Saturday 17 October 2015

Destiny Wrestling: No Limits Event

You haven't heard from me in a month and now I'm back with another blog post just hours after my last one lol. I'm trying to get this blog updated as much as possible, so hopefully you'll see another post tomorrow and then I'll be done! For now though, let's focus on this post:


On October 3rd my friend and I went to check out Destiny Wrestling's event called 'No Limits'. We paid VIP pricing which was 100 dollars (it pretty much promised a meet and greet with Rey, aswell as, front row seats to the event). A lot of people, including my friend, thought that they would be selling pictures for Rey to sign when we got there but that was not the case. Rey was also an hour late which delayed the whole event. What was suppose to be a meet and greet turned into a quick signing and rushed photo. I was pretty hyped going in as a VIP member but things weren't turning out as planned.


We were told we could sit anywhere behind the first 3 rows. I was fine with that even though the VIP description said otherwise (front row seating). The thing that was annoying was seeing people save 6 spots in front of you for people that don't have any wristbands and just have general tickets. I let it slide though because I just paid the money to meet Rey and get a picture and autograph. Want to know what though? They announced that Rey was staying after the event to sign and take pictures with people for a small fee...So why did I pay for VIP again? I could've just paid 35 dollars and got the same treatment as a VIP member while saving 65 dollars...Would I pay for VIP again at their events?


Now it wasn't all bad; there are some things they did right that I have to give them credit for. I was impressed with the Don Kolov arena and the whole layout of the place. Secondly their match booking and talent are really stellar and it was very enjoyable to watch with the crowd that showed up. Going to small events like this is great because you meet die hard wrestling fans and they are really emotionally invested with what is going on in the ring. I did post a lot of clips on my Instagram if you want to check out some of the highlights (I'll link it at the bottom). There were a ton of great matches but I'm just going to talk about my favourite two here. 


The first match I want to talk about is Xandra Bale vs Jennifer Blake. They put on a great match together with their high flying moves. Jennifer Blake really stood out to me with her wrestling ability and how good she can work the crowd (she played a great heel and her finisher is deadly!) I recorded two clips from their match which you can check out below:





The next match that stood out on the card was the main event featuring Ricochet, Justin Gabriel and Rey Mysterio.


These guys put on some great spots during their match. They all had chemistry in the ring and it's a shame not a lot of people got to see the performance these guys put on. Fortunately, Destiny wrestling will be releasing the event sometime in the future so you can all check out this amazing main event. For now you can enjoy this clip that I recorded:



So yeah, my thoughts on the event is if you pay 35 dollars to attend then I would highly recommend it. If you see a VIP package and are contemplating it then I would HIGHLY suggest otherwise. Also, here is my picture with Rey:


Unfortunately the picture on my phone came out blurry but luckily my friend took one from the side. I'm thinking about going to their next event for 35 dollars but I'm not really in too much a rush to go tbh. I think about all the great matches and everything but then I remember things like this:


What's that you say? That is my friends piece of paper that he asked the receptionist to give him so that he can get it signed by Rey Mysterio....These are the perks for 100 dollar VIP tickets. Anyway, I'm still salty if you couldn't tell lol but this organization does have potential; They just have to be careful with how they sell premium tickets next time. That's it for me though! I should be back soon to talk about Hamilton Con and then we'll be all caught up! Untill then..........Peace!


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London Comic-Con 2015 (London, Ontario)

Hey Everyone! I'm a couple weeks late with this post but I was busy doing things like trying to finish Disgaea D2 and watching NXT....yeah I'm coming up with terrible excuses...moving on to more important things:

My friend and I went to go see Michael Jai White on September 27th at the London Comic-Con (a 2 hour drive from where we are). Black Dynamite aka Spawn is the main reason we went but there were more people and attractions that we checked out. I will say that London has some of the nicest people in regards to how they act at a con. The amount of people that attended was ideal since it wasn't over packed and to top it all off, parking was free! (might be the first time we didn't have to pay for parking).


When we first entered the con, Michael Jai White was already on stage doing a Q&A and talking about his previous and upcoming work. We found out that Black Dynamite 2 and Never Back Down 3 are both coming out in the future. He also said his favourite blaxploitation film is 'Three the Hard Way' which I just realized I own in my Jim Kelly DVD collection (I'll probably watch it after I finish this post!). He also mentioned how he use to be a teacher back in the day which is something I never knew about him. After the panel, we went to go meet him and get a picture:


We pretty much achieved our main goal as soon as we entered the convention. Walking around the con, I noticed Maurizio Guarini from Goblin who had a booth in the horror section. If you haven't heard of Goblin's music before then I highly recommend it! They did the Suspiria album which I think is one of the best movie soundtracks:


I talked to Maurizio for a while and told him how much their music has helped out the movies they worked on. He was genuinely a nice guy and I got a DVD and picture with him:



Afterwards, I went to go meet Charles Martinet who does the voices for Mario, Luigi, Wario and a bunch of other Nintendo characters. You could tell Charles has a passion for what he does because he would make the signature sounds of the characters he's signing for (my picture had about 8 characters on it and he did the voices for all of them!). Not only that but he had a section set up for people that wanted photos with him! This was the first time I've seen someone set up such an impressive area for photos, so of course, I had to get in there:


The last person I met at the con was Ani-Mia. She's a cos-player that also makes appearances on Youtube, Twitch and other places. I talked to her for a little bit before she had to go judge the cos-play contest. She said she really enjoyed the con and it was the first time she visited Canada and everyone spoke English (I think she visited Montreal before where most people speak French). She said she would be back at her booth after the contest but we didn't really have much time left. It was great to meet her and of course I got a pic with her!:


Now I'll post some of the cool stuff that I saw around the con:

This Wolverine Car was the first thing we saw when we entered the con. Below it is some TMNT comics and a wallet.
A customized Hungry Hungry Heroes board.
Some TMNT and He-Man collectibles
Conan the Barbarian and Pop figures.
Jumbo Video is still ALIVE! Only in London though lol. They said they have a location in the area that has the popcorn and everything!
These are 3 pieces that I had to buy from Eric Vedder after looking through his portfolio. We got Rival School, Street Fighter and a character from a new series that he's working on.
I have to say that I was really impressed with how this con was run and would definitely visit it again. There was also a little haunted house that they had but my friend didn't want to go inside and I didn't want to go in alone lol. They also had pinball machines and old school video games set-up which is always a good thing to see. So yeah, if you live in the London, Ontario area or are close to it then keep a look out for this convention next year. That's all I got for now guys! 

Until next time!


Monday 7 September 2015

Fan Expo 2015 (Last time I went before this was 2008)



Yo! How has everyone been? Con season is almost over and it has me thinking about what I should focus on after. Twitch? Youtube? blog about different topics? make a comic? write a script? make skits? these are all things I've been contemplating but I haven't decided yet. Anyways, I went to Fan Expo yesterday (Sunday) for the first time in 7 years. The reason I didn't go for so long is because it was really disorganized and overcrowded. Plus, the staff seemed like they weren't properly trained to deal with so much people. The only reason I went this year was because my friend wanted to meet PJ Phil (he's a YTV host from back in the day) and since I grew up watching Phil as well, I decided to tag along. I was sceptical going in to this con because of my past experiences, so I was prepared for the worst.


My friend and I went on Sunday because we knew it would be the least packed that day. The good thing about this year was the fact that they used both the South and North parts of the Metro Convention Centre (it's about a 15 minute walk between the buildings but they really needed it with their huge crowd). In 2008 when we first attended, the convention was only in the South building which caused overcrowding, so it was good to see that they got more room for the event.  We entered the North building first and this area had the celebrity signing, horror and community sections. The vendors there all had great products to check out and take pictures of. Here are some of my pictures from the North building:
This was a signed poster from the group Goblin. I wanted to ask if it was the same Goblin that worked on the Suspiria soundtrack but forgot to go back.
Just some random props I saw hanging around the horror section.
Had to take a picture with Jason! This was selling for 350 which is a pretty good price.
Those were all the pictures I got at the horror section. They also had free face painting for kids in that area which I thought was a good idea. Now I will show some of the stuff that was being sold in the North building.

I have a lot of friends that play League of Legends (I play as well sometimes) so I had to get pics for them.
Had to take a picture of all these great banners!
Some artwork that was in the area. I never seen this Army of Darkness one before.
Some street fighter and Simpsons figures. I got the Honda one in a Street Fighter surprise bag that I bought at Unplugged Expo.
These were probably the greatest find at the expo. Unfortunately they weren't being sold because of how rare they are to get nowadays.
I didn't take pictures at the celebrity section because I planned to come back to the North building and get the autographs at 3 PM; Unfortunately, Tara Strong and Nolan North left before then and Gillian Anderson costs 90 dollars for a personalised photo and 80 dollars for a photo-op...so those didn't happen. I did manage to get Steve Blum's autograph and it was great to meet him.


I was really impressed with everything that I saw in the North building and it got me wondering...what could be in the South building? So my friend and I walked there (took about 15 minutes) and this area had the artist alley, video games and movies. To my surprise, they also had a Street Fighter V beta with all the announced characters so far! Unfortunately, they didn't have arcade sticks and we weren't allowed to record any game-play. I picked R.Mika both times and lost but she seems to play really different in this game. Also, it's going to take a while to get familiar with the new mechanics but I had a blast trying it out. My friend did manage to get some footage before we were shut down:


I didn't take much pictures on this side because I was too busy playing the games lol. Here are the few I did take:

Doing the signature pose near a Halo Lego Figure
The Witcher trying to stop the signature post
Had to get the power rangers and TMNT in there
Can't forget Deadpool!
And of course, I have to include the whole reason we went to this expo...to meet PJ Phil!:


It was a pleasure meeting him and it brought back memories of watching the Zone when I saw his table lol. He's a genuinely funny person and you could tell he enjoys meeting everyone that grew up watching YTV back in the day.


 All in all, I would say I was pleasantly surprised with how good this event is now compared to the last time I went. They have really come a long way and hopefully they can find ways to continuously improve this event. They also had other attractions that I took pictures with but didn't include in this blog (you can always check out my Instagram if you want to see more). There was one problem and it was the fact that it was almost impossible to leave their official parking area near the North Building. We waited about an hour and a half before we went back to the car to exit and there were still problems. I would suggest getting some workers to help remind people to pay before they exit and to help them out by the exit bars so that they can leave with little issue. Other then that, it was a great expo; This pretty much sums up my feelings:


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Two cons left and then it's back to hibernating lol. Until next time!









Saturday 8 August 2015

My Experience at Unplugged Expo 4

Yo! As promised, I am back with another blog entry and this time I will be covering the Unplugged Expo. Also, I found out that I can pretty much copy and paste these posts and put them on my blog's that are on IGN (maybe get more viewers? Who knows? doesn't hurt to try though!). Anyways, let's get started!


This was my first time attending this con and I got the 3 day pass because there was a Street Fighter tournament that was scheduled. When I went on Friday the con was empty but that was to be expected since a lot of people work that day or are too tired after work to head out. There was an after-party that was around 10 PM but I didn't go because I was too tired. My friend did end up going but he said it was dead and the reason they had the party on Friday instead of Saturday was because of Caribana Weekend (the hotels were packed with people celebrating Caribana).


I also bought a Street Fighter gift bag that said it had 90 dollars worth of SF product in it and they were selling it for 60. Of course I bought it because I'm a big fan and I find out it has: a street fighter character book, an E.Honda mini figure and a huge Guile Hello Kitty plushie. I have no idea what to do with that plushie but at least I got that E.Honda mini figure though!


When we went on Saturday it was more of the same. The con was still pretty empty and it turns out there wasn't enough people to have a tournament. I wasn't too mad about this since they at least tried to plan something at such a small event. All the guys running the gaming section were really nice as well so I just played a couple matches when I felt like it. I also got to try that mixing game that I've seen at previous cons! It's really fun when you get the hang of it.


Also, there were a lot of cool looking tables which you can check out below:






My favourite table was of course the Toronto Power Ranger table because they had all sorts of raffles and fundraisers for charity. When you donate some money you get to shoot a member of your choice, so I had to go with the putty since he's a bad guy and promised to make the weird noises they make when he get's hit lol.


 I also got this sick picture with them! Unfortunately, I didn't get any of the raffle prizes but I ordered the Limited Black MegaZord from Toys R Us after finding out it was available from this con.


 I also visited a bunch of panels. One of them was about comics with Valentine Delandro and Adrian Alphona. They were very informative with their answers and it made me want to check out more of their stuff. There was a bunch of other ones but I'm not going to cover them all. The other panel that I found interesting was the Kill La Kill panel because I never watched the show but I was tired and decided to sit down and pass some time while listening to them. I found out that one of the voice actors in that show (Carrie Keranen) also voiced Caska from Berserk! So of course when I went home I did more research and found out that the other voice actor (Erica Mendez) does the voice for Annie from Skullgirls! The final day goal was to get my Berserk DVD signed by Carrie and get a picture with her:


I also got a Kill La Kill card from Erica Mendez and her and Carrie both signed it:


On the final day they had an X-Men musical. Unfortunately, the main stage is right beside the gaming area so it was hard to make out some of what they were saying at times.


I will say that the musical was pretty funny and it had my girl Jubilee so of course it get's extra points for that lol.





This con overall was pretty fun but they have a couple of things that they need to work on. I would suggest not putting the main stage near the gaming area since it's really distracting for the people on stage to talk when loud noises are happening right beside them. I would also suggest not doing this around the same time as Caribana since A LOT of people will be going to that event instead of this one. They should also make the gaming area bigger. It was hard to walk around in that area which makes no sense since they had a bunch of room for eating (I didn't see much people in this area btw) but none for gaming. There is potential in this con and hopefully they can improve on it next year. They need to find a way to get more traffic because it seemed like the vendors weren't selling much and some didn't even show up on Sunday.


 I'd say overall this con was just a little short of meeting the mark in some aspects. As previously stated, I think there is great potential with these guys and I think with the proper changes they can have something great here. I might check it out again next year but we'll have to see what the line up is looking like. Until next time guys!