WRESTLING MERCHANDISE 101: WrestleMania weekend merch insight, photos, more

Last weekend, I traveled to Dallas, Texas for WrestleMania Weekend. I stayed at the Fairmont Dallas hotel, which was host to the annual WrestleCon convention, as well as several wrestling shows. Here are some of my wrestling merchandise observations from the weekend:

WRESTLECON

WrestleCon is a giant convention put on by Highspots and is held every year in the same city as WrestleMania. This year, all events for WrestleCon took place in the Fairmont Dallas, which is a really nice, upscale hotel. There was a giant ballroom with meet & greets and vendors. The meet & greets included legends and wrestlers from AEW, Impact, MLW, AAA, NJPW, ROH, and more. There was also an arena set up on the basement level that hosted several shows over the weekend. The room held approximately 1500 people.

There had to be at least 100 wrestlers that had tables for autographs and signings. The wrestlers who had the longest lines included Bret Hart, Trish Stratus, Lita, Jay White, Ric Flair, Jon Moxley, Adam Cole, Britt Baker, William Regal, and Kurt Angle. Enzo Amore also had a constant line and had fun cutting promos on fan’s phones.

Of the people that I met for photos and/or autographs everyone was really nice and seemed happy to be there. From that group, I have to say those that stood out as the nicest included William Regal, Mark Henry, MLW’s Alicia Atout, Angelina Love & Velvet Sky, Missy Hyatt, Matt Cardona, and Brian Myers. Cardona and Myers smiled when I brought out their Super 7 figures (which I reviewed in this column a few weeks ago) and even adjusted the figures to put them in their signature poses before we took a picture.

There were wrestling merchandise tables throughout, but Impact, AAA, and NJPW had their own rooms set up for merchandise and autographs. I got to meet many of the stars of Impact (which I also cover for the Torch), including Rich Swann, Willie Mack, Josh Matthews, Madison Rayne, Gia Miller, Eddie Edwards, Jordynne Grace, Jonathan Gresham, Deonna Purrazzo, Tasha Steelz, and Chelsea Green. All were really nice and friendly.

Over the course of two days, I also encountered a few wrestlers in the hotel elevator, which is always an experience. I ran into Road Dogg (twice– he was really funny), Rob Van Dam & Katie Forbes (both were super chill and friendly), Teddy Long, Brooke Adams, and Boogeyman (who was in full costume and makeup — I can only imagine what a regular hotel guest would have thought if they opened the elevator door and saw him).

WWE SUPERSTORE AXXESS

About a five minute ride from the hotel was the WWE Superstore Axxess, which was held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. WWE reserved a giant space on the second floor that had WWE merch as far as the eye could see. There were areas for title belts, high end collectible pieces, WrestleMania specific merchandise and sections for Undertaker, Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Sasha Banks, and others. You could find almost anything, including footballs, cowboy hats, programs, cups, hats, teddy bears, t-shirts galore, jewelry, flasks, and action figures.

Other areas included a replica of Alexa’s Playground, an Undertaker area, a giant billboard of Steve Austin that was presumably “vandalized” by Kevin Owens, and a call-a-match section. Mattel had a big section with prototypes of action figures and play sets that will be coming out soon.

For the record, I only picked up a few things: some souvenirs for coworkers, along with the official WrestleMania program, Sasha Banks finger rings, and Brock Lesnar seasoning salt (which was promptly inspected thoroughly by TSA before my flight home).

OVERALL THOUGHTS: It was a really fun weekend and I had a good time. You can listen to my in-person thoughts about Impact’s Multiverse of Matches (which was held during WrestleCon) on this week’s edition of the Impact Podcast with Ross Leslie on the VIP side of the Torch (Go VIP!).

You can also see pictures from the weekend on Twitter at darrin_lilly and on Instagram at dklstl.

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