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So I was inspired to do this by some back and forth in the AEW thread. Post here your awesome tales of meeting wrestlers and/or other combat athletes! I'll start us off by reposting mine! Others are more than welcome to repost theirs as well, but I don't wanna be presumptuous. Post your memorable, funny, heartwarming, and otherwise good stories here!SamuraiFoochs posted:I don't know if I ever told my Meeting Mox Story but I met him at Axxess in New Orleans at Mania 30. Some folks were more outwardly gregarious (Dolph Ziggler was genuinely nice to me, believe it or not, as was Hacksaw), but Mox was most memorable. I went up to him to get an autograph and was using one of those program thingies they sell to have people sign, and as I'm going to pass it off, one of the pages falls out of the binding, and Mox, loud as anything, goes, "JESUS CHRIST! We charge people an arm and a leg, they come from all over the world for this experience, gigantic company, and we skimp on materials? What is this crap?!" Other notes: -As established, Dolph Ziggler was genuinely a nice dude. Tyson Kidd was also super nice. Matt Cardona seemed like he wanted to die. Aron Stevens (Damien Sandow at the time) stayed entirely in character. Seth Rollins was also cool. Hacksaw Jim Duggan was either in character or he literally is just exactly his gimmick but either way, super charming. It seemed like Hacksaw was marking out for Mania weekend just as much as any of the fans which the more I think about it the more I love. Dutch Mantell did the grandpa thing of playfully pretending I ran over his foot. I didn't exactly love that but hey, he was trying.  I still have all the photos but I'm too lazy to upload them RN. If you really look you can find them on my Twitter. Anyway, post your awesome stories here!  Good (or at least humorously less good) vibes only please and thanks!
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Dec 12, 2022 18:52
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DeathChicken posted:I met Bray Wyatt at Mania 29. Had a ridiculous sign with me (Fandango's head on a Bulbasaur. In joke with my brother), asked Bray to sign it. He tried very hard to keep character, stared at it for three seconds, broke up laughing. "Pffffft okay" and I have a picture with him smiling huge Also met Terry Funk, he was just the sweetest dude. My niece was with us, she would have been like 10 at the time. "Little darlin you probably have no idea who I am but that's okay"
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Dec 12, 2022 19:10
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My wife and I went to GalaxyCon over the summer and got to meet a couple wrestlers. First up was Hangman. He and my wife bonded over both being teachers and had a chat about butterflies being endangered. He gave us a spoiler about coming out to save the Bucks on that week's Dynamite and let us know he would be wearing the awesome butterfly pants. He really did come off as the nicest, most down to earth guy around, it was fun getting to talk to him for a bit. Then when my wife went to get in line for her pro photo with Brendan Fraser and I went to meet Victoria and get a picture with her. She had everyone in line come stand around the edge of her tables so she could talk to and look at everyone at once because she wanted to see all her fans at one time so that was pretty cool. When I got my picture with her, I handed my phone to her handler, we took the first picture. Then out of nowhere Victoria yells 'SELL FOR ME!' and grabs my neck to (pretend) choke me. The look of fear on my face in that picture is real because that came out of nowhere and caught me completely off-guard. It was a pretty fun day!
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Dec 12, 2022 19:14
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Smackdown did a show in town a long while back and Big Show and Shelton Benjamin did a couple interviews with our local radio cluster when I worked there. Both were really nice dudes and Big Show had a great sense of humor. A couple friends met Max Caster a few months ago at one of his indie appearances and said he could not have been a nicer guy.
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Dec 12, 2022 19:16
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Vandar posted:When I got my picture with her, I handed my phone to her handler, we took the first picture. Then out of nowhere Victoria yells 'SELL FOR ME!' and grabs my neck to (pretend) choke me. The look of fear on my face in that picture is real because that came out of nowhere and caught me completely off-guard. ahahahaha I love this
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Dec 12, 2022 19:18
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Reposting my Mox story:My Mox Story posted:I met Jon Moxley on Saturday and he was super cool and funny. And I know a lot of people have turned on Sammy Guevara, but he was at this same convention back when he was still TNT champion. He let a little kid pin him, then declared the kid TNT champion. He then asked if the kid's stuffed Panda Bear could be champ, so the bear pinned the kid. Sammy then pinned the bear to regain the championship, that way he didn't actually defeat this kid. I thought that was pretty cool. And this didn't happen to me directly - but my Mom took my brother to a bunch of indy shows while I was in college. They sat in the very front row and someone did a dive and overshot and landed right in my mom's lap, knocking her over. Both wrestlers helped her up and made sure she was fine (which she was) and the heel in the match broke character and started yelling "ARE YOU OKAY MISS?" to try and make her laugh. So I hear about the story and it's pretty heart-warming and everything. Years later we're in the depressing summer of 2020 and my wife and I are having a zoom call with my parents. We end up talking about what shows we're watching, I mention AEW, my mom goes "Oh yeah, Brodie Lee's there now, remember when he made sure I was okay after that guy knocked me over?" I was floored. Now my parents both watch AEW and my mom is just letting loose with all these stories about Eddie Kingston high-fiving her and Claudio selling her a t-shirt for half price and all this stuff that she's just recounting like it was a normal interaction at the bank or something.
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Dec 12, 2022 19:19
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I have a few! Way back my parents brought me to a house show at Boston Garden, shortly after WM5. Hogan vs Macho on top and I fuckin loved Hogan. However I absolutely hated loud noises as a kid, and when Hogan came out to the loudest reaction I had ever heard I freaked out and we had to leave. They apparently had to drag me pretty far away to get me to calm down, and while trying to find somewhere to clean up my snotty face Dad ran into a half dressed Million Dollar Man. He asked if I was ok, Dad assured him I would be, and he almost ran off, assuming so a kid didn't see him break kayfabe. Dad didn't tell me until years later as I very much thought everything was real at the time. Went to a WWECW show when they still had some originals. Sandman stood on my chair while I was at the concession stand, because of course. (My friend still has the beer can he smashed on his head.) Big Show took a nasty table bump in the corner during the main with Sabu. We were dipshit smarks so we gave him a Thank You Show chant after the match was over, he turned to us and gave us a small bow and a wave. Kevin Thorne was also on the card, some guy in the front row turned and lifted his shirt to show him a full back cross tattoo and Kevin sold it like he got shot in the face with w shotgun. Met Mick Foley and Mox at a con end of 2019. Mick was obviously tired and sore so he wasn't very talkative, though he did make time for a special needs fan that came by. Got on one knee to take a pic with him and gave him a couple autographed pictures for no charge. Mox was basically bathing in hand sanitizer. Asked him how he was and got "Nother day nother dollar, babe." Got an autograph and told him to gently caress Kenny up since it was right before their Lights Out match. Told me "You know it." and complimented me on my AEW hat. Bob Orton spent most of the afternoon assuring people that the ink on Randy's AEW contract was drying as we spoke. I think he announced his WWE extension like a week later. My friend, who was a non fan, was very confused on why I found it hysterical and was not angry that the wrestling guy lied to me. Mostly boring!
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Dec 12, 2022 19:34
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I did a meet and greet with Mox and Eddie for Double or Nothing 2021 and Mox was wearing a Fanny Pack. I asked him what he kept in there and he said cigarettes. Confirmed because he went for a cigarette break half way through The same DoN 2021 weekend I was at the Marriott across the river from Daily’s Place drinking at the hotel bar to kill sometime when the friggin Nightmare Express pulled up outside and Cody and Eric Bischoff started filming for Rhodes to the Top next to me so I’m in that episode. Afterwards I asked Cody for a pic and he was cool about it. My wife met Jericho and Mox at Austin airport because she was flying out the day after a show here and they were very cool about taking pics with her to make me jealous. I got to hold the IWGP belt (the good one) for a pic with Kenny when he did a meet and greet before the Cow Palace show. I got a photo with Orange Cassidy at the Wrestlecon Supershow in NYC in 2019 that I didn’t pay for and I’m still not sure if I was supposed to pay him and he just didn’t want to break character. I met The Brood at the mall when I was 14 and it was the coolest thing I got to do when I was a younger fan because we were too poor to go to an actual show lol JUNGLE BOY fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Dec 12, 2022 |
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Dec 12, 2022 19:38
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Oh almost forgot since it wasn't a wrestler... All Out 19 was on my birthday so I did a trip to Chicago, got the VIP package and everything. Was supposed to have a photo op in the ring or something, but when they brought us out there was one of the security guys holding the brand new AEW World Heavyweight Title. We got to hold it for our photos. I was first in line and told by the guy holding it I was the first non-AEW personnel to touch the belt since it came in. So by the definition I made up in my own head that makes me the first AEW Lineal Champion. 
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Dec 12, 2022 19:46
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I met Jimmy Yang at an ROH show in Cincinnati. He was there in the parking lot with his Redneck Party Bus and he complimented my Drive-By Truckers shirt. Apparently the Jimmy Wang Yang gimmick is just who he is 24/7. At the same show I got Kevin Steen to sign a map for the Cincinnati Zoo which he found amusing.
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Dec 12, 2022 19:58
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Kayfabe died for me on September 18, 1999, when I was 12, at an ECW fan meet and greet. Tommy Dreamer was a huge dick and Justin Credible was extremely kind to me. Devastating to 12 year old me since Tommy Dreamer was my favorite wrestler at the time and the guy I was most looking forward to meeting. I remember the event started kind of early(ish) and my dad brought me right as it started, so I had waited to meet Dreamer first, before anyone had even come out yet. I don't know if it was just too early in the morning, so maybe he just wasn't fully awake yet, but he was just very grumpy and curt with me, and acted very put out to let me take a picture with him. The day was saved by Justin Credible and Dawn Marie, who were both very nice to me. Having the heels be nice and the face hosed me up. RVD, Spike Dudley, New Jack, and Balls Mahoney were all also very cool. Basically everyone else who was there, besides Dreamer. This was like 20 years ago so I don't have any crisp anecdotes of every interaction, but I will always remember Justin Credible and Dawn Marie being very nice and Dreamer not.
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Dec 12, 2022 20:08
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In early 2008, I was hospitalized for reasons I'd like to not get into. It was an experience I'd never want to experience again, being away from everyone I knew. About six weeks in, I saw a guy with long, curly black hair in line for lunch, and I had to ask. "Are you Sean Waltman?" He answered yes. I shook his hand, introduced myself, and told him I was a big fan. He thanked me, and we went our separate ways in the lunchroom. I saw him a few times after that before I was discharged. I hope I made his stay a little better, knowing he was still loved. Oh, and I'm 95% sure my driving instructor was Dusty Rhodes, but I have no evidence of that.
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Dec 12, 2022 20:12
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I met Vampiro at a WCW Thunder in 1998 and for all I've heard about what an rear end in a top hat primadonna he is, he was super nice and chatty with everyone buying merch, me included. He also lied to my face about joining the Misfits and going on tour with them, which is hilarious in retrospect. I met Claudio Castignoli and Nigel McGuinness when they were in ROH and both guys were really friendly. Claudio is a huge action figure of a man. I also met Davey Richards at the merch table, who was way more cordial than I'd expected. I also met Jim Cornette at an ROH event and to be honest he was super cool and funny, and I hate that he's hunkered down into bigotry the way he has.
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Dec 12, 2022 20:23
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In chronological order: Teddy Long My seventh birthday was at a Chuck E Cheese. My dad was bored and hanging out. Long was there for a different party (I grew up near Atlanta and this was when Long was in WCW). They went and smoked weed behind the CEC. He told me happy birthday and gave me a high five. My dad called him "peanuthead" and they had a good afternoon. Goldberg I wore a Kevin Nash t-shirt to a Goldberg signing. He signed a picture and growled angrily at the Nash shirt. I was thrilled. Kevin Nash I wore a Goldberg t-shirt (very cool kid) to a Nash signing. He signed THE GOLDBERG SHIRT and told me to stop wearing a "jabronie wardrobe." Mania 27 Access Condensed: Randy Orton was cool as hell but also very tired at like a personal signing for front row ticket holders. My pal and I stood in line for signings from Kaitlyn (we took a very silly picture popping and locking together. She was lovely), Daniel Bryan/William Regal (I told Bryan he was my favorite wrestler and he seemed psyched), Trent Barretta and Tyler Reks (my pal said something about "my buddy things you two job too much" and Reks acted very angry and Trent told Reks to kill him. I felt honestly bad and apologized to Trent later and he said it was actually very funny so IDK), and Cody Rhodes (we talked about Zelda and he was cool). When we went to the main show there was a special arena entrance for front row ticket people and we were met by Jimmy Hart and Sergeant Slaughter. Slaughter called us "maggots" which is great because I am, indeed, a maggot. Jimmy led us to our seats and he was a gem. The next night on Raw Ivelisse spilled the dude next to me's beer on me and didn't apologize. There's a couple more WCW guys in there early on but not much. My uncle went to school with the Armstrongs and my partner's godfather is "Wildfire" Tommy Rich so I will probably meet him at some point if we get married.
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Dec 13, 2022 02:17
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i seen the rock taking a big poo poo.
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Dec 13, 2022 02:31
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i also saw black adam
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Dec 13, 2022 02:59
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First Beyond Wrestling show I went to Chris Hero was extremely awesome, super engaged with whomever went up to him and I still have the bad-rear end beanie*. During intermission I was walking around wearing a hat with the Punisher logo and Santana and Ortiz and Chris Dickenson chatted with me about the hat and Punisher. Drew Gulak, Biff Busick and the Bucks were cool at their merch tables at Beyond too. Evil Uno and Lince Dorado both did selfie videos with my friend and I while we were plugging our youtube show. "Smart" Mark Sterling used to do a podcast with a couple other indie wrestlers where they would watch a match and drink a craft beer... so whenever they came to Blitzkrieg Pro in Enfield, CT (venue was BYOB) we would bring some home brewed stuff for them. Mark even had my friends cider while recording. IN high school, went to a signing that Chyna was at. There was no line for her so I just went up. A couple security people ended up standing in my way of her, so she physically shoved them out of the way to talk to me. I used to live right off the Mass Pike inbetween Boston and Worcester and I would go to the gym at like 8AM and one day I saw someone that was as tall as Kane and looked like Kane. He also saw I was wearing some old wrestling shirt and nodded at me. Went home and looked at the WWE schedule and saw they were in the Worcester/Boston area sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. And of course, the awesome WWE official that chased me down to say how much he loved the RELEASE THE DOVES shirt I wore at WM 24. *When I met Max Caster I was wearing Hero's beanie (It's the CH in the shape of the Wu-Tang logo) and Caster LOVED it.
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Dec 13, 2022 03:18
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I met Zack Sabre Jr. in a faux-English pub in Sapporo earlier this year after the G1 shows. I was awkward, nervous, and as excited and starstruck as a 15 year old girl at her first BTS concert. Yet he was exceedingly polite and pleasant and lovely, (as were his friends, the other gaijin wrestlers who had come in with him). But I mention that I met Zack, because it was him I got to talk to, and we had a 10 minute conversation about living and working in Japan, the benefits and difficulties of learning Japanese, (indeed he gave me some good hints on how to get better), and normal stuff. He is a tall, handsome, polite, lovely man and I will not hear a bad word against him.
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Dec 13, 2022 03:21
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Just about everyone I've met in the business has been pretty cool. My dad and I met Earl Hebner, and we chatted for like 10 minutes after a Smackdown taping and took photos together. I ran into Eric Bischoff in '04, randomly walking down the street in Santa Monica. Say what you will about the guy, but he was extremely appreciative and talked to me for a few minutes, asked who my favorites were, etc. He got a friend to take a picture of us with my camera, then looked at the display and said we can do better, and stayed to pose for another couple shots. Ho Ho Lun is incredibly nice. I haven't met him IRL, but we've talked a few time in DMs. He's really supportive of my Youtube wrestling content and has boosted it a few times, and he's been great with checking inventory for some shirts I wanted. I asked if a couple items were in stock, and he not only went out of his way to check the dojo where they store merch, but he got back to me several times to update me on what was available. I met some Dragongate guys at indies over Halloween weekend. Ultimo Dragon was brief but pleasant; he thanked me for being a fan and fist-bumped me. La Estrella was really cool to me, I talked to him at Defy, and the next night at Prestige he recognized me and came over to say hello, and thanked me for coming again. SB KENTo was SO excited that I knew his catchphrase, and immediately went for a handshake when I said it. I told YAMATO in Japanese that he's been a favorite of mine for years, and that I'm still learning the language but I'm not very good at it yet. He complimented my pronunciation and encouraged me to keep at it.
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Dec 13, 2022 10:43
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I met the road dogg and rhyno in a club years ago at a meet and greet, only got a photo so no real interactions but just remember rhyno being smaller than I thought but about three times as wide as any other human I've met. My friend had a spare ticket to a convention this year so I got to meet Sting with him which was a laugh and then we decided to meet MJF who was great. As we were queuing up he was loving with everyone in different ways so we basically got a 20 minute show of him heeling it up. We got our photo taken and he ignored us and was on his phone watching some random YouTube video, I said something to try and get him to laugh but he kept in character and me and my mate had a great time, was definitely worth it to meet him and see him be a poo poo head close up.
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Dec 13, 2022 15:17
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I have a few, mainly from the Wrestlecon event in Dallas this year. As an aside, if you ever get to go to Wrestlecon do it. There were literally wrestlers everywhere you looked. I was peeing in a urinal and then Boogeyman walked up next to me in full costume, slapped my shoulder and asked if I was having a good night. Jay White - My brother and I were there, but had to stop by Jay White's table because my nephew is a huge Bullet Club and especially Jay White fan. Jay was extremely welcoming then was geniunely touched that my nephew loved him so much from the brief stories we told. He just gave us a free kid's t-shirt and his action figure, both of them signed. Lance Archer, the Good Brothers, Pentagon/Rey Fenix were all just super nice. Nothing really of note. My nephew got to meet Adam Cole the next day and he took the time to talk to him for a minute even though they were trying to move the line. Britt was with him and super gracious as well. Onita - I was walking around with a NJPW bag and Onita saw me across the room and gave me a thumbs up and the biggest grin. I gave him a thumbs up back, then walked around a bit more thinking about if I should go meet him. I decided yes then he was so happy to see him back. I talked through his translator a bit and him with broken english. Then I got one of my favorite pictures when he decided to pull me in for a side headlock. He smelled like cigarettes, which I fully expected.  Finally, around 2011 I knew a bus driver that drove the personal buses for Big Show and Randy Orton later. I got to meet Randy Orton the morning before a show and he was baked as hell. He just wreaked of weed. Then he asked if anyone wanted to go see a movie with him. I had to pass but sometimes I think about how a movie with a stoned Randy Orton next to me would have been.
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Dec 14, 2022 16:00
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I went to an indie show in 2017 or so. I was wearing my red, white, and blue zubaz at the show. Buddy and I were coming back in after intermission and happened to walk by Evil Uno as he was heading home… and he was wearing matching RWB zubaz. We just yelled YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and slapped hands.
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Dec 14, 2022 21:45
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I saw Roddy Piper at my Costco and said something like "Roddy you rule man" and he did the Roddy laugh, said thanks for being a fan, and then went on his way. He was there with his wife and daughter and they had toilet paper and like 8 rotisserie chickens in their cart. Legend poo poo.
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Dec 14, 2022 21:52
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I just held the door open for a Lex Luger at a Longhorn Steakhouse. I was waiting with coworkers for a lunch thing. I told him I was a fan of his back in the day and he shook my hand. He was in a wheelchair. Very nice fella.
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Dec 15, 2022 18:45
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https://twitter.com/Pro2Lariat/status/1613726041205542913 Kind of cheating but like I've gone to a bunch of shows for Enjoy the last two years and all the wrestlers are cool to hang out with and it's nice having a queer friendly promotion that is like "Hell yeah" when I talk about coming out as trans or being able to express my gender last night for the first time in a public space (Harold's Haunt is a local trans/enby bar/mocktail place). Also Ziggy Haim is the first person in real I know that is aware of the AntsCanada youtube since we are both into terrariums (or the idea of having one in my case)
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Jan 13, 2023 20:59
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achillesforever6 posted:Kind of cheating but like I've gone to a bunch of shows for Enjoy the last two years and all the wrestlers are cool to hang out with and it's nice having a queer friendly promotion that is like "Hell yeah" when I talk about coming out as trans or being able to express my gender last night for the first time in a public space (Harold's Haunt is a local trans/enby bar/mocktail place). This rules and for what it's worth coming from a stranger, I'm super happy for you.
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Jan 13, 2023 21:33
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proletariat lariat is a fantastic twitter handle BTW lol
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Jan 13, 2023 21:53
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achillesforever6 posted:https://twitter.com/Pro2Lariat/status/1613726041205542913 Is this place new or have I just never noticed it?
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Jan 13, 2023 22:03
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your friend wicka posted:Is this place new or have I just never noticed it? https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/harolds-haunt-a-new-bar-with-a-ghostly-connection-and-inclusive-future/ Eat This Glob posted:proletariat lariat is a fantastic twitter handle BTW lol
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Jan 14, 2023 00:43
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