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I had a chance at the end of March and into April to go to Houston, Texas
and experience what the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) had to offer as well as some
hospility from the editor of Collectortimes. Some of my expectations were met and surpassed, while
some of them fell a bit short.
After a fifty-five minute plane ride from Dallas to Houston I was greeted
by the older daughter of our intrepid editor. It felt good to be out of the plane full of
strangers and meet some friendly faces. After about three minutes in the baggage claim we were
on my way to the hotel. Houston, for those of who have not been there before, is laid out
vary strangely because the city has no zoning. So the downtown area is far away from what could be
described as the medical district; which in Dallas is surrounding the downtown area. Then you
have The Hotel was across the street from the Astrodome and Astrohall where all
the action was going to take place this weekend. Check in was kind of neat because I
was in front of a couple of the guys in the WWF production staff, and I got to hear some neat
things about how a WWF show is filmed. This also brought up the hope that maybe the WWF
superstars were staying here as well. Anyway, I got checked in and went along with Sheryl and Sidra
up to my room. I was in what could be described as a dorm room that overlooked the pool and part
of the Astrodome and Astrohall. After dropping my stuff off in the room and trying out the
television (all 12 channels of it with highlights being HBO and the Cartoon Network) I was off
to see some of Houston.
After a short drive that involved us getting lost because of an accident
that just took place we got to the B-B-Q place that Sheryl takes guests to to have Texas
B-B-Q. We have to take the requisite Jackalope picture before we go in to eat, and I'm totally
dumbfounded about where it is. I was looking for a statue or carving, and instead it is part of a giant
mural on the side of the building across the street from the B-B-Q place. They have the
pictures to back this up if you want to see them. (Which I'm sure they will post.) The B-B-Q place is
moderately busy for the lunch rush, and we manage to get a table for the three of us. I had
Chicken that was so well done that it nearly came off the bone. I tried to eat it with a knife and
fork, but that only works so long before you have to tear into it with your hands. By the time I
was done I must have gone through half a rain forest of napkins because it was so greasy.
Next with was onto the Houston Museum of Fine Art. There they have an
exhibition of Star Wars artifacts from the various movies. It was really interesting to see all
of these props, costumes and models from the movies. It made the movies seem all that much
real. The coolest things there are the to scale Speeder Bike from Return of the Jedi and all
the various ship models that they used. There is an audio tour that came with it that allowed
you to type in numbers on some of the cases to hear explanations from various people that
worked on the movie including George Lucas himself. After we walk through we hit the gift shop,
where everything is really overpriced (like all museum gift shops are). The highlight of it is
the life sized costume of Darth Vader that will run you ten thousand dollars. I instead go
for a couple of action figures that were a pain in the side to find elsewhere. I had to pay
a bit more than retail, but it was worth it. After that, we go to the art exhibit upstairs
and look at various gold artifacts from all around the world. By now I'm tired and really eager
to get my tickets from the WWF representative at the hotel. Sher takes me back to the hotel
and we make plans for me to come by her house on Sunday before I go to Wrestlemania.
From this point on, with a few exceptions, if it had to do with some aspect
of the WWF then it involved a line. In this case, there was a line for those of us that
had purchased the special package deals that the WWF offered through their web site. After
about a forty minute wait in line, I get my tickets, T-Shirt and special souvenir baseball cap.
The rest of the day I spent in my room resting from my long day or down in the hotel bar talking with
other fans from around the country and around the world.
Saturday was an interesting day. I get into the line outside Reliant Hall
at 8:30am and spent the next hour and a half waiting in line with the other fans that had
come. Ten o'clock finally comes and we are let in in a crush of people. I've been listening in
the crowd to the various people that came the night before so I knew kind of what to expect,
and I was not let down. I immediately rushed to one of the autograph tables stationed
around the hall. Since they did not have a list of who was signing autographs where, it was luck of
the draw. I guess some luck was on my side because the line I was in, was the line for MICK
FOLEY. Now I wish I had packed his autobiography for him to sign. After about an hour in line
I get up to the table and have him sign my book and I thank him. It was well worth the hour wait.
I would have gotten in the Tazz autograph line, which was right across from the Mick line, but
that line was way too long and I was already tired from all the standing and waiting. I hit the
Chef Boyardee wrestling ring and sit and watch what was going on there. I watched K-Kwik beat on
some up and comer, announcer Howard Finkle quiz the audience on Wrestlemania Trivia and a "The
One" Billy Gunn Q & A from the audience. That ate up a good hour and a half, and then I
go before I have to suffer through more Wrestlemania trivia and watching someone have
lunch with Kurt Angle. I wander around and see who was at the various autograph stages. I
see Undertaker, but like everything autograph related, a huge ass line.
There are all sorts of licensed dealers at the show. K-B Toys was selling
WWF action figures for their usual marked up price plus tax. I got the Mick Foley one,
but that was all. One place that was doing gangbuster business was selling licensed replica title
belts. They were two hundred dollars a throw no matter which one it was, and by this time they
had sold out of the Intercontinental and Heavyweight titles. They looked pretty good, and I
cursed being on a budget. The card company Fleer was there as well announcing their new partnership
with the WWF and selling their new Wrestlemania collectable cards there before they went
on sale to the public. I buy five packs and get a free Fleer t-shirt for answering a
WWF related question. The company Comic Images was there as well, showing off their WWF Raw Deal
Collectable Card Game, offering up game demos and having product for sale. By this time I had
all the Raw Deal cards I needed, and I took off. They said that they would have
representatives from the UPN network there, but the closest thing I saw was on the various monitors they
had for you to look at they had ads for shows like Star Trek Voyager, Gary and Mike and some other
UPN shows I do not watch.
After doing some shopping for T-shirts for the family back home and picking
up a program, I get in line for possibly the neatest thing at WWF Access, and
that is Fantasy Play By Play. You or you and a friend could call a condensed WWF match or a few
minutes of an XFL game. This was by far the longest wait in line I had and was the most
rewarding. I can understand the WWF match one, but the XFL one baffled me. Maybe they were
doing some covert play-by-play drafting for next season. A guy in line and I get a kick
out of one kid calling a match because he said "Oh the humanity!" The time comes for me to do my
match and I choose the first TLC match from Summerlam. I think I did an okay job, not
WWF caliber, but a good one nonetheless. I took my copy and free t-shirt , and took off. An
odd thing happened while I was in line for this. All of a sudden a huge wave of people
goes towards one area. Apparently The Rock was making an unannounced appearance and lots of
people heard about it and they rushed off from where they were. It was a creepy
sight, to say the least.
By this time I got into the meet and greet line along with alot of other
package holders. I was hoping to meet some really neat wrestlers there like Tazz or
Undertaker, but I was kind of let down. Sure we had wrestlers, but they were probably low mid
card at best. Along with the autographs, you had a food buffet and cash bar. I was tempted to
chuck the autograph getting and eat the food, but I was going to come home with more than one
autograph. Anyway I see Albert, and I make the stupid fanboy comment of the day with "Wow,
you're tall." and he comes back "If you think I'm tall, you should see the Big Show." I'll talk more
about this in my opinion column this month. I kind of atone for the Albert question when I meet Terri
Runnels. I ask her "How do you like Texas?" and she says "It's like my second home." We spend
about an hour and a half in there before we line up to go back to the second half of
Access.
All of us that were in line after the meet and greet head for the nearest
autograph table. I have a decent place in line this time, so I am hoping that it is someone
that I really wanted to see. But it was K-Kwik, and I had already gotten his autograph at the meet and
greet so half the line disbands including me. Rumor has it that the Big Show was at the stage
across from the one I was just in and I'm tempted to go there, but the line is already too long
and I'm really tired. I take a look at the Jakks Pacific booth because they have prototypes of the next few
lines they are putting out and it looks like they already have a winner on their hands. I really
wanted to get the scoop on the next few lines for my article this month, but I was there as Fanboy
Mathew not Mathew Toy Guy of Collectortimes.com. By this time it was seven o'clock and I had been up
on my feet for the better part of eleven hours. I was hungry, tired and really wanted
out. Lucky for me it is a short walk back to the hotel. I put away everything I got that day and buy dinner.
Sunday morning I wake up and skip the hotel restraunt for breakfast as
Sheryl had planned for me to have breakfast with them. The only problem is that they
had stayed up all night getting the Collector Times finished and put up before they went to
sleep, and on top of all that they had forgotten that daylight savings time had kicked in and
to move the clocks ahead an hour. Anyway, after about thirty minutes of them trying to find me
and me waiting for them, Sidra arrives in the purple chariot to take me back to the Roberts'
home. We have breakfast and play a couple games Sidra got for her birthday. After about an
hour of games, we settle in the living room to watch the GOD-AWEFUL Fantastic Four movie that
Sheryl picked up from Aggiecon. We fling insults at the screen for the next ninety
minutes, and afterwards I learn more about Aggiecon from Sidra and Sheryl.
They take me back to the hotel at about three-thirty. Since I am already
dressed for Wrestlemania, I take a moment to sit down and actually watch the television.
I find that the UPN affiliate is showing the movie UHF so I kick back and watch it for about
forty minutes before I head out to the Astrodome to watch the show. There's a line here, but it moves
fast and I'm in my seat by five o'clock. The seat I have is on the floor, 13 rows in from the ring. I
thought I had a so-so seat, but I was close to the main camera set up. I guess you have to take
those seating charts with a grain of salt. I'm kind of far from the entrance ramp, but I still
can see the Titan Tron, one of the monitors, and the ring. At six o'clock they show us the feed of WWF
Heat, and at six fifty-five we are treated to a tag team match to warm us up. Then promptly at
seven o'clock the show starts. We are in for three hours and forty-five minutes of guys pounding on
each other. The crowd is cheering and the pyrotechnics are very loud along with the sound
system. I leave promptly after the last bell with a full roll of film and great memories.
Monday Sheryl picks me up and we navigate our way to the airport. We make
our way through the metal detectors and I get to the terminal. Sheryl wants to
see me off, but I tell her I am okay and she can go on home and take care of things. The flight home is
a lot less bumpy than the one up there and when we land, I'm so glad to be home again.
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