Wrestling fans claim they were left waiting for hours after attending a "shambolic" meet and greet event in Cardiff. WrestleFest Cardiff boasted to be the "ultimate wrestling pre-party" for fans to meet their favourite stars in the capital during a weekend of WWE action.
The likes of Tyson Fury and Bret Hart attended the event, which was held at PRYZM in the city centre. Although a separate event, it took place on Saturday, September 3 while Cardiff hosted WWE Clash at the Castle. The events attracted wrestling fans from across the UK and beyond to the Welsh capital. You can see the best pictures from the huge event at the Principality Stadium here.
However when fans arrived at WrestleFest they claim they were greeted with chaotic scenes and long queues, with some leaving without meeting their favourite stars. In a statement, WrestleFest said timings on the event ran over, but that everyone had the chance to redeem their autograph and photo opportunity.
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Lyle Kilbane, 34, drove eight hours from Perth in Scotland with his wife, Joni, 30, to meet Bret Hart as well as attend the separate WWE Clash at the Castle. He said: "It was Hart that I had paid to get a photo and autograph from, the total for this and entry to the event reaching over £200, which in the current climate is no small sum of money.
"Unfortunately, I left without either of these things...as the event was a total shambles. People queued in the rain for well over an hour. Once inside, the queues snaked in all directions with no staff on hand to tell people what was going on or what queue was for what thing. Indeed, staff on the door didn't even know if you could buy tickets on the day, leading to further confusion.
He added: "We waited over three hours inside in total in queues, missing the professional photo opportunity with Bret Hart that was advertised. Eventually, I made the decision to abandon the wait for an autograph."
Lyle said he tried to secure a refund following his experience, however he claimed his request was denied. A statement issued by WrestleFest UK on Sunday aimed to respond to "concerns and negative comments" circulating on social media about the event.
It stated: "We would like to thank everyone who attended out Wrestlefest 2022 event in Cardiff yesterday. We would like to respond to some of the concerns and negative comments on the group.
"We would like to confirm that at no point did anybody who bought autographs and photos not have an opportunity to redeem their purchase. All the Wrestlers and Talent who was advertised were all present and all stayed to provide autographs and photos for the allocation that was purchased. Timings did run over but this is not uncommon at large events. Signings and Photo opportunities take time.
"We feel completely privileged to have been able to bring Brett Hart to the Uk and have him attend our event, We had an one hours allocated for him to sign 200 autographs , however this did run over the time we had initially allocated but we ensured that all Wrestlers stayed later to fulfill their full allocation, at no point was anybody refused a photo or autograph.
"As many of you know Brett is a fans person and this did affect the speed of him signing autographs and as the majority of people attending bought autographs for Brett, so this did affect waiting times for people creating lines and waiting times that were longer and larger then we anticipated.
"We would like to add that Brett also had time for all his fans today and made sure that he gave the time to speak to everyone, had he not of spoke to fans and just kept his head down signing, yes he may have got things done quicker but it wouldn’t have been In the true Brett Hart style who is all about his fans.
"Time slots given for photos and autographs are only provisional and were never guaranteed. At large events with large amounts of people it is quite the norm for things to over run. With regards to peoples concerns on safety and fire issues, we would like to make it completely clear that the capacity of the venue was never exceeded and full fire and evacuation plans were in place in the unlikely event that anything was to go wrong.
"We would like to take the opportunity once again to thank everyone who attended. We will be closing the comments on this group now after this post as this group was set up for the event and the event has now passed."
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