The Big Event New York 2019 Wrestling Convention
Dpeck100
Posts: 10,910 ✭✭✭✭✭
I am very surprised that I am going to another wrestling convention this year. For the past few years Gregg has been hounding me to come to New York and the answer has always been no. There was zero chance my wife was letting me go to New York without her. I broke the news to her earlier this year that I was going to North Carolina and she wasn't thrilled but was okay with it but New York City is an entirely different deal than Charlotte.
Shortly after the Gathering Gregg told me he had landed the combo of Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard and that is a match made in heaven with their incredible I quit steel cage match and their dual father relationship with Tessa Blanchard who is getting more popular in wrestling every day. I said that is awesome and you will do great. I never gave any consideration to going and said to Gregg it wasn't an option when he asked. A few weeks later he calls me and says Magnum asked if you were going to be handling him and was hoping you were because you are so good with the fans and know how to do business with people. He said no that was a one shot deal for Dave and it isn't happening. When Greg is telling me this naturally my brain started saying how on earth can you not go with Magnum requesting you be is handler. I told my wife and I said I am considering going to New York and she said on cue you aren't going without me. She said Dave that is so cool and lets add a few days around it and go. I honestly couldn't pass up going so I am heading to New York tomorrow for the Big Event convention this weekend and will be working their table.
Gregg has been putting a lot of effort into his signed Wrestling All Stars collection and he has been trying to book wrestlers from the sets to get his cards signed and knowing there will be people trying to as well and they will probably cover their expenses. He booked Steve Olsonoski and Mike George who retired a long time ago and neither have done shows in years if at all. Both of these guys were big regional stars when the cards were made but faded off into obscurity not many years later.
Mil Mascaras is the big name that is at this event who doesn't do appearances that frequently so he has a private deal lined up with him to get a good number of items signed. Gregg has a ridiculous signed collection with so many amazing items from Japan and he has some killer stuff to get signed this weekend. We are going to trade a few things so I will be getting a nice signed Japanese card too to go with what I am bringing.
I cracked out some cards tonight to bring with me and rounded up my raw cards the past few days as well. I had the toughest time ever on a card with this Greg Valentine PSA 8.5. Amazed I didn't damage it. I contacted Terry tonight through Instagram and asked him if his son Tucker would like copies of his wrestling cards and he said yes so I am bringing those too. It made me really excited because I want him to have the cards of when his dad was a big deal in wrestling. He is a really nice kid.
I will be updating the thread throughout the weekend and recently got a new I Phone so hopefully I can capture some cool pics.
The Gathering was a very small convention but apparently this one draws very well so I am looking forward to it. Another wrestling card collector that goes by Frankie Saints who has a very impressive signed Wrestling All Stars collection is going to be working the other booth with Steve O and Mike George. I am looking forward to meeting him and if anyone reading this is going and cares to say hello please do.
Here are the pics of the cards I am getting signed. A really nice batch with a Mascaras PSA 7, Mike George PSA 8.5, Tully PSA 9, Valentine 8.5, Scott Casey PSA 9 and a good number of cards that were raw.
These are for Tucker.
The Wrestling All Stars I am getting done for me.
I am hoping to get this Wild Samoans Prizm sticker done. That would be cool. Arn Anderson will be there too so I can get the dual Brain Buster's Market Scene complete.
Comments
I sent some product with Frankie and cracked out some of my own. Sorry to have missed this one but I will go again. Charlotte was a blast with everyone at the Gathering. I have had my cards at PSA DNA for two months now from the Gathering but I hope they get through the process soon. Happy to see you get some high grade cards to the show and adding them to the collection. Best of luck to you with it!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Thanks dude!
I opted not to crack any of the Mascaras 8's. If you did the best of luck on it.
I sent in some that got logged this week and plan to send these in pretty soon with some others and get them in line.
Sounds like it will be a good time. The wrestling all star cards bring back good memories
Been a tough morning but just got to the airport and saw Scott Hall heading into the men’s room. Said Scott you heading to The Big Event? Said no Atlanta. Chatted for five minutes waiting for my wife and he was so cool. Said babe this is Razor Ramon Scott Hall take a pic! Off to a good start!
I really enjoyed the Charlotte thread, so I'm licking my chops to see what happens in the big apple. I can't believe you ran into Scott Hall. That guy is a legend. Razor Ramon, NWO for life. He's done it all. Have a blast!
Thanks bro!
He is siting near us at Bahama Breeze in the airport so I am having our waitress send him a beer.
Was so cool! Shockingly nice!
I can see the trademark toothpick in his mouth! That is so cool! Have fun.
He had it behind his ear!
He is one bad dude!. Please keep us updated on what happens in NYC. If it's anything like Charlotte, it will be very entertaining!
As we were leaving the restaurant I said Scott thanks for being so cool and I hope you enjoyed the beer. He said dude I have pics in my bag let me sign one for you. We settled on this one and chatted for another five minutes or so. My wife was like we got to run. We could have chatted about wrestling for hours over drinks. Super cool guy!
That is too cool! I would love to get smashed with him and talk about his days in WWE and WCW. Good stuff!
I expect some posts for tonight! I know there is a story before the show even starts. Have a great time!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
You will get some. Sipping a sugar free Red Bull and vodka in a can inside Bloomingdales right now letting MIchelle have some fun. This place is crazy.
Game time.
Gregg with Mark Henry
Quick pic with my wife.
Yes, I am getting ready to watch Smackdown here in about an hour or so. I certainly know who Mark Henry is , the world's strongest man. Man, I can't believe the celebrities you guys know. Great stuff!
Always love these threads. Random thoughts as I read:
Where is the Bloomingdale's haul? LOL
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Steve O telling stories
I bet the food is better than Charlotte!
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Not hard to beat that!
Getting coffee now and meeting Tully at the workout facility at 7:30. Late night so got to shake off the cobwebs.
Not to be a wet blanket, but considering his history, wouldn't a diet coke been more appropriate?
Cool that you got to meet him. He looks good. I hope he is able to move around ok. Those guys endured a lot of punishment over pretty long periods of time.
I sent him over what he was drinking. He was doing tequila shots too.
I was thinking you were busy since there was no word from you. Hope all is well and you and the team are loading up with autographs.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Wrapping up now with Magnum. Loads of autos for sure.
Looking forward to the pics and stories!
This convention had me call up Ivan Putski this morning just to say hello and tell him that I will be calling him up when I fly into Austin and hopefully we can go out to lunch and visit, etc. Ivan is such a nice guy.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
the dpeck excursions never disappoint. looking forward to all of the anecdotes, pictures and signed goodness!
We are just killing some time waiting to head to the airport.
Here are the cards I got signed.
I will add more content tonight when we get home.
What is in the other stack??????
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
There are two Carnation Road Warriors signed by Animal and then some of the Mascaras cards I couldn’t get signed and the Wild Samoans prism sticker.
I will go into much greater detail later about how awful things went with Mil Mascaras at the show. A major disappointment for many.
Well, it's his life. Who am I to judge.
And I didn't mean to imply you did anything wrong.
I will admit that the Seinfeld "On the Wagon, Off the Wagon" episode popped into my head.
Sorry to hear that there was an issue with the Mil Mascaras autos. My guess is that he was personalizing or putting the "Best wishes" when people just wanted the plain autograph.
He was also putting on "Tu Amigo" which i really do not mind in reality but he was also trying to limit the amount of autographs one person could have no matter how much they paid to get his autograph. He also arrived an hour late and left before his time was up and in his time there he nearly walked out...... that is what I heard in a nutshell.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
I am thankful that I was able to get a few Mascaras done despite staying in California for this one. I have a 9 OC in my signed set.
Looking to BUY n332 1889 SF Hess cards and high grade cards from 19th century especially. "Once you have wrestled everything else in life is easy" Dan Gable
Here we go.
We got into NY Thursday night and took the shuttle straight to the hotel that isn't far from the airport and got checked in and hit the bar for some food and drinks and made it a fairly early night. We headed to the city in a car service and intended to be dropped off in Times Square but we were driving on Lexington and my wife saw Sephora and I said lets just get out here. She went into the store and I said I was going to go look for something to drink and headed down the Ave and found a liqour store and picked up a 200 ML of Absolute because the bottle looked perfect for my pocket. I strolled down the way a little and found a little deli and grabbed a Sugar Free and the guy let me go into a private spot in the store and load it up. It is crazy how busy Manhattan is. Naturally my wife took forever so I kept turning around a squatting down a filling it further with vodka until the entire little bottle was in my can. After what seemed like forever she was out and we headed across the street to Bloomingdale's and that store is absolutely nuts. It is seven stories. Incredible. After she was done shopping we hit a nice restaurant and had a great lunch with both of us getting roasted duck. Next we walked through the city to see Times Square and New York City is like no other. It is wild how busy it is. I work on Park Ave. in Winter Park, FL but had to snap a pic of the real Park Ave.
We found our way to the Subway and headed back to the hotel to meet up with Gregg as the action was starting. The subway was packed and we were kind of confused and so we got off and grabbed a car and made it back to the hotel. Gregg was lining up his private signings and was in the room across the hall and said come on in and meet Mark Henry. I didn't have anything for him to sign but Gregg was getting 100 pieces done so I headed in and snapped a few pics. Mark was hard at work and not up for much small talk. I did grab a Coors Light so I was back in action and ready to take it up a notch once we got down to the bar.
We headed across the hall and met up with Frankie and his brother Carlos and talked wrestling cards for a bit and then planned to head down stairs. Frankie has 90 of the 108 cards from the set signed and is a very serious collector of them. He showed me some of his pics and he has an Andre and some of the other big ones so it was super cool. His brother Carlos was with him and he brought these killer custom little wrestling figures that were so life like. Amazing detail and they were going to assist with Gregg's other table with Mike George and Steve Olsonoski. Here is a pic from the bar a few hours later.
Once we were in the bar area we grabbed a table and started ordering drinks. Steve O was the first to arrive and he was happy to get there and let loose a bit. He is a super nice guy and is actually a financial advisor now. He looks great for his age and I think was in many ways lucky to get out of the business at a young age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Olsonoski
I first learned of Steve through the cards and he was a hot prospect in the wrestling business in the early 80's. He gets fans mailing him these cards frequently so he is very familiar he has a card. He was great to chat with telling his story from the NWA days in Georgia Championship Wrestling and it was great to here first hand knowledge of how GCW went down. He looks back on this time of his life very fondly and said it was like being a rock star being on TV.
Here he is pictured with Mike George reminiscing on the old days.
I brought a very nice raw copy that I had planned to send to PSA but when I decided to come I pulled it from my stack to get signed. I have quote a few of his cards graded in my sets and so it was no trouble to just keep this one to get signed.
Here is an interview from Youtube where he is being interviewed by Gordon Solie discussing his fractured hand. This isn't a work. The Great Kabuki did a kick and he tried to block it and was never the same. He spent a lot of time talking about it because it altered his career path significantly.
Gregg brought him in to get the cards signed and for others to as well and so he wasn't very busy during the show.
Next to arrive was Tully Blanchard and it was nice to see him again. He is back on TV with AEW so his stock is rising once more in the wrestling business and his daughter Tessa is a rising female star and her career is taking off. I knew I would be spending a lot of time with him the following day and was excited about that.
Gregg brought in Mike George who is also featured in the Wrestling All Stars set and he was thrilled to be there. He is long removed from wrestling and has worked in security for the past twenty years. He is an avid lifter despite serious back surgeries and is as nice as they come. I first learned of him too when I started collecting the Wrestling All Stars cards and he actually has a few at his house now from through the mail autograph seekers. He said wow I didn't realize these were worth anything and maybe I should keep them with a laugh. He is as nice as they come and just really easy to be around.
Here is his bio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_George_(wrestler)
One of the great things about the wrestling business back in the territory days is there was a lot of places to work and he was a big regional star. Here is an interview from GCW of him.
The drinks were flowing and George Napolitano joined us. I have had a number of conversations with him on Twitter about wrestling cards and he says they were his idea and he is the one the told Vince Sr. it would be a good idea. Many of the photographs used for the cards are ones he took and other wrestling sets like the 1985 Wrestling All Stars magazine set are his and the 1986 Monty from Holland are bootleg cards where they stole his photos. I snapped a pic with him.
The table got kind of spread out and so I was in the corner with George and Tully. This was my favorite part of the night because we were talking about older wrestling and the current state of the industry and how the Kahn family who own AEW are trying to really shake things up. As I said Tully is back on TV and there is a lot of fresh opportunity in wrestling these days.
The last to arrive was Magnum TA with his son Tucker. They had a long ten hour drive from North Carolina.
We hung in the bar for another hour and then headed into the convention hall to scout out the table and set up Magnum's cool banner. We set the table up just right and because one of the big features was a dual photo with both we settled on just having the fans get between them and then have Magnum on the left so he could stay seated. It was getting late and so it was time for bed. Tully and I agreed to meet in the morning at the gym at 7:30 and I just thought we were meeting for moral support but he actually wanted me to do his workout with him I found out. LOL He kept mentioned seven minute abbs and free squats and I didn't think anything of it.
As luck would have it my key didn't work and so I had to wake my wife up and so that wasn't good and then set my alarm for 6:40 in the morning. I had been drinking for almost 12 hours now so I was nervous I was going to feel it a little on less than six hours sleep. The alarm went off and I was up and headed downstairs and got us coffee and then headed to the gym around 7:10. I got on the elliptical for about 15 minutes and in walks Tully. He said your early. The only other person in there was Gail Kim who is in phenomenal shape. There were two of the machines and he got on the one next to me and said he was going to warm up and then we were going to do his workout.
He said lets go grab a mat. In walks Kane Glenn Jacobs. They said hello and we hit the ground. This is no exaggeration he might be the biggest guy I have ever seen in person. He is huge. Tall and just massive. Tully explains to me that we are going to do seven minute abbs. 1:30 of elbow planks, 1 of side planks on each side, another 1:30 of elbow planks, a minute of holding a V with your legs up and a minute of crunches. I was like you got to be kidding me in my head. We got going and I knew it was going to be tough. I do planks at the gym for a minute and super set it with something non core related and this was one right after another. All I could say to myself after a few minutes of this was Dave don't be a $$ssy your not a $$ssy. My abbs were on fire and are ridiculously soar today. Next we hit triceps and did four sets of 20,15,12, and 10. They were on fire and are super tender today as well. Finally the free squats you here Rick Flair always talk about. We did reps to 25 and then you get to rest until the next minute and go again. He said we were doing 20 minutes and I was like how the F am I going to do this. Thankfully at 10 minutes he said that was enough you won't be able to walk tomorrow. That is 250 squats and my quads were on fire. We headed to the room and then got changed and hit breakfast. I was not feeling that great and was like oh boy this is going to be a long day. When you blow up your legs it really tires you out. As we walked into the convention I grabbed a Sugar Free Red Bull and was hoping this would help.
Right at 10 the people started pouring in and we were off to a fast start. I wasn't feeling great and thought damn this is going to be a long day. Thankfully after fifteen minutes or so my adrenal kicked in and I was off an running. We were jamming and doing strong business. There are a lot of fans who get figures signed and WWE books so they are always in demand at these shows. This is a much bigger show than NC and people were there to spend money.
About an hour in I started asking Gregg about Mil Mascaras. What is the scoop and when are we going to get him done. He said not to worry I am heading over soon to drop my stuff off. Not much longer he did and then stormed back and said WTF he won't sign my stuff. He got six items signed out of the 100 he had planned. Mil said I didn't get paid for those and you are trying to profit off me and I am not signing anymore for you. His vendors were fuming. Gregg had planned to spend $1,000 and that would help them recoup a good chunk of their costs. The vendors do lots of trades with each other and bulk deals and so this was a major part of their plans. Gregg was pissed and said they were going to straighten in out. I said you know what this is heading in the wrong direction and so I grabbed my nice copy and went and got in line He was signing stuff and George Napolitano was there chatting with him. Right in front of me he refused to sign a mask for someone because it wasn't a certain kind and I was getting a little nervous. I paid the $25 and put my card down and said George took this picture. He snapped a photo of Mil signing it. You could tell his vendors were fuming and this deal was heading south.
They promised Gregg he was going to cooperate and to come back and he did and Mil said no. They ended up getting into a big dispute and he said he was leaving and wanted his money and they said FU and didn't pay him a dime. He had another appearance scheduled close by either later that night or today and that was canceled. I have always heard he was temperamental and hard to do business with and in phone conversations with Gregg I said I wouldn't hire this guy as he has considered it at a higher price then these folks were contracted at. Thankfully he didn't!
I had a few cards left I needed signed and so Gregg got Scott Casey to sign my card at the table with Mike George and Steve O.
I met him in NC and he is a very cool guy. I sold all of my raw copies to Gregg earlier this year and he got a bunch signed in Tampa so I had to crack out a copy to get one done and cracked a PSA 9. It stayed nice which is good.
Tully had to take off at 1:30 and the show was slowing down some. It is natural for people to seek out who they want early so it tails off. Both him and Magnum did great and we did tons of autographs and pictures and some combo photos.
I had one Wrestling All Stars card left to get signed and went to the restroom and ran into Greg Valentine we chatted for a minute and I said Greg I have nice card for you to sign where is your table. He told me so once we were back in the convention hall I went and got it and brought it to him. I said Gregg this is a super nice copy so don't touch it and I will hold it hear for you to sign and handed him the $20. . He said okay. I held it down and he kind of started to mess up his signature so I moved my finger some. He signed it and then said hey what does the back say and picked it up with his bear paws. I was like you have got to be kidding me in my head. He ruined one of mine in NC and didn't care and this was a a PSA 8.5 I cracked out. He handed it back and the right edge looks odd to me but it may have been that way before. I walked back to our table and was like man that was annoying.
Once back at the table I ran into a guy that sells cards online and goes by trepidation34. He was cool and we chatted for awhile and I showed him some of my pics on Instagram. Magnum loved seeing them too as I would hand the phone to him to show him the cards. He was super complimentary of my efforts with trying to legitimatize wrestling cards and I really appreciated that.
The show was winding down and Gregg was now doing Road Warrior Animal and I got two low grade Carnation's signed. I have never seen one with both him and Hawk so I am not sure if you can complete that set. I have been buying Rick Martel copies and as luck would have it he has been in contact with Gregg and they may do something next year so if I can get his signed I will have them all except for a complete Road Warriors.
We dropped our stuff back in the room and then headed to the bar area to get some food. Tessa Blanchard joined us as Magnum is her step dad and she was cool. A bunch of the female wrestlers came in and she was pretty fired up about a few and her dislike for them and so it was really entertaining. I tried drinking a few Sugar Free and Tito's but I was beat. My wife had gone to the city all day and so she got back and told me about her shopping excursion and I wasn't overly excited about that and then we went to the room to rest.
I am born and raised in Orlando and so the cold snap was really tough. She was dead set on going to a Broadway show but thankfully let me off the hook. We took and Uber and went and got some good sushi, hit a bar and then went to find some pizza as that was one of her big asks of the trip. As we walked down the street the wind picked up and I was dying. I have no clue how people do it. It was a wind chill of 25 or less and just so damn cold. We popped in the first spot we saw and grabbed some pizza to go and then got an Uber back.
We packed up today and got back to Orlando around 6:30. It was a fun trip and I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with everyone. Gregg has another show planned in March but I am done for now but it does appear he will be doing one in Tampa for Wrestlemania so I will certainly drive there.
Here is a pic from our hotel room and it is just cool to see the leaves and the city in the distance.
I was excited to get to use my new PSA backpack that came with the Collectors Club Renewal and it didn't disappoint. What a great add on to the 15 card submission and SMR!
Another great show is in the books and until next time. Thanks for checking out my thread.
Dpeck - thanks for the great write up. I strictly collect baseball autos on HOF Logo baseballs, but wrestling was my jam in the 1980s. I always love these writeups.
You should get paid for these write ups. I can't believe how difficult Mil Mascaras was being. I also can't believe you ran into Kane Glenn Jacobs. That's insane. Very entertaining, thanks! Great stuff!
I really enjoyed following this thread David. There is truly a special connection between wrestling fans and the wrestlers themselves. I could totally relate to your experiences and felt the excitement through your stories. As for Mil Mascaras, i'll quote Razor Ramon...Bad times don't last but bad guys do.
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Collection: https://flickr.com/photos/185200668@N06/albums
Let me also say this, I grew up during the 90s era of Wrestling, so I missed out on a lot of the pioneers of the sport. It's refreshing to learn about the early days of wrestling. I would also like to add, that wrestling cards are 100% legitimate, and people don't realize the hell that wrestlers go through week in and week out. The beating that a wrestler's body takes over time is unbelievable. Thanks again for this thread. I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it.
Thanks for checking it out and taking the time to read it.
Wrestling has a very cool history and the cards really got me so much closer to it and it has been fun learning about lots of performers I knew nothing about.
With TV and Internet today information flows so rapidly but back in the day it wasn't that way.
The cards are legit now for sure and while many don't collect them the realized prices of wrestling cards have forced people to take notice but there was a time when they were simply considered garbage and my goal was always to change this and it has been accomplished.
Dpeck....great job on the write - up ...glad you had a great time!!
Superb account, as always.
Thanks for sharing!
Great read!