here in this photo. She’s wearing the white blouse on the right talking to a customer:

It was time. I first met Rollins and he was INCREDIBLY nice. ZERO complaints. He signed my items, shook my hand, and took a good pic with me (that will be posted on my site tomorrow). Here’s a picture of us:

Up next was Paige. She, too, was an absolute sweetheart. I wanted a photo with her but the person who took my photo with Rollins was too busy. I asked an employee to snap it and he said he wasn’t allowed and suggested I do a selfie. I am HORRIBLE at selfies so, of course, the photo came out blurry. BUT…something cool did happen. As I was about to ask Paige for a selfie, she suddenly got up and went to hug someone. A little annoyed, I turned to see who dared interrupted my selfie…and my jaw dropped:

Apologies for the blurry photo but I snapped it in the middle of my barely contained excitement. Kevin Owens, his wife, and son interrupted the signing just to say hi to Paige and Rollins! Owens’ son took a picture with Paige before I finally got my (blurry) selfie.

All in all, a great signing although I’m a little miffled that not one employee couldn’t take my picture with Paige. Still, my fault for taking a blurry selfie. I should perfect those, I guess. Here’s what I got signed:

Anyways, speaking of Owens…I would be meeting him later that day…

Hey now.

Unfortunately, the journey began with a shitshow of an autograph signing. The WWE Intercontinental Champion Ryback, Charlotte, Eva Marie, & Fandango would be signing free autographs during the Brooklyn Cyclones ballgame. The price of admission? $10.00! Despite this being a very long trip via public transportation and a “no posed photos” policy, I figured this was a no brainer.

I was wrong.

Before the signing, it was announced that the foursome would be split into two separate signings: Ryback & Charlotte would be signing along the Left Field side while Eva Marie & Fandango would be signing along the Right Field side. Essentially, you were forced to pick which two you wanted because it was HIGHLY unlikely you’d somehow manage to get through both lines.

I arrived at MCU Park shortly before the gates were scheduled to be open and saw a group of people huddled outside one of the gates. What I then saw was literally jaw dropping. There was a mass of humanity that seemingly never ended. Turns out, MCU Park was tracking its 4,000,000 fan and they felt everyone entering through one gate was the best method to accurately track this lucky (or unlucky) bastard.

Surprisingly, the line went EXTREMELY quickly. I was admitted into the ballpark after roughly a 10-15 minute wait and I immediately made a beeline toward the Ryback & Charlotte line…and was blown away with how long it was. Luckily, I had a decent spot in line – towards the end of the beginning of the line (if that makes sense lol).

This picture is timestamped at 5:52 PM. Ryback and Charlotte were stationed on the right side of the bathroom building.
RANT time: The foursome were participating in a pre-game celebrity softball game. Really? You know 99% of the people showed up to meet them, not seem them play in a stupid softball game. You really couldn’t have the signing start during this game? Also, they had all four of them throw out the first pitch – individually! I’ve been to a million baseball games in my life and I’ve never seen a team allow four or five different people throw out the first pitch one after the other. It’s usually at the same time. But nope.

Here’s the other thing: Ryback and Charlotte didn’t start signing until well after 7:30 PM! How could they be 30 minutes late?!? THEY’RE IN THE BALLPARK!!!!!

This photo was timestamped at 8:10 PM, roughly five minutes before I met them. After a painfully long time of waiting, it was finally my turn and they couldn’t have been any nicer. You could tell they were both exhausted but they were beyond nice.

Afterward, I made my way to the Eva Marie/Fandango line hoping for a miracle…and was promptly turned away by a guard who said they cut off the line. I managed to talk my way into the line…and they pulled Eva Marie & Fandango soon after. People were FURIOUS. Apparently Fandango and Eva Marie were taking pictures and that slowed the line down considerably. I was too tired to care about missing out on them.

I saw a group of pals outside the V.I.P. and Media entrance. They were waiting for the foursome to exit and it was a good call.

Fandango ignored everyone, Charlotte and Ryback waved, and Eva Marie signed two or three autographs. There was an incident involving a stupid ass guard THROWING a special needs guy to the ground. It got really ugly.

So…shit show indeed. Not good. Here’s what I had signed:

Hey now.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through a list of upcoming autograph signings and one immediately grabbed my attention. Daniel Bryan, one of the most beloved “superstars” in WWE today, would begin a book signing tour to promote his first autobiography, “Yes! My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania.”

Luckily enough, I was presented with two options to meet him:

1) The 12:00 PM Barnes and Noble book signing on East 54th Street – mere minutes away from my place of work.

OR

2) The 6:00 PM Bookends signing in Ridgewood, NJ – roughly 20 minutes away from my home.

I was heavily considering going to the Barnes and Noble signing right after my overnight shift. But my mind changed after I placed a phone call to Barnes and Noble. They could not reserve a book for me; they weren’t sure if they were going to allow extra items to be signed; and they weren’t too sure about pictures.

Bookends, on the other hand, guaranteed a spot in line if I reserved a book. And they offered a “quick duck-in photo” and one extra item signed. Barnes and Noble was filled with uncertainties while Bookends offered nothing but guarantees. The choice was made.

I reserved my book and counted down the days until I met one of my favorite wrestlers ever.

And that day came yesterday evening. Here’s the story of My Awesome Journey to Bookends to Meet Daniel Bryan:

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My friend and I arrived to Bookends at roughly 5:00 PM – an hour before the signing – to see a pretty large crowd forming in the Bookends parking lot.:

Thankfully, we ended up being right in the middle of the line. About a hundred or so people lined up after us; in fact, there was even a separate line for “standbys” – people who did not reserve a book but would be offered one if someone who reserved canceled/no showed. Sadly, I’m not sure if many ended up canceling and I’m afraid more than a few kids left unhappy.

Observation: I saw more than a handful of kids show to this signing decked out in full John Cena gear. Seriously. Cena is the merchandise king for a reason, I guess.

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We waited on the line for a long, long time. The signing was supposed to start at 6:00 PM but there was no sign of Daniel Bryan. Finally, at 6:30ish PM, an SUV with a smiling bearded man in the backseat pulled into the parking lot.

It wasn’t too long before the line began to move. It actually moved fairly quickly until it came to a grinding halt roughly 20 minutes after they began letting people in. Once you brought into the store, you had to go downstairs to join another line and I guess they let in one too many people – thus the hold up. That kind of sucked, only because we were making good time.

Anyways, it was well after 8:00 PM – the signing was supposed to end at 8 – when we were finally let in. We were directed downstairs, to another line, and were immediately hit with humidity. There was no AC! That’s bad considering how many people were down there. They did have a couple of fans blowing but that wasn’t enough.

Luckily, it wasn’t too bothersome because we were so close to meeting him:

It was another 15-30 minutes before it was finally my turn. You handed a Bookends employee your book + extra item and your cellphone/camera to another Bookends employee. Bryan’s handler quickly ushered you next to him for the photo op.

Here’s Bryan signing my stuff:

After he was finished signing my stuff, I quickly shook his hand, told him I was a fan, and took this pic:

GREAT PIC! The meeting was short but Daniel Bryan was VERY nice and greeted EVERYONE with a smile and thanked everyone for all the compliments and well wishes that were raining down on him. He was really easy going and I thought the two and a half hour wait was worth it. Here’s what he’s signed:

I don’t get action figures signed – I don’t have the room for them and I don’t want to constantly worry about their condition. The Encyclopedia is enough for me and I’m REALLY happy to have his signature in my Encyclopedia.

Overall, an awesome day. Go out and meet Daniel Bryan if he does a book signing near you!

Hey now.

It was roughly 1 month since I last attended an autograph signing at the Wrestling Universe, so I was obviously eager to return and meet another wrestler. And I’m very glad that wrestler was Drew Galloway!

The signing started at 3:00 PM and I arrived at the Universe at roughly 3:50 to find a small line, which was a bit surprising. As it turns out, there was a group of people who decided to meet him together and that’s what caused the very small backup. No biggie!

After about 10-15 minutes of waiting, it was my turn to meet Galloway and I was immediately taken aback with how tall he was! Of course, he was equally impressed with my height – I’m 6’5 – and he commented that I was a “big fella.” That I am, Drew.

We shook hands and he signed his entry in the WWE Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. We then posed for this picture:

Funny that he wanted to do the “Too Sweet” pose.

All in all he was a GREAT guy and I recommend meeting him, readers!

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Next signing: Daniel Bryan this Wednesday (7/23) at Bookends in Ridgewood, New Jersey.