Meeting Chicago Comic Con celebrities

My girlfriend and I made the trip out to the Chicago Comic Con convention on Saturday August 11. It was a blast and I could not have asked for a better day. We arrived there at 12:00 p.m. and the place was packed. There was probably about 10,000 people there when we arrived. We got there and went right into the photo op line for CM Punk. We waited there for about an hour or so and we finally got by Punk. He had his WWE championship with him which was really cool to see the real deal. My girlfriend and I took a picture with him and we I had my belt on to match the real one that Punk had on. He seemed real nice, but he did not wear any CM Punk gear and he sat down during the photo op whereas John Cena stood up the whole time. After this we traveled over to meet John Morrison and Melina. Morrison is my girlfriend's favorite wrestler and Melina was my favorite diva. I really dislike the fact that both of them are no longer in WWE. Hopefully they will return soon and inject some new life into the current WWE. Melina was super sweet and she signed so much on my picture that I got. Morrison was also really nice and they were both very talkative. We could have sat and talked with them the whole day if we wanted. Following this we went over and met Sam Trammel from True Blood. He was very short and did not say much to either one of us. My girlfriend got her picture signed and we went right on her way, because we did not have anything to say to him. Following this, we went and got in line to meet Booker T. Now Booker was awesome, he signed his book that isn't even out yet and he also signed one other item so I got my WWE Championship belt signed. Booker was very talkative and I was talking to him about Alberto Del Rio and him getting axed from the World Heavyweight Championship match at Summerslam. He was super cool and he took a picture with the both of us. After meeting Booker, we went and met Jon Bernthal who plays Shane in the Walking Dead. We are huge fans of the show so meeting Bernthal was pretty sweet. He was super nice and introduced himself and he was also very talkative. I asked him how the movie shoot went for the new movie "Snitch." He said that he is done with it and we should expect it in the spring. He was super cool and he signed my Walking Dead poster. After meeting him, we went and got in line to get an auto from CM Punk. His line was pretty long and when we finally got up to him, he was really short. He did not shake hands and he signed our picture, which has a dark background, in blue which really stinks. I was pretty disappointed with how Punk was and I wish that our experience could have been better, maybe we just caught him on a bad day. After this, we got lunch and walked around a bit. We ended the day by meeting Norman Reedus who plays Darrell on the Walking Dead. His line was packed to the brim and we were lucky we got in his line as the convention was closing around that time. We got in his line and by the time we were getting close, they had turned the lights off in the place and the convention was over. He stayed the whole time to get through the line and it was really nice of him to do that for everyone. He was really cool and very accommodating for everyone. He signed my poster and we got a picture with him. He was one of the only celebrities that we got a picture with as the other ones, you had to pay to get a picture with them. I'm not much of a fan of this as you already have to pay for the autograph, you should be able to get a picture free of charge. All in all, that Saturday was loaded with meeting celebrities and WWE wrestlers. We had a ton of fun and I cannot wait to go back next year.

Meeting John Cena

On the first day of the 2012 Wizard World Chicago Comic Con my girlfriend and I met WWE Superstar John Cena on Thursday, August 9. Cena was doing photographs from 4:00-5:30 p.m. Following that Cena did an autograph signing from 5:30-8:00 p.m.

There were so many people waiting for the photograph with Cena and my girlfriend and I were one of the many people waiting for him. We finally got up to get the picture with Cena at about 5:00 p..m. after waiting for a little over an hour.

We got up to Cena and he was super nice, shaking hands with everyone and smiling. He was just a nice guy who seemed so genuine.

So many times, people think that these people are larger than life just because they are famous, but when you meet them you realize that they are normal people. Cena probably had to sit there through around 1,000 people taking pictures with him.

I talked to the people selling tickets there for the photo op with Cena and they said just that day they had sold 300 tickets. That was not counting the pre sale tickets or the VIP tickets that were sold, so you can imagine how many people were waiting to meet Mr. Cena.

Following that photograph session, Cena went over and signed autographs for two and a half hours. I am sure that he was pretty tired following all of this. We waited for the picture with him and then followed that by walking around waiting for the line for the Cena autograph line to die down.

We ended up meeting Lou Ferrigno who was just sitting there with no one in his line. I went up to him and shook his hand and told him how I liked him on Celebrity Apprentice and we had a brief chat.

We kept walking around because the line for Cena was so long, we ended up seeing Kevin Nash who is a former WWE Superstar and he was doing interviews along with some autographs.

Nash was super tall and he seemed like he was a nice guy from what we saw from him in about five minutes. Following this we got in line for Cena and we waited for about another hour to get his autograph.

I got up to him and had him sign the picture that we took with him and he personalized it to my girlfriend and I. I told him to keep doing what he is doing with Make A Wish and he told me thank you and he thanked my girlfriend as well.

The reason why I told him that is because he has granted 300 wishes and he does not plan on stopping there. His Make a Wish contributions have been widely publicized and he has become more famous because of that.

We finally ended our seven hour day of being there and we took off after the autograph session with Cena. Meeting Cena was a huge highlight for me as he is my favorite WWE Superstar.

He was such a nice genuine guy that everyone loves to cheer or boo whenever he comes through the curtain for the start of a WWE show. The 2012 Chicago Comic Con continues through this coming Sunday August 12.

If you can make it out there this weekend, make the trip out to the Donald E. Stephens Center in Rosemont, IL. The pricing is quite expensive though to get in because this Saturday is $45 for entry and Sunday is $35 for entry.

There will be many great celebrities there and tomorrow, Saturday, my girlfriend and I will be meeting the current WWE Champion and hometown guy CM Punk.

Meeting Jimmy Hayes

On July 20, my girlfriend and I met Jimmy Hayes who is a young Blackhawks rookie at Steven's Collectibles in Countryside, IL. This was my first signing at this location and it was a lot of fun.

With my membership, I was able to get this signing for free and I was glad that I went to the signing. There were a lot of people there as there normally is a ton of people for Blackhawks players.

I have been to two other Blackhawks signings before including Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook, at both of those signings I showed up and left because there were too many people. I waited in line until we got up close to Hayes and he signed a mini Blackhawks helmet that I had for him.

He was pretty nice and he signed the helmet and I got a picture with him. Following this, I headed out after this fairly quick signing.

When we were leaving though, the line was out the door. He was only charging $15 per autograph and like I said earlier, Blackhawks players normally have a big turn out.

I have been to many other signing including basketball, baseball, football, wrestling and hockey players and the hockey signings along with the wrestling signings have the biggest turn outs. Always with signings it is hit or miss meaning that you never really know how many people will turn out, there could be five people or 500 people.

This place was pretty packed for this signing and I look forward to meeting some more players at their location. If you have yet to be out to Steven's Collectibles in Countryside, IL., I would advise you to head on over there because they have a lot of sports memorabilia along with sports cards if you are interested in that.

Meeting Pierre Pilote, George Altman and Ernie Banks

                The Mounted Memories Sports Spectacular convention is long past, but sports fans are counting down the days until the next Sun-Times Convention from Nov. 16-18. The Sports Spectacular Convention took place in Rosemont, IL. from June 29-July 1.

                During that convention, my girlfriend and I went to show on Sunday, July 1 and met some pretty awesome people. The first person that we met that day was Pierre Pilote (Chicago Blackhawks Hall of Famer 1975) who was signing for the Fergie Jenkins foundation at his own separate booth.

                He was really nice and talkative, talking about the poster that I brought for him to sign. I also have Denis Savard’s autograph on that poster so Pilote was talking about all of the other guys that I need to get on that poster now including Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito.

                He signed my poster in gold ink and then he stood up for a picture with me and I moved on. I went and found George Altman who was doing a free signing for CSAC which is a website that I am a member of for autograph signings.

                I grabbed my free ticket and got in line and he took my baseball and signed it 1961-62 2x All-Star. He took a picture with me too after signing my baseball.

                After the two of them we proceeded to walk around and check out the autographs and sports memorabilia that the Sports Spectacular show had to offer. That convention can make any sports fans drool over the amount of memorabilia you wish you had in your ‘man cave.’

                The final signing of the day for me was Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. He was probably the nicest guy that I have ever met.

                My girlfriend and I walked up and there was a guy in front of us getting a helmet signed and Banks looks at me and says, “Is that your wife with you?” I replied, “No, that is my girlfriend.” He then said, “That’s your wife.” We had a good laugh after he said that.

                We got up to him and he took my baseball and signed it and his agent or friend told me to lean in and get a picture while he was signing. Banks said, “No, no, no, wait on the picture.” He turned to his buddy/agent and said you go and take a picture of these two people.

                I ended up handing the camera to someone in the crowd and he took a picture of me, my girlfriend and Mr. Banks. We shook his hand and headed off.

                I looked at the baseball and to my amazement Banks had signed not only his name, but also HOF 77 and Mr. Cub. That was a great surprise and I was really excited by that.

                All in all, this was a great experience and another great autograph signing session. Those three guys were three more awesome signings to add to my collection.

                If you have not been to any of the sports conventions held in Rosemont, IL., at the Donald E. Stephens Center you need to make it out there. It is a lot of fun and a great time, so bring someone along and head on out there at the next convention from Nov. 16-18.