The music starts to play and out comes Enzo Amore and Big Cass to their high energy entrance. The crowd goes wild as Enzo and Big Cass start their opening monologue. And you can’t help but follow along with repeating their catchphrases such as “How you Doin’?” and “You Can’t Teach That.” So it is no wonder why people and families are intrigued by WWE wrestling as their sports entertainment go to.
Our family is a WWE family in the truest sense of the word as we watch every episode week after week, and attend as many WWE events in our area as possible. It wouldn’t be out of the norm to even catch us using a WWE catchphrase every now and then.
This is why it was no surprise that our daughter, Nikki, started to express interest in watching every episode with us. It wasn’t too long ago that we started to notice her imitating WWE Superstars, Enzo Amore and Big Cass. So one day I just picked up my phone and clicked record. With a little parent luck, I managed to capture the perfect and priceless moment.
We just couldn’t believe that our 23 month old just did that and thought it must be shared with Enzo and Big Cass. So I took it to twitter to share with them the joy that they bring to the little ones and to my surprise the video was a hit! It also caught the personal attention of both Enzo and Cass on social media. With this attention the video took a life of its own. We received tons of comments (100+), likes (2,330+) and retweets (Almost 700). It has been two months since the video has been posted and it is still going. The video did so well that we were interviewed by The Baby Spot to discuss how we handled our video going viral. We were also extremely fortunate to get the attention of the legendary, Iron Sheik, who shared our interview with his twitter followers.
So what happens now that we have the attention of the WWE Superstars? Naturally, the next step was to meet them!
When WWE announced that Enzo Amore and Big Cass were doing a meet n’ greet at a Toys ‘R’ US near us, we knew we had to seize the opportunity!
Weeks before the meet n’ greet, I would discuss it with Nikki to try and explain what we were going to do. Of course, with a toddler it is hard for them to truly comprehend what was going to happen and in all honesty I wasn’t sure what to expect either.
The WWE Universe is one of the most dedicated fan base a company could ever ask for. They are loyal, energetic and truly invested in this line of sports entertainment. So we had to keep that in mind as we knew people would be there early and with a limited amount of wristbands available, I was naturally a worried mom. However, we stayed positive and ensured we were prepared for a long wait before the big meet n’ greet.
The day before the big day, I packed my backpack with anything I may need for Nikki for our wait. We also placed some lawn chairs in our car the night before to make sure that we wouldn’t forget the morning of. We laid out all our clothes the night before as well to make the morning routine seamless.
At 5 AM my husband and I started our morning routine. By 6 AM we were all out the door and ready for our first family WWE meet n’ greet experience. We had to pick up our awesome family friends, Mike and Austin first as they are part of our WWE family. We arrived before 7 AM and the line-up had already begun with about 100 people in line. By this time, we knew we would make the 300 limited wristband count and we braved a cooler day in Toronto to wait.
Nikki stayed awake as she must have fed off of our excitement and for a toddler she did well waiting. To entertain her, I had a couple of her toys to play, we walked with her and she managed to make a couple of friends in the line-up. We also kept telling Nikki she was going to meet Enzo and Cass and all she could say excitedly was “Cass.” We got our wristbands before 8:30 AM and I felt much better as I knew we would be seeing them.
The line-up started to move at 9 AM and now it was only a matter of time before we can introduce twitter sensation, Nikki, to her favourite WWE superstars. We finally got in at about 10:20 AM and we were just steps away from shaking hands with Enzo and Cass.
Now I started to get a little nervous and started to think about what I was going to say. Wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t forget to say anything and then started to worry about how Nikki was going to react as she tends to be shy when she meets someone new. But it was a little late to worry about anything at this point and it was time to just jump in!
Photo Credit: Mike & Austin Clarke
As Nikki approached them in her daddy’s arms, she started to hide but that didn’t stop Enzo and Big Cass from noticing her coordinated outfit and shoes. We made sure she wore her leopard print pants and customized t-shirt we made with their catchphrase. Of course we couldn’t forget Enzo’s favorite shoe name brand, Air Jordans (J’s). I introduced them to Nikki as the one from the famous twitter video and to my surprise, THEY REMEMBERED vividly! I gave them the cards that Nikki had made for them and I wasn’t sure if they could take them…..They were happy to accept it and Enzo even mentioned that he keeps everything that is made for him. Talk about sweet! We couldn’t get over how friendly and interactive they both were as I result I almost forgot to ask them to sign our customized shirts. But I managed to remember and this is where toddler life becomes reality as Nikki started to cry when they signed her top. Not sure if she thought we were giving her away or if she was getting a needle but we did make the best of it. I do apologize to Enzo and Cass for putting them in that predicament but it was worth it as it will be treasured by Nikki as she gets older. Once autographs were signed and photos were taken, our first family WWE meet n’ greet experience was complete. Special thank you to Enzo Amore and Big Cass for being such humble and approachable gentlemen.
It was a very early start with a lot of preparation and we are all completely exhausted but we would do it all again in a heartbeat for our Nikki.
Until next time…..Happy Parenting!
– Momma Braga
