TNA NYC Show Live Fan Report; Flair Update, VIP Notes, More

July 2, 2011

Thanks to John Permaul for sending this in:

I wanted to send in a small report about Ric Flair’s appearance last night at TNA’s BaseBrawl event at MCU Park.

For fans who bought the Platinum or Gold VIP package, those fans were able to meet Ric Flair during a special meet and greet. I had the gold package, which was $199. The door opened around 5 pm, and then it was announced by Don West that we would get to meet Ric Flair at 6:30 (the show officially started at 7 pm).

At 6:30 pm Ric Flair still had not arrived at the arena, so Don West announced that we would get to meet him at intermission. At intermission we were all taken backstage where we were given a special Louisville Slugger blue wooden baseball bat that said "TNA BaseBrawl MCU Park Nature Boy Ric Flair" in gold lettering. We then gave the baseball bat to Ric Flair, who signed it and gave it back to us. If we had a camera, then we also got a picture with him as well.

It was a really cool experience, but besides that, the rest of the VIP experience was horrible. From 5 pm to 6 pm nothing went on. We were supposed to have an autograph signing and BBQ lunch with the wrestlers. The BBQ didn’t start until almost 5:30. At around 6 pm we lined up to meet some of the wrestlers, but it was so disorganized and poorly managed that the I got to meet nobody. A lot of fans were given blue bracelets to enter the "vip" section, but they didn’t have vip tickets, so fans who paid $25 got free food and met wrestlers, even though fans like me paid $299 and the regular fans still got access to everything. Security didn’t really care, and obviously TNA didn’t either since they already got all our money for the show. A lot of regular fans got vip seating too, and fans who paid for vip seating couldn’t even sit in that section since all the seats were taken.

Overall the show was good, and meeting Ric Flair (on the day before my birthday) was really cool, but TNA/IMPACT wrestling needs to work on treating there fans (especially the ones who pay a lot of money for their product) with the respect they deserve.

Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.

Nick attended New York University and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Drama.

Nick first entered the internet wrestling community back in 2004 when he became the co-host of The Voice of Wrestling Radio Show. From there, Nick made the transition from radio personality to editor when he began working with WrestleZone in 2008.

Nick is a member of two Off-Broadway theatre companies, Another Urban Riff, and the Drama Desk Award winning Godlight Theatre Company. Nick has appeared in over a dozen Off-Broadway plays since he moved to New York City, and has shot several short and feature length films. In 2010, he completed principle photography on a film titled "How to Score Your Life," which also features TNA Knockout ODB.

Inspiration in his life has come from many people including his family, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, The Beatles, and of course, Lassie.