Ha, I wish it was me responsible for the Purple Aki stuff.
Although my claim to fame is almost equally as cool, in that I have been on tv on RAW after Wrestlemania for the past 2 years. 2011 I was shown on the Titantron, laughing/booing Michael Cole, and 2012 was even better - I was the guy holding up the pink & orange BROCK IS BACK sign during Lesnar's big re-debut entrance. That sign was made on the spur of the moment that afternoon, and ended up being featured on every WWE tv show for the next week or two in clips. I have gazillions of photos from both Wrestlemania 27 & 28 trips. Both times I went on the official WWE travel packages, which are cool as you pay one set price and get a hotel stay for 4 nights, plus tickets to all the events over the weekend - Hall of Fame, Wrestlemania, RAW the next night, plus two sessions at Axxess. A tad expensive, but it saves a lot of hassle and messing, and you get great seats. Which, if you're flying 3-4000 miles to see something, I think it's a good move to have. You do have to pay for your own flight though.
Wrestlemania 27 in Atlanta, I just went for 5 days. Wrestlemania 28 in Miami, I made a holiday out of it and went for 10 days, having a brilliant time doing all the theme parks in Orlando as well whilst I was out there.
As far as things being accessible, Wrestlemania 27 was great, as Atlanta is a brilliant city with a great underground train network so you could get around easily, plus all the Wrestlemania events - the Georgia Dome for Wrestlemania 27, the Philips Arena where RAW and Hall of Fame were held, and Axxess in the Georgia Dome conference centre halls were altogether in one huge complex, all of which was about 15 minutes walk from my hotel. Wrestlemania just takes over whatever city it is in for the week. In Atlanta (and same for Miami) there were banners like these on lampposts in practically every street, each bearing the face of a different wrestler and plugging the show:
This was the view from the escalator, looking down on the massive reception area in the Georgia Dome Conference Centre Hall for Axxess for Wrestlemania 27:
Some Wrestlemania 27 photos. These were from my seat in the Georgia Dome:
The Georgia Dome with its closed roof was immense and in terms of facilities, one of the best stadiums I have ever been in. The concourse downstairs had tons and tons of different themed restaurants offering different types of food, everything from sushi to pizza. It was nuts and I'd never seen anything like it as a stadium.
As far as Wrestlemania 28 went, it was equally as good, if not better, but in a different way. Things were more spread out and I needed cabs to get around between the hotel and Axxess, and the American Airlines Miami Arena for RAW and Hall of Fame. The Sun Life Stadium for Wrestlemania was different, as part of the package this year was free return coach travel between the hotel and the stadium was thrown in (a 30 minute ride), so that was cool. Sun Life Stadium in Miami didn't have as many facilities as the Georgia Dome, but with no roof and a boiling hot day, it was a better atmosphere. There is nothing like the day of a Wrestlemania and the build up outside with the tons of fans. It's basically like FA Cup Final day. You know what Americans are like, they go all out with everything. Tailgate parties, the works. Rock vs Cena was such a big match, people chanting for Rock and Cena outside the stadium constantly, and also lots of Yes chants.
Some Wrestlemania 28 Sun Life Stadium photos:
It seems like your miles away, but the seats I had for both shows were great, you could see everything happening in the ring, and even if you missed something, there are just tons and tons of massive screens in every direction showing you the action. There is nothing like watching wrestling in a crowd of 80000 people. People can knock wrestling and call it fake and this and that, and for kids etc., but when you're actually there, it's brilliant and you have such a great time. There were far more adults at both Wrestlemanias that I've been to than there were kids. When I got the coach from the hotel to Sun Life Stadium, it was full of Brits and Irish people, in their 20s, male and female. It's really funny because you just end up talking to people about wrestling from all over the world. I was meeting Mexicans, Irish, Canadians. I even saw a few people wearing Everton shirts too at 'Mania!
The pop when Rock beat Cena was just incredible. Our group where I was sitting were pro-Rock, and we were having some banter with these Irish people in the next section who were pro-Cena, some of the chants were very funny. When Rock won, everyone in our section went nuts and all the pro-Cena fans all looked gutted lol! Just an amazing show to be at.
I've got photos from everything, Hall of Fame, Axxess, you name it. Axxess is always brilliant; like a WWE theme park with so much memoribilia and props from old shows you wouldn't believe, things like Vince's limo that got blown up, Austin's truck, Undertaker caskets and Ministry of Darkness throne/symbol, old wrestler outfits, practically every WWE title belt that has ever existed, you name it, it's in this massive expo. You get to meet tons and tons of the wrestlers too and have your photo taken with people. There's even interactive stuff where you can have your photo taken whilst climbing a ladder in a ring, reaching for the Money in the Bank briefcase.
