Cheerful send off for world-famous wrestlers

Unlike their troublesome arrival last Thursday, the world-famous wrestlers from the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) left the country yesterday amid cheers from an adoring crowd made up mostly of children and top officials of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

With no pesky media man to ruin their mood, popular WWE wrestlers John Sena, Triple H, The Edge, Big Show , Benjamin, Mick Foley, Val Venis, and Eugene granted numerous requests for autographs by the more than 40 children and several grown-up fans who waited for them to emerge from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Centennial Terminal’s Presidential Lounge.

They took a Philippine Airlines flight to the US.

The wrestlers also smiled and posed for photographs with several young fans.

"They were very friendly. They smiled at cameras when the children approached them," a MIAA employee said.

Interestingly, even MIAA general manager Alfonso Cusi and assistant general managers Octavio "Bing" Lina and retired Brig. Gen. Angel Atutubo were present during the send-off for the wrestlers.

After last Thursday’s snafu caused by an airport radio reporter who had an altercation with the wrestlers’ chief security aide, Cusi personally managed the departure arrangements for the wrestlers at the Presidential Lounge, which was paid for by Uniprom, the local entertainment company that arranged for the visit here of the wrestlers for a two-night show at the Araneta Coliseum.

Uniprom said the wrestlers were able to fill the Araneta Coliseum last Feb. 24 with 17,000 guests.

With the turnout of young fans at the coliseum, Cusi informed the restlers to expect the waiting crowd of young children that will ask for autographs and pose with them for souvenir photos.

Meanwhile, Uniprom has expressed its intention to file a complaint against Raoul Esperas, the dwIZ radio reporter who created trouble when he allegedly hurled invectives and a racial slur against Barrie Knight, the wrestling contingent’s black chief security officer, when the latter tried to make him get off the baggage conveyor belt at the NAIA Terminal II’s arrival area minutes after the wrestlers stepped off from a PAL flight that brought them into the country.