The Greg Muta

Well, looking at it through kayfabe eyes, I'm going to throw out Rick Steiner's TV title win over Rotundo at Starrcade 1988. Steiner was still a fairly new name who I don't think had ever held a significant title at this point, Rotundo was the champ, a veteran with the evil manager, and this was at a time when the TV title was still kind of a big deal. And look at the reaction when he wins the belt. Maybe not the biggest upset ever...but I think it deserves mention.

I am almost 40 ( ) and hail from southern NJ, not far from Philly. 1982 - 1991 (ages 7 - 16): My earliest wrestling memory is Billy Graham ripping up Backlund's WWWF title belt, and my grandfather took me to some cards at the Spectrum prior to Hogan's arrival (including Iron Mike Sharpe's title shot at Backlund). My favorite wrestlers before Hogan's arrival were Backlund and Tito Santana. I liked Hogan okay once he hit the scene, but was not really a Hulkamaniac. We got cable in 1985 and I was exposed to the NWA, AWA, World Class, etc. Oddly enough, my initial reaction to these new federations was not positive. I remember thinking it was going to be impossible to get to know all these new wrestlers. LOL. Anyway, huge fan up until around mid-1991 when I turned 16. The last major angle I remember from that era was Flair's arrival in the WWF, but once the initial shock wore off, I just didn't care. I bought most of the PPV's from this era, and the last one I bought was Bash 1991. 1991 - 1995 (16 - 20): Did not follow wrestling very much, however a friend kept tabs on what was happening, and even called me up when HBK fainted on the live RAW (1995?). We had no exposure to the sheets or RSPW in those days and assumed it was legit. But I still didn't care enough to tune in to find out what happened next. I did order the 1994 Survivor Series, for the sole reason that Backlund was wrestling Bret for the WWF title. I thought the PPV was okay, highlighted by Backlund's insane post-win promo, which I thought was hysterical and can recite verbatim to this day. But, again, I never tuned in to see what happened after. 1996 - 2001 (21 - 26): I think it was, believe it or not, Ahmed Johnson that really pulled me back into the product. I remember seeing Ahmed and just being amazed at his size, and he looked pretty good in the ring (hey, what did I know back then?). I was also intrigued with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, two guys who I associated with 80's tag team wrestling, battling it out over the world title. It was also around early 1996 that I found ECW on Sportschannel, and then Austin gave his KOTR promo, and that was that....I was a huge wrestling fan again. Taped pretty much every episode of ECW, RAW and Smackdown during this time and still have them. Could never get into WCW, though. I tuned in for some of the NWO stuff, but there was something about WCW's overall presentation that bothered me, so I was strictly a WWF/ECW fan. 2002 - present (27 - 39): The last PPV I ordered was WrestleMania 17. I recorded it to watch later, which I never did. Yep...I still have the VHS tape and have never watched it. The WWF product became too scripted and phony for me, including a lot of the in-ring stuff with obviously timed spots. I've tried tuning in a few times since then, and just cannot get back into it. I re-discovered old school wrestling in the late 2000s, and now watch stuff from the 70's - 90s on a regular basis.