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MIKE JOHNSON LOOKS AT WRESTLEREUNION 2

I attended the second ever WrestleReunion convention and event promoted by Sal Corrente and Rob Russen in King of Prussia, PA over the weekend. The convention drew in the area of 650-750 by my estimate although there were some I spoke to who appeared signing at the convention who estimated as many as 1,000 fans in attendance. Like the initial convention, everyone who was advertised was there as scheduled, with the exception of Sika, who was unable to make it up to Pennsylvania from Florida due to the hurricane.

The convention had a pricetag of $149 which entitled the VIP holder to 2 autographs each time they went through the line, admission into the live matches, and admission into the Q & A Sessions. It appeared the majority of those attending purchased the VIP package. Unlike the Tampa convention in June, everything was split among several different sections. The autograph section snaked its way across one wall, as opposed to the previous set up where it snaked around the square of a wrestling ring. It led a slower moving line, although if one lined up early enough, I don't see how they couldn't have gotten autographs from everyone who appeared and signed. The convention also had a photo setup where for $25 you could take a photo with a personality and come back an hour or so later to pick them up and have them personalized. They were also selling photos from the live event on Sunday morning. You have to love technology.

The event opened on Friday 8/26 with a tribute dinner to Bruno Sammartino with long-time friend Domenic DeNucci, Mick Foley, The former Dudley Boyz, Diamond Dallas Page, Bill Apter, Terry Funk, and JJ Dillon all making speeches about Sammartino. I was told it was a really classy affair. They closed out Friday with a stand up routine by Mick Foley titled "Mick At Night" which I was told was the type of comedy you would expect from Foley but worth the $25 ticket.

Saturday opened with autograph signings featuring Larry Zbyszko, Steve Corino, The Funks, Steve Williams, Harley Race, Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, The Blue Meanie, the Original Evil Clown (Matt Borne), The Thunderfoots, Tito Santana, The Fantastics, Diamond Dallas Page (unannounced) and The Patriot (Tom Brandi, who owns the rights to the gimmick now). Corino and Bockwinkel both had their respective AWA championship belts, which I thought was funny. Of everyone at the convention, Williams seemed to be in the best spirits of everyone, cracking jokes and thanking everyone for coming and for their support. Despite everything he's been through, his spirit has been unbreakable, which is nothing short of amazing.

Going on at the same time were Q & A Sessions with Matt Hardy and the former Dudley Boyz. The downside to this is that it left paying fans with a choice of getting on line for autographs and missing the Q & A Sessions, or vice versa. The majority of the fans opted for the signing session with a lot of the Q & A Sessions being sparcely attended. The first WrestleReunion event featured the ability for fans to attend everything, not just choosing between one or the other, which I thought worked out better. Of the Q & As, Bobby Heenan and the Dudley Boyz were said to have been the most attended as well as the most interesting to listen to. Other Q & As during the course of the weekend included Harley Race, The Blue Meanie, JJ Dillon, and Mick Foley.

Saturday continued with Bret Hart, Diamond Dallas Page, Wendi Richter, Matt Hardy, D'Lo Brown, Joey Styles, Mick Foley, Amy Love, Lee Marshall (unannounced), Andrew "Test" Martin, the former Dudley Boyz, Rhino, Jim Cornette, The Midnight Express, Ivan Koloff, Greg Valentine, and Lance Russell all signing. Valentine was scheduled for Sunday but only appeared here. Hart looked really worn down from his week at the NWA Legends convention, working on his DVD at WWE Headquarters, and coming here. Martin is one of the largest individuals I have ever seen in my life. His TV appearances do not do his size in person justice in the least. The Dudleys seemed to be really happy to be there and were ultra friendly to everyone, which for some old school ECW fans, probably took a little getting used to!

Saturday evening featured 10 live matches, which will be reviewed separately. After the matches, a number of the wrestlers mingled in the lobby of the convention's hotel with not just the fans, but a bridal party from a wedding earlier in the day who were amazed to walk into the hotel to find all these stars from their youth milling about.

Sunday opened up with a signing session featuring Bret Hart (who seemed to be in better spirits), Don Muraco, Joe Muraco, Steve Williams, The Masked Superstar, Diamond Dallas Page, Afa, The Samoan Island Tribe, Gary Royal, Larry Sharpe, DC Drake, and JJ Dillon. Tom Prichard and George South Jr. were advertised but never sat down to sign. Prichard was walking around the convention, but there was no sign of South at all. Bobby Heenan signed in a separate area following his Q & A Section.

The Sunday events closed down with Bruno Sammartino, Domenic DeNucci, Nikolai Volkoff, Jimmy Hart, So Cal Val, The Backseat Boyz, and Bob & Brad Armstrong signing. Sammartino looked to be in great shape. Hart especially took time out to sign anything and everything and take photos with everyone.

Notes: Appearing at the convention as guests of different vendors were Ivory, Balls Mahoney, The Sandman, Sumie Sakai, Ricky Landell, Luscious Lilly, former ECW referee Jim Molineaux, Jeremy Borash, Andy Douglas of the Naturals, Tammy Lynn Sytch (more on her in a moment) and Cindy Rogers. A number of wrestling promotions including Hardcore Homecoming, TNA, WORLD-1, Carolina Championship Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Unplugged were also represented....They were selling convention posters for $10 and T-shirts for $19....The DVD of the live show from the first WrestleReunion event has been edited but they haven't finalized the artwork. It should be released shortly....The convention didn't seem to be insuring that VIPs were allowed on line first, although I didn't see anyone protesting or complaining about the situation....The lone downside of the entire weekend was the expulsion of Tammy Lynn Sytch from the convention as she did not appear to be in any condition to be appearing publicly. Sytch, who was booked to appear at the NWA Cyberspace table and was not appearing as part of the official convention, roamed around, sitting in the front row of the Dudleys Q & A before joining them uninvited on stage. The former Bubba Ray Dudley actually commented about her state before the Q & A gathering, questioning what was wrong with her over the house mic. A representative of Cyberspace tried to get her to leave the Q & A Session but she waved them off. She later appeared sitting next to Bret Hart and then Matt Hardy as they were signing, obviously uninvited. From what I understand, she was spoken to twice about her behavior by Reunion officials. The warnings apparently didn't sink in as she was later escorted out of the convention at management's request. Sytch didn't return at any point that I saw. All I could think while watching her getting escorted out was that she reminded me of actress Dana Plato, which is frightening when you think about Plato's sad death at a relatively young age. It was really touching how much support the wrestling industry and the fans showed Sytch when Chris Candido tragically passed away several months ago, but someone needs to step in and firmly give her the support she truly needs, or we are looking at another sad story waiting to be written, and no one wants that. Sytch has been through a terrible time in recent months and hopefully things will change for her, but I am always fearful of the worst. We've had enough tragedies in this business. I hope someone, anyone helps stave off any possibility of this being another. The situation was just heartbreaking to watch....A review of the Saturday evening live event is forthcoming here on PWInsider.com.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

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