U.S. soldier shares details of meeting Chris Jericho and other WWE wrestlers in Iraq today

SSG Nick Minecci, who is stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, sent the following recap of his meeting with various WWE personalities.

I just met Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, and Big Show here in the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) headquarters in Baghdad. All three were really nice and I have a few observations. One, Jericho was really relaxed and funny, and told us to take a WWE coin so if he ever meets us in a bar and we don't have it we have to buy for him. (There is an old Army tradition where a commander give a unit coin, and if you have a coin check at a bar and someone does not have theirs, they buy.) I shook his hand and told him his program with HBK was one of the best of the last 20 years, and he seemed very humble and thanked me several times, and said: "It was really fun and we got to do a lot of things with that. Thank you very much, that means a lot."

I was surprised to see RKO. Given his background with the military, I did not think he would be here, but he was actually quite nice and I got a photo with him. I told him that even when he was the most hated guy I was a huge fan and he seemed surprised.

Big Show may be one of the nicest stars I have ever seen. He was asking about the difference in our ranks and such, and just seemed really happy to be meeting everyone. He was joking with people in line and taking a lot of photos acting like he was choke slamming someone. It was great. One guy said something and Big Show stood up and the line and just TOWERED over us, everyone was laughing and really into meeting the guys.

One thing that surprised me is how many people in line were hoping Batista was here. He is really popular, I never knew he had such a huge following. Something about him connects with people.

Powell's POV: Great story, Nick. Thanks for sharing. I'd love to hear from other military members who meet the WWE crew while they are in Iraq. Send the recaps of your experiences to dotnetjason@gmail.com.