TNA Meet and Greets - your experiences?

[Alex Shelley]

So TNA's coming to San Francisco next month. I'm going to the show, hopefully I can get front row, or near front row seats.

Anyway, if you pay $50 you get to go to a meet and greet, and I'm considering it but not sure if I want to cause I'm not sure what to expect.

So... Tell me your experiences please? Walk me through the entire process, from the time you arrived to the time you left

[dicegirl72]

Sept 9, 2011 0:05:14 GMT -5 Alex Shelley said:

So TNA's coming to San Francisco next month. I'm going to the show, hopefully I can get front row, or near front row seats.

Anyway, if you pay $50 you get to go to a meet and greet, and I'm considering it but not sure if I want to cause I'm not sure what to expect.

So... Tell me your experiences please? Walk me through the entire process, from the time you arrived to the time you left

Hee. A friend of mine and I are currently debating whether or not to go to this show & the "Meet and Greet". So I will be watching the thread with interest as well. My comment to him was "If I pay MORE than $50 can I NOT see JJ at the meet and greet?" (Not a JJ fan). If I hear anything about the meet & greet elsewhere, I'll share it here.

[Altabane]

I haven't been to one, but I heard TNA security are really douches.

[Alex Shelley]

Sept 9, 2011 0:35:35 GMT -5 dicegirl72 said:

Sept 9, 2011 0:05:14 GMT -5 Alex Shelley said:

So TNA's coming to San Francisco next month. I'm going to the show, hopefully I can get front row, or near front row seats.

Anyway, if you pay $50 you get to go to a meet and greet, and I'm considering it but not sure if I want to cause I'm not sure what to expect.

So... Tell me your experiences please? Walk me through the entire process, from the time you arrived to the time you left

Hee. A friend of mine and I are currently debating whether or not to go to this show & the "Meet and Greet". So I will be watching the thread with interest as well. My comment to him was "If I pay MORE than $50 can I NOT see JJ at the meet and greet?" (Not a JJ fan). If I hear anything about the meet & greet elsewhere, I'll share it here.

Sweet, I'll post info here too for ya if I hear it from anybody else.

My comment was that I'd be really pissed if they forced me to meet Gunner and Crimson and nobody else

I mostly want to meet Kendrick. And maybe hug him :B

[unoriginalalex]

I mostly want to meet Kendrick. And maybe hug him :B

If you do please tell him I said hi, not that he knows me or anything, but still PLEASE DO IT.

[unoriginalalex]

& to add to this thread, I went to a TNA show a while back (Red was X Champ at the time, EY was tagging with Nash -- around that time) and I didn't get the meet and greet, but I got to meet, Madison, Velvet, Beer Money, Sarita, Taylor Wilde, & Amazing Red because they walked around afterward taking photos with everyone and such, and if you wanted to, you could get in the ring and take a picture holding the World Title Belt with AJ if you paid, but I have no idea how much it was.

[kolani]

Based on the one here:

(a) Don West will try to upsell the hell out of you before it starts. They'll have some exclusive that gets you backstage access, and some of the uppercard guys will only be available via the backstage access. Here, it was a limited edition TNA guitar and an AJ action figure. Access to AJ for autographs was only available via purchase of the figure. Some of the other talent never made themselves available at ringside, so I imagine they were only available via the guitar.

(b) Depending on who it is, they'll usually make a circuit around the ringside and take photos. Interaction level really depends on who it is. Tommy was great, but again, I've never had a bad interaction with Dreamer at all...he even set up Bubba to get into a shouting match with my sister during his match before the show. Sarita was lovely, we had a little talk about AAA when she finished her circuit. Matt Hardy was gracious and pleasant with fans. Crimson and Abyss made the circuit as fast as they could. Abyss I give a pass to, it was right after the incident with RVD and his teeth though. Velvet signed my program, I got a hug out of it, and she signed my Victory Road 09 DVD cover *swoon*.

All in all, it was pretty decent...here it came with the price of a front row ticket, not sure how they're selling it where you are.

[derrtaysouth95]

I've been to two TNA house shows....the first one I got the the arena early and a few girls working with TNA came outside and asked if anyone wanted to go backstage for free for showing up early so about 20 of the 50 of us got in early.

Met: Samoa Joe, Homicide, Hernandez, Jay Lethal, and I think there might have been one other one there but I dont' recall. It was real relaxed and we got to hang out for a few minutes and talk to them. No security or anything. They also had a signing during the show and post-show around the ring as well.

The pictures in the ring are $20. I'm not sure who gets the money but it's a polaroid....I had no idea they still made those. First time it was Angle...second it was AJ. The lines for this form real quick.

[draus]

Went to Basebrawl in Buffalo in June. Primarily went to meet Hulk, who was amazing and very courteous...we also had a completely random Brutus Beefcake appearance as well.

Meet and Greets though were pretty good. I had the "VIP Package" so first you wait in line outside until Don West comes out. He's as much a huckster as you'd imagine and then some. He'll try to hawk tons of merchandise and "brown bag specials" on you for usually $20 a pop. The "bag" is actually one of those string backpack things that have 4 DVD's in them, so if you're into TNA it's not that bad a deal.

For the actual Meet and Greet you line up around the ring and entrance way and the guys/girls make their way around and shoot the shit and sign autographs. Some are obviously better than others. Here is my experience with each one in the order I remember meeting them:

1.) Orlando Jordan: seemed OK. Not a barrel full of monkeys by any means but he was cordial and seemed pretty cool.

2.) Doug Williams and Magnus: came up and I was leafing around my pictures trying to find the British Invasion picture and said in passing "man I wish I had these organized better" and he kind of arrogantly said "yeah, you should have." Magnus was totally awesome though, really really cool guy.

3.) Alex Shelley: came across as a jerk. Really didn't say much, didn't really smile or interact. Was a bit disappointed since I really like the MCMG's work.

4.) Gunner: he had a real nice vibe. Seemed like the nicest of the bunch. You can tell he was enjoying the whole thing.

5.) Pope: kind of had the jerk thing going at first. Kind of demanded I hold the picture straight for him to sign. This was during intermission though after his match, and after I congratulated him on the match with Matt Morgan he was receptive after that. I've heard that kind of thing that he's much better if you compliment him as opposed to just hawking the guy for an autograph.

6.) Kazarian: pretty cool guy. Talkative and pretty nice to everyone.

7.) Tara: met her at intermission as well. She has a real nice personality and you can tell she really appreciates and likes meeting the fans.

8.) Kurt Angle: the last one I met at intermission. Was absolutely mobbed by fans and really had no time to interact. I was just marking out anyways just getting to interact somewhat with the guy. Didn't really say much but I can't blame him since like I said he was absolutely surrounded by fans.

9.) Earl Hebner: met him at the end of the show at the merchandise stand. He had some security guy with him and was telling his tee for $10 a pop, the ones that day "I screwed Bret" or something like that on them, but you didn't need one for the autograph. I passed on the tee since I had already spent hundreds of dollars between tickets, merchandise, beer and food, so he just signed his picture and said nothing else.


Overall it's a pretty decent experience. One thing TNA has over WWE is their fan experiences at house shows. They seem to treat every fan as if they're the best in the world. I can tell some of these guys were just on a bad day so I hold no grudges and none of them were outright jackasses or anything.

PS on a side note I really, really wanted to meet Winter/Katie Lea. Man alive she is so gorgeous in real life the TV does her no justice at all. I remember reading an interview before the show that said this was her first major TNA summer tour show and meet and greet, so I think she was a little shy at first and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of us there. I saw her at a distance backstage at intermission but she seemed to be walking back towards the locker room and I really didn't want to be some creepy mark and chase her down or anything lol.

[dicegirl72]

Thanks for the info Wade Barrah, I appreciate it.

[J.O.B. Squad]

You might end up meeting some of the wrestlers as soon as you go inside,I know when I went to one,I got to meet lance hoyt and sharkboy since they were randomly walking through the crowd signing whatever you wanted them to sign,also met Dixie Carter as well that show...she was really nice.

[dicegirl72]

I went ahead and bought my ticket today-I'm in row 2.I'm going to feel really foolish if (when) these exact tickets are sold at a significant discount or given away for free closer to the event, considering I'm not as financially 'flush' as I was before I bought this condo. We didn't coordinate our ticket buying together-even if my friend and I can't get seats together, I hope to meet up with him during the 'meet and greet'. I hope that there are X-div matches that evening (my fave part of TNA besides Pope).

[ThatDamnPotato]

The only person I met when going to a house show in the UK was Dixie Carter because she was walking around ringside talking to the fans so me and my girlfriend said hello and she was really friendly and seemed really grateful that we'd spent our hard earned money on her show she gave us her autograph and let me and my girlfriend take a picture with the TNA tag titles!

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Sept 9, 2011 13:41:43 GMT -5 @draus said:

Went to Basebrawl in Buffalo in June. Primarily went to meet Hulk, who was amazing and very courteous...we also had a completely random Brutus Beefcake appearance as well.

Meet and Greets though were pretty good. I had the "VIP Package" so first you wait in line outside until Don West comes out. He's as much a huckster as you'd imagine and then some. He'll try to hawk tons of merchandise and "brown bag specials" on you for usually $20 a pop. The "bag" is actually one of those string backpack things that have 4 DVD's in them, so if you're into TNA it's not that bad a deal.

For the actual Meet and Greet you line up around the ring and entrance way and the guys/girls make their way around and shoot the s*** and sign autographs. Some are obviously better than others. Here is my experience with each one in the order I remember meeting them:

1.) Orlando Jordan: seemed OK. Not a barrel full of monkeys by any means but he was cordial and seemed pretty cool.

2.) Doug Williams and Magnus: came up and I was leafing around my pictures trying to find the British Invasion picture and said in passing "man I wish I had these organized better" and he kind of arrogantly said "yeah, you should have." Magnus was totally awesome though, really really cool guy.

3.) Alex Shelley: came across as a jerk. Really didn't say much, didn't really smile or interact. Was a bit disappointed since I really like the MCMG's work.

4.) Gunner: he had a real nice vibe. Seemed like the nicest of the bunch. You can tell he was enjoying the whole thing.

5.) Pope: kind of had the jerk thing going at first. Kind of demanded I hold the picture straight for him to sign. This was during intermission though after his match, and after I congratulated him on the match with Matt Morgan he was receptive after that. I've heard that kind of thing that he's much better if you compliment him as opposed to just hawking the guy for an autograph.

6.) Kazarian: pretty cool guy. Talkative and pretty nice to everyone.

7.) Tara: met her at intermission as well. She has a real nice personality and you can tell she really appreciates and likes meeting the fans.

8.) Kurt Angle: the last one I met at intermission. Was absolutely mobbed by fans and really had no time to interact. I was just marking out anyways just getting to interact somewhat with the guy. Didn't really say much but I can't blame him since like I said he was absolutely surrounded by fans.

9.) Earl Hebner: met him at the end of the show at the merchandise stand. He had some security guy with him and was telling his tee for $10 a pop, the ones that day "I screwed Bret" or something like that on them, but you didn't need one for the autograph. I passed on the tee since I had already spent hundreds of dollars between tickets, merchandise, beer and food, so he just signed his picture and said nothing else.


Overall it's a pretty decent experience. One thing TNA has over WWE is their fan experiences at house shows. They seem to treat every fan as if they're the best in the world. I can tell some of these guys were just on a bad day so I hold no grudges and none of them were outright jackasses or anything.

PS on a side note I really, really wanted to meet Winter/Katie Lea. Man alive she is so gorgeous in real life the TV does her no justice at all. I remember reading an interview before the show that said this was her first major TNA summer tour show and meet and greet, so I think she was a little shy at first and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of us there. I saw her at a distance backstage at intermission but she seemed to be walking back towards the locker room and I really didn't want to be some creepy mark and chase her down or anything lol.

When I went to fan intereaction last year for Lockdown Pope was awesome. He was funny and really cool with me. They anounced ONE autograph per person just the session started. So yeah I had him signed the Pope Sunglasses I just brought from Don West. I was having everyone sign a T Shirt as well. He looked at me and said. You want me to sign that or what? Because I can't if your holding it.