My first live WWE autograph signing

July 22, 2003

Booker T...back in the days when Rob Van Dam was still with WWE and he opened a comic book shop in a mall near my house. This wasn't the official grand opening, it was about a month before. I had no idea what to expect, and what it was turned out to be far better than I imagined.




I left the house at 4:45 and all the way there I kept saying, "Maybe I'll just go back home." It's not that I'm paranoid about crowds, I'm just not fond of them. Besides that, I was by myself. I kept thinking I'd be better off if I had someone with me, but there was no one. Peter had Scouts, so I couldn't even drag him along. Honestly, the reason I didn't turn back for home is that I knew Shanny was counting on me to go. So...it's all her fault. *grin*

When I got to the mall there was tons of parking, so I thought "Well, maybe it won't be that bad." I knew sort of where the store was, and it turned out I parked in the right place because as I walked in the mall there was a pretty long line already formed. Once again I almost turned around and went home, but I perservered.

I found the store, and it was OPEN!!! People inside!!! So I walked right in!

It's a small store, and it is 2 doors down from the entrance to the mall, and about 10 stores from the Target (which isn't open yet). I have a feeling they don't have everything up in the store yet, but the grand opening isn't until August. One thing I noticed right away was that it as HOT in there, like the a/c wasn't working.

 In the window was a huge canvas banner with RVD's face on it and the notice that he'd be there on August 21 at 6 for autographs. When you walk in the door, to the right is a long wall with racks filled with all kinds of comic books. I didn't look at all of them, but they had all kinds, a lot of them in plastic sleeves. I noticed this because the only other comic store I've been to has all the comics in bins, but this was neat because you could see them all at a glance. To the left was a counter area...most of the left half of the store is glassed in counters, and the clerks standing behind. In the counters are all sorts of cool collectibles. I couldn't see all of it because people were clustered around them. Behind the counters on the wall are shelves with WWE stuff, and racks with pictures. There were a lot of RVD autographed pictures, and I don't know if they were for sale, but they were cool. They were from his entire career. In the back of the store were racks, attached to the wall, with t-shirts and WWE action figures...oh and Kiss action figuress too! All around the top of the store there were framed promotional pics. I saw BATISTA (there were 2 of him), Randy Orton, Billy Kidman...and a really COOL one of RVD with Sabu. I'm going to ask when I go back if those are for sale...and I'm so buying you the RVD/Sabu one. It was an interesting collection, because it didn't seem like he had everyone...I wondered if the ones he had were the people he likes/admires.

The people who worked there were WAY cool! They were all so friendly and nice! All were wearing RVD t-shirts and they were a cross seciton of what looked like stoner dudes (and dudettes) and hardcore comic guys. I talked to this one guy who might have been a manager (he was sitting at the table with Booker later). He was tall, and had wild blonde hair. Very pleasant.

So...I stood behind this lady and her son and listened to her asking about the autographs. Dude...they were so confused! This cool dude told us to go down to the end of the counter and pay. We went down and the kids working there didn't really give us the straight story. They said polaroids were $15, and if you wanted an autograph it was $15 and you could give him anything to sign. I said I didn't have anything with me. They said I could buy a picture (of course). Anyway...I ended up forking over $25, got 2 tickets, and was on my way.

The line had gotten a bit longer, but it still wasn't bad.

The lady and her son that had been in the store asking the questions were at the end of the line, and this larger rather geeky man (wearing a WWF Las Vegas Casino t-shirt) was behind them. It was about 5:15 at this point. Eventually everyone bunched up, and I realized we weren't too far back in the line, and a lot of people got behind us.

I ended up befriending the lady and her son (who was the age of my students, and a very bright boy) and the geek-man. Geek man thought he knew everything...I set him straight a few times (IE: he said Billy and Torrie were getting married this coming Friday, I told him they were already married). He was kind of interesting in some ways, but way off the mark about other things. He had gone to Raw the previous night, and he was giving me the low-down on HBK and Jericho's match. He said they were pretty wiped out after. The cool part was that he'd also gone to the FYE thing in the morning. Booker, Hurricaine, Ivory, and HBK signed those posters down in Santa Ana. Geek-man got there right as it was over, and they gave him a hard time...but he ended up getting all their signatures on his Raw ticket stub. He showed it to me. *g*

He said he talked to HBK and asked him about the match...HBK said, "It went on a *little* too long"....*swoon*

At 6....Booker arrived...walked right past us!

There were some guys in front of us who were kind of jack-asses. They kept doing wrestling moves on each other, and I gathered from what I heard them saying they were either going to wrestling school (maybe UPW) or were just really avid fans. The finesse of their moves made me think they might actually be in school. They were dorky too...(although one of them was HOT!) and they were lapping up everything geek-man said (even though by this point geek-man had lapsed into half-truths). This amused me, they asked him what HBK was wearing this morning o.O. I thought maybe they had a crush on him or something. (maroon t-shirt, short-sleeved plaid shirt, and green cargo-shorts.)

The crowd was so mellow and cool. There were a ton of sherriffs, plain-clothes police detectives and mall security watching us. The lady with the kid said that there had been a near-riot at the Raiders store a few months ago when some of the Raiders came to sign things. I will say this....we wrestling fans are cool...no sign of a riot at all.

We finally got up to the front of the line, and then we got inside the store! It seemed like the a/c was on now.

Booker was so cool. Really. There was a group in front of us with like 5 kids that were going to get in the polaroid picture. He reached down and picked up the littlest girl and he looked so natural holding her. He had nice things to say to all of them. Then the lady with the kid went up there, and he was so cool to the kid. The kid did a spinarooni and Book applauded him. I melted.

Then it was my turn. *squee*

His voice was all gravelly and he said "How you doin'?" I think I said "fine"....

Then he asked if I wanted to hold the belt...and my eyes got big...and the cool girl with the camera (who gave me a genuine smile, that was so cool) remarked on it. He laughed and handed me the belt!

K...I kind of spaced out for a moment then....gripping the belt so tightly....vibes of the previous IC champs racing through me.

Then he put his arm around me and I snapped back into focus. As the girl snapped the picture I thought "Oh dear god I look like an idiot!"

After that he signed the polaroid AND and 8x10. I figured out at that point I could have paid $15 for just the polaroid and he'd have autographed that. Oh well, it was cool to get the 8x10 too. He wasn't making personal autographs...it just says "Booker T 5x" on it...but that's cool. I think I said thank you...I don't even remember!

I left then...and walked out front. There were several apparently rabid fans loitering out front....I guess waiting until it was over..maybe to see if RVD came out. I know he was there...but I never saw him. I decided not to hang around...his fans were kind of scary looking.


Oh..but when I got home Spyder went nuts! He kept sniffing my shoulder where Booker's hand had been. I guess Book smelled good! LOL!