Celebrities are people too, damn it!

As most of you may know, I am huge WWE fanboy. I love it more than most of the sports I follow because I know what I am buying into…a choreographed TV show filled with drama, violence and trash talk. What those men and women do each show is an art. I pay money to see them put their bodies on the line with every suplex and every powerbomb.

Because of the gimmicks and promos WWE writes, it makes you feel like you know all of your favorite superstars on a personal level. That makes the connection between the superstars and the WWE universe feel smaller than that of watching your favorite quarterback throwing touchdowns on Sunday.

When rumors began flying that Wrestlemania 30 was coming to my hometown, New Orleans, I went nuts. Of course my friends and I bought tickets and attended WWE Fan Axxess. My friends and I were able to wrestle in a foam pit, watch some NXT matches and meet some of our favorite superstars.

You may have gathered that I am a bit of a Seth Rollins fan boy. Luckily, he had a meet and greet while I was there so of course we waited in line. Rollins was in the late stages of the Shield’s run before he destroyed it. They were a hot babyface stable at the time.

Many of the wrestlers will stay in character during meet and greets. The reason I say that is because Seth Rollins was not portraying a heel on TV, but he was rather heelish when I met him.

Here is a guy who I absolutely love watching on Raw every week and I was about to meet him. I posted the picture my friend snagged when I met Rollins on my social media about a week ago.

A friend of mine texted me the other day and asked if I got a chance to talk to him for a while.

The truth is I didn’t. In all actuality, he was kind of an asshole when I met him.

He did not say anything rude to me. He smiled and signed my little paper for an autograph. He posed with me for a picture. The two of us had our fists together representing The Shield. He did everything he was supposed to do, but he just seemed like he had no interest in being there.

My friend saw him at the local House of Blues earlier that week. Rollins was with a girl seeing whichever band it was. When my friend told him that he saw him and that he did not want to bother him because Rollins was clearly with a lady friend. Rollins told my friend, “thank you, you might have been the only one.”

Does this make Seth Rollins a bad person? No it doesn’t.

Not everyone is like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who top to bottom is just awesome. Just follow his social media pages, he will do anything to make his fans crack a smile. It really is amazing to see.

Now most people probably would have taken Rollins’ attitude to heart and would never buy his merchandise and bad mouth him to their friends.

All you have to do is simply google “celebrities that are assholes.” Boom, here comes thousands of blogs, message boards and social media posts about people who were disappointed upon meeting their idol.

For people like me, these stories are nothing more than a reminder of why you shouldn’t idolize people you don’t know. If you do choose that route, be cautious.

You mean to tell me you were disappointed that this person who doesn’t know you from a ham sandwich did not want to be bothered by you?

“Dear diary,

Today, Seth Rollins was mean to me and did not act like we were besties.”

Shut up stupid.

I understand Rollins was supposed to be there and should be thankful for the fans blah blah blah. But, celebrities are people just like you and me.

I am sure they are hounded day in and day out for autographs, pictures and casual conversation, but some of them just want to be left alone. Talking to fans can become a hassle for them, just like traffic can be a hassle for the 9-5 crowd like us. We don’t feel like dealing with it some days. Maybe that day was just one of those days for Rollins. I don’t fault him for that.

I hear so many stories about celebrities being assholes to people who hound them for a picture or autograph. I have also seen it first hand. When I worked the Manning Passing Academy for my college radio station, Peyton Manning was getting annoyed because people were hounding him for pictures. One of my friends on the Nicholls football team wanted to hurry up and get a picture with Manning and he got kind of snooty about it. Of course I was the one taking the picture of the them which I didn’t want to do in the first place.

The problem with the pictures and autographs is that one person asks and then one person turns into 20 and 20 turns into 100. The next thing you know, this person can’t finish their lunch or get to their car.

I get it. I would be a complete jerk if I were a celebrity especially if I was bothered when I was with my wife, children or friends. This is my time. Respect it.

Every time I see a celebrity, I have a tendency to freeze up and get somewhat starstruck. I never want to act on it because I know I would not want to be bothered.

I have seen several celebrities literally walk right next to me and my reaction is always the same. After they get in the distance, it settles in my head and I turn to whoever I am with and say “holy shit that was _____.”

It happened when Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg walked past me in New Orleans. It happened when The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley walked past me in New Orleans. It happened when Whoopi Goldberg walked past my wife and I coming out of an elevator at the Grand Floridian in Disney World on our honeymoon.

That story may be my favorite. We all know Whoopi likes to wear the dark glasses. It took me a minute to process who it was when she walked past me coming out of the elevator. I could literally reach out and grab her if wanted to. Our eyes locked on each other. I was trying my hardest not to stare and I could see her peeking through the sides of her glasses probably thinking “this little kid (because I have the face of a 12 year old) better not cause a scene.”

I walked in the elevator and turned to my wife once the doors closed and said “holy shit, that was Whoopi fucking Goldberg.” She just said “yeah, I know” and explained why she was there.

I just don’t see where it is my place to start the picture train of people or take time out of someone’s day just so I can post it to social media for a couple of likes. Let’s be honest, that is the real reason most people do it.

There is a time and place to meet celebrities, places like conventions where I have been able to meet actor Ian Somerhalder and my favorite wrestler Seth Rollins.

Even though Seth seemed like he had no interest in being there, I will still cheer for him. He could have been having a bad day. He was probably sitting there having the same conversation with people for three hours. He shook my hand, took a picture and did what he was supposed to do for his fan. Not a friend, a fan.