Wrestling MediaCon 2018: My experience of the UK's biggest and first wrestling convention

#2. The Panels including the Hall of Fame

The Wrestling MediaCon Hall of Fame class of 2018

The convention was neatly bullet pointed by hourly panels that came from all corners of the wrestling sphere and displayed everything wacky and wonderful about wrestling from Dave Meltzer doing Inside the Ropes or Wrestling Observer Live to Maffew Greg teaming up with Wrestling Memes.

I missed more of the panels than I would've liked as I was conducting interviews and also watching the live wrestling shows, which I will get to in a minute, but the panels I did catch were incredibly varied and excellent.

The first one I caught was Ten Pounds of Gold Live that saw Kenny McIntosh officiate proceedings with Nick Aldis, Dave Lagana and Jeff Jarrett offering their insight into the revival of the NWA and how the special ALL IN moment came about. It was fascinating, and that was before British legend Doug Williams came out and challenged Aldis to a match with Aldis' title rematch against Cody Rhodes on the line!

The next panel I caught was The Rise and Rise of British Wrestling that saw British legend Doug Williams, Andy Quildan from RevPro, Nathan Cruz from World of Sport Wrestling (wearing Spider-Man socks!) and British indy wrestler Andy Simmonz discuss wrestling's evolution in the British Isles.

Dave Meltzer inducted into the MediaCon Hall of Fame

The last panel I caught on Saturday was the MediaCon Hall of Fame ceremony conducted by Joe Hendry and So Cal Val who were perfect hosts. The inductees were Colt Cabana, Dave Meltzer, Findlay Martin and Martin Goldsmith. All four very deserving entrants for their contribution to wrestling media.

Little side note for this. The first time I meet Dave Meltzer will now forever be stumbling into him getting changed for the Hall of Fame ceremony in one of the toilets, stood in his boxers doing his shirt up. The first words I will ever say to him in person are "Do you mind if I use the cubicle" as he was in the way of it. Good times.

I followed this up on Sunday with Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling with special guests Jeff Jarrett, Dave Meltzer, Jonathan Gresham, Dave Lagana and Sonjay Dutt which was obviously great. World of Sport's panel following shortly afterwards which I only caught a bit of but was also incredibly interesting.

I enjoyed hearing stories, anecdotes and conversations with several people I hugely admire in the industry as someone who reports on it. The panels aren't as viscerally exhilarating as the live wrestling, but they were an integral part of Wrestling MediaCon