Post by HardcoreHeroes on Aug 30, 2006 23:46:21 GMT -5
I know some of you have been waiting for this. I have been sorta dreading this just because it will take some time to put down my complete thoughts. I'm sure I won't be able to cover everything in the time I have this evening, but I did want to get started with my perspective of the most recent fanfest.
First and foremost, let me thank each and every one of you that attended. VIPs, fans, friends, volunteers, exhibitors, legends.....none of this could have been accomplished without ALL of you.
I'm hesitant about mentioning names and singling people out because I know I'll overlook someone and their feelings will be hurt.
Thanks, too, to each of you that helped spread the word about fanfest weekend. Local radio stations, newspapers, the various internet media....Thanks to all of you for helping get the word out.
I do want to personally thank Steve Johnson, who most of you will know from SLAM wrestling and several recent wrestling-related books he's helped pen. Steve has been incredibly helpful in so many ways. He wrote the bios on each of the featured guests that you may have seen on the CapitolLegends.com website and in the souvenir program. Steve helped me make contact with countless DC-area media types that were receptive to helping us get the word out. Steve also helped me out several times during fanfest weekend when I was in a bind and needed someone to make an airport run to pick someone up. Steve was a tremendous help and I am forever grateful.
Now there are dozens more folks, just like Steve, that helped me out in many ways. Without their help, this thing we call fanfest would be seriously lacking.
Thanks to CB Moore for an incredible website design and for his patience with me when many times I asked the impossible of him. In each and every case, he delivered the goods.
Thanks to my friends DP, Shane, Chris & Heather, Steve & Tonya, Emily & Patsy, Ken & Steve, Angi, Roy & Tommy G, Alex for volunteering their time and energy to help make things happen. I wouldn't even attempt to do this without the help of these folks. I know some of you may get a little miffed at some of them sometimes, but each of them is doing a near-thankless job and they're doing it only for the sake of helping, so cut them some slack. They deserve tons of gratitude.
Thanks to each of you that saw fit to introduce yourselves to me and offer words of encouragment. I'm a private person, not at all out-going, but I do appreciate the friendships I've been able to make via fanfest. I know most of your names by heart, but sometimes it's difficult to match a name with a face. I think I'm getting a little better at that but, next year, I'm going to try to have the VIP passes done with each person's name printed on them. Hopefully, that will help all of us.
I do want to apologize to everyone that expected me to mix and mingle on Thursday evening. I had told many of you, and even posted here on the board, that I'd be visiting with everyone at the hotel on Thursday night before things got started. Well, Thursday was the day all this crap happened at the airports with the heightened security. We managed to get those arriving on Thursday -- Bobby Heenan, Nick Bockwinkel, and friends -- in with only minimal hassle. (My friend Roy got stuck on the Atlanta runway for 6+ hours with nowhere to go, but sit. His 4pm flight finally left after 10pm and got in a little after midnight. Thanks, too, to Tommy G for hanging out in Baltimore, waiting on Roy, while all this was going on.)
At about 7pm on Thursday evening, I logged onto my computer only to find the most discouraging email I'd seen in a long time. Some of you may have seen it posted at our Registration Booth over the weekend. If not, here it is word for word:
Subject: airport security
Date: 8/10/2006 6:32:17 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Superstarbg
To: HardcoreHeroes
Hey Greg, a major problem on my end do to the terror alert. One of the many new security measures activated today is that a travelers name on his or hers prescription medication MUST match the name on their airline ticket. Mine does not. I possess an illegal drivers licensees with the name of Billy Graham on it, the same name that's on my airline ticket. All of my medication including my liver anti rejection meds along with my insulin (I am diabetic) is in the name of Wayne Coleman. I cannot check these meds for 2 reasons. These 2 life saving meds must be kept at room temperature and cannot sit on a tarmac here in Phoenix in over 100 degrees for maybe hours while waiting to be loaded on to my plane or sitting on a tarmac in DC waiting to be taken to baggage claim. Even if I could check these meds I could not take the chance of my luggage ending up in Tampa or lost for weeks. I have reconfirmed this info with the Transportation Safety Administration today. Unfortunately I must cancel my appearance at your DC fanfest this coming weekend. It is obvious I cannot take a chance of traveling by air under these new restrictions. I will be attaining a new drivers license next week under my legal name. Your check will be returned immediately and best of luck with your event.
Billy Graham
Just reading that again makes a big lump come up in my throat.
I tried everything in my power over the next 24-28 hours to do whatever possible to make sure that Superstar Billy Graham could still be at our fanfest. But unfortunately, it wasn't just a matter of getting his medicine to Rockville. There was this issue with an illegal driver's license.
(I had originally purchased the airline ticket in the name of Wayne Coleman but, after the fact, was told the name needed to be listed as Billy Graham on the ticket. For those of you that travel often, you know that one of the major no-no's in the airline industry is changing the name on a ticket. Luckily, after a lot of begging and pleading, I did find someone at America West that agreed to change the name. So the wrong name being on the ticket is DEFINITELY not my fault.)
There is a lot more that I could say about this but, for the moment, I must practice patience. Luckily, SBG is under contract to WWE, I booked him through the WWE office, and per their contract, paid all fees in advance. At this point in late August, I have been told by John Laurinaitis that I will be getting a refund check for the appearance fee, and that I will be reimbursed for plane tickets for SBG and his wife. I haven't received those checks yet and unsure when/if I ever will. John Laurinaitis is an honest person and I believe him, but I am also naturally skeptical of the WWE as a whole.
Like I said, and I probably said too much already, I don't want to say anymore on this at the moment until WWE makes good on their promised reimbursement. (If that doesn't happen soon, maybe some of you in the legal profession may be able to assist me to that end.)
I'm going to stop there for this evening. I can see this is going to be even more lengthy than I expected. I'll come back with Part 2 and more from my perspective.
Again, thanks to each of you for making fanfest weekend such a memorable event for so many people.
Greg
First and foremost, let me thank each and every one of you that attended. VIPs, fans, friends, volunteers, exhibitors, legends.....none of this could have been accomplished without ALL of you.
I'm hesitant about mentioning names and singling people out because I know I'll overlook someone and their feelings will be hurt.
Thanks, too, to each of you that helped spread the word about fanfest weekend. Local radio stations, newspapers, the various internet media....Thanks to all of you for helping get the word out.
I do want to personally thank Steve Johnson, who most of you will know from SLAM wrestling and several recent wrestling-related books he's helped pen. Steve has been incredibly helpful in so many ways. He wrote the bios on each of the featured guests that you may have seen on the CapitolLegends.com website and in the souvenir program. Steve helped me make contact with countless DC-area media types that were receptive to helping us get the word out. Steve also helped me out several times during fanfest weekend when I was in a bind and needed someone to make an airport run to pick someone up. Steve was a tremendous help and I am forever grateful.
Now there are dozens more folks, just like Steve, that helped me out in many ways. Without their help, this thing we call fanfest would be seriously lacking.
Thanks to CB Moore for an incredible website design and for his patience with me when many times I asked the impossible of him. In each and every case, he delivered the goods.
Thanks to my friends DP, Shane, Chris & Heather, Steve & Tonya, Emily & Patsy, Ken & Steve, Angi, Roy & Tommy G, Alex for volunteering their time and energy to help make things happen. I wouldn't even attempt to do this without the help of these folks. I know some of you may get a little miffed at some of them sometimes, but each of them is doing a near-thankless job and they're doing it only for the sake of helping, so cut them some slack. They deserve tons of gratitude.
Thanks to each of you that saw fit to introduce yourselves to me and offer words of encouragment. I'm a private person, not at all out-going, but I do appreciate the friendships I've been able to make via fanfest. I know most of your names by heart, but sometimes it's difficult to match a name with a face. I think I'm getting a little better at that but, next year, I'm going to try to have the VIP passes done with each person's name printed on them. Hopefully, that will help all of us.
I do want to apologize to everyone that expected me to mix and mingle on Thursday evening. I had told many of you, and even posted here on the board, that I'd be visiting with everyone at the hotel on Thursday night before things got started. Well, Thursday was the day all this crap happened at the airports with the heightened security. We managed to get those arriving on Thursday -- Bobby Heenan, Nick Bockwinkel, and friends -- in with only minimal hassle. (My friend Roy got stuck on the Atlanta runway for 6+ hours with nowhere to go, but sit. His 4pm flight finally left after 10pm and got in a little after midnight. Thanks, too, to Tommy G for hanging out in Baltimore, waiting on Roy, while all this was going on.)
At about 7pm on Thursday evening, I logged onto my computer only to find the most discouraging email I'd seen in a long time. Some of you may have seen it posted at our Registration Booth over the weekend. If not, here it is word for word:
Subject: airport security
Date: 8/10/2006 6:32:17 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Superstarbg
To: HardcoreHeroes
Hey Greg, a major problem on my end do to the terror alert. One of the many new security measures activated today is that a travelers name on his or hers prescription medication MUST match the name on their airline ticket. Mine does not. I possess an illegal drivers licensees with the name of Billy Graham on it, the same name that's on my airline ticket. All of my medication including my liver anti rejection meds along with my insulin (I am diabetic) is in the name of Wayne Coleman. I cannot check these meds for 2 reasons. These 2 life saving meds must be kept at room temperature and cannot sit on a tarmac here in Phoenix in over 100 degrees for maybe hours while waiting to be loaded on to my plane or sitting on a tarmac in DC waiting to be taken to baggage claim. Even if I could check these meds I could not take the chance of my luggage ending up in Tampa or lost for weeks. I have reconfirmed this info with the Transportation Safety Administration today. Unfortunately I must cancel my appearance at your DC fanfest this coming weekend. It is obvious I cannot take a chance of traveling by air under these new restrictions. I will be attaining a new drivers license next week under my legal name. Your check will be returned immediately and best of luck with your event.
Billy Graham
Just reading that again makes a big lump come up in my throat.
I tried everything in my power over the next 24-28 hours to do whatever possible to make sure that Superstar Billy Graham could still be at our fanfest. But unfortunately, it wasn't just a matter of getting his medicine to Rockville. There was this issue with an illegal driver's license.
(I had originally purchased the airline ticket in the name of Wayne Coleman but, after the fact, was told the name needed to be listed as Billy Graham on the ticket. For those of you that travel often, you know that one of the major no-no's in the airline industry is changing the name on a ticket. Luckily, after a lot of begging and pleading, I did find someone at America West that agreed to change the name. So the wrong name being on the ticket is DEFINITELY not my fault.)
There is a lot more that I could say about this but, for the moment, I must practice patience. Luckily, SBG is under contract to WWE, I booked him through the WWE office, and per their contract, paid all fees in advance. At this point in late August, I have been told by John Laurinaitis that I will be getting a refund check for the appearance fee, and that I will be reimbursed for plane tickets for SBG and his wife. I haven't received those checks yet and unsure when/if I ever will. John Laurinaitis is an honest person and I believe him, but I am also naturally skeptical of the WWE as a whole.
Like I said, and I probably said too much already, I don't want to say anymore on this at the moment until WWE makes good on their promised reimbursement. (If that doesn't happen soon, maybe some of you in the legal profession may be able to assist me to that end.)
I'm going to stop there for this evening. I can see this is going to be even more lengthy than I expected. I'll come back with Part 2 and more from my perspective.
Again, thanks to each of you for making fanfest weekend such a memorable event for so many people.
Greg
