{"id":51497,"date":"2026-09-06T23:04:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51497"},"modified":"2026-09-06T23:04:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:04:53","slug":"the-wwe-fan-meet-and-greet-experience-brought-to-you-by-cricket-wireless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51497","title":{"rendered":"The WWE fan meet and greet experience brought to you by Cricket Wireless"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite being a shitty wrestling fan these days, one of the things that I still like to try to do is meeting wrestling talent, and when possible getting signed 8x10s because one day I\u2019ll have a personal space again where I can frame and hang them, and just in general, getting autographed photos is one of those things that if I don\u2019t get them if the opportunity is there, I\u2019ll inevitably end up regret not doing so later on down the line.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, The Algorithm fed me intel about a free meet and greet that was happening in the Metro Atlanta area, where Alexa Bliss and Penta were going to be appearing at a Cricket Wireless location out in Norcross.\u00a0 I don\u2019t hide the fact that I am a fan of Alexa Bliss, and I\u2019ve grown to appreciate Penta more and more throughout the years, so I thought to myself that this was one that I was interested in, but probably not likely to do, because of being a dad, as well as the fact that I\u2019d heard that these meet and greet experiences, especially the free ones, typically require fans to arrive in ungodly early amounts of time, in order to ensure not getting cut off.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then as the weekend approached, grandma took the girls and suddenly I really had nothing stopping me from attempting to brave the experience and see if I could get autographs from a prime Alexa Bliss and Penta.\u00a0 The idea of waking up in the middle of the night and then have to go wait 5-6 hours didn\u2019t seem at all that appealing at first, but the fact of the matter was that it\u2019s not that I wouldn\u2019t really be able to do what I\u2019d probably have end up doing in the first place, which was dicking around on my phone, being lazy, doing Duolingo, etc.\u00a0 I would however be forfeiting an extremely rare opportunity to turn the alarms off on my phone and sleep in, but again, going back to the thought of potential regret, I would\u2019ve been disappointed to pass up on Alexa Bliss, and Penta to a degree, in circumstances where I could\u2019ve been available.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I made the decision to go for it, got an<\/a> 8x10s of each<\/a> to try and get signed, and I got my ass up at 3:45 am, with the intention of getting to Norcross as early as possible and hope that I would be far up enough in the line to where I wouldn\u2019t be cut off, and had a chance to get autographs.<\/span><\/p>\n

I got to the shopping plaza right around 4:30, and I came prepared based on the intel of netizens who have detailed their experiences; lawn chair, a snack, and a water bottle, despite the fact that I really didn\u2019t want to figure out what to do if nature struck over the six hours I had to kill.\u00a0 From what it looked like, I was unfortunately not early enough to be the front of the line, but it only looked like there were like 40 or so people in advance of me, so I knew I would probably be good enough to stay and wait; my biggest fear was making the trek out there, only to discover the line was already wrapped around the building, and then be immediately defeated, but at least I\u2019d be able to go back to sleep, but I was pleased knowing that I was possibly okay.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, the waiting wasn\u2019t really that bad.\u00a0 I did my Duolingo, did my Wordle and Connections and a crossword puzzle on my phone, and caught up on the previous night\u2019s Week 1 College Football scores, feeling disappointment in Virginia Tech<\/a> for allowing VMI to actually get on the board with a field goal in spite of hanging 70 points on them, and fascination at the masterclass of gaslighting done by the NCAA and Michigan to justify allowing Michigan to get a second, and ultimately successful chance to avoid the upset despite the fact that the clock struck zero but that\u2019s possibly a post for another time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I made a single-serving friend<\/a> with the person next to me, whom I figured out the bathroom problem, by offering to get them a Red Bull while I jetted off to the nearby QT to take care of business since we still had like 4 hours to go, and we chatted wrestling and it helped chew up a lot of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s when the sun started to rise and the schedule event time neared did things start to progressively go from dubious, to hairy, to dishearteningly deflating, and frankly this post probably doesn\u2019t happen if everything were as perfectly successful as I\u2019d hope they would be.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it was the darkness of the 4-5-6 am hour of the morning, the temperature wasn\u2019t bad at all, but once that sun started coming up, the heat started to rise, and the impatience of the constantly growing line started to emerge.\u00a0 All the while, Cricket employees would at first just be checking in, but the manager of the place would get on the megaphone to go over some of the expected rules of the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, they pissed off a lot of people by saying that there would only be one autograph per party, so all the people who wanted to get both Alexa and Penta to sign something now had to pick; it was an easy choice for me, and I was at least satisfied knowing that I could still get Alexa\u2019s autograph, since I didn\u2019t know I would really have a shot at it, coming into the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, they stated that photographs would be limited to a single group picture, meaning no individual pics with Alexa and individuals with Penta.\u00a0 Presumably also, entire groups had to go in at once, and no family pic, and then pervy dad alone with Alexa pic in the same group.<\/span><\/p>\n

With each successive announcement, there would be some grumbles, none more than from this one party of like 9 in front of me that brought like the whole fuckin\u2019 family, including the kids and presumably a grandma with a cane, and I often ask myself why I\u2019m such a fan of something that also has such downtrodden rednecks as superfans of it as well but that would be overly judgmental of me.\u00a0 I had an idea of bringing the girls to meet Alexa with me, with their tag blets, since Alexa is a multi-time holder of those specific blets, but I definitely wouldn\u2019t have wanted them to wait 6-7 hours like I ended up doing, and I\u2019m surprised but not surprised at the families who actually did have their kids do such.<\/span><\/p>\n

10:30 rolls around, and nobody\u2019s seen any limo or luxury SUVs to indicate that the stars of the appearance were there and ready to go, and as if he knew what everyone was thinking, manager announces to everyone that the talent is \u201cen route,\u201d eliciting more bitching and moaning, specifically from the party of 9 rednecks in front of me.\u00a0 I\u2019d learned from stories of other Cricket appearances, that talent tardiness does tend to occur fairly regularly, and as disappointing as that is, it\u2019s a free event, that alone right there gives all associated pretty much all the leeway in the world to do whatever the fuck they want to.<\/span><\/p>\n

Probably around 11 is when two black SUVs arrive, and it\u2019s obvious that the talent has arrived.\u00a0 But the meet and greet doesn\u2019t happen immediately, and the sun is up and blazing, and people are getting ornery at why things aren\u2019t starting and the line not moving.\u00a0 Nosier people than me who meandered up to the front to peep inside the store were reporting that Alexa and Penta were doing photos and autographs with the employees first, inciting even more angst from those in line.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then the shit really hits the fan, when manager announces to the crowd, that neither Alexa or Penta will be doing any autographs, and that it\u2019s just meet and photos only.\u00a0 Maybe the first 10-15 parties got autographs, and those who were coming out of the store were clearly getting way more than a single article per, and combined with the employees who got to bogart talent time in advance of all the people, now everyone started getting pissed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Party of 9 were basically screaming NO! NO! and loudly proclaiming their protest at the news of no autographs.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear they brought the whole family, thinking they would walk away with a Kay-Bee Toys worth of signed crap, and progressively complained more and more throughout the morning about the escalation of policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I felt the gut punch of disappointment at the revelation that I wasn\u2019t going to get either of my photos signed, much less from Alexa, and it was agreed that the general mood of the whole event deflated tremendously from everyone in line, many of whom had been waiting as long, if not more than I had at this point, who were going to be going home empty handed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But again, this was a free event, and nobody asked anyone to wait 6-7 hours for this, and they owed nobody anything, since they were not getting paid.\u00a0 The manager, exasperated by the sudden rage, hilariously got on his mic to remind everyone that this event was being done by their generosity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, seeing as how I\u2019d already burned seven hours, I wasn\u2019t going to leave without at least meeting Alexa and Penta, so I stuck around and got my ten seconds to shake their hands, and get a few rapid-fire shots on my phone as evidence that I did get to meet them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also to ask Alexa who her favorite Disney princess was because my daughters wanted to know (they didn\u2019t, but it was a good conversation starter that made her stop and think) \u2013 she said Elsa. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I\u2019m not mad, just disappointed, in the whole experience.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I got to meet two talents I like, but like many, I\u2019m extremely disappointed in not being able to have a keepsake in the form of an autograph from it.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather have had the auto and no photo, than the other way around, but as many have documented these events being, it truly was a cattle call to churn people in and out of line as quick as humanly possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, as it was a free event, there\u2019s a very low ceiling to how actually mad people are really allowed to be at it, and its rapid-fire changing of policy during it, and as is often the case, I\u2019d frankly rather pay money for a guaranteed meet and autograph, and had Alexa Bliss done a paid appearance in advance of Saturday<\/span> Sunday Night\u2019s Main Event, I probably would have done it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I take the whole experience as a valuable educational lesson learned, in the end.\u00a0 Hearing how they were and experiencing it for myself weren\u2019t far apart, and although it didn\u2019t cost me much in terms of money, it had a massive time cost, to which that time is so precious to me, that I\u2019m not willing to go through with this kind of thing again in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite being a shitty wrestling fan these days, one of the things that I still like to try to do is meeting wrestling talent, and when possible getting signed 8x10s because one day I\u2019ll have a personal space again where I can frame and hang them, and just in general, getting autographed photos is one … Continue reading The WWE fan meet and greet experience brought to you by Cricket Wireless<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,191,8,52,146,190,54,49,55],"class_list":["post-51497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-fail","tag-greed","tag-ohgeorgia","tag-owned","tag-triggered","tag-white-people","tag-wrestling","tag-wtf","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51499,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497\/revisions\/51499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}