So as you can see in the picture, I threw a party last year. AEW is a pro wrestling company, much like WWE. They had this big outdoor show at Wembley Stadium in London. Sold something like 80,000 tickets. We watched live on PPV.
It’s the first time I ever threw a wrestling watch party. I invited 4 people. I bought cheese, soft pretzels, bought chips/queso. I had vodka, whiskey, beer, and 3 different THC vape pens along with edible gummies. I also had coke (the soda), barqs root beer, and one of the special novelty mountain dew flavors.
I cooked chicken, and cut the cheese into cubes with individual toothpicks. I got out my good plates. And used the projector to make the screen 90 inches.
Only 2 people showed up. Nobody ate hardly anything. Nobody drank anything. Hardly anything was said. This picture was taken AFTER the party. We went through 1 bag of chips, and 1 1/2 jars of queso.
I literally could have just bought 1 bag of chips, 2 jars of queso, and saved $100 and 2 days of prep work.
I even had 2 different styles of BBQ sauce for the chicken.
Yes, it’s a year later, and I’m still mildly infuriated over it!
I feel your pain.
Years ago I threw a party for work friends and acquaintances where I had 30 confirmed and 10 tentative (from calendar invite). I bought a variety of drinks (alcoholic and non) and bought/cooked food for about 50 to ensure there was plenty.
… 4 people showed up.
That was the instant that I stopped giving a fuck. Ever since then I’ve adopted the approach of “I’m going to do something, you can come if you want, but I’m not planning for you”. Or, more commonly, I just don’t organize anything :)
EDIT: I should note that this was a recurring yearly party that got bigger and bigger over 5 years until it just died. Pre COVID.
Gotta invite more than 4 people
There’s a tough lesson I learned about trying to get my friends into board games: It’s easier to turn gamers into your friends than it is to turn your friends into gamers. I’ve learned that some of my friends are never going to share my interests as much as I’d like, but that just means I needed to find people who were already in whatever hobby and start hanging out with them and some of them will eventually be your real friends.
Making and keeping friends as an adult is way more difficult than it seems it should be, but it’s a painful reality.
Don’t be discouraged. This may not have worked out like you hoped and planned, but keep doing awesome things. Somebody will love you for it and you’ll have a lot of fun.
Absolutely this. Can confirm from experience. I got it from my Ma, whenever family was hosting growing up she was doing the most. Flexing at every opportunity. Obviously good to play with a budget you wouldn’t mind burning so you don’t chew off too much, but keep being extra.
Well now you don’t have to cook for a couple days. Also, my rule of thumb is that 50% of invitees ever show, and of those only 50% will participate fully (i.e. not leave early, show up really late, have already eaten, etc.). It’s good to have more stuff on hand in the freezer or pantry, in case that equation isn’t exact. Then, you can prep some quickly to meet demand.
chicken looks bomb lemme get that
Can we please be friends? I’ll make sure those lovely snacks don’t go to waste. I can bring two grackles, a bluejay, and a couple of raccoons to fill out the party. Oh, and my wife!
That’s…. A lot of chicken. Even for four peeps.
I’m sorry you went to all that trouble, though.
I’d drop a few recipes for what to do with it… but uhm, I hope that chicken is long gone by now, heh.
Side note, you need better friends! Pro wrestling isn’t my jam, at least I’d hang out. Maybe shout insults at the heel or something.
That’s a lot of chicken? I had to check the picture like 5 times to make sure I wasn’t missing something. That’s 12 wings for 4 people… 3 wings a person. I still feel like I’m missing something.
Them’s legs not arms
Yeah you might be right. It’s hard to tell with the forced perspective shot.
Yeah. So for a watch party, people are going to be hitting the finger food, right? Grazing is how people eat at these kinds of things.
Keep in mind recommended serving size would be 4-6 ounces- about one drumstick; but again, it’s kinda hard to graze a drumstick. That’s full on entree material. Two, if they’re small (these look large.)
I’d suggest something like buffalo wings, set out in a crock pot or slow cooker, so they’re ready to be grazed on their terms. (If you do go for drumsticks, well, they’re gonna have to be kept warm. If you don’t have something like a giant slow cooker, or a catering warming pan, that means the oven, which means they’re liable to be over looked.)
Hang out, vape the THC, devour that chicken! OP, this is amazing hosting!
Why didn’t you call me to fill one seat?
Hey man, you still did a great thing. Don’t let that go to waste. You cared for people.
I didn’t realize adults of drinking age were interested in fake wrestling.
My significant other is into it and I have decided to just enjoy it with them by picking the silliest person I can see on the stage and rooting for them and playing drinking games with the sillier aspects.
It can be a lot of fun especially with how excited the people I am watching with get excited about the whole thing.
Plus the last guy I picked ( I miss you Boogs!) Was a large muscle man that looked like steroided Freddie Mercury and absolutely shredded on the guitar.
The E in WWE is for Entertainment.
Some people enjoy belittling other’s choices on the internet. Some enjoy watching the drama of fake wrestling.
I haven’t watched since WWF Attitude Era, but there really is nothing like wrestling. It’s such crazy performance art, with sick flips and insane feats of strength. I also called it fake like the person you responded to when I was 11, but now that I’m an adult, I recognize how fantastic it really is.
Also RIP Big Cat Scott Henson.
I don’t get it either. I also don’t get why people would want to watch a bunch of guys scramble around a field after an oblong ball and give each other TBIs, but, hey, people can enjoy whatever they want. I don’t need to criticize them for it. So, why do you feel that need?
Has anybody done a reverse image search be sure this is real?
Making up a story for 37 people on Lemmy is way sadder than throwing a party with low turnout.
Could be a redditor trying to expand. Who knows. On reddit these kinds of stories were there on the daily.
That’s fucked up I’m sorry, I’d have eaten an entire plate of cheese hors d’vors myself and taken half that chicken with me afterwards. I’m not even into wrestling and I’d have come for that food.
You’re a good friend for providing that for a watch party (on top of paying for ppv) and I’m sorry your friends don’t appreciate how well you maintain your half of the bridge. The least the 2 could have done is tried the cheese and chicken.
Edit holy shit are those pre stuffed pretzel bites. Bro wtf is wrong with these people I’d have asked if anyone wanted any and eaten the entire plate. (I may or may not have portion control issues but seriously, they didnt touch any of that delicious looking food)
hors d’oeuvre
You can keep your horse devorse
I’ll see you in horse court
Yep, and they were locally sourced from a bakery. I think they cost about $25, and I put them in the convection oven at a low tempature. Not enough to cook them, but enough for them to be always warm, with melty cheese inside.
Edit: oh, and that stack of 2 plates? It was 3 plates. I used a plate for the chicken, and cheeses. I also had a few beers, and some jack n cokes.
The other 2 plates, their plates, you can see were unused. Everybody just ate chips off the orange serving platter.
This is so strange to me. I hear stories like this all the time but I have hard time understanding who would not show up or not eat the food that was obviously for the party.
Did they know there would be food beforehand? Could they have eaten before because they thought there wouldn’t be anything at the party? What about the other 2 people? Did they tell you they were not coming or did they say they were coming and then just didn’t show up? Did they say why they didn’t show up?
Some people simply don’t know how to be good friends. You really shouldn’t take it personal
I’ve just had to learn my closest friends simply aren’t capable of providing emotional connection like I’d like. I’m working on becoming a better friend to them, meeting them where they are , trying to figure out how to provide for and validate my own emotional needs, so I can eventually work up the courage, or whatever it is I need, to meet friends that are more emotionally mature enough to have the real connections I’m looking for
I once delayed a party where I had tons of family over because my friends hadn’t arrived. They didn’t get there until like 10 or something, after I’d already told them to just fuck off. The thing is, they are my friends and they legit care about me in their own (weird to me) ways. I’ve just come to realize they’ve got legit issues, as I do (part of why we’re drawn to being friends), that they’re working on to varying degrees, and I simply can’t expect more from them than they’re capable of giving
Good luck finding a chill healthy tribe of folks that shares similar values to your own!
