Mary's Fan Encounter

My backstage encounter
Unforgiven, Sept. 24th, 2000
First Union Center, PA.
My best friend, Vicky, and I spent the entire night, including a buffet-style dinner with the Superstars of the WWF at this past year's Unforgiven PPV, and we will never, ever forget that night for the rest of our lives.
Vicky's father, Ken, had to go over to the Center along with his partner, Rich, (they're both basically well-known Jersey "Mr. Fix-Its" and have their own small repair company.) They were called over by Rich's friend who works at the center to fix some of their dishwashers. At around 2:30 that Sunday, Vicky called me up telling me that her dad and Rich were taking us backstage at Unforgiven to help them fix the machines. We got to the center a little after 3, and after we helped Ken and Rich with their work, they told us that we could stay in back to try to see some of the wrestlers. We were sitting down for about 15-30 minutes when we see the Undertaker, Test, Steph, and Shane start coming through the doors and making their way up to the buffet trays. Test had on jeans and a dark tee-shirt, Steph had on what looked like dress pants and a black buttondown shirt overtop of another shirt, Shane wore black pants and a short-sleeved dress shirt (which he later changed), and Taker wore jeans and a long-sleeve black shirt. Steph must've seen us sorta freaking out sitting down, (since Taker is Vicky's fave and I absolutely love Test), so she came over to us and actually invited us to eat with them. She introduced herself and gave us a hug, then said, "You know, you guys are more than welcome to eat with us, if you'd like." Of course we jumped at the chance. The way that we were seated at our section at one of the long tables set-up was so awesome. It was: Shane and Marissa and Vince (these two spent most of the night talking- I think Shane felt kind of ignored) sitting across from Steph, Test, ME!!!, Vicky, Taker, and Rikishi. I think that Steph had it set-up this way because she could tell who we really were crazy about. The dinner was a really good buffet, with swedish meatballs, chicken, salisbury steaks, pasta, and alot of vegetables and sauces/creams. Vicky and I didn't eat a whole lot, probably because we were too busy watching eveyone else. Steph had mostly vegetables with chicken, Test ate alot of the steak and chicken, Shane had chicken and mostly pasta, and Taker also loaded up on the steaks with alot of veggies. During dinner, Vicky asked Taker if his new tattoo on his neck hurt. "It hurt like a bitch," was his laugh-filled reply.
After dinner they had a cake for Steph, since it was her birthday, and we got to help sing happy birthday to her. The cake was pretty good, though I don't really care for strawberry. They began cleaning off the tables, and Steph told us that if we wanted to, we could stay in back for the night. She, along with Shane, Test, and Jeff & Matt had to be the sweetest people I've met. They had a pre-meeting that lasted for about a half-hour, and she told us we could wait in the back lounge until they were done. She came to get us afterwards, and we spent the night talking with almost all of the superstars. Triple H (as Amanda mentions in her own encounter at Armageddon) is intimidating- he looked as though he had melons under his shirt in person- but he was nice. The Hardyz were so awesome, (even though I had met them before at one of their signings, it was so cool to sit and talk with them for more than a few minutes.) The Rock is super sweet and funny- he asked us which of his catchphrases we liked best once we told him we were such big fans and loved his jokes and stories. We both recited simultaneously our fave (his bust on Steph- 'a four minus the four, god dammit keep the change two-cent ho), and he said, "Wow, you girls really know your stuff." Rikishi was sharing some jokes with us too, talking about how he wasn't worried about his match. "It's all wood, it's all wood," was his catchphrase of the night, instead of "It's all good." (That's what we say in school all the time now.)
Shane, Steph, and Test seemed really close, and were the ones that we sat down with and talked to the most throughout the night. Shane had asked us where we planned on going to college, and what we wanted to study. When I told him I was going into medicine, I was so surprised when he told me that Trish was once on her way into medicine as well. Before Shane was getting ready to go out to the ring to 'reveal' who ran over Stone Cold, he asked the two of us who we thought did it. As Vicky was telling him that she thought Debra did it, Stone Cold came up behind her and said, "Now what makes you think that?" She was so surprised that she toppled over and fell out of her chair- it was so funny, we were all cracking up as he helped her up and began talking with her.
After the Hardy Boyz won their match, and the titles, as they came in the back we congratulated them and got to hug them while they were all sweaty, :). We didn't get any pics, since Rich and Kenny explained to us that (1.) they really wasn't supposed to bring us, (2.) they really frown on having cameras all up in the locker rooms, and (3.) it was such a spur of the moment deal that we didn't grab ours from home. But, Shane and Steph got us both copies of the September Raw magazine, the one with the Hardyz on the cover, and we had mostly everyone sign them.
We wound up leaving at about 11:30-midnight, and as we left we got hugs from alot of people, including TEST- I had to force myself to let him go. All in all, without a doubt, the single greatest night of our lives!
--Mary (Nichiren2am@hotmail.com