On Saturday 12 July the Royal Ramblings team were invited by TNA wrestling to the London Film and Comic Con at Earls court. Robert writes about his experience.
Although I have never been to a Comic Con, I am a huge wrestling fan (a wrestling geek to my friends) so knew I would fit right in! Walking from the station into the exhibition centre, my good friend Lee and I passed several Dr Whos - mainly the David Tennant version - a few Ghostbusters, the odd Game of Thrones star and a Superwoman or two. I felt right at home!
It is reported that over 100,000 people visited Comic Con on Saturday and the six hour wait to get in if you bought a ticket on the day seems to testify to this number.
We were invited by TNA and the main part of the day was spent with the TNA wrestlers waiting for their big announcement, which seemed to have been run in a national newspaper the day before.
If you have never been to a Comic Con before all the stars who had been paid to attend, sit in front of massive pictures of themselves and the public pay, up to £60 a time for a photo and/or a signature. The wrestlers were all in the same section. Al Snow, Cowboy James Storm, Robbie E, Brooke, Mickie James, Magnus, Lita and Jeremy Borash sat there with minders, taking the money, making sure no one took a sneaky photo without paying!
Lita was clearly the biggest draw of the wrestlers as she had more ticks on her pay sheet than all the others put together. She was also the first of the wrestlers to take to the main stage to do a Q and A. Sadly the attendance was very low and we saw no more than 50 people there. To be honest, the whole experience of her Q and A was poor. She did not seem to be happy to be there and refused our request for an interview afterwards. The highlight of the Q and A were when she told everyone that her WWE Hall of Fame ring was "pretty crappy and just like a 70 dollar high school ring" but that she "wore it with pride". When asked (as she has been many times before) if she had one more fight in her, she said that she would really like to, as her body feels really good. She said she would never go back full time but could have a series of matches in the run up to a big event. Could we see her in a series in the run up to Wrestlemania next year? I think this may just be a possibility. It was a real shame she would not talk to us and she seemed very disinterested in the whole day.
At 5.30 came the big TNA announcement. British Boot Camp 2. Although everyone in the room knew what was coming, we estimate there was nearly 1,000 people in the room and there was a great atmosphere. Borash knows how to get a crowd going and was joined on the stage by all the other TNA wrestlers in attendance.
So what did we learn from the announcement? TNA love their British Fans. Boot Camp is going to bigger and better than last time. Hosted by Borash, Al Snow, Gail Kim and Samoa Joe are going to the judges. There will probably be 8 episodes, four in the UK and four in the states. There will be X factor type auditions to find the candidates. Referees will be included. The show will be filmed around the country. TNA LOVE their British fans!
All in all it was a great day for TNA. We are thankful for our invite and we will of course be covering every stage of Bootcamp.