wrestling / News
Live Report From WWE’s WrestleMania Week Sunshine Package
Welcome back, everyone! Today is the first official day of our WWE WrestleMania 33 Sunshine Package Virtual Tour! Today we will be covering:
The Hulk Hogan Meet & Greet at Hogan’s Beach Shop Orlando (not part of the package, but I was there so I might as well write about it)
AND
The 2017 WWE Hall of Fame!
Who’s ready? Let’s Go!
HOGAN’S BEACH SHOP ORLANDO
Hulk Hogan owns a retail store in Clearwater, FL called Hogan’s Beach Shop. Once there, you can buy all sorts of Hogan and WWE-related merchandise. I’m talking wearables, figures, title belts and so on.
Being the smart businessman that Hogan is, he opened a pop-up Beach Shop in Orlando for WrestleMania week and is doing meet & greets all week long. For a mere $150, you get to meet the Hulkster, get an autograph and take a picture or two with the Immortal one. If you want something major signed, like a title belt or valuable collectable, you’ll have to cough up another $50.
Armed with my online receipt I took an Uber to Hogan’s Beach Shop Orlando and arrived 30 minutes before the designated 12 noon start time. Here’s some pictures of what the shop looks like on the outside:
As you can see, there was already a line that wrapped around the side of the building. As time went on, that line got longer and longer, eventually snaking around to the back of the store.
The line was comprised of various types of fans – young & old, local & foreign, etc. I had expected to see an older crowd (30 years +) but was pleasantly surprised to see a number of young Hulkamaniacs as well.
While in line, a nice young lady with green hair came by to check everyone in. She explained the process when asked and the system seemed pretty organized.
The Hulkster arrived 10 minutes late, which isn’t too bad considering he’s a celebrity and many big shots are notorious for taking as long as they please. The crowd cheered and Hogan seemed to be in a good mood.
The line started moving and eventually I made my way inside the store. It’s a decently –sized shop, not to big but not cramped, either. Aside from the merchandise for sale, there were a number of Hogan statues and even a Hulk Hogan sports car in the middle of the floor. Here’s a peek at the inside:
Thunderlips – The Ultimate Male!
From the back looking to the front of the store. That’s Hogan in the black shirt in front of the car
Small details make all the difference
Hollywood Hogan Statue and Motorcycle
The line moved pretty efficiently until a local news crew came in. Understandably, the line stopped as Hogan hammed it up for the cameras and even jokingly interviewed “Hulk Hogan” – a fan dressed as the Hulkster – for the news station. Any slight annoyance at having to wait longer was completely wiped away by the fact that I was standing a mere 10 feet from HULK FREAKING HOGAN as he cut a promo for the camera. Awesome.
Observing Hogan’s demeanor with his fans was refreshing. He looked happy to be there and took a few moments with each fan to joke around, make small talk, and try to give them a cool moment to remember. I’ve seen celebrity meet and greets where the celeb looks like he’d rather be anywhere else, but Hogan was on the total opposite end of the spectrum as far as attitude goes.
When it was my turn, Hogan noticed my Rowdy Roddy Piper “Hot Rod” shirt and gave me a big smile, yelling “What’s up, Hot Rod!” He then shook my hand and pulled me in for a huge bear hug. I am secure enough in my masculinity to say that getting a BIG hug from the Hulkster made my inner 5-year old extremely happy. I don’t care who you are, but when your childhood hero gives you a hug it’s SPECIAL, dammit!
**Side Note – I think the shirt is what prompted the hug. Everyone else was wearing Hogan stuff and they didn’t get a hug. Yes, the hug meant the world to me and no, I am not ashamed to admit it!
Anyway, he signed an 8×10 for me, we took a few photos and chatted for about 30 seconds. Hogan seems to have perfected the delicate balance of making the fans happy with their experience vs keeping the line moving efficiently.
Overall, I was very happy with my experience. I recommend it if you’re in the area and the Hulkster is a hero of yours. I have only two criticisms of the operation:
1) You couldn’t shop while in the store. I would have bought a few items and I heard many other people vocalize a similar sentiment. They should have sectioned off a portion of the store for a meet & greet and left the remainder as a traditional retail area where we could purchase Hogan-related items.
2) They should have had a proper background behind Hogan. He was situated in front of the sports car, which seems like a good background in theory. However, the car gets blocked and all you really see behind you is merchandise and other people waiting in line.
But those are minor criticisms for an overall majorly satisfying day!
Yes, I am a Hogan mark. I wear my Hulkamaniac badge proudly!
The 2017 WWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony was fun, but long. I won’t give a detailed recap of the speeches because you can read that here on 411mania or watch it for yourself on the WWE Network.
Upon arriving at the Amway Center, the first thing I noticed was this interesting sign taped to the entry doors:
Don’t they know who they’re dealing with? Actually, they do. Hence the sign. Not that it stopped anyone from misbehaving, but it was mostly innocent, anyway. I’ll count down the top three interruptions in order of awkwardness:
The guy who kept yelling that he loved Beth Phoenix, over and over. Even when she was tearing up when talking about her sick mom
The guy who kept yelling how hot Rick Rude’s daughter is.
1) The drunk guy near me who was laughing LOUDLY at something on his phone while Eric LeGrand was telling us about how he got paralyzed. Bad timing, drunk dude.
Unfortunately, a barrel of 15,000 apples is bound to have a few rotten ones. Thankfully, nothing too offensive was shouted and most people were well behaved.
The seats at the ceremony were great. The front two sections were roped off for Superstars and their guests, and Sunshine package ticketholders were in the section directly behind them. It was a lot of fun to see wrestlers past and present mingle and walk around just a few dozen feet from us.
The crowd booed Reigns, Cena, HHH and surprisingly, Goldberg the most. They had great respect for Miz – which seems weird but expected – and AJ Styles. There was a great moment early on when Shane McMahon approached AJ Styles on the interview platform. We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the crowd was totally into it.
While the seats were very nice, they were not ideal for taking pictures. There were 3 screens on the stage, two super HD screens on the left and right sides, and a pixelated screen directly behind the podium. If you take pictures with a regular cell phone camera like I do, the boxy background distorts the speaker’s picture, which looks just horrible. Here’s an example with John Cena:
Ah well, them’s the breaks I suppose.
The Amway Center itself seemed well organized with a very friendly, efficient staff. The selection of merchandise inside the building that I saw was very limited, but appropriately themed considering the event. Take a look below:
As you can see, the only merch they were selling was related to the Hall of Fame inductees. Pretty cool concept, as it puts the spotlight on those being honored.
A few random observations/opinions:
– Rick Rude’s son did a great job considering public speaking isn’t something he’s accustomed to
– Eric LeGrand’s mic was not set up properly and it was EXTREMELY difficult to hear him in the arena. Hopefully it came out better on TV, but in person it was almost impossible to hear
– Teddy Long’s induction was the best of the lot. The combo of APA introducing him as the cheapest man alive and Teddy gladly accepting the mantle was hilarious
– Kurt Angle wears his goofiness proudly and it works so well for him
– Kurt Angle is wise. Even the best wrestler in the world knows that matches are important, but not as important as memorable character-based moments. I REALLY hope the Creative Team was listening at that part
– Never has the phrase “You Suck!” been shouted by so many with such great respect
Once the ceremony ended, that’s when the worst part of the evening began. We had to get back to the hotel, which is about 20-30 minutes away by car. There wasn’t any public transportation to speak of and seemingly everyone was trying to get an Uber. I personally shared a Lyft with three great fellows from London (shout out to Lee, Tom and Jake!) whom I met that very night. Wrestling fans are the best, aren’t they?
That’s about it for the Hall of Fame. As I said, most of what’s worth mentioning was broadcast on the Network or covered in an online writeup. Plus, it’s 1:30AM and I am really tired.
Hope you enjoyed Day 1 of your Sunshine Package Virtual Tour.
Tomorrow: Axxess, WWE Superstar Reception and NXT Takeover: Orlando!
Hasta luego,
This is Sean.
