FanPost

How to Approach Your Favorite Wrestler and Not Be a Dick.

Here's an account of a fan-wrestler encounter I found quite humorous and figured I'd contrast it with recent similar situation I had.

Here's the fan quote.

"Now I dont know if I put this is the wrong section or not but anyways. I was at the hawks game and im standing getting food and i look to my left and literally 2 feet next to me aj and punk are standing. Now I am obsessed with both punk and aj so i had a little heart attack. But what I kind of didnt like is the only think I said to them was Hey Phil can I get a picture please and he smirked and totally ignored me looking around like he was spacing the hell out. I didnt say anything else so he didnt think I was a crazy fan but dude has punk always been like this in public? It seems like hes got a stick up his ass and doesnt even want to acknowledge his fans that spent lots of money to get him super famous and rich. But at the same time I understand because I am sure he is totally sick and tired of always having people wanting photos with him and talk to him and asking him about coming back to WWE. I wasnt going to ask him that but still he shouldve at least said hi or sorry not."

First, you can look at the lack of proper grammar to realize the Rhodes Scholar we're dealing.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's look at how this guy was a fanboy douche.

  1. The guy is with his wife taking in an event. This isn't an autograph signing or convention.
  2. "Hey Phil!" Real nice! Draw attention to the guy.
  3. Ask for a picture. This people like Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin punch people in the face.
  4. Finally, just the overall sense of entitlement that permeates this uncouth jackass. Just because these people are on TV doesn't make them your performing monkeys 24/7!

Before I contrast with this my main story I want to mention another encounter I had. I'm a massive UFC fan, so when the UFC came to Pittsburgh a few years back I bought a VIP package. The package included preferred seating at the weigh-ins, which for me was front row. One of the fighters fighting was Michael Johnson. He must've had friends there because he came out to the barricade right in front of me to talk with them. I had zero plans to approach since anyone who's wrestled in high school or college, or competed in most any combat sport, you know the weight cut is hardest part and Michael was obviously drained and dehydrated


Anyway, after his friends left and before he went back to the fighter waiting area, a man came up with his young daughter and asked for a picture. Michael was kind enough to oblige. Other people started coming up and he was willing to take pictures with them, too. Now, remember, this entire time, I'm roughly three feet away from the guy watching this all unfold. After about seven people, I finally stood up and asked for a picture. I assessed the situation and realized he was gracious enough to take pictures. Never did feel like I was entitled to meet of have a picture with this man.

So, that's my first anecdote. Here's the wrestling story.

Someone of you might have read a previous post I made about my excitement of attending a local Ring of Honor show. The first show I bought tickets for in 15 years. I think I mentioned my primary reason was to see AJ Styles, my favorite wrestler of the last ten years, going back to old NWA Wildside DVDs. I also mentioned that I was consulting in Atlanta and flew back home just to see ROH and then flew back to Atlanta. I don't like to fly and it helps to upgrade to first class seating. I also like to board the about ten minutes before takeoff to avoid the cattle call entry. Since I fly first, I get to cut in line anyway. Now, the Pittsburgh to Atlanta Delta runs every two hours and each plane has roughly 200 seats.

That information sets the stage. So, I get the plane and find my window seat in last row of first class. In a one in a million probability coincidence, guess who is seated right next to me?

AJ Styles!!!!!!!

Naturally, I think this is really cool and also one of the most long shot odds of happening, considering the amount of flights and seats on said flights. Let's put it this way, if I bet those odds on a pony, I would ever have to work again.

Now here's how I handled this in comparison to the above guy.

After I sat down and got myself situated, I leaned over and quietly said "great show last night" for which he thanked me. I purposefully spoke quietly as not to draw attention to him. Then I never bothered him the remainder of the flight. He was obviously tired. He and "Rebourne" Matt Sydal (pretty cool huh) put on a 30 minute match of the year candidate about nine hours earlier.

Now after we landed and were walking out I mentioned to him that he is my favorite wrestler and that I literally flew back home to see him and then flew right back Atlanta for work the next day, which he was flattered by. I was ready part ways when he called me back since I was going in the wrong direction for baggage claim. He then asked my name, we shook hands and ended up walking and talking for about 15-20 minutes about things like travel, Atlanta traffic, joked about my fear of flying, and video games. On side note, he turned me on to this cool piece of technophobe called GAEMS. We shook an

I never asked for an autograph or a picture, again I did not want to draw attention. This cool memory of hanging out with my favorite wrestler and just shooting the breeze as two fellow travelers was enough for me.

The jerk above approached Punk as a fanboy talking to his idol. I approached AJ Styles as a human being. In the end, one got a dirty from his favorite wrestler and the other got to hang out with them. It's all about the approach.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.