Boom...

.:The Grudge 2:.

El, 'Elle, ND, and myself watched The Grudge 2, and we definitely had fun with it. ND and I were seated beside each other, and in front were the two scaredy cats, Elbert and Estelle.

Let's just say that after the whole thing, I don't think El or 'Elle wanted to go to sleep.

I'll be sparse with the details, but Grudge 2 was loads better than Ju-On 2. Weird, huh?

.:Stunned And Starstruck:.

And so I boarded with Gia last Friday so that after our show in the morning, we can head off to Gateway Cinema for the press conference for Smackdown.

What neither of us knew was that we weren't just going to go to the press conference: we were hosting it.

I don't know about you, but I was beside myself with glee when we did the press conference, seeing how I was going to be seeing Michelle McCool, Sharmell, Batista, and Booker T. King Booker was amazing during the press conference, seeing how he was mainly the mouthpiece for everyone during the part where the press was asking them questions. The really cool thing about it was that he was, for the most part, always in character. He really went ahead and stayed on King Booker mode until some parts where he talked about his life and Rey Mysterio, and at that point, he reverted to his usual Booker T persona (No British accent.).

On the other hand, Queen Sharmell stayed in character all throughout, and it was so fun. Michelle McCool didn't act the least bit heelish and seemed like a nice girl. She was taken aback though when Sib asked that very rude question about whether or not the WWE approves of implants and how he's been staring at them. I'm glad King Booker answered that in a way only he could...

You pathetic peasant! It should be enough for you to know that they are beautiful. Nothing more.

Pwn3d by the King. I loved it.

For those wondering, Undertaker got into the country only on Saturday, and he doesn't do autographs or press cons or public appearances to maintain his deadman gimmick. Oh, well. That's too bad...

Booker and Batista had a nice rapport going on, as Booker was joking around in character, and Batista was feigning ignorance, not knowing what a “scallywag” was. It was really funny, and I enjoyed the way they played off each other, though I found the press closing in on us and pushing the hosts (Me, Gia, and Anthony Suntay.) out of the way to get a good shot of the Smackdown stars. Regardless, I'm sure I had a lot of pictures taken of me with Booker, since I was standing beside him most of the time.

I didn't like that the press not only made it claustrophobic for us, but they also didn't like asking questions until the tailend of the whole thing. It was a bit off-putting, to say the least, and I had to take it upon myself to ask questions myself whenever there was a lull so that the Smackdown people wouldn't feel like the press was disinterested.

After the press conference, we were brusquely pushed out to the point that we couldn't ask for autographs and stuff from the wrestlers anymore, so to make up for it, the organizers let us meet up with Chavo Guererro and Bobby Lashley from the meet and greet, and the atmosphere there, since there was not much press, wasn't nearly as claustrophobic, and neither Chavo nor Bobby were in character for the most part. They were talking about hopes and dreams, about the fact that it was Chavo's birthday on that day, and so forth.

My favorite part of the meet and greet was when Chavo asked the audience if they had any places to recommend, and somebody suggested “Embassy”. Bobby reiterates he's single (Chavo's married with kids, in contrast.), and then says he'll be at Embassy tonight. I was hoping somebody would suggest Chico's, or Adonis, or Gigolo, but nobody tried it out. Still, Embassy was punchline enough.

One of the security guys, a Filipino, was a dead ringer for Bobby Lashley. Tony Tony, the host of the meet and greet, asked if they were brothers, and when the security guy stood beside Bobby, cameras started flashing. They really looked alike. Same bald head, same creases along the neck, both muscular, similar eyes, and so forth. It was just that Bobby was taller and probably had more muscles.

We had some autographs signed by Chavo and Bobby afterwards, and even had pictures taken with them. They were really nice people, and Chavo was joking about writing over Batista's autograph on my title belt, as he looked in dismay at the nameplate with Batista's signature on it and went, “Why did he do that?”.

Bobby, on the other hand, was all smiles when he had a picture taken with me and he had my belt on his shoulder. He declared it a rare picture: Lashley with a championship belt. Hehehehe.

That was a day made of pure win, to say the least.

Pictures to follow...