Del Rio is a miserable fuck

I went to a Too Cool and Rikishi Q&A last week, Rikishi was terrifying. Sexay and Scotty walked in doing their thing, then Rikishi shows up walking slowly, looking straight ahead, super serious face...damn. That guy. But he was pretty cool, most of the questions were for him and there wasn't much he wouldn't talk about.

Oh man, I forgot about that Rikishi and Too Cool thing in Bristol.  I was gonna go too!  What questions did people ask?  Were there anyone handing out flyers for future events chux? 

Oooh, I did see that there's a wrestling convention in London next June, Wrestlecon.  We should all try to go!!!

No flyers for the next one, but they were planning a similar thing with the Nation of Domination. I can't find anything about it now, so either we missed it or it got cancelled. But not to worry, you can meet Mason Ryan in Newport on Sunday! https://www.facebook.com/events/815304245170100/

The questions were all fairly tame. There weren't many people there, maybe 25 or 30, and all of them fit the wrestling fan stereotype. The first guy asked how Rikishi was approached about taking the cell bump, he said "with an open cheque," and that the bump nearly cost him his family because they couldn't understand why he would take the risk. Another guy asked him how the pay works, but Rikishi refused to talk about money. The only other thing that was totally shut down was Sexay refusing to reveal how Rumbles are structured. Both questions gave me a bit of smark rage, even I could tell them the answers to those. Sexay's reasoning for not wanting to talk about booking was because he was old school. I wanted to ask for their general opinions on the business being more and more exposed and the impact of the growing population of smart fans on things, but I didn't get chosen. I figured it was a little bit weird that they would do a session like this knowing the kind of fan who would show up, using terms like "shoot" and then say they were uncomfortable with revealing secrets.

Others asked for their dream opponents. Sexay wanted to work Shawn Michaels, can't remember who Rikishi said so I assume it wasn't anyone special. Scotty agreed with Michaels, but said he actually did do an untelevised match with him because a spot got blown in another Michaels match, where Sherri was supposed to give a certain look that the camera didn't pick up, so they had Michaels work Scotty to get that shot. Scotty's kid was there, so someone asked him who would win in a match between Scotty and John Cena. Little Worm was shy, I guess, and didn't say anything. Scotty mumbled "I already beat him."

Someone asked Rikishi which of his characters was most challenging, most fun and which had most unrealised potential. He apparently liked the Sultan gimmick and felt there was more to it, but once he lost to the Patriot it was basically dead. Look out, Rusev. He talked a bit about following the family into wrestling, he said he actually didn't think about it until his brother, Tonga Kid, "sold out" MSG at 17. Sure, it wasn't the three other guys in the match. I was going to ask how happy he was about his kids getting into wrestling, how supportive King was about Sexay getting involved and whether or not Scotty would encourage Little Worm to start training, but again, not chosen.

Someone asked if Scotty could still do the worm, he said he could and does when he works indies, but was wearing tight jeans and no knee pads so he couldn't do it tonight. Boo. But he did mention that Little Worm could do a pretty good one, so after some encouragement and furniture rearrangements he did it. It was pretty badass actually, good height on it. I guess seven year olds have soft spines or something.

Then they were going to do photos and autographs. It would have been like £20 for a signed 8x10 or £35 for a photo, so I tapped out there. It went maybe an hour and a half, a little less, and was £10 entry. Not bad. The last minute change of venue swerved me though, I went right into the city centre only to find no one there. That three minute stay in the car park cost £2.60! Then to make it even worse, the actual place was half way home. I'd driven past it to get to the first place. Argh.

Sounds pretty cool, I wish I remembered about it and went! 

I do agree that it's weird they'd be guarded about using the terms knowing the kind of fans that go to these things.  Piper wasn't like that at all when I saw him.  He was happy talking about backstage shenanigans, ring psychology, backstage politics and using words like face, heel etc.

Ok, so HBK has been added to the guests for the London Wrestlecon in June.  Here's the website: http://www.psievents.co.uk/

Who fancies going?  It'd be really cool to get as many of us as possible for a 4w day out!!

Shawn and Bret both going to be there. I wonder how long we can go without hearing anyone say "Montreal."

Looks like a half decent lineup. If I get to meet Lita I might cry AJ style.

I saw Lita in London in July.

It's Gangrel I want to meet.  The apprentice finally meets the master as Carstein comes face to face with Gangrel 😉.