Introduction to the Board as a wrestling fan

[VEGA]

I've been lurking here on my leisure time for the last two weeks and finally took the time to make an account. It's delightful to finally come across a vibrant, ambitious forum rife with engaging and cordial discussions. You don't really see that too often on the Internet, especially not among the "IWC."

 

Anyways, I'm VEGA. I'm 19, from New York, and I'm currently in the process of getting my Associates in Nursing. I've been a wrestling fan for ... probably ten years now? I started watching around the Ruthless Aggression Era, so yeah - a little more than a decade. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as many of you guys, but I'm here to learn, and, most importantly, I'm here to kick back and talk wrasslin' with my fellow wrestling enthusiasts. I'll try and stay as active as possible, if my studies and job permit it, and hopefully I'll get to know the community a little better.

 

With that said, I have a question:

 

Is there any sub-forum I can post my show reviews? Blogging isn't really my forte and I've always wanted to do kind of a "VEGA Watches X" project where people can follow along and comment as I review shows I've never seen or am re-watching.

[JerryvonKramer]

[Grimmas]

I've been lurking here on my leisure time for the last two weeks and finally took the time to make an account. It's delightful to finally come across a vibrant, ambitious forum rife with engaging and cordial discussions. You don't really see that too often on the Internet, especially not among the "IWC."

 

Anyways, I'm VEGA. I'm 19, from New York, and I'm currently in the process of getting my Associates in Nursing. I've been a wrestling fan for ... probably ten years now? I started watching around the Ruthless Aggression Era, so yeah - a little more than a decade. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as many of you guys, but I'm here to learn, and, most importantly, I'm here to kick back and talk wrasslin' with my fellow wrestling enthusiasts. I'll try and stay as active as possible, if my studies and job permit it, and hopefully I'll get to know the community a little better.

 

With that said, I have a question:

 

Is there any sub-forum I can post my show reviews? Blogging isn't really my forte and I've always wanted to do kind of a "VEGA Watches X" project where people can follow along and comment as I review shows I've never seen or am re-watching.

 

It depends really. The Yearbooks section is where you can post individual match reviews. Microscope more focuses on a single person. If you are just doing random shows, I am not really sure where to put it. I guess it depends on what you are planning?

[VEGA]

 

I've been lurking here on my leisure time for the last two weeks and finally took the time to make an account. It's delightful to finally come across a vibrant, ambitious forum rife with engaging and cordial discussions. You don't really see that too often on the Internet, especially not among the "IWC."

 

Anyways, I'm VEGA. I'm 19, from New York, and I'm currently in the process of getting my Associates in Nursing. I've been a wrestling fan for ... probably ten years now? I started watching around the Ruthless Aggression Era, so yeah - a little more than a decade. I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as many of you guys, but I'm here to learn, and, most importantly, I'm here to kick back and talk wrasslin' with my fellow wrestling enthusiasts. I'll try and stay as active as possible, if my studies and job permit it, and hopefully I'll get to know the community a little better.

 

With that said, I have a question:

 

Is there any sub-forum I can post my show reviews? Blogging isn't really my forte and I've always wanted to do kind of a "VEGA Watches X" project where people can follow along and comment as I review shows I've never seen or am re-watching.

 

It depends really. The Yearbooks section is where you can post individual match reviews. Microscope more focuses on a single person. If you are just doing random shows, I am not really sure where to put it. I guess it depends on what you are planning?

 

 

I wanted to review the entirety of Ring of Honor's debut year ... so every single show they did in '02.

[goodhelmet]

Just post a "VEGA watches ROH from 2002" thread and review your shows in the main wrestling forum.

[The Fray Movement]

Hello, brothers.

 

I'm good brother Fray, and I'm 30 years old from the great state of Alabama. My earliest memories of pro wrestling are watching it live when I was 4 at the Lavender Coliseum in Columbus, MS. I've been a fan consistantly since 1994. My favorite wrestler of all time is Shawn Michaels. I've taken way, way too many stupid trips to watch wrestling. I may be the only person who was in the crowd at December to Dismember, Unforgiven 2008, and Money in the Bank 2011. I am a glutton for punishment, brothers. Anyway, I dislike Dragon Gate. I will fight the narrative to the bitter end that Kota Ibushi is a draw. Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks, and Moose are probably my three favorite North American performers at the moment.

 

I have weird taste in wrestling, I guess.

 

Oh and some would claim that I was the originator of #ShootWeek 2015 on Twitter.

 

I love forward to the banter and the discussion, brothers, and that's a shoot.

[BillThompson]

Oh boy, I don't know if I'm ready for these worlds colliding...

[bradhindsight]

I, for one, welcome the originator of #ShootWeek 2015. Been a fun follow on Twitter.

[S.L.L.]

Oh boy, I don't know if I'm ready for these worlds colliding...

I am extremely ready for these worlds colliding!

[dawho5]

Fray get yourself over to the GWE stuff and talk about Michaels. We need more perspective from the positive side about Michaels than we have for sure. Thing about PWO is that if you back your opinions up there aren't many who will tell you they are invalid. They will argue until the end of time that you are wrong, but they won't look down on you for having those views. Welcome.

[TheDuke]

Hi. You can call me Duke. I'm 33 years old, and from the maritime provinces of Canada. I grew up watching WWF. My father was in the military, and one of my favourite memories is from when I was 12 years old and him taking me to some kind of Officer's club to watch Wrestlemania X on a big screen TV, and them him having to take me home halfway through because I had school the next day. I never watched WCW until halfway through the Monday night wars, and never saw ECW until it was on TNN. I stopped watching wrestling after the Hogan vs Rock Wrestlemania up until a couple years ago when I saw Wrestlemania 29 as I was curious to see The Rock wrestle again.

 

I watched wrestling off and on since then, and sometime in 2013 was looking around online for a place to read about wrestling, and found this place. I have been lurking for a couple years and thought it was time I signed up so I could show my support more for this great forum I have enjoyed reading so much. I don't know how much I will have time to post as I have a wife and new baby that keeps me very busy, and I am the only one working currently at a call centre so money is kind of tight, but I am hoping to contribute to the discussion in some way. I plan to see Battleground tonight so hopefully I can start from there.

 

I really enjoy reading this forum as there is such a focus on having a true discussion and not just flaming each other or posting unfunny internet memes, and there is a lot of thought put into the match reviews that it seems better than the majority of the internet message boards I have seen, including non-wrestling boards. I'll try to add to the intellectual discussion rather than posting internet stupidity, but I know I am not as much an expert as most of you on here, so please forgive me if I speak in ignorance. I find in the past I have been much more a fan of angles, promos, and characters over workrate or matches as I have been raised on WWF, but I have enjoyed a lot of the 80's territory stuff I have, which I now realize did often have amazing angles, promos, and characters anyway. Anyway, I'm glad to contribute to the conversation, even just a minor bit.

[tjones324]

Hey guys,

 

I'm Tyler. I'm a 25 year old guy who grew up as a loyal WCW follower as much as my parents would let me. I've had an in-and-out relationship with wrestling throughout most of my life that leans far more towards the "in" period. I've recently started to branch out and discover more than just the main American wrestling I grew up on and from what I've seen from this board and heard on the podcasts associated with PWO I'm certainly in the right place.

[shoe]

Welcome aboard guys. Have fun.

[FJBR]

Hey, I'm James. I'm 19, I can't remember exactly when I get into wrestling, but I remember it stemmed from getting Smackdown: Just Bring it on the PS2 for Christmas, which would place it at late 2001. Since then I've been on and off (More off), but for the last few years it's been on. In the past year or so I've ended up looking more into puro, territories, British stuff, and lucha, which for the most part isn't stuff which gets discussed in most parts of the internet so I decided to sgn up here after lurking and reading far too much for the past few months. I keep up with Lucha Underground and PWG as they come out and cherry pick NJPW (When they're great they're great, but I can't suffer through the endless Bucks vs Hooligans/Not Hooligans vs Time ReDragon shite and 30 minutes of Nakamura pulling faces), but generally just find myself getting interested in a wrestler/style/era and falling down a rabbit hole of watching 6 hours of Stan Hansen at 3AM or going through as much Onita as possible when I should probably be doing more productive things.

[Cap]

Hey Folks,

 

So I am brand new here so, as is tradition, I am introducing myself. I am a life long (30 year) wrestling fan who has sort of ebbed and flowed in and out of being really into it. About 10 years ago I got back into with a vengeance thanks to my discovery of ROH wrestling, which took me to other indy promotions and got me more into Japanese wrestling.

 

Right now I am finishing my dissertation and wrestling is more or less my escape. I watch more now than ever before probably and watch more intensely. I am starting to keep my own star ratings and notes on matches. Sometimes I write short essays about this or that and post them over at cageside seats (haven’t done this for a while). All getting deeper into wrestling over the last year led me to PWO podcasts, which in turn led me here. I have been kind of looking around for a place to chat wrestling with serious fans without being overflooded.

 

I love all kinds of wrestling, but I am probably least into/well versed in lucha; it is just a bit out of my wheelhouse right now. I am never quite sure how to explain what I am really into so I will just talk briefly about who I like. My all time favorite wrestlers are Bryan Danielson and Eddie Guerrero. Those are 1A and 1B with a bullet for me. Some of my other favorites include Shusuke Nakamura, William Regal, Arn Anderson, Brock Lesnar, Kobashi Kenta, Terry Gordy, Super Dragon, Samoa Joe, Randy Savage, Dave Finlay, Bret Hart, Dynamite Kid, Koji Kanemoto, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Kenny Omega, and you get the idea. I guess I could go on and on.

 

Anyway, I have rambled far too long. I am looking forward to spending some time here and dorking up about wrestling.

[Cap]

sorry... accidental double post. I would delete it, but I can't sort how

 

apologies.

[mprice]

Alright so I guess it's my turn.

 

Hello everyone. My name is Mick. I am a 30 year old living in North Carolina. I have been a wrestling fan since 1999 when I stumbled across Shotgun Saturday Night on the old UPN network. I saw the Smoking Skull belt get tossed off the bridge in April of 99 and I was hooked from there. Fast forward about 6 months and I was truly awestruck by the No Mercy Edge/Christian vs. Hardy Boyz match. My sister (12 years older) and I started watching. She made it through Wrestlemania 2000, and I just kept going. I have a huge affinity for tag team wrestling and multi man matches. I love the chaos and projected disorder that they bring. I almost got out of wrestling for a while around...mid 2007 much like a lot of others. However I have since been able to maneuver my way back into fandom.

 

I have since ventured through different time periods, mainly a lot of WWE and some of WCW and ECW. YouTube has been a wonder as it has exposed me to a lot of Japanese stuff. Chad encouraged me to join the boards when I sent him a message about a couple of questions I had.

 

I currently work in Mental Health as I work with adults with different disorders including depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar. I have been doing this for 8 years, but I continue to use wrestling as my escape from everything.

 

My current favorite matches are

 

1. Austin/Bret Wrestlemania 13

2. Misawa/Kobashi vs. Taue/Kawada 6/9/95

3. Wargames 1991

4. Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle- Summerslam 2001

5. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan- Over the Limit 2012

6. Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat- Wrestemania 3

[soup23]

Glad you signed up Mick. Welcome.

[MVZ]

Hi everyone,

 

My name is Michael and I'm a 38-year-old wrestling fan who lives in New Jersey. My earliest wrestling memory is Hulk Hogan and Mr. T hosting Saturday Night Live. I kept tabs after that but I was not hooked until I came across Ric Flair slapping Road Warrior Hawk across the face while Flair's friends held him and taunted him. I felt that was my first taste of how great wrestling could be. From then on I loved watching Jim Crockett promotions on TV, especially when the Midnight Express and the Four Horsemen were squashing guys and then bragging about it. I equally loved watching the tremendous storytelling WWF was pulling off around this time, and would tune into whatever else I could find: World Class, AWA, UWF. 1986-1987 offered so much to wrestling fans. I am really lucky to have grown up at this time.

 

My all-time favorite matches are Bret-Austin at Wrestlemania 13, Flair-Steamboat at Clash 6, Magnum-Tully at Starrcade 85, RnR Express-Andersons at Starrcade 86, and the original WarGames. Nothing beats a great match but there is so much more that makes wrestling great: the interviews (Cornette, Flair, Arn, Heyman), the characters (Doink, Goldust, Jericho at his best), the angles (the best of them involving blindness, people's families, or cake).

 

I found this board a few months ago and just started reading all of your comments on the 1990s yearbooks. Then I just kept checking in and seeing what else was going on here. I've learned so much in such a short period of time. Getting to see Carlos Colon vs. Stan Hansen, watching Eric Embry be a total asshole in 1991, revisiting Buddy Rose and finding out what I was missing, being able to look for stuff like this with your guidance has been amazing. I thought I ought to be more than just a lurker.

 

I'm looking forward to continuing to bone up on Memphis, Portland, and Puerto Rico. Then I need to learn more about lucha and Japan. I'm looking forward to using this board as a resource for bridging my knowledge gaps while also contributing comments on both the current product and my favorites from the past.

[2PhoneShawty]

Hey guys, my name is Jamal, and I'm from Canada. I'm 15 years old, probably one of the youngest guys on this board, but maybe that's a good thing, giving a younger perspective on things. However I still know my fair share about classic wrestling(probably not as much as anyone on here though). My favorite wrestlers of all time are Ric Flair and Chris Benoit. And my all-time favorite matches are the Wrestlemania 20 triple threat, and Los Gringos Locos vs El Hijo Del Santo and Octagon at Worlds Collide. I hope to expand my knowledge on wrestling, be able to discuss wrestling with you guys, and get to watch some great wrestling.

[wrestlingchick]

Hey everyone! Thought after lurking around this board for a while I'd finally create an account. So, a bit about me. I'm 24 years old, from Sydney, Australia, and believe it or not, a girl. I'm sure I'm not the only one on here, but people always seem to find it strange on these websites when they hear that! Haha.

 

Anyway, huge wrestling fan (obviously!). Been watching since 1999 and don't ever see myself losing interest. WWE is my home promotion as it were, but have really enjoyed exploring stuff that I've missed out on. Discovered this board through the Place to Be Podcast.

 

I'll admit I'm slightly intimidated by my lack of knowledge compared to what seems to be the norm on this site, so I'll probably lurk more than post, but I'm really looking for the site to serve as a bit of a guide as I venture through the mass of stuff on the Network!

[Sammy]

I finally got around to registering to this forum after lurking on and off. Listening to the fantastic PWO podcasts got me off my ass.

 

I'm in my mid-40s and live in San Antonio, TX. I grew up in Madison, WI, which was in the heart of the AWA territory, but as a city was a dead spot for wrestling as the AWA had given up on running there before I was of age to get into wrestling. I don't remember any shows there until the Monday Night Wars. I made it down to San Antonio in time to catch the Michaels TWA where I got to see Spanky, Dragon and Cade develop. Before the border got really bad I got to venture down to Mexico a number of times to see lucha, including a trip to go to a show at Arena Mexico. In between I spent some time in the mid-90s in Philadelphia where I was part of the Bleacher Bum crew at the arena.

 

I don't currently watch too much new stuff besides Lucha Underground, but am still a fan of historical wrestling. Look forward to contributing!

[TheBigBoot]

First things, first: This is a long post. Summing up almost thirty years of wrestling fandom isn't easy. Hopefully some of you find it interesting.

Cheapshot recommended this forum to me a couple of New Year's Eve's ago and said I'd be great here so please send any complaints to him. :-) I finally signed up in early 2014 and since then he's (politely) reminded me about posting here. So I thought it was about time I introduced myself.

 

My real name is Carl, I'm old enough to know better but still too young to care, I'm another poster from the UK (I've moved house approx every five years of my life but this is going to be long enough and only a couple are relevant to how I ended up here) and I have been watching wrestling since I was knee-high to a grasshopper (around seven or eight years old).

 

I don't recall when I saw my first wrestling match but I know I had seen wrestling several times before I really became a fan (no great Shawn Michaels 'Boyhood Dream' story here). As far back as I can remember wrestling was always around. Having cable television since 1982, it was inevitable Id find wrestling. The biggest surprise retrospectively is how long it took me to get into it.

 

I've read this entire thread and I'm actually a bit envious of people (including half this thread) with a really cool story of seeing this one memorable angle/match and getting hooked. Especially those whose first memories of wrestling date back to the time they were in the 2-4 age group (it's not like I don't remember other stuff from back then but no wrestling unfortunately). I'm told I did watch World of Sport when I was that age but I don't remember it.

 

Now and again I'd catch my Dad watching and have no idea what was going on. I understood Danger Mouse, James Bond, Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard, Godzilla, He-Man, Transformers, Tiswas, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Jerry Lewis films, The A-Team, Fraggle Rock and Stingray just fine but when someone mentioned King Kong Bundy or Bob Orton Jr., I was clueless.

 

It was just one of those things that was on TV (like a lot of sports) but I can't even point to a specific 'event' like I can with watching Alex Higgins play snooker, the 1986 World Cup from Mexico in football (soccer), the 1988 Olympics in athletics, or later Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno and Chris Eubank vs Nigel Benn (initial fights, not the rematches) in boxing (nor is it somethimg I got into entierly through family, like cricket, or friends, like rugby).

 

As a young child, I can remember catching glimpses of the odd match on TV (it could have been WWF, NWA, WoS, etc. or even boxing although I didn't really take it in). I enjoyed Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling on Saturday mornings on Sky Channel (the precursor to Sky One), knew the names Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Dynamite Kid, Fit Finlay and Hulk Hogan and had a few friends who already watched and talked about wrestling but it took a while for me to get into it myself.

 

I got into the rasslin' through a combination of family, location and friends.

 

Family:

Back in the pre-television era my Great Grandfather, a successful boxer, boxing (and horse) trainer and referee (including for fights at the Royal Albert Hall which back then was probably the British equivalent of MSG), had one of the few gyms in his area with a ring which meant wrestlers would go their to train and practice their moves. To toughen the boxers he was training up, he would occasionally stick them in the ring with the wrestlers.

 

Both his sons (my Great Uncles) successful boxers in their own rights - sparred with the wrestlers at various points and attended cards back in the 30s. One of them, although not a fan of World of Sport wrestling, would listen to NWA matches on the radio in the USA, Caribbean and Australia and even attended a few matches, whilst serving in the navy and merchant navy. He seemed to prefer the international stuff.

 

Unusually, my Grandmother (their sister) wasn't a big fan. Prior to my wrestling fandom she did once take me on holiday to Wales where I saw Reslo on TV (something I thought I'd imagined) and would occasionally talk to me about Jim Breaks whenever she watched WWF with me. I didn't know who she was talking about until years later. By then one of her best friends had moved to Detroit which came in handy when I did become a fan (story for another time).

 

My Dad was a fan of the old British scene and as a teenager attended shows at halls and nightclubs (like in Hull - it was something you did before you went out (clubbing) - collected the programmes/magazines and has the memories of Doctor Death brawling out into the crowd. At fifteen, his first lads holidays with his mates to Scarborough (Victorian seaside resort) included taking in the obligatory wrestling shows at the seafront.

 

His two maiden Aunts were hardcore fans in the sense that they were wrestling mad with encyclopedic knowledge of wrestlers, holds and moves. I regret never being able to discuss wrestling with them because from all accounts one of them was even more obsessed with this than I am. Auntie Annie, a stereotypical matron (could have come straight out of any Carry On series) would grab Saturday afternoon visitors in a vice-grip and physically arm pin them, forcing them to sit and watch World of Sport as my Mum (who had never seen or heard of wrestling before she moved to England) found out the hard way upon meeting her for the first time.

 

Location:

Despite that location was the key factor in me becoming a fan. In 1982 I moved from Hemel Hempstead to Milton Keynes (new town in the middle of England), where the local council banned TV aerials and all houses were pre-fitted with cable. As a result everyone had to pay an annual subscription (around £20) just to receive regular TV channels, the plus side being the entire town received Sky Channel (the precursor to Sky One) as part of this (no cable box required).

 

As a result, the American style of wrestling gained popularity in the area before the rest of the country. I believe that is one of the reasons that when the WWF's British Boom Period happened in the early 90s they based the Squared Circle (WWF's UK merchandise distributor during that time, who also organised autograph sessions with people like The Undertaker who I met the week of SummerSlam '92) in MK.

 

My family did pay for a cable box which gave us access to around eight other channels. All seemed to show some form of wrestling particularly ScreenSport which was home to All Star (UK), AWA, JCP, Stampede and others at various points in the 80s.

 

The cable system also meant Milton Keynes received IIRC three ITV regions, which came in handy for WCW later on since they would sometimes show different episodes of WorldWide on different regional channels. So I was still able to get WCW right up until ITV ditched it (different regions stopped showing it at different times) in 1995.

 

I still don't know exactly when WWF first started being broadcast here (British based fans over forty with cable access will know best). Dad claims it was on from the time we moved there but I've never seen it 'officially' confirmed. Part of the confusion, is that at the time he was European CEO of an American multi-national which meant trips to the States where he would watch wrestling on TV.

 

All I know is that I wasn't watching it and that my parents used to watch WWF whilst my Mum was pregnant with my little sister (born November '86). I also know the things my parents told me about American wrestling when I did get into it years later (Cyndi Lauper being in WWF, Mr T and Hillbilly Jim running out of the audience) which I had no way of researching at the time to confirm (and frankly had no idea what they were on about), all turned out to be true. To this day my Dad will drop references to mid-Eighties WWF or Crockett angles into conversation then act shocked that I haven't seen them.

 

Two of my Dad's friends, both of whom looked big enough to be in the WWF, would talk about American wrestling whenever they came home from the pub and try to convince me they were wrestlers. They certainly looked the part (one of their sons played rugby for England youth team). Keep in mind this was before I was even a wrestling fan.

 

For years I used to attend weekend Arts & Crafts courses in the grounds of the local Manor and the artists who taugt the various six to thirteen week (did everything from pottery to tie-dye) courses were inevitably big wrestling fans.

 

Thinking back, I knew more adult fans than kids up until the second half of the 80s. Very few seemed to stick around for the actual boom period.

 

Friends:

Wrestling was ALWAYS fairly popular at school. Everyone knew Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks whether they liked wrestling or not. As far as I remember, I never saw Daddy wrestle on TV, but I certainly saw him appear on other shows as a guest. I'd wear my Rocky III backpack (before I'd seen the film) and people would start talking about this Hulk Hogan bloke. I'd recognise the name but not really understand.

 

Eight of my nine best friends as a youngster were wrestling fans before I was some of World of Sport, some Crockett, all of them WWF. When I did start watching a couple of year's later I would pester them with questions about stuff (it was hard to find magazines and no official videos were available here yet).

 

I still remember being Jim Brunzell in a playground Battle Royal before I knew what either of those things meant.

 

Around the same time, on a family holiday to Ireland (where I believe cable was also popular) I wanted to talk Masters of the Universe. All the Irish kids wanted to talk about was WWF.

 

A friend of mine, whom my Mum used to look after after school, had been watching for years when I became a proper fan, despite the fact she was a year younger than me. When I started watching she would tell me about what was going on in the other Federations (mostly AWA, GLOW, NWA). She was the first person to introduce me to World Class and Stampede.

 

Around 1986-87 there seemed to be an explosion of interest in the American wrestling amongst the younger crowd and a lot of my friends would talk about it at school. Funnily enough, despite it being on Sky Channel for years, that also coincided with WWF being shown on ITV's World of Sport (which seems to be the go-to for the moment that got a lot of British fans into WWF).

 

It certainly was the time I first started to pay attention and notice/recognise some of the wrestlers (Finlay, Savage, Hogan, The Bulldogs, Kamala). The first time I remember a specific event/match (as opposed to just the wrestling) being the talk of the playground WrestleMania III was the event, Savage/Steamer the match.

 

So whilst I had had some wrestling exposure likely since birth my first actual memories would be catching WWF circa late '87-early '88 on an occasional basis along with bits and bobs of AWA (IIRC Thursday and Friday) and World of Sport (Saturday), which only gave me the impression WWF was the Big League and everything else was a bit second rate. I didn't realise that both were on death's doorstep; another reason I regret not getting into wrestling earlier since even two years prior they were producing some good stuff. I saw most of the build-up to WrestleMania IV but never watched the show itself.

 

I've mentioned this a lot of times elsewhere but it was hearing that Randy Savage had won the title that peaked my interest (Savage, Finlay, Dynamite and Bret Hart were the ones who interested me most in my pre-fan days). Nothing against Hogan, Daddy or Haystacks but I wouldn't have gotten into wrestling if it wasn't for the faster-paced style.

 

Still, I don't really count that as part of my fandom and I didn't actually follow the storylines in any real sense. It was still just something that was 'on' the TV but wasn't a fan of yet (like rugby or athletics).

 

Becoming a fan:

And as mentioned above, I would watch Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling through which I became a fan of The Junkyard Dog without actually seeing him work (Fun Fact: In 1992 the cartoon would be repeated over here on ITV to cash in on the British Boom Period) but wrestling itself really wasn't something I was interested in.

 

Until one day in 1988, I watched an episode of WWFs Saturday Nights Main Event with my Dad. A fortnight later I joined him to watch wrestling again and that was it. Ive been addicted ever since.

 

The first PPV (all free over here at this point) I was allowed to stay up for was the Second Annual Survivor Series (1988) shown over here some time in January 1989 (yes we were really THAT far behind). Other than times I was on holiday, I caught every WWF PPV from then up to the one where Bret Hart wrestled The Patriot. I've also watched most of the ones since.

 

The first one I recorded myself/kept to rewatch was WrestleMania V and from then on I would tape all the big shows (PPV, SNME, UK shows, TV specials, etc.) until 1993 when I recorded over almost all of them with films (another regret). The first I remember being broadcast live was Royal Rumble 1990, shortly followed by WrestleMania VI.

 

I'm the opposite of those who started out on WWF and then expanded their tastes as they discovered other promotions existed in the sense that before I was a fan I'd watch anything. Once I became one, the World Wrestling Federation was the first Federation I followed... well, other than GLOW, which I used to watch on Lifestyle while my Mum was making Sunday lunch after Church, but maybe I shouldnt mention that. After I was safely tucked-up in bed my dad apparently watched about sixteen billion other federations and kept telling me about the other Federation with Ric Claire and Telly Blanchard (as I thought they were called).

 

Dont let this put you off but my first real hero was Brutus Beefcake. Funnily enough, my hairdresser at the time (another adult WWF fan) was also obsessed with 'The Barber'.

 

Most internet posters seem to have grown up as heel OR babyface fans. I was a fan of good guys like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, The Blue Blazer; cool bad guys such as Andre (again I was a fan from the cartoon), Ted DiBiase, Fit Finlay, King Haku, Rick Rude and Mr. Perfect (after he started wearing the singlet/got entrance music); and tag teams like The British Bulldogs, Islanders, Demolition, Powers of Pain and, particularly, Rockers. The latter two were the first big new 'acts' I saw début and followed from then on. FWIW I was always more of a Jannetty fan than a Michaels one.

 

It was the combination of storytelling, larger than life characters, cool moves, quick one-liners (Ventura and McMahon on Superstars, Bobby Heenan promos, etc.), and bright colours that got me hooked.

 

I remember being particularly fascinated by the logos that were used for each wrestler when they appeared on SNME and spent way too much time trying to replicate them, even designing my own graphics for the wrestlers who didn't have one (or at least one that I'd seen).

 

Speaking of which, another early wrestling preoccupation of mine was drawing pictures of wrestlers and even making clothes for my M.U.S.C.L.E figures. Eventually I was able to create tiny replica outfits of the entire 1990 WWF roster.

 

At this point I should add that in general, prior to 1990 (when Silvervision started selling WWF VHS) and the release of Hasbros (IIRC the following January) it was next to impossible to find merchandise in the UK. Although (story for another time) I was able to get both AWA and WWF figures, wrestling merchandise wasn't mainstream until the 1990s.

 

A good friend of mine, Mike, attended the second of WWF's 1989 two-nighter (Birmingham which was set up during the London show on Sky) and we gave him some money to buy some merchandise but I was told they had sold out of everything. He did bring me back a poster (Hogan also featuring The Rockers, Koko B. Ware, etc.) which apparently were left on all the seats.

 

Becoming a wrestling fanatic:

If Hogan-era WWF was the company responsible for making me a fan, it was WCW and the Apter mags that kept me one.

 

NWA/WCW was always something of a mystery to me (despite one of my first wrestling memories was seeing Jim Cornette and I believe the Garvins on ScreenSport) until they they showed some 1989/90 NWA/WCW on ITV (featuring 'Mean Mark' after he'd already debuted in WWF as The Undertaker). From then on I watched WCW whenever I could (and at times it was difficult: you'd have to leave a blank tape in overnight and hope it recorded WorldWide)... right up until some guy called Russo stuck the belt on himself in 2000. I was so pleased when WCW started to release official VHS over here (albeit in edited form) in 1992 and between that, WorldWide moving to a Saturday afternoon spot (also in '92) and the Dangerous Alliance storyline it overtook WWF as my favourite company. But I still loved WWF and celebrated my birthday in 1992 with a wrestling-themed fancy dress party and watching of the previous night's WrestleMania VIII.

 

I have no idea when they first became available over here but it was just before the Summer holidays in 1989 a friend lent me a US wrestling magazine (covering the early part of the year Warrior/Rude, Midnights/Midnights, Mega-Powers/Twin Towers, etc.). When I went back to school that September all the cool kids took them into school to discuss the latest goings on in promotions I had no idea about.

 

Swapping wrestling mags to read at lunchtime was a common occurrence but I could never seem to find them when I looked at the newsagents. That Christmas, Santa left a copy of Main Event in my stocking and my wrestling addiction progressed to the next level.

 

One of the reasons I became such a hardcore fan was that despite being a good student overall my parents worried I didn't read enough and so, when they discovered I liked reading wrestling magazines, encouraged the habit (little did they know...)

 

Through the magazines I became a fan of The Road Warriors, Lex Luger, The Great Muta, Jerry Lawler, Eric Embry, Tony Anthony, and Jeff Jarrett long before I had actually seen them wrestle. Not saying I was smart to the business but when Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors, Kerry Von Erich, Ric Flair, Sid Justice and even Genichiro Tenryu, The Destruction Crew and Buddy Rose debuted in the WWF I knew who they were.

 

Like Superstar Sleeze earlier in this thread, I was fascinated by the history of the sport and reading about these wild and colourful characters led me to seek out more of the wrestling that was on TV: WCW, USWA, re-runs of old World Class, etc. both on TV and the aforementioned VHS.

 

When the British Boom Period came in the early 90s it was incredible to watch the number of wrestling videos expand, from the original three Silvervision released in 1990 to allocating Wrestling Videos' their own section in all the major video shops as everyone from CWA (Otto Wanz version) to UWF (Abrams version) had videos on display in mainstream shops in the UK market... And equally depressing to watch it shrink to a shelf when said Boom ended two years later. It got to the extent that the last series of Hasbro (Green Cards) weren't even released over here.

 

Still, the early 90s were a great time to be a fan and I used to like spending my pocket money on them as a kid. About twenty years later I tried buying all the non-WWF/WCW I was missing on eBay. I believe Cheapshot, who recommended I start posting here, has compiled a complete list of those now.

 

The other bonus of the British Boom Period was increased WWF tours.

 

In October 1991, I attended my first live event: Battle Royal at the Albert Hall (sitting up in the gods with my poorly younger brother and reluctant mother). Since then I have seen several WWF, WCW, WWE and British cards in the flesh (including SummerSlam 92 with my brother, dad and best friend at the time Sean). I think the best matches I saw in person are Regal vs Sting (WCW, NEC Birmingham, 1994) and Chris Benoit/Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio/Edge (WWE SmackDown!, Sheffield Arena, 2002). AFAIK neither made tape.

 

From late 1992 WWF, WCW and (with no more World of Sport as an alternative) wrestling in general's popularity went into a long decline becoming less relevant as each year passed onwards went. Other than that briefest of moments when UWFi was mainstream, wrestling was pretty uncool until the late 90s. Even then for as many fans who'd 'outgrown' the wrestling as got back into it, just as many didn't. I never stopped watching. If anything the fact that it was mostly a solitary hobby at that point led to me becoming a hardcore fan (I'm not sure I'd have gotten into newsletters/tape traders if all my friends had still been into it).

 

Becoming a hardcore fan:

I discovered the world of tape-trading (and later newsletters) through Superstars of Wrestling (the predecessor to PowerSlam) in 1993. I knew about tape-trading culture from dance music but never knew it existed in pro wrestling. I had always wanted to see some Japanese stuff after seeing Muta/Liger in WCW, hearing about Sammy Lee from World of Sport fans and reading about people like Hansen, Tsuruta, etc. in PWI but didn't know how to access it. I FINALLY decided to send off for (PowerSlam writer) Rob Butcher's catalogue after a year or so of seeing them advertised in SOW and then PowerSlam.

 

The monthly 'Best of' comps (along with PS photo coverage) made getting into Japan easy since I got a taste of the various styles. Originally, I was primarily interested in the Juniors like Benoit and Liger but the more I watched the more I found myself more impressed by the AJPW and, to a lesser extent, NJPW heavyweights. Through those magazines, newsletters and tapes I also got into ECW (which along with Michinoku Pro, FMW and the big Joshi shows was constantly hyped by PS) and Lucha Libre which is something I followed on and off for the next two decades but still don't feel particularly knowledgeable about or qualified to talk about. Like a lot of people my first introduction was mid-90s AAA.

 

Around the same time, EuroSport started showing NJPW 'Ring Warriors' on a Friday night - which temporarily got my Dad, who'd given up in 1990, back into watching wrestling with me (It's exactly like old British wrestling) on a Friday night. He became a big Hase and Fujinami fan.

 

In Autumn 1995 Sky Sports (finally) started showing Raw (before that we had to make do with the edited matches on Mania) on the same night and, ever since then, Friday has been my Wrestling Night. Even when I've been at my busiest, or didn't have time to watch TV in general, I would always end the week by kicking back and watching whatever show was on Fridays (which for the past decade has meant SmackDown!).

 

At weekends my brother would record WCW Worldwide, after reruns of Airwolff and The Fall Guy, from ITV (when Hogan joined Turner in '94 ITV added Thunder in Paradise to the line-up) on one tape and the feature matches from WWF's Sky shows on another while I was playing cricket at villages around Northamptonshire.

 

As my tastes expanded I compiled an extensive library of relevant books (including some good old ones), magazines, newsletters (still have crates full of Pro Wrestling Torch and Wrestling Lariat from the 90s), programmes, posters, and videos/DVDs dating from the 1920s to the present, incorporating a good variety of promotions from different times and locations including: AAA, AJW, AJPW, All-Star, Arsion, AWA, CMLL, CWA (Austria/Germany), CWF, CZW, ECW, FMW, FWA, GAEA, GCW, Global, ICW, IWA (Einhorn), IWA: Japan, IWA: Puerto Rico, IWCCW, IWRG, JCP, Joint Promotions (World of Sport), JWA, JWP, LDN, LPWA, Memphis, Mid-South/UWF, MLW, MPW, NJPW, NOAH, OMEGA, OVW, Promo Azteca, Reslo, South Eastern, South Western, SMW, SWS, TNA, TWA, USWA, UWA , UWF, UWFi, WAR, WCCW, WCW, W*ING, WWC, (W)WWF/E, XPW and Zero-One in multiple different languages and formats (VHS, VCD, DVD, Blu-ray) to the extent my house is starting to resemble Castle Cornette. Despite that I haven't seen close to as much as some of you.

 

I haven't seen Portland, 80s shoot-style and never really got into (or followed them at all post-2003) 00s-present Indies, although I do like a lot of the talent that came out of that scene.

 

I temporarily gave up collecting tapes towards the end of the 90s, mainly due to time constraints but I also wasn't a huge fan of the direction Japan (or ECW) had taken in the late 90s (compared to just a few years earlier) but more importantly a lot of the guys who were my reasons for getting into Japan/ECW/AAA (Foley, Raven, Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, Psychosis, Mysterio, Scorpio, Sandman, Bigelow, TAKA, Togo, etc.) in the first place and even those who weren't my favourites but I thought had potential (Jericho, Saturn, etc.) had migrated to the US Big Two. Other companies I followed had gone bust (SMW, USWA, UWFi) and at that point I knew I would rather spend my money on going out with my friends.

 

When Butcher stopped trading I moved over to Glen Radford. Funnily (or not) the most I bought off either of them was in their closing down sales (1997 and 2003 respectively) where I picked up quite a few of their master copies.

 

Internet wrestling history:

Online, I've always been TheBigBoot. The name originated from an idea I had for a newsletter way back in 1995 (everyone else seemed to write one back then, and almost everything seemed to be named after a move 'Suckerpunch', 'Moonsault', 'PowerSlam', etc.) A few years later I used the same name as the title for an unpublished book I have been continually writing and revising for the past century (don't hold your breath on that one).

 

I became an Internet fan through necessity.

 

Even though I used it to look up ECW PPV results at my Dad's office in '97, I didnt really have regular access to the Internet until I went to University and no longer had the time or money to spend on bootlegs and dirtsheets. I even didn't have a TV in my first year. I certainly didn't have cable/satellite. Even PowerSlam became difficult to get hold of.

 

With no chance to watch my weekly Raw and Nitro I started visiting the news sites to keep up-to-date with what was going on. I spent hours in the computer room reading all the major rasslin sites but never really bothered with forums (although I did enjoy the Sports Entertainment vs pro wrestling fan debates that seemed to occupy much of the web in 1999) partly because I (incorrectly in some cases) associated them with the generic smark opinions mentioned elsewhere in this thread and partly because I worried how much time I'd end up spending if I started posting.

 

 

There were some exceptions. The first forums I read semi-regularly were Wrestling Classics, DVDVR (the site more than the board) and Kayfabe Memories all of which I found whilst searching for information on the old territories. Learnt a lot from all of them but I didn't really start posting on forums until 2003 when I joined the UKFF (which I had been reading since the previous year, thanks to mentions in PowerSlam). As for why I chose that as the first forum I think it's because it was one of the few places I saw where posters were talking up Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler as 2003 MOTY or Goldust as a top five WWE worker and not having those points laughed at. At the time there was a bit of a divide between the posters who liked BritWres, US Indies, and (then) current Japan versus the posters who liked what I would call traditional pro wrestling but also a lot of posters who watched everything which led to some interesting discussions. On UKFF I noticed lots of people mentioning Real In Memphis, followed the links in ChrisJ's signature and joined there exactly (to the day) one month later.

 

Thanks to the latter I discovered I could watch episodes of Memphis through Jerry Lawler's website. By this point, I had already started getting back into the Observer and tape-collecting. This time with a focus on the past (I did also get back into Japan with the AJPW vs NJPW feud and NOAH but other than a few big matches here and there haven't followed it properly for a decade now, or at all since Misawa died).

 

Silvervision's massive 2002 tape sale necessitated by WWE's name-change and eBay allowed me to fill lots of gaps in official WWF/WCW/etc. releases that I could never have afforded at the time. Then around 2003-04 a lot of traders were converting to DVD (or giving up all together like Radford) meaning was I able to fill in a lot of 'blanks' and pick up the master tapes of a lot of the shows I had never gotten round to getting back in the day. I still have unwatched VHS from that period.

 

Throw in weekly WWE (Raw, SmackDown!, Heat... Velocity when I remembered), WCW Classics on Sky Sports, going to All-Star shows with my then-girlfriend whenever they were nearby, and (due to having moved to an area with satellite) finally getting to see Reslo on S4C Digidol. I 2002-04 was watching (and reading about) more wrestling than at any time since the mid-90s.

 

Then The Wrestling Channel launched in April 2004. Even ignoring the programming I had no interest in there was World of Sport, CMLL, NOAH, GAEA, NJPW, NJPW Classics, Classic Memphis, current Memphis, and probably more I'm forgetting.

 

 

Keep in mind, at the same time I was posting detailed Raw reviews on UKFF and writing lengthy essays arguing for Randy Savage and Chris Benoit as potential Top 25 material (and that The Big Show deserved serious consideration for such a list) for a 144½ Greatest Wrestlers of All Time list over at RIM.

 

I got burnt out.

 

I ended up stopping posting for a while and limiting my wrestling viewing to the stuff I enjoyed most: WWE (more so SmackDown and later WECW), Memphis (orignally for the veterans but ended up staying for Kevin White and Derrick King), and World of Sport. Later on I followed (and enjoyed) TNA from around the time 3D jumped up until they rehired Vince Russo, made iMPACT! two hours and it moved from TWC to Bravo in the UK. I later replaced it with IWA: Puerto Rico's Impacto Total English.

 

For the next year or so I only posted sporadically. Since then I've divided my 'wrestling time' between either reading about/watching a lot of wrestling or writing about/posting on wrestling. I'm impressed by those of you who can do both. For most of the late 00s I leaned towards writing/posting.

 

In 2007 I was asked to write for wrestling101.com (now Cult of Whatever) and since that November have written DVD reviews, obituaries, blogs, and an ongoing series of articles Now That's What I Call Wrestling. I still write the occasional piece for them, normally around WrestleMania. When I started writing for them I also joined their talkwrestlingonline forum but haven't used it much. My last article was a fifty page, eleven-parter on the Best WrestleMania Opening Matches of all time: http://www.wrestling101.com/home/2013/04/thebigboots-top-ten-wrestlemania-opening-matches-of-all-time/

 

So my posting presence has been limited to a few places. If you know me it is probably from one of those or Twitter (@TheBigBoot).

 

Since 2011, I've been concentrating more on watching. Around 2009, I realised I had accumulated hundreds of unwatched DVDs. Two years (and more DVDs) later, having previously resigned myself to the fact that I'd always have a load of unwatched footage I decided to make an effort to watch all the unwatched DVDs I bought during that 2005-11 period (mostly stuff from the 70s to 2005). Real life has prevented me from watching as many as I'd like but, as probably only Cheapshot knows, I've spent most my wrestling time for the past three or four years making my way through said collection and tweeting about them.

 

I also thought it would be a challenge to see if I could get my opinions across in 140 characters. ;-)

 

In addition, I'm still a fan and watch as much of Raw, SmackDown, and whatever British matches show up on WrestleTalk on TV as I have time for. In September 2013, I started watching TNA again (and stayed mostly because of the chemistry between Rockstar Spud and EC3 on Spin Cycle) - Xplosion (through which I've caught a lot of their hyped matches I missed) and PPVs only (don't have time for Impact). Right now Challenge are showing old TNA PPVs every Wednesday for the past month (Slammiversary 2006 this week). Frankly, that is more than enough current wrestling to keep me going.

 

I do have WWE Network which is great for PPVs but other than that haven't had the time to watch as much of it as I'd like. Maybe if/when TNA finishes.

 

I actually discovered PWO (and the WON recaps) around a few years ago whilst searching for a story from an old Observer. That would have been around 2007/08 (other than the couple I was posting at, since 2009 I haven't really made time to read wrestling forums, or wrestling sites in general, at all) but I had forgotten about it since then. Since Cheapshot's recommendation I have been lurking at times and impressed by the variety of posters and quality of discussion.

 

It's unlikely I will become a regular poster any time soon but I thought I should finally introduce myself and will try to chip in now and then when I have something to contribute.

 

Congrats if you read all this.

[Codysseus]

Hi friends,

 

My name is Cody. I'm 27 and live in western New York with my wife and two kids.

 

I started getting into wrestling outside of the WWF and WCW in middle school. ECW led to other American Indies which lead to Japan and bits of other stuff. I usually visited SSS (and Stu's IRC chat room) and Happy Wrestling land (and its IRC chat room) with some DVDVR mixed in a bit. I'm a big fan of some pretty typical stuff around these parts: Jumbo Tsuruta, 90s All Japan, 90s NJPW juniors, the Destroyer, Bret Hart, Eddie Guerrero, etc etc etc. Guerrero and Benoit were two of my absolute favorites and their deaths, as well as college and trying to have a social life, turned me off from wrestling for 5 years or so. I got back into it when my life settled down a bit, I saw that CM Punk and (especially) Daniel Bryan Danielson had miraculously become the biggest things in the wrestling. This board reminds me of how much wrestling I've forgotten about and makes me want to dive in real deep again.

 

Turn ons include Daniel Bryan Danielson, Sasha Banks, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Bray Wyatt's theme song

[concrete1992]

Another TRUE New Yorker on PWO. Helluva time to be alive.