Summer Slam – Through the Eyes of a Non-WWE Fan

I am back for the part two of my Summer Slam weekend experience. Last article we discussed what I expected to see. So, naturally I will now talk about what the experience was through my eyes. It was definitely a unique and eye opening experience that I definitely was not expecting. 

First and foremost, I want to clarify the “non-WWE fan” I am not a hater of the WWE by any means. I also am not saying I never watch or pay attention because that is definitely false. My clarification would be I do watch WWE with my wife (Mandy Nicole Sports) who is much more invested than I am as you guys know already. I also know somewhat of what’s going and who the wrestlers are for the most part. I am just not as invested in it as my wife (Mandy Nicole Sports), I do not know every storyline or keep up with it outside of when we watch it together during the week. However, I do want to say I respect everyone that is involved with WWE from the backstage people, the wrestlers, content creators, and the fans. That all being said, let’s get into what Summer Slam looked like through my eyes. 

We decided to head on up to Minneapolis after work Thursday afternoon. We ended up getting to our hotel probably around 7:45 ish Thursday night. The hotel was absolutely awesome, we stayed at the Hotel Emery in downtown Minneapolis which was probably less than half a mile from US Bank Stadium where the two night Summer Slam event took place. The lobby was very calm and relaxing with a lounge type vibe with several options for seating to chill. The hotel was very centrally located to the stadium and the convention center where the WWE Takeover event was located, and were parked the truck in the parking garage and was able to walk to all the locations we needed to with not stepping back in the truck until we left Monday morning. 

Fast forward to Friday morning, my wife had quite a few meet and greets scheduled for each day. (6 all together) We ended up being able to take the Skywalk (walkway that is all inside through the businesses in downtown Minneapolis) to get to the Minneapolis Convention Center which was the location for WWE Takeover. This was our first time seeing anything like this, the Takeover had the massive WWE store, Jump from the Top Rope booth, Dodge Ram interactive booth, Super Troopers 3 area, Sirius XM Radio Show, do your own WWE Entrance, Club WWE, Mad Dog tasting, Whatnot seller booth, Amo Coffee (Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins coffee brand), and the photo op/autograph areas. Yes, all that was free to get into and participate in besides the store, Club WWE, autographs and photo ops. My wife ended up subscribing to the Club WWE which ended up being a cheat code. If you signed up for the club you got a wristband which got you priority line for quite a few things including the photo ops and autographs! Definitely a time saver. After my wife’s first meet and greet she was instantly hooked. I was very pleased she got to meet so many of her favorite wrestlers and she was smiling and excited the whole time! We pretty much spent most of the day at the Takeover event due to Mandy having a couple meet and greets which was perfectly fine. I enjoyed watching her do her thing and be in her element. We also met a lot of great people and a few that actually followed Mandy’s socials! All in all Friday was a fun new experience for both of us and just being able to watch everyone, including my wife, was awesome! Also, something really random but awesome happened. We were sitting down snacking on some popcorn when a woman with Wingstop came up asking us some questions. Eventually we were told if we did some social content for them we would be watching Summer Slam from the Club Wingstop suite Saturday night! Spoiler alert, we of course said yes! 

Now on to Saturday, again we had to be at the Takeover event in the morning for another meet and greet. We ended up eating and a really good breakfast joint on the way to the convention center called Hen House. I definitely recommend everyone eat there for breakfast. I had the eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns and Mandy had the same thing. Definitely a 10 out of 10 so anytime you are downtown Minneapolis stop in and have breakfast! Once we finished we walked to the convention center and did the meet and greets before the first night of the event. We got done early afternoon and decided to head back to the hotel to change and relax a little bit before heading to the stadium. Like I said we were probably less than half a mile away from the stadium so it didn’t take us long to get there at all which was nice. So like I said earlier, Saturday night we would be watching in a private suite with Club Wingstop. We get to the suite all set up with Wingstop promotions, a couple people we met at Takeover and Peyton Hardin from the You Should Know Podcast. Definitely a surreal moment being able to be in a box for an event with some wings from Wingstop and all around nice and funny people. We watched all the matches and it was a great view. The stadium was probably sold out at about 40,000 people, the wrestlers entrance was huge, and the sounds were incredible definitely a productions and show. Summer Slam is like the second biggest show in the WWE calendar behind WrestleMania. I definitely can see why, it was packed with people and a really interesting and new way to watch a wrestling event. Overall I would give the first night a 7 out of 10, I can’t rate it too high in case Sunday is better. 

Alright here we are again on Sunday, we were able to sleep in a little bit due to Mandy have a later meet and greet. So like the days before we walk to the convention center do the meet and greet and walk around a little bit. While walking around Mandy was able to connect with some fellow content creators who were all very nice. I enjoyed watching Mandy once again in her element talking about how she got into content and listening to the other creators as well! We did end up leaving to head back to the hotel at around 1:30 so we could change and go to night two of Summer Slam. Ok so I forgot to mention late Saturday night Mandy ended up finding some floor seats for Sunday night at a reasonable price and I said we could try it but didn’t know if she would be able to see very well because she is on the short side. I’m so glad we did. We got to the stadium and headed down to floor which is a whole different world. We got some pictures super close to the ring and just hung around watching people arrive. The content creators we met earlier ended up passing by and saying hello again along with many other people. We were right behind where the pre show and in between show happens with Joe Tessitore, Corey Graves, and Big E which was really cool. Corey and Big E would take pictures and autograph things during breaks, Joe Tessitore would when he could but he was very busy with planning the show and what to talk about but he definitely tried. Sunday’s show started with Darius Rucker singing the national anthem which was pretty cool for sure. The matches happened and I will say Sundays matches were definitely a step up from Saturday which I did not think would be the case. The crowd was definitely more hype Sunday as well! The main event which was Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns was definitely a must see. Again, so much respect for everyone and everything that goes into putting on one of these shows. Definitely deserves a round of applause. 

Ok, let’s end this article because it is getting pretty long I know. All in all I enjoyed everything with the Summer Slam weekend from the WWE Takeover at the convention center to the two night show at US Bank Stadium. I feel everything was almost taken a step further from any other WWE event we have been to in the past. I can say the entertainment factor was definitely there and kept my attention the whole time. All in all I would say my favorite part of the whole weekend was just seeing my wife with the excitement and happiness with getting to do all the meet and greets and watch the event like we were able to do whether it was in the suite or on the floor. She was definitely in her element and I loved being able to help her with all the content you guys are seeing and being beside her to experience something she has always wanted to see live. I highly recommend you guys do things with your significant others that you may not have a big interest in, it will definitely bring a whole new prospective that you may have been missing this whole time. I know enough being sweet, but I am serious it was a great weekend and I’m so glad I was able to go with my wife and her experience what she experienced for the first time. Absolutely legendary. 

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Bryan Haerr

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