The year was 2007. Fairly early in my combo life and before I started focusing on celebrities. At the time my main focus was still wrestling. The event was actually a sports show in Edison NJ at the convention center on May 6. Tons of sports names most of which I never heard of. The attraction for me? Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Bruno Sammartino, and the Iron Sheik. Out of all those I had only met Bruno before. All the rest were first time meets so getting 3 former champions two of which are iconic wrestling names it seemed like I had to go. Though I would later meet each of Hogan, Warrior, and Sheik once or more since then).
To boot, I also had Jakks Classic Superstars figures and the 2005 Hall of Fame WWE magazine (which was a rare time everyone inducted was alive at the time of induction).
It should be noted that to my knowledge, this was the first and only time Hogan, Warrior, and Bruno were present under the same roof!
Anyhow, start of the con I head to Warrior. Wow there he was. I was star struck (remember this was early in my combo life).
Now comes the only sour note of the event, the Warrior photo op. They had a pro photographer and would not let you use your own camera. First off we have to remember this was 2007. It was well into the life of digital cameras, but it was the time between the old and the new. Not everyone had fully adapted to all the new technology. To put things into context, some promoters were still using old school low quality Polaroids, smart phones were still a concept most people could never imagine, most video camcorders still used film, and VHS tapes were not fully phased out yet.
I got the photo op with their camera, and the print outs were nothing like today's print outs at cons. It was an ink jet printer on photo paper (again remember this was 2007). And they did not offer jpegs. I was so upset by this I didn't even pay them for autographs. Here is the print out.
Here are photos of me meeting him.
This is merch for sale (in hindsight $400 for that signed belt was a good deal)
Side note, I would later get a photo with my own camera of face painted Warrior and pay for autographs at a signing in 2008.
Up next, was none other than Hulk Hogan. I was truly at awe when I was next to the immortal Hulk Hogan. At the time meeting Hulk Hogan was to me a milestone of life. I bought one autograph and that came with a table op. In future events I would improve that shot and get more items done. After Hogan signed the WWE HOF mag, the last person left was Mr Wonderful Paul Orndorff (whom I later got, as shown in the photo).
I would end this event by successfully mooching a photo op with Wrestlemania winner Lawrence Taylor (I would get another shot with him in NYC in 2019) .
Another kind of "Hulks" I got at the show
As I got home, I looked at the back of my Warrior print out which featured the name of the photographer that took the shot. It said contact for extra prints. I called them to try and get the jpeg but to no avail. They said it couldn't be done. Disappointed I scanned the print and made the best out of what I have.
Fast forward to April 2020 in the midst of the apocalypse. Without new photo ops to create, I have been using Remini and photoshop to revisit old photo ops and improve them. Everyone needs to try Remini which fixes the heads in blurry photo ops (photoshop does a decent job at fixing the rest of the picture). One of the photos I decided to revisit was my first Warrior shot. I used Remini on it and made some photoshop adjustments which made the scan look better.
Then I thought to myself, why not try to contact the original photographer again? I dig in through old signed photos and amongst them was the Warrior print! I never threw it away cause that was essentially the closest copy of the source that I had. On the back it still said where to go for reprints. And it even had an 18th anniversary sticker of the place (1989-2007). First step was to see if the place existed 13 years later. A google search yielded the web site. I called the number and it went to voicemail. I guess the place was closed due to the virus. So I took the email address on there and contacted him. I explained what I had and if I could still order prints. I got a response saying that he would check in the morning to see if he still has it.
Next morning comes and said he had it and wanted a check or money order for a print. I told him I just wanted the digital file and that I would send him $5 less for just the file and he accepted! SCORE! I quickly wrote the check, drove to the post office, and mailed it.
For reference, my second and final shot with him in 2008
