The Baddest Meet and Greet on the Planet (With Ronda Rousey)

Sports conglomerate World Wrestling Entertainment took over Philadelphia from April 4 to 8, as they hosted their 40th annual WrestleMania event.

On Fri, April 5, I was at WWE’s yearly WWE World convention, when the earthquake shook the city. WWE World is a wrestling-themed comic con, just on a grander scale. 

The convention was held in one gigantic room. It was extremely loud inside, as wrestling music was blasting, fans were chanting, and panels and podcasts were happening live. 

My cell phone didn’t have wifi service, so I wasn’t getting any social media notifications in regard to what was transpiring in the outside world. My phone started ringing. My mom, dad, and sister are all simultaneously calling me. My first reaction was, “Uh oh, who died?”

In fact, no one died, but there were massive earthquakes taking place that I fortunately never felt. But, I was receiving the check up phone calls from my family. WrestleMania literally rumbled Philly, at least I’d like to think that it did.

I was in Philly on a business trip. I served two purposes while I was there. The first of which was to accompany and network for  my friend, Stephan Benson as WWE 2K Games inducted him into their Hall of Champions.

Stephan won a million dollars from WWE and is their 2 time, undefeated video game champion.

I was also in Philly to work as a promoter for Wrestlecon. This is another wrestling convention that follows WWE WrestleMania every year. It’s not as grandiose as the convention that WWE puts together.

Here, I got to meet Ronda Rousey. This meet and greet was amongst the best I’ve ever experienced. I say that because, we had such a real life conversation, that had nothing to do with who she was or what she did for a living.

As I approached Rousey, a gentleman asked her if she had hand sanitizer. I forgot exactly what her reply was, but she had some, and called it, “Handy sandy.”

That was my segway into conversation with her. I said, “Ronda, I’ve never heard someone call hand sanitizer, handy sandy before.”

I was unboxing the UFC gloves that I had brought for her to sign while she replied, because I didn’t want to take up too much time,  so again, I don’t really know what she said in reply.

I got closer to get a photo with her, and she told me, “I want to sign your stuff and take a photo with you, but I really want a sip of coffee first.”

As someone who relies on coffee, I had to ask what her ideal cup of coffee was. Rousey likes mocha with whole milk. That’s right, the baddest woman on the planet drinks mocha!

Keeping the Cyclone Chronicle in mind, I then asked Rousey the hard hitting question so that I can bring it right here to the paper, “I need to know, are you team Dunkin or Starbucks?”

“Neither. I like to support small businesses and go to local coffee shops,” she said.

There you have it. Ronda Rousey drinks local coffee. That should really be the headline of this article.

Anyway, she signed all of my stuff, and like every other meet and greet, I thanked her for her time, and went on my way.

With that said, enjoy your summer, I wish you all the best. Do you have any celebrity meet and greet stories that you’d like to share? Tell us all about them at the Cyclone Chronicle. We want to hear from you!