Introduction to the Board as a wrestling fan

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Hi all,

 

Glad to have finally taken the plunge and move from ‘anonymous lurker’ to signed up member of the board, so thought I’d say a few words by way of an introduction here.

 

Have been following a lot of the output from the board via the consistently epic podcast outputs from the PTBN network and which get me through many a long commute and day at work. Being able to hear and read people debate wrestling in an in-depth way, the way they would do sport, films, TV, politics or art has been amazing and really re-ignited the passion in me to remember why I love wrestling.

 

So a few more background bits and pieces, I’m in my early 30’s and from London in the UK, and it’s been good to see there are quite a few other British voices around here. I’ve been a fan since the early 90’s, although it’s really the Attitude era when it became cool to like wrestling at school that really started the fandom. My parents got Sky in 2000, allowing me to see the WWF when it was at a creative high and I rode that wave hard until the first decline in standards around 2003/2004. Finding the now much missed Powerslam magazine in a WH Smith back around that time opened my eyes to other wrestling out there and I spent the next couple of years hoovering up ECW commercial VHS’ while a company over here (called Deltavision I want to say), still had the copyrights.

 

Being at university allowed me to meet a few others who were into it, and PPV Sunday night became something of a ritual in our house, although the 1 till 4 in the morning slot did sort out the hardcores from the casuals. That was also the time when I started to appreciate that there was so much more out there, and I bought my first ROH tapes from the US, after hearing about this amazing stuff they were putting on. From about 2004/5 to 2008/9 I was all in on ROH and have an absolute stack of DVD’s in boxes at my parents’ house, which I’ve started to try and work my way through chronologically but bloody life keeps getting in the way.

 

Being British, I’ve also been a big fan of the re-emerging and now, somewhat thriving, UK independent scene from the early 2000’s onwards. I went to the UK ROH shows back in the day and being there for the Danielson/McGuinness match at Unified back at the day was brilliant. I’ve been a regular attender or shows at the iconic York Hall in Bethnal Green, and have to say that some of the recent Rev Pro shows there have had some of the best matches I’ve ever seen live. Having got to see Jushin Liger and AJ Styles live in the last 12 months have definitely been highlights.

 

I'm waffling now, but looking forward to contributing to and getting to debate all of the many and varied aspects of what makes up wrestling and why people on this board love it so much.

[superkix]

Howdy everyone,

 

I've been a wrestling fan since the early 90s WWF, when Monday nights were a family gathering and my mom's homemade chili was on the menu. As a kid, I loved Tatanka and Ted DiBiase. I grew up a little, lost interest in wrestling as the focus shifted to girls, but then in the late 90's/early 2000's, I discovered Japanese pro wrestling and got hooked. For awhile, I devoured everything I could find. My favorite was/probably still is Stan Hansen (me being a fellow Texan). I never really got back into WWF/WWE, but on occasion, I would watch PPVs with friends or randomly check out an episode of RAW. I've had an 'online presence' for about 15 years now, floating around different message boards like DVDVR and SSS. This is the first year in awhile that I'm actively trying to keep up with what's coming out of Japan, so I'm happy to be a part of the board and I look forward to the discussions.

[SirEdger]

Although I already introduced myself to some people involved in the 1983 Project, I have yet to do so properly to the rest of you

 

So basically, my name is Patrick and I'm 35 years old, from Quebec, Canada and I've been a wrestling fan since I'm 4 years old. As early as I can remember, I was sitting at my grandparents' house on Sunday morning watching WWF Wrestling Challenge with my uncles and wrestle with my uncle on Sunday afternoons. I actually discovered the NWA at a very young age (6) and my earliest Ric Flair memory was his infamous Precious angle with Ron Garvin dressing in drag and knocking him out cold in a hotel room. Much to my folks' dismay, my love of wrestling never faded away and as I grew older, I tried to discover new styles and new promotions. I think it's important as a wrestling fan to expand our horizons and try to watch various products in order to have a better grip of what wrestling was and is. I might not be an expert on all wrestling styles but I love them all so that's what matters to me. Looking forward to share that passion with all of you guys!

[Gutenberger]

I only happened to stumble upon this now, which is why it might be a little late but hey, who cares?

 

My name is Michael, I'm 29 years old and from Essen, Germany. I've been a wrestling fan in some shape or form pretty much as long as I remember. Since 1998 I'm fulltime invested, even though it was, at times, hard to follow the current WWF/E product without internet and only beeing able to read about the ongoings. Since I haven't had internet at my home for the better part of three years, I discovered PTBN and begang reading pretty much everything there, followed by starting to listen to podcasts, which is something I've never done before. Through this I ended up here and, after a few months of waiting, am now an relatively active member.

So, one might say that not being able to WATCH pro wrestling has increased my passion about it.

While I am mostly a WWE guy, I always try to be open minded and to discover new stuff, if time allows it. I'm pretty sure this is the perfect place for this.

Since english isn't my native language, I hope you'll excuse my mistakes, and I'm looking forward to discussing and discovering new gems and some of the more obscure stuff!

[Mattsdmf]

Hello, my name is Matt. I've had a tad bit of trouble getting onto the board but I'm finally here! I also post on the DVDVR board as New Blood.

 

I'm excited to post here as I've been lurking on this forum for the last couple years. I've learned so much and discovered so much wrestling from you guys by just reading the threads and listening to the various podcasts. I'm really excite to contribute!

 

My introduction to wrestling was through video games in the mid-90s. One of my aunts ex-husbands had a Playstation and the WWF In Your House game and wrestlers like Undertaker, Goldust and Shawn Michaels fascinate me. I didn't really watch wrestling much other than seeing an odd episode of Superstars and Live Wire after cartoons on the USA Network. I was never a big sports fan so what appealed to me for wrestling were the characters and the angles. I was a big fan of comics and cult films and I would come across the WWF Colosseum Home Videos at my local mom & pop video store so that helped plant the seeds.

 

It wasn't until the Attitude Era that I became a massive wrestling fan. It was on an episode of Raw in April 1999 where Rock threw Austin off the bridge and then the following Raw in which Rock had a funeral for Austin and then he came to the arena with a monster truck. Believe it or not, that's what cemented me as a wrestling fan. I loved wrestling so much that I found out about other companies like WCW which I also really dug. Finding ECW was a revelation or me and I watched it on TNN every week. From that I found FMW comp tapes/dvds at my local Sam Goodys. When ECW and WCW folded, I was really bummed but began to find out about indies that would come around like ROH which I became incredibly passionate for until 2010 which I felt became stale. I became very jaded about WWE in 2002 with the Katie Vick storyline which my fandom never did totally recover but would watch occasionally.

 

Since all that, I've really rediscovered my love for wrestling in watching a lot of lucha, territory wrestling and various old puro, British wrestling and whatnot. I used to be a big, big fan of the 5 star/Meltzer way of rating matches until I saw Andre the Giant vs. Stan Hansen from September 81 and that transcended all of that and I think it's in my #1 spot of what I consider wrestling perfection. With that, I was led here and discovered so much more.

 

I hope this isn't too rambling but I really enjoy this board and looking to be a good part of it.

[AlmostNinjaLike]

Hello all, my name is Brandon and I'm pretty sure I've been watching wrestling for a shorter amount of time than anyone else on here. I found out about this board when someone on here posted the GWE list on reddit a couple months back, I've been lurking since then but figured I should go ahead and make an account.

 

I started watching wrestling in 2012 from around the Royal Rumble to about TLC, and then I stopped until I heard that my favorite (Daniel Bryan) was retiring. Watching the speech and remembering how much I loved wrestling for the short period of time I watched it re-ignited my interest and I've been knee deep in it since then.

 

My favorite wrestler is Toshiaki Kawada and my favorite match is the 4/20/91 6-man (it was the first puro match I ever saw.)

 

So yeah, don't know what else to add, except nice to meet you all.

[brockobama]

Hey lads, I'm Brock. Turn 23 in a month. Born in and currently live in central Indiana, though I've spent years in eastern Kentucky, the south coast of Texas, and the Tampa Bay area. Didn't get into wrestling until my teenage years, which certainly fueled a desire to stay in the "underground" of independent wrestling, but I've done my best to branch out in the last few years and keep an open mind. Big into deathmatches and Dragon Gate, but don't hold it against me. Think I first discovered PWO while I was in college and lurked for a bit, then managed to wander back in just as the GWE was ending, sadly. Wish I could have participated in that, but instead I guess I'll just have to subject everyone to bad opinions in the usual manner.

[Malone713]

Hey PWO, I'm Lee. 30 year old from Dublin, Ireland. Been watching wrestling since I was 4 or 5. Mostly WWE, WCW, TNA and whatever ECW and NJPW I was able to catch when it was shown over here. Never got into the tape trading world of wrestling fandom and now feel I missed out on what sounds like a golden age. Now regularly attend OTT here in Dublin so am getting to see some the best Indie talent in the world in person which is great.

 

I discovered PWO through Place to be Nation and hearing Where the Big Boys Play. Have spent countless hours listening to the quality podcasts you guys put out. I was tempted to sign up for GWE but didnt feel I had enough knowledge based on my mostly US based wrestling viewing. Anyway glad to be here and look forward to hopefully contributing in a positive way to the board.

 

Sláinte.

[soup23]

Welcome to the newbies!

[G. Badger]

Greetings, I've been a fan of PWO since probably the '96 yearbook was being worked on or before. Finally I have gotten around to becoming a member! Thanks for having me!

 

I'm 32 and would call myself a fan of wrestling since '98. I watched a good deal of the Monday Night Wars unfold and then go out with a whimper. I was a big fan of ECW and that helped me get into buying BJW & IWA death match tapes...oh those days of tracking issues and wacky audio!

 

Anyhow during my college days, my fandom took a back seat to other things but, was kept alive by my old ps1 copy of WCW vs the World and the occasional free WWE ppv in the student center...and said death matches.

 

After graduating and having to move back home with the folks for a couple years, my love of wrestling blossomed. I got into TNA wrestling which let to ROH which eventually led me to puro and joshi. This would be about 2007-2009. To speak about present, I've been watching mid 2000s NOAH, AJPW from 2011-2015, and 2004-2006 ROH & TNA. Thanks to the Good Shit posts by Supersonic for the latter!

 

Generally speaking though, my favorite period of wrestling is 86-90 Japan and I am most passionate about puro & joshi.

 

Anyhow, I look forward to sharing and big thanks to everyone who's kept PWO going!

[DeanColes1987]

Hi guys I'm Dean, 29 from Bristol, England.

 

I started watching wrestling when I was 4(that's what my mother says) during the big WWF uk boom and had Hasbros,Galoobs,sticker books and any Video I could get bought for me. I would watch the videos with my Grandad who would moan about "American Wrestling" but he would get into it even more than me and until he died last year would still ask me to bring down old WWF DVD's to watch.

 

I never had a strong preference for WWF(or WF as I called it) or WCW, my 2 favourites were Bret Hart and Sting and Shawn Michaels was someone I hated, if you told 11 year old me he wouldn't wrestle for another 4 years I would have hugged you.I had every AKI Nintendo 64 wrestling game and that console is the greatest purchase I ever made.

 

Getting the internet in 03 saved my declining interest in wrestling, opened up so many new promotions and styles to watch, now I have enough DVDs and hard drives that it would take years just to watch it all, Memphis,JCP,Continental/Southeastern and SMW is my favourite stuff to watch.

 

Been lurking on here for a while and finally decided to take the plunge, sorry for rambling

[JerryvonKramer]

Glad to see all these new guys coming in, especially Dean who has been very entertaining on Twitter recently.

[DeanColes1987]

Thanks for the kind words

[Edwin]

Hey guys, I don't think I've done a formal introduction yet, apologies.

 

My name is Edwin, I've been around these parts for a about 9 years now and I still haven't introduced myself.

 

I've been watching wrestling for most of my time as I mentioned in the PR Wrestling history thread, my uncle used to wrestle there and my dad drove him around when he was in same town we lived. I don't have many memories of this though as I was a child... Anyway, aside from being here for about 9 years now, I've been on DVDVR for 15 or so years. I know they I was around when they had that famous green and yellow theme. I've just had different usernames. I used to post WWC and IWA results from Puerto Rico there about 12 years ago.

 

In the 9 years I've been on here, I've been more of an on and off user as I'm not as big a fan of wrestling as I used to be. I've kind of fallen out of it/got burned/bored with it.

 

Anyway, I'll be around every now and then and will share my opinion on whatever I watch/have watched as I've watched quite a bit of everything, although I don't follow the current product as much and I just mostly watch older 80's and 90's footage on the WWE Network or on YouTube. I occasionally go to NXT or EVOLVE events when they're in Orlando, but outside of that and the WWE PPV's, I don't really watch anything else currently.

[JKWebb]

Hey PWO,

My first memories of wrestling are the build to WrestleMania 5, and constantly renting WrestleMania (1) from my local video store. I was amazed that Hulk Hogan and Mr. T teamed together, and my favorite wrestler was and still is Randy Savage. I remember that kids in my first grade class were still talking about Hulk Hogan body slamming Andre the Giant in 1989, and I remember being beyond thrilled when I rented that tape for the first time (at that age). My favorite tape as a kid became Royal Rumble 1990, and I became a big fan of Ted Dibiase during that match. I remember I dubbed off the rumbles 89, 90, 91, and 92 and those became my most watched videos. My only memory of WCW around this time is Sting. I remember always asking my Dad to stop on WCW when I saw Sting on there, and I thought he was the coolest wrestler alive. I know I had the rumble 92 on tape, but I think I fell out of wrestling around the time Randy Savage retired at 7 and just sort of watched it some after that. My favorite storyline as a kid was the Randy Savage/Liz stuff. I don't think I really understood what WCW was, or thought about it enough to really dig into it. I quit watching wrestling for good, as mentioned, probably at some point in 1992. I didn't think about it all until 1996.

I guess it was shortly after Bash at the Beach 1996 that a friend was looking at a WCW Magazine at school and talked me into checking out WCW because of Sting vs. the nWo. I immediately got into Sting, and I rented the tape of the Fall Brawl where he showed them he wasn't nWo, and I was hooked. All my friends started getting into it after that (renting tapes and PPVs). WCW was more popular in my town, and as we moved into High School in 1997, wrestling was on fire. I quit watching WCW around Road Wild 1999, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I came back for the final Nitro. WWE surpassed WCW as my favorite probably around Summerslam 1998. I quit watching WWE again around 2001. The return of nWo got me back in, and I've been back in ever since.

My first show was WCW in 1997 - houseshow - I remember it featured DDP, Giant, Rey, Juventud, and Jericho, and Luger... I'm sure others. I went on to attend Thunder later, Superbrawl, ECW, and WWE Events. I attended TNA during the fairground days in Nashville. Up until a few years ago, I was primarily into WWE/WCW/ECW until I stumbled upon Place to be Nation because of PWInsider. From there I found Where the Big Boys Play, and that show is what ignited my wrestling fandom into another level. They did their 100 greatest matches episodes, and I watched all of them. From there I went into deep dives of All Japan, Memphis, Portland, AWA, 1990, 1991, and Mid-South (and the diving hasn't stopped). I continue to find things I want to check out based on the great conversation that takes place here.

My favorite wrestler is: Randy Savage

Tag: Midnight Rockers

Active Favorites: AJ Styles & Johnny Gargano & Elias

My favorite match is: Sting vs. Vader - Starrcade 1992 ... probably...but, possibly the first ever Hell in a Cell

Tag: Blood in the Sand (Rockers vs. Rose/Somers) ... I'm certain.

GME: Clash 6 (Flair/Steamboat) ... I think? Misawa/Kobashi have some I go back and forth on as better....
GWE: Nick Bockwinkel ... most likely...in the ring anyway, but overall still Savage

Favorite era - 80's

Favorite Show - Great American Bash 1989 or maybe MITB 2011

Love the conversation here. Thanks for having me aboard.

[Therealheel]

Hi ,

My name is Cody , I am living in New Brunswick Canada now but grew up in Alberta , so i grew up with Stampede Wrestling as my local promotion and the Hart Family was a huge influence on my wrestling fandom. In 1990 the WWF started to grab my attention and especally Ted Dibase , who quickly became my favourite wrestler. I followed WCW closely and preferred it to WWF , I watched WWF but always seeked out other promotions or styles and preferred the alternative , at my age it was hard to ignore WWF.

 

Japanese wrestling came early for me and I gravitated towards it in about 92 and I tried to watch anything and everything , I had a tape and magazine hook up in Japan and I would get 8 hour tapes from Japanese tv all the time. It was great!

So today I watch mostly NJPW , NWA classics!. I want to get into Everything NOAH , I am looking so forward to this stuff! I am patiently waiting for the Stampede Wrestling Footage that WWE has and can't wait for that to be dumped on the network. So much wrestling I am interested in and many promotions and time periods.

 

Fav wrestlers all time

Bret hart

Fujinami

Brian Pillman

Shane Douglas (ECW Promo Work is some of the best in Wrestling history)

Ted Diabase

[Justtxyank]

Justin here. I stumbled on this site somehow, can't really recall how anymore. I'm a huge Stan Hansen fan and have often found myself alone in that in most discussions. Reading through the threads here, including the GWE project and I was floored to find this entire community essentially loves Hansen.

 

I grew up on NWA and WCW and followed other programs mainly through magazines and eventually the internet. I absolutely loved Stan Hansen in his brief stint with WCW and when I got older and saw his stuff from Japan I was hooked. I can't say he's always been my favorite wrestler, but I think him being so underappreciated by most other fans has enhanced his image for me.

 

The Death of WCW was a big blow to my wrestling fandom. I hung on for a few years with the WWF, but now my fandom is limited mostly to old school viewing and then quick watches of what someone else recommends to me of modern stuff.

 

Favorite Wrestlers of all Time:
Stan Hansen, Sting, Ricky Steamboat a few others who move in and out of the rotation

 

Favorite Tag Team of All Time:

This is harder for me than naming a favorite singles worker. I'm partial to southern style and power bruiser types. I guess my favorite team is the Steiners.

 

Greatest Match Ever:
Bret Hart vs Steve Austin Wrestlemania submission match

 

Greatest Wrestler Ever:
Ric Flair (but Hansen is close lol)

 

Glad to be aboard! Wish I could have been around for the GWE.

[Calvin]

Hey, guys. Just another wrestling fan like all of you, obviously. I'm looking forward to contributing to the match discussion archive & discussing the graps with everyone here!

[William Bologna]

Long time (I guess? It's not like I keep track) lurker here.

 

I watched some WWF as a kid in the 80s, but I really got into it again in 1995 (I didn't know it was terrible!). I really enjoyed the Monday night wars, and then seeing the Michinoku Pro match on the first ECW PPV changed everything for me. I rented an AJPW tape from a Japanese video store, and I've been a 90s All Japan mark ever since. (It was the 97 tag league. Misawa/Akiyama vs Kobashi/Ace. They teased a draw but then Misawa pinned Ace with a tiger driver. I didn't have to look any of this up.)

 

I'd kept up reading about rasslin on the internet without actually watching much of it, but I always enjoy New Japan on AXS. That, combined with needing something to watch while I do cardio, got me to sign up for NJPW World.

 

My likes include Tenryu, Kawada, and matches where it's a flippy dude vs a shooty dude.

 

My dislikes include Furnas and Kroffat being stuck at All Asia tag title status.

[aguakun]

At last, my account has been validated! I've been lurking here for a long while, enjoying the review section, and I finally decided to make an account. I enjoy writing puroresu reviews, mostly joshi, and would like to share them with you all.

[Shatter_Machine]

Hi. I'm Sean. I discovered this board after becoming a more regular podcast listener when a new job put me in the car for 5-6 hours a day. It's a really great alternative to places like Wrestling Classics or Kayfabe Memories, which are full of crotchety old bastards who just hate on everything they see instead of seeking out different things to watch. It's like being on a damn Facebook group moderated by my drunk uncle.

 

Huge wrestling fan since about 1983 or so, when I was a wee lad of about 6. I followed mostly AWA, WWF, and Georgia as a kid since they were on cable where I grew up. When I moved to Pennsylvania in 1986, I was pretty much limited to WWF and NWA on TBS, although I did watch AWA on ESPN when it was on. I later fell in love with World Class thanks to the reruns on ESPN. I was the kid everybody made fun of in middle school and high school for being a wrestling fan, but I didn't care. I had a "Hulk Rules" shirt as a kid, and I'm not ashamed. I used to set up a huge arena in my basement and have matches with all my action figures when I couldn't watch on TV. I had a collection of LJN figures that I bought on Ebay as an adult.

 

Started fading out of watching in about 2002 after Hogan beat HHH for the title and drifted in and out of fanhood for a long time, until I caught New Japan on AXS and got hooked again right away.

 

I got into American Indies, Japan, and more recently, some British stuff. Can't get into ROH for some reason. I was fortunate enough to have a friend that was liquidating his entire DVD and Blu-Ray wrestling collection after digitizing it, so I've got a bunch of Chikara and PWG to go through. My wife is very tolerant of my hobby, although if she has to sit through another 7 hour PPV, she might not be. I own autographed photos of me with the Road Warriors, Ric Flair, and I was once able to meet Lou Thesz when I was in the Navy. I've got a couple of championship belts and I've been to about 250 live shows, mostly independents and local promotions.

 

I once went to a Halloween party as Roddy Piper and it got me laid.

 

I totally understand why WWE signs old stars and then has them lose constantly. Someone has to lose. I don't blame Hogan for anything. He made money for everyone he ever worked with. I don't dislike Vince McMahon, but I wish he'd take his f'ing kids off TV. I can't, for the life of me, understand the appeal of Chris Hero.

 

I can't wait to interact with all the people here who share the same level of passion that I have for wrestling.

[SmartMark15]

Hello PWO!

 

My name is Joseph and I've been lurking for a long while now on this forum and I absolutely love all the content that's on here. Used to be a member of the puroresu.tv forums as The Demented One so I'm glad to be able to join this community and start up discussions on pro wrestling once again.

 

I'm 21 years old from the Philippines and I've been a fan since I was 9 years old. Somewhat embarrassingly, my first real connection to wrestling came from Edge & Lita's live sex celebration on Raw in 2006. Forgive me, I was curious. But since then, I've grown to be a huge fan of pro wrestling. Mostly follow WWE, of course, but I was a fan of ROH for a long time as well. Huge fan of 90s AJPW and recently got into a lot of 80s NWA. I've generally sample most every style of wrestling though to varying degrees of enjoyment.

 

Can't wait to join in on all the discussion and thanks for having me on the forum!

[GOTNW]

It's been a while, welcome

[jiraffejustin]

My name is Justin, and somehow I've managed to end up on this site several times through a rabbit hole of links or references. I don't really know how it happened initially, but it kept popping up while I was looking for recommendations for matches from before the 80's. The yearbook threads came in handy for what I am hoping to make a solo project out of in that regard. I don't really watch as much wrestling as I did about 6-7 years ago, but the urge has been building back up in me. I don't know that wrestling will ever be my main focus for entertainment again, but I wouldn't mind watching a handful of matches or a show month. My taste doesn't really comply with what is on tv or what is typically the main focus of the IWC. This place seems to be more my speed as far as taste goes. Everybody here is much more knowledgeable about pro wrestling, so I admit, I am a bit intimidated. I don't want to make myself sound foolish by saying something ignorant, so if I seem tentative, that's why. Around 2010 I started expanding my horizons from the WWE dvds I collected as a youth, and I started to find that I didn't really enjoy the flippy junior style anymore. I preferred stiff punches, grappling, and older stuff. For whatever reason, I ended up falling out of love with wrestling and getting more into movies and other things. Like I said, the urge has recently hit me, so I've tried to watch some of the newer stuff and I have a hard time with it.

 

What I am hoping to explore further this time around:

 

- Lucha

- IWA-MS

- BattlARTS

- Necro Butcher

- Fujiwara

- 80's and before

- World of Sport

- RINGS

[shoryukens]

Thanks for validating my account!

 

My name is Nestor and I'm a 23 year old from Puerto Rico. To be honest I'm pretty much a noobie when it comes to wrestling since I got into in late 2015. None of my friends share my appreciation for it so I don't have anyone to talk to when it comes to wrestling. I only really consistently watch NJPW and the WWE pay per views. I do listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts and somehow I managed to reach the All Japan Excite Series and decided to give those matches a try. Wow.

 

And so now here I am. Excited to absorb all the amazing matches from all these different promotions and become more knowledgable. I may not be super active since my responsibilities as a med student always keep me busy, but I'm excited to discuss with you all soon!