First order of the day was to see
the various stalls and sellers which had everything from replica swords to
those Funko POP! Vinyls I love so much. There were cosplayers everywhere and
some cool photo opportunities.
The celebrities were out in the
gangway at various points and the stalls were in the stadium itself. To the
back of the room there were photo opportunities with props and to the sides
were two discussion areas – one for the cosplayers and one for the celebrities.
The first order of the day was a caht with the wrestlers – WWE Hall of Famers
“Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan took to the stage
along with a TNA Tag Team Champion duo to talk about their experiences in the
wrestling worlds. DiBiase was very candid about the goings on and said it was a
very competitive market and is a very lonely life as you are always on the
road. Duggan added that working with an inexperienced wrestler could be very
painful. DiBiase said that a lot of the matches are predetermined – but the
actual match (although they know the winner) was all improvised as it happened
which made it more exciting. The tag team contributed through their eyes of
more modern wrestling but it was quite interesting finding out about the
classic wrestling I grew up with – and all of them seemed really nice people.
After the Wrestlers Talk the next
guy up for a chat was none other than Michael Biehn, who discussed about
Aliens, Hicks, Terminator and Kyle Reese. He said that and Aliens sequel had
been greenlighted but he has not been asked to reprise his role yet – but he
would be up for it if he was asked. He also said that although he hated what
happened to his character in the sequels, this new movie will be a sequel to
Aliens and will forget the Alien 3 and the really poor Alien Resurrection.
Hopefully it will forget the AVP movies too.
I got to meet “Hacksaw” Jim
Duggan and he was a lovely person and really friendly. We “Hoooooo”’d together
and he signed my Wrestlemania Box Set DVD collection. I was tussling with the
idea of getting a signed photo, but I have it in my head that I’d like a set of
DVD’s signed by different wrestlers. I’m considering doing this with my Star
Wars collection too. What do you guys think? Put a comment and let me know.
There was the opportunity to pose
with some props and those of you regular readers to my blog will know I had my
photo taken with the clockface from Back to the Future when I went to Newcastle
Comic Con back in March. Here was even better – you could pose with Doc Brown’s
tombstone or sit on the throne from Game Of Thrones. Best of all though – you
could get a photo sat in the DeLorean from Back To The Future. I, of course,
jumped at the chance and to get a photo for £5 in such an iconic car, it will
be a picture I will treasure for a long time to come.
After the Delorean and Duggan I
wanted to see Robert Englund, arguable the most popular guy at the event this
time. I took a ticket to see him – number 297 no less. Even by 3pm he was
nowhere near that. He was spending a lot of time talking to the fans and taking
pictures so I never got to meet him – but he will be on my list next time. We
did however get to see his talk which involved a skit about Freddy vs Jason and
Freddy Vs Chucky (which of course Freddy would win). He was very entertaining
and really enjoyed the talk and this rounded off my day.
I had early bird tickets and they
cost £15 but you could have got standard ones for a bit cheaper, £8 I think. It
was a well organised and enjoyable day with some great celebrities and all of
us had fun. Well done Showmasters – I’ll have to come to Sheffield
next year.
