Thanks to Vince Indelicato for the following:

As promised, here are reports from Torrie's signing in Richmond on Monday and the Brock/Rikishi signing in Virginia Beach on Tuesday. These reports are combined are a tale of how TO do a signing and how NOT to do a signing.

4/14, Torrie Wilson, Borders Books, Richmond, VA--This was a great signing. I arrived about 45 minutes early and was about 75 back from the front of the line. (The line ended up being close to 300.) They had everyone line up on the sidewalk outside and took us into the store in groups of 5 to a smaller line of about 20. As reported from earlier signings by Torrie, she was very pleasant and talked with everyone who came to see her. She also signed anything put in front of her, with no limits. The only restriction was that since the appearance was technically for Playboy, she could only sign Playboy mags (no WWE brand mags). But, any other item was fair game. All in all, the signing was organized, well attended, and carried out smoothly.

Contrast that experience with....

4/15, Brock Lesnar and Rikishi, Hall Auto World, Virginia Beach, VA--This signing had clusterf*#k written all over it. The signing was outdoors, at a car lot, in the sun. My wife and I arrived about an hour early (11 am for a 12 noon signing) and there were already over 400 people in line ahead of us. It seems that when people called the dealership to get info, they were told that the signing would begin at 11 (though it actually DID start at noon). Brock and Rikishi arrived on time in a Hummer (courtesy of the dealership), and quickly began signing. The sponsors (the dealership, the local UPN station, a local bad rock station, and a couple of others) had printed up appearance event t-shirts which they gave people as they approached the signing station. In addition, Brock and Rikishi also had their promo pics there (free!) for signing. Things went smoothly at first, but then they turned bad for the fans.
    
At about 1:30, the DJ from the radio station announced that Brock and Rikishi would have to leave soon to get back to the Scope for the show, and that they would try to sign autographs for as many people as possible. At 2:00, they cut off signings and Brock and Rikishi posed for pictures and left, leaving about 200 fans in line (my wife and I included) with nothing but a sunburn and a couple of crowd shots. This was no way to handle the signing event.
    
I do not blame Brock or Rikishi for having to leave. If Vince or Stephanie says be back at the arena by 2:30, and it takes 15-20 minutes to get to the arena from the signing location, you gotta leave when you gotta leave. My complaint is with the sponsors of the signing and the WWE handlers. The WWE handlers should have taken control of the situation once they arrived. They have done enough large autograph signings to know how about how many people can be seen in an hour. All they would have had to do is call the sponsors over, say we can guarantee that we will see X number of people. The sponsors could have then counted down the line and told people that after a certain point, there was no guarantee you would get an autograph.

The second thing the handlers could have done is to limit the number of items. To his credit, Brock was signing a max of two things, but Rikishi was signing everything put in front of him. This is great when you feel you will be able to see all the fans in attendance, but with the kind of line involved, a strict limit of one item per person would have made things go faster.

Finally, they should have not allowed people to get back in line. I know, you are thinking, with a line that long, how did people get through it twice. I don't know, but I was talking to one woman after the signing (during a ticket giveaway by the radio station) who was glad she got there at 8 a.m. because she was able to go through the line twice and get a personal posed photo with the guys. She even told me that Rikishi recognized her from her first trip through the line. Now remember, Brock and Rikishi did not arrive until noon, and by that point the line was over 400 people long. How did she get back in line and get a second set of autographs? I leave that for you to figure out. But once the people handling the signing saw she was going through a second time, they should have refused her a second set of autographs. I know it would have probably only given 2 or 3 more fans time to get autographs, but that's 2 or 3 who didn't get one thanks to this woman's greed.

All in all, this signing sucked. And it wasn't due to the wrestlers, it was due to poor handling.