Friday morning we were up early to clean up and head out to catch the train at the 34th street station to 7th ave for the first day of the Wrestlecon Convention. The line started at the doors and went back into the Grand Ballroom. Alicia Atout came out at 8:30 am with Colt Cabana to talk to the fans and help pass the time until doors opened at 9 am. MJF also came out and insulted a bunch of fans but left after everyone started singing "You Are My Sunshine" to him.
Once the doors opened everyone got in pretty quick because you've already gone through the are showing your wristband so you aren't being held up with having your ticket's checked. We all had our lists of who we wanted to see, we had a few pre-sales as well so we went our separate ways at times but constantly ran into each other. Mikey had the biggest list and he succeeded in completing most of it.
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| Jay talking with Dan "The Beast" Severn |
There was a scheduled show at 11 am that we didn't buy tickets for, we got free general admission with our weekend pass. However with all our meet and greets and limited times some of them were there the only one that made it to the show was Mikey who watched two matches.
The first meet and greet pre-sale that I bought was for Faby Apache. Based out of AAA in Mexico I have been a fan of hers for 20 years and I never thought I'd get the chance to meet her in person. Sadly she wasn't book to wrestle on any shows until April 13th. I brought three cards for her to sign, two Japanese and AAA panini sticker, and I brought some cards for her as a gift.
In the past when I've meet foreign wrestlers that don't speak English you play this game of simple works and sign language so I wrote her a letter that I had translated to Spanish as she speaks no English. The vendor that brought her in though also had a translator so you could communicate.
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| with Faby Apache |
She was very touched by the letter, thank me for the cards and even gave me a big hug and a kiss! What was wicked cool was that she wore her wrestling gear and full headdress for the photo ops. It's one of the all time best meet and greet interactions that I've had.
I got a lot of trading cards signed during this trip, but I didn't get a lot of photos with wrestlers. In future posts I'll share all my new signed cards. The convention was taking place in four rooms, the Grand Ballroom where the matches were, Rhinelander, and American's Hall's 1 & 2, on three different floors of the hotel.
We found the Revolution Pro Wrestling table and they told us the meet and greet with the New Japan talent would be at their table, then we were told two floors down in the Rhinelander room, and then a different spot in the room. The wrestlers would only be signing for an hour and we didn't want to miss out so we staked out a place in line about 90 minutes before the signing and we were in the first five. Another reason we missed the 11 am wrestling show. The signing was slated from 1:30 - 2:30 pm.
It was worth it though as we all got autographs and photos with Minoru Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, and Katsuyori Shibata! I had a Japanese card for all four of them to sign and they were all impressed that I had the cards.
Jay had purchased pro photo ops in advance Suzuki and Tanahashi and he was even able to get those done before the RevPro show started at 3pm. His photo op with Suzuki was the best, he went up and told him that he was just going to be in fear, once Jay posed Suzuki laughed and played along, threatening him!
We had front row for the Rev Pro show and it was well worth the money for we got to see Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr vs. Hiroshi Tanashi & Will Ospreay, my god was that match amazing! It was the best match of the weekend for me! It was a thrill for all of us to see the four guys doing what they do better than most in the world so up close. Suzuki especially isn't given enough credit for how great his facial expressions are.
There were other good matches on the show like Tomohiro Ishii vs. David Starr and getting to see the US Dojo Young Lions Karl Fredericks and Clark Connors in action. Here is the whole card:
April 5, 2019 Revolution Pro Wrestling Hilton Grand Ballroom, Manhattan, NY
CCK: Chris Brookes & Jonathan Gresham defeated Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks
Carlos Romo defeated A-Kid, Flamita, & Kid Lykos
Brian Cage pinned Michael Oku
British Tag Team Champions: Suzuki-Gun: Minoru Suzuki & British Heavyweight Champion: Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay when Sabre pinned Ospreay
Ryusuke Taguchi pinned Rocky Romero
Tomohiro Ishii pinned David Starr
Aussie Open: Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis defeated Roppongi 3K: Sho & Yoh
post match Suzuki-Gun attacked Aussie Open building towards their match for the tag titles on Friday May 10th in York Hall
I got some really great photos of this show and I want to share them all so they are below at the end of the post. I also want to take a moment to give a thank you to the founder of RevPro Andy Quildan and his staff for bringing their brand of wrestling here and for just being good guys. We chatted with them quite a bit while standing in line waiting.
After the show the convention was closed for the day, but we had tickets that night to Joey Ryan's Penis Party. So we stepped out for some dinner walking a few blocks down to Nathan's Famous Franks. You can't go to New York City and not get a Nathans!
We headed right back to the Hilton for the show and to meet wrestlers that were not doing appearances at the convention itself and were just at the show. We had front row again for this show and boy was it a different type of show! Honestly you really need to see it to believe it!
We got a death match with tag partners that used skewers, staple gun, a door with mousetraps, and more. We got Ultimo Dragon, huge surprise, we got Timothy Thatcher vs. David Arquette, Penis Druids, bloody tampon druids, a DDT Pro Battle Royal that was the best of DDT in 20 minutes including storytime, cheek to cheek, and an appearance from Yoshihiko winning the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship. The show concluded with a crazy six person tag main event where Joey Ryan teamed with Val Venis & Sexxy Eddie against Priscilla Kelly, Scarlett Bordeaux, and Session Moth that featured a human centipede spot. Yup, you really just need to go to Highspots and watch the show!
April 5, 2019 Joey Ryan's Penis Party Hilton Grand Ballroom, Manhattan, NY
Ultimo Dragon with Sonny Onoo defeated Black Taurus, Green Ant, Mr. Iguana, Puma King, & Shark Boy pinning Shark Boy
Shigehiro Irie & DJ Z defeated Arez & Bestia 666
Tracy Smothers pinned Su Yung
Demon Bunny: Rosemary & Allie defeated Twisted Sisters: Holidead & Thunder Rosa
Timothy Thatcher submitted David Arquette
Death Match: Bill Carr pinned Dan Barry
Late to the Show Battle Royal: DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship: Yoshihiko defeated Danshoku Dino, Antonia Honda, Maki Ito, Makoto Oishi, Mao, & Sanshiro Takagi
Colt Cabana, Tommy Dreamer, & Mike Babchik defeated Matt Striker and Best Friends: Trent & Chuck Taylor
Impact Champion: Johnny Impact & Impact Knockouts Champion: Taya Valkyrie defeated Lucha Brothers: Pentagon Jr & Rey Fenix
Priscilla Kelly, Scarlett Bordeaux, & Session Moth Martina defeated Joey Ryan, Sexxxy Eddie, & Val Venis
After the show we headed back to the hotel, it was after midnight. Mikey and I got some slices at Bravo's and because we hadn't seen enough wrestling yet we put Takeover on and watched the first few matches. I don't recall what time I shut everything down, but I do know it was late and we had another early morning.
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