Forbidden Planet

Luis asked me to stop by the “Butts in Seats” booth because that could be cool to talk to Tony Schiavone (left) like he didn’t have a crowd looking for him at all times.

Getting a late start out of the house on Saturday, I had to hustle to the Main Stage when I saw “All Elite Wrestling Invades New York Comic Con!” started at 12:45 p.m. A woman in a purple event shirt was shouting, “AEW—down to the left!”

“I don’t have a reservation,” I said to her, waving my phone open to the app. She said, “It’s fine. Down to the left.”

It was fine. Everyone walked right in. I’d never been in the Main Stage before. The floor is flat and there is popcorn for sale.

I didn’t have a telephoto lens and instantly wondered if I’d fucked up. I sat in the back and assumed I’d be able to get up and take pictures of the whole room. Instead I tried to time out pictures of the panelists on the big screens.

It was easy to see why fans would be clamoring to talk to Schiavone. He introduced the panel saying he launched his AEW show on a Friday the 13th because he “didn’t give a damn about bad luck.” While the panel was supposed to promote an upcoming pay-per-view event and title tournament, the hour was mostly spent saying how much they appreciated their fans for making AEW a success. Without fans, they wouldn’t have more than a million viewers in 140 countries.

A Q&A allowed fans to be even more animated. The audience booed a guy who said he was from Staten Island almost as hard as they booed someone from Jersey. One guy said he missed TNA at San Diego Comic Con, but he knew there was a ring upstairs, so maybe they could arrange an exhibition? Mostly they wanted to know about dream tag team partners or matches. Thunder Rosa (top) was super grateful while Orange Cassidy (denim jacket) was super laid back and a straight man to Adam Cole. My favorite story might have been Darby Allin saying nothing hurts after skateboarding. “I respect concrete.”

There was no point where I wondered why I was taking notes—they were so fun taking jabs at each other. —MV

AWARENESS No matter how many lenses, Jerry “The King” Lawler (left) knew where to look. His eyes are direct to camera a different day when I’m much farther back.

MEET AND GREET The line at

the All Elite Wrestling booth (left) was much longer than the one I tried to capture at Headlocked (above). Scooting down the aisle for the Headlocked booth, I saw dozens of people with phones and cameras out. Then I heard, “Let ’em breathe!” and knew these were the Major Wrestling Figure podcast guys. (More on them on Page 49.) The attendant asked me to get in line. This is why there are signs asking for no candid photos in Autograph & Photo Ops. Meanwhile, the Butts in Seats half of the AEW booth (far left) did not have lines.

THEY LIVE Everyone looked like a wrestler to me after I started the day with AEW, so I can’t really be sure this is a Nikolai Volkoff variant (right) but that’s why I waited for his phone call to end so I could get the picture.

SAME LOOK Yellow

and black flags must mean more wrestling. They were even close to the Headlock booth.

Brian Myers, Matt Cardona, and Smart Mark Sterling have been quickly building one of my favorite podcasts to listen to over the last 200+ episodes of Major Wrestling Figure. I never thought I’d be into a podcast about wrestling figures, but the infectious and passionate nature with which these guys talk about figures will have you longing for the days of LJNs, Remcos, Hasbros, Bend’ems and Jakks bone crunchers. The stories of their early days collecting and becoming friends, to the tales of their indie travels post-WWE release are inspiring from a duo that bet on themselves and are succeeding mightily.

With their appearance at NYCC they made announcements for FWF Live II (their fictitious recasting of the late ’90s-early 2000s era of wrestling told through the wrestling figures of that era which has since spawned a live action wrestling PPV) as well as the announcements of new signings to their Major Bendies line. RVD, Danhuasen, Jeff Jarrett, and the Podfather himself Conrad Thompson all were announced with renderings of their already in production figures. Long lines and Let ‘Em Breath chants announced to everyone in attendance that these former Major Brothers are now Major Players, not only in the podcast space, but as toy producers.

“We’re asking buyers and sellers, our community, to adhere to the following simple guidelines: be nice and be honest.” Whatnot advertises on the Major Wrestling Figure podcast, and the guys recently recapped NYCC. They saw fans buy figures, get them signed by the actual wrestler, and then start a live auction and flip the figure on whatnot.

The only costume that didn’t look like a wrestler to me was Finn Bálor Demon (top). A group shot for Spider-Man (Page 87) had me in the frame of mind he was a sad Venom. It all made sense later when I saw my pictures of the whatnot booth (middle). He’s even with Twisted Bliss (top). Besides taking a spin on the prize wheel (bottom), fans could pose with props and cheer contestants in whatnot Mania. With a huge space near gaming, DJs in the ring set a party atmosphere for their block.