During the weekend of Thanksgiving week, I traveled with my best friend to attend a wrestling convention known as Wrestlecade! This was my first time ever attending a wrestling convention. The only time I ever went to anything wrestling related prior to this trip was when I attended the live taping of Impact Wrestling in Universal Studios (Orlando) back in 2015. This experience was much different and more intimate than that one though.
Wrestlecade was three days long. It consisted of multiple events that included wrestlers of the past, present, and future, as they advertise on their website. Even though you don’t have to attend every single event, or even go everyday, we purchased tickets for practically all of the events. The convention was located about an hour and a half from where we live, so it was a quick drive and we decided that instead of staying there, we’d just drive home and back everyday. I’m glad we decided to go back and forth, because it actually made it more fun, in my opinion.
The first day started in the evening. Once we arrived, we got our tickets from willcall and waited for the first event, Showcase of Champions, to begin. For every single event throughout the weekend, we got good seats -- even the ones we didn’t have VIP seats for. The view was absolutely great each night. Showcase of Champions was an event to start the weekend off. The wrestlers were very interactive with the crowd, and it was hilarious when heel wrestlers would come out and insult the crowd. There was this one older guy in front of us that kept screaming “SHUT YOUR WH*RE MOUTH” at the rude wrestlers all night, along with plenty of other things, and he had the entire crowd cracking up. He didn’t care if it was dead quiet in the entire room, he was the loudest guy in the whole venue. 😂 I loved seeing the women wrestle the first night! Growing up watching WWE, I always adored the WWE divas. So seeing the women wrestle live is always so much fun. Kiera Hogan was my favorite! I loved her long, colorful braids and her outfit was super cute.
The second day was the earliest day for us. The first event of the day kicked off at 10 AM. It was Wrestlecade Fanfest, which was one of the most popular events of the entire weekend. It was a meet and greet where you had the chance to meet plenty of different wrestlers, wrestling announcers, etc. My goal was to meet Kelly Kelly, Melina, and Brooke Adams. Honestly, I didn’t really watch ECW much growing up, and when I was an avid WWE watcher, that’s where Kelly Kelly was most of the time, from what I remember. I wasn’t a huge fan of her or anything, but I loved when she was in Extreme Expose on ECW (I watched a lot of these clips on YouTube after I had already stopped watching wrestling), I loved her on the WWE: Smackdown VS. Raw games, and I always thought she was really pretty! Melina, I had watched a lot on Smackdown and Raw. I actually didn’t like her much on WWE, because she was usually heel, and her character wasn’t my cup of tea. However, I think we can all agree that she had one of the BEST entrances in WWE history, and that alone was a reason I wanted to meet her! I’ve always loved the concept of splits because of cheerleading, so her entrance always resonated with me in that way, as corny as that may sound. 😂 Brooke Adams, I hadn’t watched at all on ECW when she was a WWE Diva. I found out about her after she had already left WWE, but I always loved her dancing and overall vibe. Over the years, her and I have been friends on Facebook and we’ve talked from time to time. She’s even sent me a personal video! I had already seen her wrestling in person back when I went to Impact Wrestling in 2015, but I hadn’t actually met her.
The line for Fanfest was super long. We waited in it for about an hour, and believe it or not, when we got to the front of the line, our tickets were in NEITHER of our bags. My best friend ran back to the car to see if they were there while we facetimed, and she couldn’t find them. Long story short, we found the tickets. But the whole thing was a disaster and we wasted so much time and that could’ve been avoided. Be sure to watch my Wrestlecade vlog to see that catastrophe. 🤦🏾♀️ It was actually pretty funny after the fact though and made for great footage. 😂
All of the girls were super nice. Kelly Kelly told me she loved my sweater, and she made me feel comfortable when we were taking our pictures together. Melina lit up when she saw me and my best friend and squealed “GIRLS!!” as soon as she noticed us. I guess she was excited to see girls instead of guys for a change. 🎀 As her and I were about to take our pictures, I jokingly said, “I have an idea for our pictures, we should do splits!” She actually agreed to it too. 😂 Melina was sweet as pie. Meeting Brooke was so much fun. She’s even more gorgeous in person! Her and I talked about conversations we’d had in the past and she remembered me, which I thought was so cool! After we took a few pictures, she clipped a ring light on my phone and started dropping f-bombs about how the lighting is always crappy at the wrestling conventions, and I agreed, because the lighting was terrible for pictures! This was a huge highlight of the entire weekend for me, because I got to meet three women that I was inspired by in one way or another growing up. I had always wanted to be a WWE Diva when I was a kid, so this was a dream come true for me.
After Fanfest, we had some free time and went to spend some time at my favorite restaurant, LongHorn Steakhouse. Once that was over, we went back to the location to get in line for the Wrestlecade Supershow. While in line, another former WWE Diva, Victoria, passed me as she was leaving the meet & greet area. I said hi to her and she was super nice greeting me back. Melina also passed by as she was leaving and she came over and hugged me and blew me a kiss. I told her how great it was meeting her. It’s funny that the wrestler I didn’t enjoy as much on TV as a kid because she was somewhat of a “villain” ended up being the sweetest in person. 😂
The Supershow was another fun time. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Showcase of Champions though, but it was awesome seeing Teddy Long, Cryme Tyme, Hornswoggle and many others in the ring. I never thought I would see so many of the people I grew up watching on TV in person.
The final day was Queens of Combat. We had purchased front row VIP tickets to this event, and I’m so glad we did, because it was awesome seeing girls wrestle for a few hours. I got to see some of the same girls from the first night wrestle again, including Kiera Hogan. This event had the most brutal fights, I’d say! They were using ladders, tables, chairs, and everything in-between to fight. 😂 The girls really did bring it.
Overall, Wrestlecade was a great experience and I really enjoyed myself. I totally plan on going again. I think it was worth every penny, and I’m glad I got to experience it with my best friend. I’m actually very salty that I had never heard about it before this year, because I would’ve been attending every year if I had known!
Thank you so much for reading, and don’t forget to watch the Wrestlecade vlog on my channel ! 💛
xo babes, Variety Princess
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