richmcmullan.bsky.social profile picture

Rich McMullan

@richmcmullan.bsky.social

2421 Followers

2666 Following

AEW, F1, Green Day and Hull City fan. Tech enthusiast, mediocre gamer!

Sobriety journey and overall positivity advocate!

He/Him

  6. richmcmullan.bsky.social profile picture

    Rich McMullan @richmcmullan.bsky.social

    Happy Friday!

    I’ve put together my thoughts my #AEWForbiddenDoor experience (spoilers ahead). A huge thanks to everyone who chatted, said hi, gave out friendship bracelets and made me feel welcome ❤️

    Glasgow! The last time I was at the SECC was in 2005, the Hydro didn’t exist then – actually, the majority of the SECC park/complex didn’t exist then. I remember there being a hotel, maybe two, but it was pretty barren up that way. Flash forward 20 years (almost to the day) and stepping out of the walkway into the SECC complex was a bit breathtaking; buildings everywhere, including a massive arena - the OVO Hydro. Part of any trip, to satisfy my anxiety, is scoping out where I need to be/go throughout the trip; so I arrived well ahead of time and had a wander about to figure everything out. Within a few minutes, Matt Menard walks by, Lance Archer walks by! Kip Sabian is next, I wave and he shouts “I love your hair” (freshly dyed green), and being an absolute simp I shout “thanks, I love you!” – he laughed, so I don’t think I freaked him out. A few hours later I’m queuing for the All Elite Experience, I got to meet a few Bluesky friends in the queue which was lovely. The All Elite Experience was fun, we had a Q&A with Matt Menard and Bryce Remsburg, then Max Caster came in for a Q&A session and finally Kyle Fletcher (with his TNT belt) did a few questions and we got photos with him. Next up was the ring-walk and photos on the entrance ramp, with an AEW title belt (they don’t specify which). The belt ended up being the Unified Championship belt, and the organiser told us that this was the first All Elite Experience they’d done with this belt – and that we got the real belt rather than a replica. The belt itself was insanely heavy and beautiful. I was seated on TV side, facing the hardcam, 2nd row from the front. The seats in the arena were cozy, but thankfully the folks beside me were very friendly and made the experience great fun as we chatted on and off throughout the night. I’m a Kaboomer at heart, so Dynamite will always be my favourite show – but overall I felt both Dynamite and Collision were excellent. Highlight of the night was Toni Storm/Alex Windsor.I travelled down on Friday and got into London early afternoon; walking from North Greenwich tube station to the hotel I spotted Swerve Strickland. As it turns out, we were iin the same hotel as the AEW talent. Over the course of the weekend I spotted: Swerve, Stoke, Brody King, Danny Garcia, Shibata, Athena, Billie Starkz (multiple times), Penelope Ford, Kip Sabian (multiple times, and he said “hi” each time and greeted me as “green hair”), Aubrey Edwards, RJ City, Harley Cameron, Josh Alexander, Willow Nightingale, Gabe Kidd, Marina Shafir, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Alicia Atout, MJF. As part of the First Look Event on Saturday and Backstage Tour on Sunday I also got to meet/take photos with Speedball Mike Bailey, Megan Bayne, Ricochet & GOA, Ref Aubrey. On Saturday I attended the First Look “curated” shopping event, £20 ticket got me a photo with an AEW star, a photo with a championship belt and a “first look” at Forbidden Door merch. The Merch range was, as described, curated so it wasn’t the full range but they did have the Willow/Kenny Blacksmth shirts and multiple others. On Sunday I did the Backstage Tour; I was shocked at the number of people queuing for it. They must have made some serious £/$s on that event alone, without anything else that weekend. UK is a huge moneyspinner for AEW, I just hope that they don’t get greedy and jack prices up too high. The ticket prices this year definitely seemed less inflated than All In 2024 did. The tour itself was pretty much as Lucy described on the pod, and I loved every minute of it. I also saw Lucy in the queue and briefly said hi :D A quick trip back to the hotel and I went out to meet up with the Waffly Bollox crew; we had a lovely shaded corner just off the main thoroughfare to sit/stand and chat – genuinely this was one of my favourite parts of the weekend, meeting many of the BlueSky folks I chat day-in day-out was awesome! Huge thanks to Sarah for arranging it! It was time to go queue for the PPV before I knew it; so off I went to queue. We do queues pretty well, it’s built into our DNA as Brits; having an arena that is part of a huge shopping mall is certainly a choice though, folks trying to just go about their shopping while we’re all queuing was a bit messy to say the least. Before long we were in the arena, and it always irks me that they will sell bottles of water or soft drinks and then insist it’s decanted into a cup that isn’t big enough for the contents of said bottle… I know why they insist on it, but I’m allowed to be grumpy about it! I found my seat, the seat I’d be taking home with me :D The seats were waaaaaay too close together, which was very unfortunate as I’d find out throughout the show. Zero Hour felt like main PPV, the matches and quality of them was right up there; something AEW has done really well since All In 2023 is elevating the pre-show into an almost seamless part of the main PPV show/matches. The two guys who would be seated next to me arrived about half way through Zero Hour and I almost immediately knew it was going to be a long night, as one spilled beer on me (and didn’t apologise). They’d arrived pretty drunk and slurring their words, ugh. Throughout the night they were stood up way too often, standing on chairs for a long period too; they were up and down no less than 12 times to the bar/toilet and I ended up not seeing the majority of the aftermath of the main event as they were trying to rip their chairs out of the cable ties (and mine was attached to theirs). The show itself absolutely flew by, I’ve been finding that with AEW shows more and more lately; it barely felt like we’d been there an hour and the Hanger/MJF match was starting. Props to AEW for making a large period of time, a lot of matches and action, all so enjoyable that you don’t notice the time passing. Face team got the win in the lights out, which meant only one thing… Will Ospreay was about to get murdered. I felt …
    1
  7. wrassletrash.is.goblin.fyi profile picture

    MJ 🪣 @wrassletrash.is.goblin.fyi

    Made this because I have no idea why someone hasn’t already. Available in black (until they make a darker colour)

    ko-fi.com/s/e744831ade

    “We are the sickos mister” in a scratchy horror inspired font in white on a black background“We are the sickos mister” in a scratchy horror inspired font in white on a black y-shirt“We are the sickos mister” in a scratchy horror inspired font in white on a black y-shirt
    7
  8. richmcmullan.bsky.social profile picture

    Rich McMullan @richmcmullan.bsky.social

    Woo!

    I look forward to listening later. The show and the whole weekend/week was very special ❤️

    My thoughts re: some fans spoiling the show for others through inconsiderate behaviour (in the words of Ace Trainer Liam) “Don’t be a dickhead, dickhead”!

    0
  9. richmcmullan.bsky.social profile picture

    Rich McMullan @richmcmullan.bsky.social

    I’ve no idea what has kicked off on #gamersky but many of you are the kindest of people who bring a lot of joy to others, I hope things get better ASAP for all impacted.

    0
  10. refaubrey.bsky.social profile picture

    Aubrey Edwards - AEW Referee @refaubrey.bsky.social

    We've made this event an annual tradition because many of the gals in our community want to be a part of the wrestling biz, but don't necessarily want to wrestle. This event will highlight a few of the people and their roles that make our show happen weekly. It's incredibly insightful + tons of fun!

    2