Day two

So with a promise of skipping the queue to see Bret Hart we slept until eight and had breakfast in our room. We had plans to leave around nine but ended up leaving almost an hour later. At this point we couldn't actually get hold of our new friend and started to get skeptical about promises made in the dark of the night, but optimistically headed for RVD's 5 Star Comic store in Lakewood where the signing was taking place.

We managed to get lost, even with the help of Holly (our NeverLost system) but that was because the address we gave her was wrong. We finally managed to find the mall with help of some friendly locals, and arrived around 11 am. And if you know anything about wrestling legend Bret Hart and his fans, you can believe easily that queues were amazing - in fact there were three separate queues: people who had tickets, people who were queueing to get tickets, and people who were queuing to get to queue where they could buy tickets. At this point it was Chu's time to get wheeling and dealing and get us in - and with flashing the right business card and finally getting hold of our friend she managed to get the phone to RVD himself who let her come into the store to buy tickets. After some more wheeling and dealing she got us in too and into the queue to see Bret.

For Dragon and Chu this meeting was much bigger deal than it was for me, but it was still interesting to see the legendary wrestler and his fans. Bret was very polite and seemed only mildly surprised to hear that we came from Finland. He was wearing a Calgary Hitmen t-shirt and jeans, and had a lot more gray in his hair than I was expecting - he seemed a bit tired and wasn't as personable as I was expecting (but Dragon keeps telling me signing autographs is often like that). So we all got our five seconds with him, and Chu and Dragon both got to say what they wanted, and Chu got an autograph she really wanted (and she paid dearly for, too). The signing was supposed to end at 12, but I hear Bret was there until 1.30 to get everyone happy.

After that we decided to go and see our benefactor at a Blockbusters where he was guarding John Cena. This was the most audacious moment of the trip - drive in the front of the Blockbusters where they were literally hundreds of people queuing, park right next to the main entrance, step out only to be met by the meanest looking security guard (and the most handsome I have to say, in his suite and sunglasses), then hug him in the friendliest way and to be escorted inside right before the queue. At this time I believe they were starting to run late and didn't allow any photos with John Cena which was a shame - but we did get to talk to him a bit and wish him the best of luck for his match on Sunday. Unfortunately we were not allowed to stay in the shop so we headed out and to the Staples Centre were we stocked up on Wrestlemania merchandise so we wouldn't have to queue for that on Sunday. After that we got back to the hotel, and while Dragon headed for the gym, me and Chu headed for the bed so we'd be all rested before the evening's entertainment.

And we slept until right before we had to leave for the second night of the PWG's All Star Weekend. We got in earlier this time so we could get first row seats, but the doors opened late. So we stood there in the front of the queue with our English friends, when the organisers let about 25 Japanese fans before us - their reasoning was that these people had come half way around to world so they wanted to give them good seats. Then something really weird happened, something I've never seen happen before - we started complaining loudly about this "unfair treatment" (I think all the power had gone to our heads!) when other people behind us in the queue started shouting back that it was only fair the let the Japanese in - it wasn't that many people anyway and they had come a long way! Imagine that, people were actually telling us off for complaining about people skipping the queue. I have say for them, the PWG fans are the most friendly wrestling fans I've ever met - in person and on their board. Quality people.

I think that although the better matches were on the first evening, this event was probably the better event of the two - to start with it lasted for three hours which is much more manageable time. Before the event we got to meet the phenomenal AJ Styles who was also phenomenally nice - after we went back to our seats and discovered that photo Chu had taken of us had failed, we came back and AJ was nice enough to pose with me one more time although the bell had already rung. To our surpise we also saw Frankie Kazarian's last indy match before he moves on to WWE, and the other wrestlers held some beautiful speeches for him wishing him the best of luck. Something I love about wrestling fans is their way to communicate with the wrestlers by using chants, and my favourites for this evening was "please don't go" and "thank you Frankie" chants for Frankie and "happy birthday" to Scorpio Sky. To see the humour in this you have to imagine 400 or so people chanting the words at the same time with their fists in the air.

After the event we stayed and chatted with Jonny Storm again, who quickly proceeded to making a date with Chu when he was coming to wrestle to Helsinki next month. Those Essex lads, eh? We also chatted with a man who resembled El Generico a lot and was selling his t-shirts, but most certainly wasn't him - he was also a huge flirt, but then again I would rather be remembered as "two sexy ladies" than "two crazy Finnish ladies" we dubbed ourselves as.

Fantastic and tiring day, but well worth it.

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