Hey everyone,
My name is Marc, 31 years old from Boston. Long time lurker of the site, but I figured it's time I contribute to the great discussions you have here. Sounds like a recurring them, but the depth of knowledge here is impressive to say the least. As a married guy with two kids and a job that keeps me busy 10-12 hours a day, I don't always have the time or energy to make a well-researched post and have held back for a long time, not knowing where to jump in. I thought I'd watched a ridiculous amount of wrestling before stumbling on this site almost 5 years ago and realized I've got a lot to catch up on, haha.
By way of background, I started watching the WWF in late '88 when I was five. My dad was a casual fan, had on PrimeTime one night and I instantly thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen. Randy Savage (and by proxy Hulk Hogan) became my favorites immediately. Weeks later, the Mega Powers angle hit. I was crushed and couldn't figure out why Randy was being such a dick. I begged my parents to get me WrestleMania V and it was over from then on. We taped it and from there I got every WWF PPV for the next five years, recorded them to VHS and wore out those tapes. I started buying the magazines, and then discovered there were other promotions through PWI. My next door neighbor was 9 years older than me and decided he outgrew it and was going to throw out a bunch of Apter mags from '84-'88, which I scooped up and caught up on all this stuff happening in the NWA, AWA, UWF, Memphis, etc. I was blown away to see guys like The Million Dollar Man, Mr. Perfect and the Red Rooster were stars under there real names in other federations, and there were guys like Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler, Lex Luger and the Road Warriors that looked as impressive as the WWF roster and I wanted to see them all in action. I rented all the old Wrestlemanias, Survivor Series, etc. from the local video store and watched anything I could get my hands on. My earliest NWA memory was seeing a replay of Terry Funk putting a plastic bag over Ric Flair's head when I was six, and my grandmother freaking out thinking it was disgusting that they'd show that on TV.
The product got edgier as I got older, so it was hard to "grow out of," something I always thought I would, but I'd always come back. I almost quit watching in '95, but Hart/Michaels at WM 12 and then the NWO angle sucked me back in. By the time I was 14, Stone Cold, DX, the Rock, Mick Foley were big stars, I could tape ECW on the Spanish channel Saturdays at midnight, and wrestling actually became cool for a short spell.
As I got older, I watched WWF and WCW through the '90s, and started to lose interest after the Invasion angle when I realized they were never going to do it the right way. By thenI was 18, in college, and had more important things than wrestling going on. I got hooked again in '03, really digging the Angle/Lesnar stuff and seeing some of my favorites like Jericho, Benoit (I know), and Guerrero starting to get main event shots. Triple H started to kill my interest again, though I actually dug Evolution as a Horsemen wannabe faction despite never really getting it right. I was a fan through '05 when I started to tune out. Eddie Guerrero's death was depressing, and by then I thought US wrestling was insulting my intelligence and that the WWE wasn't trying as hard as they were five years prior. I graduated college, got a job, got married and started a family, and thought I was out again. The Benoit thing was almost the nail in the coffin.
Had I not discovered 90s All Japan and New Japan when I was in college, I would have stopped watching completely at that point. The Japanese stuff was so new and different that it kept my interest when it waned in the US and I had a whole decade of stuff to catch up on. By now I was a part time fan. Not watching the WWE for almost four years, I bought WM25 purely for nostalgia. It was an underwhelming show (HHH/Orton might have been the worst WM Main Event this side of Taker/Sid), but I was hooked again by Michaels/Taker. Upon rewatch it's a little ridiculous and over-the-top, but at the time, for the WWE, this was the closest I'd seen them come to a quasi-AJPW heavyweight main event and I couldn't believe how much those guys could "go" at their age. I started to think wrestling was a dying art, that once guys like HBK and Undertaker retired, it was over. These new guys didn't seem to understand how to perform. They seemed to be "playing" pro wrestler rather than wrestling, and the booking - trading wins and losses, flopping the belt around, wasn't doing them any favors. With no more territories, guys weren't mastering the art, and with no competition, WWE seemed keen on playing it safe to please sponsors and not put on a great product. Of course, some of these perceptions were not necessarily accurate, but that's how I felt at the time. I got to a point as a fan where I decided there was so much footage of classic wrestling from the 70s-'05 that I could probably spend my limited viewing time watching the legends I'd missed, and reliving memories of the stuff I had seen and that would be it for me as a fan. A crotchety old guy who assumed modern wrestling had nothing to offer.
I paid attention online, watched the pimped matches, and kept coming back. CM Punk in '11 and the Daniel Bryan angle last year were some of the highlights and I thought we were on the verge of another boom period this year before Bryan got hurt and they forgot how to book again. The WWE ringwork the past 18 months has been outstanding, the booking inconsistent, and it's been a frustrating yet sometimes rewarding ride nonetheless.
So here I am, a grown man in his 30s. posting on a wrestling message board on a Saturday night, reading posts from a bunch of kindred spirits (albeit many whose knowledge far surpasses mine). I discovered this site when compiling a list of the best matches of all time and seeking out stuff I'd never watched. The discussion here is a notch or two (or ten) above any other place on the internets that I've come across. There are some really intelligent, well-researched posts. The level of discourse and analysis here seems better reserved for high art and literature, and I think it's outstanding.
I've also dug into the 80's AJPW/NJPW sets, and hope to find enough in the budget to eventually get the rest of them and the 90s yearbooks. Will and Loss - the work you guys have put into these sets and this site is incredible. I discovered the podcasts through here last year too, and really dig what I've heard. You guys are hilarious and insightful. Goodwill Wrestling, Wrestling With the Past, Titans, Where the Big Boys play - Will, Charles, Parv, Johnny, Chad, Stephen, Kelly, Kris - sorry if I'm leaving anyone out - are a riot and the discussion is top notch. I hope to continue to learn and discover new stuff here. Keep up the great work!
