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1.25pm: Bad news: the Superstars have been delayed by an hour! I decide to kill time by trying out SmackDown VS Raw 2009 using one of the demo pods at the side of the room. I challenge one of the other hacks to a few Ladder Matches.

2.04pm: Well, the game seems pretty fun. It's been a while since I've played a SmackDown game, but this seemed to follow a familiar learning curve: the ten minutes felt a bit chaotic and out of control, but things improved after that. Smacking your mate in the face with a ladder is always fun, though it took ages to actually climb the damn thing and grab the belt. Both the matches I played took quite a while, in fact - but I suspect this is at least partly due to me being a bit crap. The wrestler models are large and look pretty decent, I thought. A few people in our group seemed to think that the 360 version had a slight edge over the PS3 in terms of looks; I'm not sure about this, since I didn't see enough of the Xbox build.

2.35pm: More canapés. More beer. More sleep-deprived headaches.

2.55pm: The Superstars have arrived! Two rather strange Spanish celebrities take to the mini-stage of the press area; one of them looks like a slightly fatter version of William Shatner. They start twittering away as the wrestlers enter the room and everyone dives for their camera. The hosts conduct a few mini-interviews in rather broken English. Are Cryme Tyme planning to steal the Challenge Trophy, asks Shatner? No, says the man known as JTG. They're going to win it anyway. Stirring words indeed!

3.10pm: Members of the press are now arranged around tables, according to the country they come from. Superstars are to rotate between each table, giving us five minutes to ask questions on mass. Cryme Tyme will be the first visitors to the UK table.

3.15pm: JTG and his enormous tag-partner, Shad, seem like good guys. They're certainly friendly. JTG is a bit upset that his in-game wrester rating has gone down by two points since last year's SmackDown VS Raw release. On the whole, he likes the game - but he thinks that the guy who does his motion capture could do a better job of copying his signature dance. Meanwhile Shad, who appears to be addicted to Red Bull, is keen to serve up some banter for rival wrester, Kofi Kingston. "Ask Kofi why Cryme Tyme always gives him the gas!". I'm not sure I fully understand what he's saying... does Kofi have some kind of farting problem?

3.20pm: Next up, we get Kofi himself - alongside the "straight-edge" Superstar, CM Punk. Again, they both seem like nice chaps. Kofi says he's going to give Cryme Tyme a run for their money in the competition, but again his attitude is fairly light-hearted - we're certainly not getting the serious smack-talk that some people expected. CM Punk also seems to be an extremely laid-back guy who really enjoys his job - although he did promise "a Kill Bill-style revenge streak" as part of his efforts to regain his World Heavyweight Championship title from Chris Jericho.

3.25pm: A loud noise signals that it's time for the wrestlers to move table once again. CM Punk is unimpressed, describing it as "the biggest sissy gong" he's ever heard.

3.26pm: It's hard to tell if Chris Jericho is "in character" or whether he's just less media friendly than the previous stars. He's perfectly polite, but he seems less enthusiastic about being here. He keeps his shades down, his huge arms on the table, and his head hunched forward in a "Hey, am I bothered?" style pose. His interview partner, Santino Marella, is far more entertaining - answering our questions with colourful boasts and swaggering. "I don't need to reinvent myself, because I'm perfect!" he says. "I'm improving like wine. The question is: how good am I going to get?"

3.31pm: Clearly saving the best till last, our table receives a visit from a trio of lovely WWE Divas: Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle and Mickey James. One journalist immediately puts the rest of us to shame by exchanging a few chummy words with Kelly Kelly - it turns out he knows her mum! Still, the ladies are very smiley and pleasant to all of us - they seem to be in good spirits. Kelly tells us she used to have a SNES; Candice has a Wii but says she's not very good at playing it. "It's very complicated! It used to be there were just two or four buttons, now there are like 20 buttons!" I'm not sure what console Candice has been playing (a calculator, perhaps?) but I get the impression she may struggle in the forthcoming competition. Still, she promises she has some tricks up her sleeve...

3.45pm: With the interview over, I try to get through a door that will give me access to a balcony overlooking the arena. No dice - there's another bouncer in the way, and he won't be budged. Drat!

4.00pm: The large glass window at the edge of the bar is rolled to one side, allowing everyone a perfect view of the room below. There's a console on stage with two large plasma screens either side. The crowd below looks quite excited - and with good reason: The Superstar Challenge is about to kick off. Meanwhile, us media types are sucking up some weird lemon sorbet thing served in shot glasses.

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