Introduction to the Board as a wrestling fan

[chrislatimer]

Hi my name is chris i am from liverpool england i am 29 years old.

 

Been a wrestling fan off and on 25 nearly now. ever since summerslam 1990 and i saw hulk hogan i feel in love with wrestling from that day. i had a spell away in 1997 as i got bored for a year. and again in 2005- late 2006 as i was deeply offfended by how wwe handled eddie guerrero dying.

 

my tastes in wrestling are mainly wccw. the old ecw and of course wwe. but i have developed a keen interest in the history of the business and i have a lot of archived newsletters and the like and i have been expanding my viewing to include japan and various territories.

 

My favorite type of wrestlers usually are the promo guys though i do respect in ring masters like bret hart and dynamite kid in his prime.

 

finally before i bore you all my top 10 wrestlers ever

 

1) mick foley = the man is a genius on the stick and he more than anyone else earned the respect of pro wrestling fans worldwide

2) bret hart

3) david von erich

4) ric flair

5) hulk hogan (childhood reasons)

6) kenta kobashi

7) ecw shane douglas

8) jake roberts

9) steve austin

10) HBK

 

 

 

[van_Fair]

Hi I'm Paul originally from Germany, but living in Denmark right now. I'm 26 years old and my wrestling history is quite unusual. I actually did not watch any wrestling until 2007, when I started watching the one hour condensed versions of Smackdown available on TV in Germany, no RAW though since that was only available on Pay TV and nobody gets that in Germany . But I stuck with just Smackdown for a while before my interest petered off when SD got cannibalized during a draft. I came back to wrestling in 2010 during the Nexus angle and have stuck with it ever since. For a while I only watched WWE, TNA and occasionally ROH until about a year and a half ago when I plunged headfirst into pretty much everything. Since then I have consumed more wrestling than is probably healthy for the human mind.While I still have some very large gaps in what I have watched (I have not seen a single All Japan match from the 90's) I know too much about other areas (Midnight Express vs Jobber matches for example). I am a serious mark for Okada and with my New Japan world subscription and Okada's imminent ascent to top guy in New Japan that is only going to get worse. Also since I came quite late to the whole wrestling party I have the advantage of having no sentimental attachments to anything, so I can judge everything on it's own merit and not because I liked it as a kid. Except for maybe MVP's US title reign and Edge because those were the first wrestling things I ever saw.

 

My favorite things in wrestling:

1. The Midnight Express

2. Kazuchika Okada

3. Shinsuke Nakamura

4. Continental Wrestling

5. A well worked tag match

6. Bobby Heenan

7. Paul Heyman saying Brock Lesnar

8. Macho Man cutting a promo

9. Fat guys doing moonsaults

10. Bobby Fish doing that pirate throat slash thing during reDragons entrance

[Timbo Slice]

 

My favorite things in wrestling:

9. Fat guys doing moonsaults

 

Yeah, you're gonna fit in just fine here.

[S.L.L.]

Hey, guys! Wow, the place looks fantastic!

 

Anyway, I'm not new here, strictly speaking, but as I haven't posted anything anywhere on the internet in upwards of eight months because I've been busy with actual racism health problems that made extended internet shenanigan participation impossible (though I have at least been able to pop in and keep up with the goings around here pretty regularly...top 100 wrestlers of all time, eh....), I thought I'd use this thread to re-introduce myself as a wrestling fan.

 

I don't really consciously remember when I first became a fan, because my earliest memory of watching wrestling involves remembering that I had watched it before and thought that it was was pretty cool. Go figure. Anyway, this happened right after I turned seven and was during the build-up to Wrestlemania VII. Typical of me - I was getting into it while everyone else was bailing out. I went to my first live show later that same year, a house show at Nassau Coliseum headlined by the Ultimate Warrior vs. The Undertaker. The Warrior, somewhat oddly, was my first favorite wrestler, and after his departure, face-turned Taker would replace him. Again, go figure.

 

I was a strictly WWF man growing up. All of my friends were, though my closest childhood friend watched enough WCW to become a really big Patriot fan. But, to paraphrase Tsiolkovsky, WWF is the cradle of early-90's wrestling fandom, but one cannot live in a cradle forever, especially not when one comes from a family of early adopters who introduce you to something called an "internet" in 1995, which in turn leads you to a "usenet" and a "rec.sport.pro-wrestling", where everyone seems to be talking about wrestling like it was some kinda artform. Which, I guess it kinda was, though, at eleven, it was basically impossible to fully comprehend or articulate an intelligent aesthetic critical viewpoint on wrestling (actually, in many respects, an eleven year old is far better suited to that than an adult, but that's beside the point). In any case, I became enamored with this new take on wrestling. And, of course, '95 was the year Nitro hit the airwaves, and I saw these guys starting to gravitate more towards WCW with all of the fresh new additions to their roster, so I finally started watching WCW regularly. And hey, there's this weird ECW thing they're talking up, too, and scanning my local listings, I see that has a late night slot on MSG. Better set up the VCR, because my wrestling world just expanded like crazy!

 

Time passed. There were highs. There were lows. And then there was 1999. 1999 was a shitty year. It was certainly a shitty year for me personally - both of my paternal grandparents died within five weeks of each other, by beloved great aunt was killed in the EgyptAir plane crash, and I was hospitalized twice for a lung that wouldn't stop collapsing, because apparently, that's a thing that just happens when you're a really lanky dude like me. But it was also a shit year for American pro wrestling with the three promotions of note all feeling like directionless nightmares with a severe dropoff in quality across the board. I know Loss said he was pleasantly surprised when he did the '99 Yearbook, so maybe I would be too if I rewatched it, but all I can tell you is that at the time, for the most part, this stuff felt like hot garbage.

 

So, time to give up? Fuck no! Time to expand my horizons yet again! I knew there was more good wrestling out there. There were corners of the internet where people talked about foreign wrestling and independent wrestling and wrestling from the eighties...there was a ton of stuff out there I hadn't touched on at all. And since I had already dipped my toes into tape trading when I bought Scott Keith's "Netcop Busts" tape, I figured, "why stop now" and bought a whole bunch of puro from Jack Epstein. Around that same time, I read something SKeith wrote where he talked about his influences, including one Dean Rasmussen. I knew who he was, but for a largely puro-illiterate kid, the DVDVR was kinda impenetrable before. Now, I felt like it was a must read. And, of course, the Schneider Comps soon became a must buy.

 

Throughout all of this, I mostly lurked and learned on usenet groups and message boards. I made several abortive attempts at active participation, but none of them really stuck until 2004 when I became a regular at Happy Wrestling Land. After they went belly up, I followed most of the survivors to the DVDVR board, where I apparently became so well-regarded that no less than Phil Schneider offered me a spot writing for Segunda Caida, which I have continued to fill irregularly with great pride ever since. In addition, Mike over at Wrestling KO has welcomed me there and allowed me to run the annual WKO 100 for the last few years, which I look forward to doing again this coming year. And no less than Dave Bixenspan had me as a guest on a few of his podcasts, invited me aboard for some of his writing projects (which I unfortunately had to abandon due to time constraints...BELATED APOLOGY TO BIX!), and convinced me to check out a certain awesome little wrestling board by the name of Pro Wrestling Only. And PWO was awesome to me as well, as I got the thumbs up from Will to take part in the 80's Project, exercising my terrible, terrible judgement on the Texas and Lucha sets. Hell, Cox even let me be his personal consultant for the indy fed he worked for (though, again, time contrainsts ultimately sidelined that...APOLOGIZE TO COX!). That was pretty damn cool.

 

Unfortunately, life pulled a variety of fast ones on me over the last few years that made internet wrestling fun time a much lesser priority for me than usual. And then came this year, where a vague and mysterious health problem made any kind of extended computer use a no-go, so once I finished up this year's WKO 100, I quietly dropped out of sight to valiantly battle whatever the fuck was wrong with me, which turned out to be...migraines?! Oh, what the fuck?! That's it?! Doctor after doctor who couldn't solve my problem, treatment after treatment, medication after medication, and even an invasive surgical procedure that we were sure would do the trick but did nothing...fucking migraines?! Oh, sure, they were really bad migraines, and I probably shouldn't have been rooting to have had cancer or anything, but I can't help but feel like a bit of a tool after all of that.

 

Oh, well. The important thing is, we found at what it was, and we found out how to treat it effectively. Combine that with the fact that I'm in a much better place personally now than I was before I left, and it all adds up to one thing: I'm back, baby!

 

My favorite things in wrestling:

Randy Savage, Jerry Lawler, lucha brawls, BattlArts, Lance Russell, southern tags, Mark Henry, Negro Casas, El Hijo del Santo, Jushin Liger, Ric Flair, coke-fueled lunatics rambling on the mic, fat dudes, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Fit Finlay, those increasingly rare moments when I still get emotionally invested in what I'm watching

[WingedEagle]

Goddamn man, talk about being booked in against some shitty heels on your way back to the top of the card. Keep on keepin' on!

[Strand Peanut]

Hi, thought I'd take the time to introduce myself.

 

Long time lurker at many a wrestling board over the last 15 years. Wrestling was never more than just something to stop on while flipping around the dial for me. Sometimes I'd stop, watch a bit, and just keep flipping.. often I'd just move right past.

 

I came to it later in life.. mostly thru reading about the great history of graft and con inthe USA. I suppose living in Texas when SCSA was ubiquitous probably got me interested as well.

 

The more I dug, and the more history I've read, has only deepened my interest in the mat game. As a business, as a con, and it's transformation into the oddly unique thing it's become.

 

With that said, I'm not a huge fan. I enjoy matches, but not fairly often. But I will watch just about anything from anywhere.

 

Anyways, thank you all for the interesting reading, and tireless watching of footage. It's appreciated.

[Strand Peanut]

I was a huge nerd(still am) and I wrote a wrestling fanzine, with rankings and "articles" which was a supplement(for some reason) in the back of the comic books I drew as a child. I've never shared that with anyone before btw.

 

Oh man! Do you still have those?

[Word Hoard]

 

I was a huge nerd(still am) and I wrote a wrestling fanzine, with rankings and "articles" which was a supplement(for some reason) in the back of the comic books I drew as a child. I've never shared that with anyone before btw.

Oh man! Do you still have those?

 

 

I wish I did. All of that stuff was lost in a fire back in the late 90's. I'm sure if anything had survived, it would be cringe worthy and full of stories about Roddy Piper being the coolest guy ever.

[Nathers]

Hey there, my name is Nathan, I'm 20 years old and from the glorious city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

 

My wrestling viewing started from a young age, my dad used to own a small movie store chain and he got a few WWF videos from the late 90s that I remember watching back then. Royal Rumble '99 and Survivor Series '99 were the two videos from what I recall. Heh, I used to love the 99 Rumble video but that PPV really doesn't hold up well now. I got into the weekly stuff the following year, me and a bunch a friends used to record Raw and watch the following day after school. Childhood favourite was Jericho, as a kid I found his promos incredibly engaging, the cracks at Stephanie, Benoit, HHH in particular were great.

 

I watched WWE regularly until about 2006 and then stopped, think it's just that natural feeling of growing out of something. The majority of my friends stopped and I just lost interest for a few years. Still played the video games mind you but that was it until about 2010. I stuck Raw on one night and what do you know this group called the Nexus are beating the crap out of John Cena. My interest picked back up then, looked online, bought TEW and I discuss wrestling on a bunch of forums. I've been watching WWE, NJPW and old stuff from Japan semi-regularly ever since.

 

I discovered this forum back in September and it's incredible. I could legit sit for ages reading some of the posts on this forum, great stuff all round. Decided to sign up as I've started going through the yearbooks. I've watched through March 1990 so far and I'll probably post my matches of the months so far sometime over the next week. The GOAT project is something I want to get involved in too, I'm certain my knowledge is nowhere near a lot of people here but I'm sure I'll get up to speed somewhat by WrestleMania XXXII.

 

I'll do a Booker T and just list my fave five right now:

 

Jun Akiyama

Jumbo Tsuruta

Shinsuke Nakamura

Rusev

Ric Flair

[Hawkeye12]

Hi guys. My name is Rob, 35 years old from Sioux City, Iowa. Went to the University of Iowa, thus the username, although I didn't wrestle there, but a big fan of NCAA wrestling as well as the pros. Watched bits and pieces growing up but really became a full fledged fan after the Main Event in 1989, Twin Towers vs. Megapowers and into Wrestlemania V. A couple months later started following the NWA on TBS just as closely in the aftermatch of Terry Funk's attack on Ric Flair. Small down period between '93 and '95 watching sparingly until Nitro debuted and brought me back, along with RAW taping from Sioux City after WM12 after I'd gotten into the build to the Ironman match leading up. Being an Iowa guy, I'd put Frank Gotch in my favorite wrestlers list even though my knowledge of him comes largely from Mike Chapman's works and bits and pieces from other historians. Loved the Apter magazines as a kid, never subscribed to the Observer or Torch, although read some from time to time online.

 

Top ten favorites all time

Hulk Hogan

Frank Gotch

Bobby Eaton

Barry Windham

Jake Roberts

Nick Bockwinkel

Arn Anderson

Kevin Von Erich

Dustin Rhodes

Ronnie Garvin

[TVsMatt]

Hello, I'm Matt. I'll be turning 30 in a couple of months, and I currently live in Wisconsin, although I'm originally from Minnesota. To be totally honest, almost all of my wrestling exposure is mainstream '90s stuff that I watched with my dad, although we also occasionally watched old AWA stuff when we could find it on local TV. I was sent this way via the Old School Wrestling Podcast, which I'm a big fan of. I have 3 kids and a wife who isn't a fan of wrestling, so the amount of time I actually get to watch anything is pretty short, but I'm looking forward to finding some good recommendations for matches and promotions I've missed, as well as participating in discussions when I can.

[Wade Garrett]

Hello Fellas. I'm 56yrs young and was born and raised in the Napa Valley. I have been a fan for roughly 50yrs. Obviously being in the San Francisco Bay Area I cut my teeth on the SF Territory. Ray Stevens was an early influence as was his team with Pat Patterson. Both were outstanding Pro Wrestlers as were many others that came through the area which was red-hot in the 60's. I attended a handful of events during the 60's at the Cow Palace. The most memorable probably being Ray Stevens vs. Bruno Sammartino in 1967.

 

During the early part of 1972 we purchased a home with my Uncle and Aunt in Lake Norman, NC. Which would be used more or less as a vacation spot. The early Summer of 1972 during a 6 week visit I was exposed to JCP for the first time. This would continue throughout the Summers and a couple times during the spring up until the Summer of 1976 after I graduated High School and turned 18. I then moved back to NC living in Lake Norman and eventually working outta Charlotte. I lived there through the Summer of 1980. During my time there I attended many shows in Charlotte. I was also able to see Georgia and Florida on TV. But nothing compared to JCP in this time frame and up through the mid 80's.

 

I moved back to the Napa Valley in the Fall of 1980 and began bartending. I only returned to Lake Norman a half dozen times between 1980 and 1985 where I was able to see JCP events while vacationing. I could still watch Georgia via WTBS. The AWA and WWF were options as well. Although I found them incredibly boring compared to what I'd been exposed to. However I do really enjoy Nick Bockwinkel.

 

In January of 1983 I moved to Memphis and worked as a bartender and was exposed to the Jarrett Promotion on TV and live. I only lived there 8 months before having to return back to California for the family business. However I returned to the South in June of 1985 when I was offered a job as a bartender in New Orleans through a friend I worked with in Memphis. This exposed me to the Watts Promotion. Which on TV and live was a real treat as a fan. It was the best pro wrestling I had seen since mid 70's - early 80's.George Scott era JCP. I remained in New Orleans up through February of 1986 when I moved back to Lake Norman and remained until the Fall of 1987 when I made a permanent return to the Napa Valley.

 

Sorry if this is long winded but I've seen a lot of pro wrestling from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Live I've seen SF, Amarillo, Mid Atlantic, Memphis, Mid South, AWA, WWF, and WCW. TV I've seen a lot as well. I'm a big fan with a lot of favorites and strong opinions. I do enjoy All Japan from the 70's, 80's, and a little 90's. I'm not big on Lucha or the stuff outta Canada except Maple Leaf in the JCP era. I've been able to explore some WOS stuff and do enjoy it. As for most stuff post 80's it's very hit and miss for me. I know what's going on in todays climate but it's inferior to a lot of stuff I've seen in the past. As a pro wrestler ya gotta make me believe you can kick my ass or tie me in a knot. Not many make me suspend my disbelief like that anymore.

 

I look forward to spending time here and contributing to the various debates and discussions.

 

 

Thanks.

[soup23]

Awesome story Wade and wow and I'm envious of the live wrestling you have watched in your lifetime. Welcome to the board.

[Wade Garrett]

Awesome story Wade and wow and I'm envious of the live wrestling you have watched in your lifetime. Welcome to the board.

 

Thank you Sir. Glad to be here.

[kaufman316]

Welp, I'm 33 and grew up in southern Ontario, Canada: Waterloo Region, actually. Started watching WWF syndicated in late 1993, hooked by - of all things - a recap of the Nov. '93 Luger-Pierre match from RAW. After that I became familiar with Bret Hart and Rick Martel and my fandom took off from there. I watched all the national TV I could, which in those days was limited to WWF syndies, lots of Coliseum tape rentals, and listening to audio of "ScrambleVision PPVs". I also hopped online in the BBS days, being a fan/contributor to the niche-of-a-niche "Creed Ontario Wrestling" (Taylor, hit me up if you're out there!).

 

When Nitro started to be carried in Canada I watched/recorded that when I could, and was probably most hardcore in 1997, finding WrestleLine and watching RAW avidly till the Montreal Screwjob. After that I was a fan of both WCW and WWF through 1998 but fell off into 1999 as high school ended and adult life started to take over; by 2000 I was burned out on the product despite the WWF in-ring being much improved by the Radicals jumping.

 

I watched very little while in post-secondary, limited to random RAWs while on vacation, but kept up somewhat via the internet: so I missed virtually all of the InVasion and HHH's Reign of Terror, two blessings for which I'm thankful to this very day.

 

After school wrapped up I started watching periodically, but with the internet ramping up I sought out Puro and older programming in earnest, and found several new interests in the process e.g. 80's AWA, smatterings of US territories. Within the next couple of years I grabbed a bunch of Ditch's stuff, the entire runs of Nitro and Thunder (poor El-P), the runs of SNME and CotC, other odds and ends, and bought a lot of WWE DVDs.

 

I moved to Toronto in 2007 and nowadays I very occasionally check out a local show e.g. ROH and still keep up with the news, but I've such a backlog of media in general and diverse interests that I watch little wrestling nowadays (I have an 8-disc set of Liger and a large custom-assembled collection of "the history of the AJPW Triple Crown" mostly unwatched) - I did watch WM XXX and the surrounding week of programming, however. I might jump onboard with NJPW and/or catch up on NXT, but there's so much good non-current-WWE product out there, easy to access, that it's almost overwhelming. Suffice to say, I don't imagine myself watching RAW or Impact for the foreseeable future.

[Grimmas]

Welp, I'm 33 and grew up in southern Ontario, Canada: Waterloo Region, actually. Started watching WWF syndicated in late 1993, hooked by - of all things - a recap of the Nov. '93 Luger-Pierre match from RAW. After that I became familiar with Bret Hart and Rick Martel and my fandom took off from there. I watched all the national TV I could, which in those days was limited to WWF syndies, lots of Coliseum tape rentals, and listening to audio of "ScrambleVision PPVs". I also hopped online in the BBS days, being a fan/contributor to the niche-of-a-niche "Creed Ontario Wrestling" (Taylor, hit me up if you're out there!).

 

When Nitro started to be carried in Canada I watched/recorded that when I could, and was probably most hardcore in 1997, finding WrestleLine and watching RAW avidly till the Montreal Screwjob. After that I was a fan of both WCW and WWF through 1998 but fell off into 1999 as high school ended and adult life started to take over; by 2000 I was burned out on the product despite the WWF in-ring being much improved by the Radicals jumping.

 

I watched very little while in post-secondary, limited to random RAWs while on vacation, but kept up somewhat via the internet: so I missed virtually all of the InVasion and HHH's Reign of Terror, two blessings for which I'm thankful to this very day.

 

After school wrapped up I started watching periodically, but with the internet ramping up I sought out Puro and older programming in earnest, and found several new interests in the process e.g. 80's AWA, smatterings of US territories. Within the next couple of years I grabbed a bunch of Ditch's stuff, the entire runs of Nitro and Thunder (poor El-P), the runs of SNME and CotC, other odds and ends, and bought a lot of WWE DVDs.

 

I moved to Toronto in 2007 and nowadays I very occasionally check out a local show e.g. ROH and still keep up with the news, but I've such a backlog of media in general and diverse interests that I watch little wrestling nowadays (I have an 8-disc set of Liger and a large custom-assembled collection of "the history of the AJPW Triple Crown" mostly unwatched) - I did watch WM XXX and the surrounding week of programming, however. I might jump onboard with NJPW and/or catch up on NXT, but there's so much good non-current-WWE product out there, easy to access, that it's almost overwhelming. Suffice to say, I don't imagine myself watching RAW or Impact for the foreseeable future.

A fellow Toronto resident, awesome.

 

97 seemed like such a huge year for wrestling in Canada with the Bret Hart thing.

 

By the way, I think you should check out SMASH wrestling if you haven't. They have some great talent and bring in a lot of talent.

[The Thread Killer]

I am also a Toronto area guy and I just found this topic...

 

My name is Dave. I became a wrestling fan on December 24, 1983. I was 13 years old, I was over at a friend's house and his Dad was watching wrestling. The Iron Sheik attacked Bob Backlund with those Iranian clubs he used to swing over his head, and I was hooked.

 

I just turned 45 a couple of weeks ago. I grew up in (and still reside in) the Toronto area. I live about 20 minutes north of the city. Toronto was a huge hotbed of WWF action during the 80's, and I attended countless live events. They used to run Maple Leaf Gardens every month, and there was a string there for years where I never missed a show. If I remember correctly, the main event of the first show I saw at MLG was Steamboat vs. Muraco, and it went to a double count-out. I was at the famous "Big Event" at the CNE when Hulk Hogan fought Mr. Wonderful in front of 74,000 fans. This was a world record until WM III and is still the Canadian record for attendance. I also used to go to the TV tapings at the Civic Center in Brantford.

 

I also attended a few of the legendary independent shows in Ontario put on by "Wildman" Dave McKigney. (For those of you who don't know him, he was the one running the independent show that Adrian Adonis was on his way to, when he was killed. McKigney and one of his other regulars were also killed in the crash.) There is an outstanding book about Dave McKigney and his battles with the WWF to run independent shows called Drawing Heat. This book pre-dated Foley's book by decades, and was one of the first books I ever heard of to pull back the curtain on Pro Wrestling. http://www.crowbarpress.com/cbp-books/10-dh.html

 

I discovered something at The Wildman's shows - there was other Pro Wrestling out there, and generally I preferred it to the WWF. (I had never seen anything like Whipper Billy Watson Jr. vs. The Sheik at a WWF show, that's for sure.) I started reading the Apter mags, watching Quebec wrestling and any NWA/UWF I could find on TV, and even found a buddy who could send me World Class tapes from Texas. I was one of the few people who actually went to the show the NWA ran in Toronto in 1990, to see Ric Flair fight Lex Luger.

 

I was so apathetic about the WWF that by the time WM 6 rolled around in Toronto, I didn't bother to go, even though I had friends who were going and could have easily done it. I was a Pro Wrestling fan, but never liked Hulk Hogan or Hulkamania.

 

I discovered a whole new world when I went online. I used to write for 411 and The Shooters too, for a while. I think I first met Loss at the old Rantsylvania messageboard in 1999, which is how I circuitously ended up here at PWO. Thanks to the wonderful world of the interwebs, I discovered ECW and pretty much dropped WWF from my viewing habits and started going to ECW shows in Buffalo, and ordering tapes.

 

I saw a few WWF shows during the Attitude era and even some WCW during the Monday Night Wars, but I was pretty much an ECW/FMW guy. I also attended a ton of indy shows during the nineties and was fortunate enough to see Edge and Christian before they were Edge and Christian. My personal favorite show from those years was seeing Terry Funk fight Sabu at a scuzzy Strip Joint out by the airport, in front of a handful of people.

 

After ECW died, I got into ROH full on, and also discovered AJPW and King's Road style, which brought me hours and hours of enjoyment. I followed TNA during their weekly PPV period, but when they stopped that and moved to Fox Sports, they lost me because we didn't get that channel here. Eventually, I couldn't afford to keep buying ROH and I found their product started to gradually decline. I was really into NOAH, but they took a nose dive when it comes to quality too.

 

Japan got me into Shoot Style, which got me into PRIDE, RINGS, Pancrase, etc. I was crazy into MMA for a while, but the UFC has really turned me off over the past couple of years with the insane expansion and mediocre shows.

 

My fandom right now is pretty much at an all time low for my 32 years as a fan. I refuse to watch WWE, I haven't been impressed with what recent TNA I have seen, and the last couple of ROH shows I have been at, or seen have been a major letdown. I have seen a lot of Lucha Underground and I really liked it, and I loved WrestleKingdom 9, so maybe NJPW might re-kindle my interest. The other issue is that as a 45 year old guy, I no longer have any friends who watch wrestling, and I don't enjoy watching shows or attending live events by myself, so without a peer group to watch stuff with, Pro Wrestling has kind of faded from my life.

 

I keep current, I read all the results and I lurk and occasionally post here, but aside from Lucha Underground and ordering any future NJPW PPV's, I will probably be a more nostalgic fan.

[cheapshot]

 

 

The other issue is that as a 45 year old guy, I no longer have any friends who watch wrestling, and I don't enjoy watching shows or attending live events by myself, so without a peer group to watch stuff with, Pro Wrestling has kind of faded from my life.

 

This makes me sad - I am sure Grimmas, Kaufman316 and yourself could go and meet up at a SMASH show?

 

I am probably going to be in Toronto for work purposes once a year and if timed correctly would love to go see a SMASH show with some of you guys.

[Grimmas]

 

 

 

The other issue is that as a 45 year old guy, I no longer have any friends who watch wrestling, and I don't enjoy watching shows or attending live events by myself, so without a peer group to watch stuff with, Pro Wrestling has kind of faded from my life.

 

This makes me sad - I am sure Grimmas, Kaufman316 and yourself could go and meet up at a SMASH show?

 

I am probably going to be in Toronto for work purposes once a year and if timed correctly would love to go see a SMASH show with some of you guys.

 

Musgrave too!

 

PWO meet up at Smash in February!

[The Thread Killer]

I'd like that, to meet people from PWO at a SMASH show. Keep me in the loop if you guys want to do that.

 

At the very least, I'm sure it will go a lot better than the last time I met somebody in person who I'd first met online.

 

Stupid Chris Hansen. Thinks he's so big.

[kaufman316]

 

 

 

 

The other issue is that as a 45 year old guy, I no longer have any friends who watch wrestling, and I don't enjoy watching shows or attending live events by myself, so without a peer group to watch stuff with, Pro Wrestling has kind of faded from my life.

 

This makes me sad - I am sure Grimmas, Kaufman316 and yourself could go and meet up at a SMASH show?

 

I am probably going to be in Toronto for work purposes once a year and if timed correctly would love to go see a SMASH show with some of you guys.

 

Musgrave too!

 

PWO meet up at Smash in February!

 

 

Welp, just reading this presently...for my part I could almost certainly make the April 26th show, which would even give me a buffer to catch up on Smash (much obliged for the recommendation too, Grimmas).

 

Maybe we can figure out logistics elsewhere to see who can go to the March/April/May shows, ROH, etc.?

[BermudaRef]

Hello all.

 

My name is Phil, 36 years old. Grew up in Bermuda and currently residing in Chicago. Due to not having cable for my entire childhood, my wrestling access was limited to the Apter mags (usually a couple of months behind on the island, if they ever came at all), WWF tapes at the local video store, and the occasional sleep-over a friend's house who actually had cable,

 

That all changed when I went away to school, first in New Jersey and I received in the mail (probably due to my subscription to PWI) a tape list from RF Video. Now I began to understand there was more. Couple that with college in the Northeast (PA to be exact) and the fledgling internet and I was pretty well hooked.

 

And now I live in Chicago, and in the interest of full disclosure, not that it really matters but it does paint some of my perceptions, I went and trained to be a referee which I still do in the Chicago-area.

 

I am also currently in grad school looking to become an archivist and any time I can I am making pro wrestling the focus of my work.

 

Even though I grew up on the WWF pay-per-views, I have embraced pretty much all that I can find about wrestling. Most recently I watched the majority of the run of the Moondogs v Jarret/Lawler feud (so happy to finally see that as I read about it so much in PWI as a kid), and thanks to the network and the internet in general I have been making it a point to watch the matches from the old DVDVR Best of the 90's list. It's rather fascinating rewatching some material and seeing it with much different eyes these days.

 

Hoping I can contribute something to the board and look forward to reading.

[wrestlerotica]

Hola everyone, about me -

 

Name: Nic

Age: 28

Got into wrestling: It had to be somewhere in the Attitude/WCW era boom. I can't remember exactly when but I started as a lot of people did as a WCW Fan with the NWO, and then I migrated to WWE(F) as it grew bigger.

Location: Indiana/Indianapolis area.

Other facts: Head bureaucrat/admin on the Pro Wrestling Wikia. Around 200k+ edits on there. Also recently started a wrestling podcast called Wrestlerotica which hlghlights fanfiction stories written about this great sport.

Hobbies: Watching wrestling, talking wrestling, watching sports, talking sports. Listening to podcasts, and supporting podcasts (if you have one let me know, I'll eventually check it out).

What I hope to get from this community: Meeting more people with similar interests and finding more people to just shoot the shit with about this great and silly hobby that we all have in common.

[EddieJ1984]

Hello guys, I'm Eddie and I am 30 years old, born and bred in Philadelphia! Been a wrestling fan since the arly 90s (that I remember) Always been a wwf/e guy. I would watch wcw though too, I miss watching wcw saturday nights at 6:05pm on tbs! Also of course ECW, in 95, 96 when dungeon of doom or tl hopper was on the screen, ecw was that cool adult fed that was fun to tune into. But WWF was the main fed to watch, I loved bret hart, shawn michaels, undertaker. My first ever ppv I remember watching live was Wrestlemania X and bret vs owen would be the match that would shape me as a wrestling fan, Ive rewatched it so many times since.

I will admit watching 95 stuff now,......eh nostalgia glasses can only do so much lol.

But I have watched all the way since, never took too big of a break sur ethere were periods maybe I wasnt paying close attention, but I would always watch raw at least.

 

Ive only been to 2 pay per views insterestingly enough, 1995 King Of The Ring and 2015 Royal Rumble.

And both had the same result: people pissed off lol But I loved the rumble, being there live was awesome.

 

So what brings me here is the Place To Be, hearing about this b0oard on the podcasts reviewing wwe.coms list of top 100 matches you must see before you die brought me here, I love mostly all of the place to be shows from the main ones with Scott and JR to the reaction shows with will. And Johnny Sorrow is always fun to hear. So thats it for now!

[ButchReedMark]

Love your Wrestling TV Theme uploads on Youtube mate. I was looking ages for the All American theme from 1990 til I found your account.