Split Topic: Your Pro-Wrestling Journey

[thebrainfollower]

Well a lot of us became teenagers then. Couple that with a guy none of us had any loyalty to or really liked (Lex) and a lot of my friends gave up. My best friend simply HATED Yokozuna, when Yoko became a tip top guy he stopped watching and never resumed. He'll watch old school stuff with me and collects footage too but nothing after that moment.

 

I wouldn't say it was a question of new guys taking over so much as new guys we had no loyalty to taking over. Had things transitioned right away to Bret and Shawn rather than Lex and Yoko I think the damage would have been less. They were at least "our guys" and not newcomers.

 

There was in my opinion a way to maintain SOME loyalty with most of your audience. Vince just made the wrong moves in 1993 and by the time he fixed it, most had moved on. Likewise my original point, the HHH run following the massively botched Invasion killed the Attitude era's momentum. It didn't HAVE to happen that way, but it did. I'm not saying it's all Vince's fault both times his company ended a boom period, but in both cases you can point to things he did that made it much worse and things he didn't do that didn't help. Usually consisting of pushing what HE wanted vs what the audience wanted.

[vikingsfan73]

I am 41, started watching wrestling when I was around 8 years old. We'd go over to visit my great-grandfather after church, and AWA All Star Wrestling would be on. I remember Bockwinkel being champion, but I really started paying attention when Rick Martel won the belt. Two of my good friends were also interested in the AWA, and they would buy the Apter mags. The first one I picked up was a Sports Review Wrestling, featuring a recap of SuperClash '85. We started renting the VHS of Wrestlemania I and Lords of the Ring, which was my first exposure to seeing non-AWA wrestlers in action.

 

In the summer of 1985, WWF started on TV in our area. That October, I attended my first show ever, headlined by Valentine and Beefcake vs. the British Bulldogs. That really hooked me. I remember stalking the video store in town until the tapes of Wrestlemania 2 and III showed up those years. My friend had a dish, so we'd watch the MSG and Boston Garden house shows. The AWA TV moved to late Sunday night, which made it hard for me to see, it disappeared for awhile, and reappeared late Saturday nights during the Curt Hennig title reign. I lived on an acreage in the country, so I only saw WCW when I'd visit my friends who had cable or dishes. They would tape the Clashes for me, so I always got to see them.

 

When I went to college in 1991, I had cable, so I was finally able to view WCW programming regularily. A year later, I started getting the Observer, and then ordering tapes from RF Video and a supplier in California that I found in the Observer want ads. I think the first tapes I got were TWA's Autumn Armageddon and a Best of Jushin Liger comp. I soon started getting New Japan and FMW tapes, with the occasional All Japan tape, based on Meltzer's Japanese TV Rundown column in the Observer. That brought me what is still one of my top 5 favorite matches, the May 1992 Furnas and Kroffat vs. Kobashi and Kikuchi battle. I remember also being into the New Japan vs. Dojo feud, which revolved around some NJ undercard guys battling some karate guys over the dojo's sign.

 

Along the way, the UFC started and I began watching with UFC 2. I enjoyed the Observer coverage at the time, which is ironic, because I hate all of the MMA coverage in the Observer now.

Kept getting tapes and reading the Observer throughout the 90s. I'd pick up tapes of SMW and ECW, along with the Japanese stuff I liked. During the Monday Night Wars, I'd watch Raw and tape Nitro. There was a group of people who would gather to order the WWF and ECW PPVs. Even though we all watched WCW, we never discussed getting one of their PPVs. I guess the main events all looked bad to us. I read the Torch for a year or so at the time, and subscribed to the Figure Four Weekly during the Frank Gotch column days. In 1999, the Thesz/Tragos HOF had their first induction, in conjunction with a Cauliflower Alley Club event. I've attended all of the HOF inductions since, and have become involved with the HOF weekend event scheduling.

 

I got divorced in 2002 and became a single dad. For budgetary cutbacks, I dropped cable, but would still get the occasional tape from different traders, eventually switching to DVDs. I kept up with the scene through the Observer and my brother would get the big WWF PPVs and would send me the tapes. I didn't want my son to watch wrestling, due to the language content, but he went to visit his mom's family, and became an 8 year old John Cena fan. I got remarried and we got DirecTV, so I would like him watch Raw with my supervision. In 2010, we started going to 3XW shows, based on a recommendation from board member CodySave. We attended those shows monthly for about three years, until my son's sports schedule got in the way. One of the kids I watched wrestling with growing up, started his own indy promotion in Iowa about 15 years ago, so now my son and I attend IPW shows as much as possible. We would get the Wrestlemania PPVs annually with a group of friends, and now get together monthly with the PPVs on the WWE Network. There's a running joke that I will nap through any main event involving Cena, Orton or the Rock, and it's pretty much true.

 

I now have a 14 year old and 5 year old twins. My twins started chanting "Feed Me More" when they were 3. My time to watch wrestling is pretty limited, but I'll keep an eye open when my son watches Raw. I'm more interested in watching older footage these days, so I really enjoyed the Chicago Film Archives stuff that was released a few months ago. I've never let my Observer subscription lapse, so I used that to keep up with what was going on even when I wasn't viewing every week. I never had the lapse in viewing that some have mentioned. I definitely enjoy the time traveling to shows with my oldest son. He's attended the Thesz/Tragos HOF inductions with me the past four years, and we have a great time.

 

One final note and then I'll shut up. I became involved in the wrestler stat creation process for the Legends of Wrestling game when that began, around 2000 or so. Going back to watch footage to research a wrestler's card is something I really enjoy, because it gives me a chance to revisit or learn about lots of wrestlers. That has helped keep the "wrestling bug" going for me, even when the current product isn't always as entertaining.

[The Greg Muta]

I am almost 40 ( ) and hail from southern NJ, not far from Philly.

 

1982 - 1991 (ages 7 - 16): My earliest wrestling memory is Billy Graham ripping up Backlund's WWWF title belt, and my grandfather took me to some cards at the Spectrum prior to Hogan's arrival (including Iron Mike Sharpe's title shot at Backlund). My favorite wrestlers before Hogan's arrival were Backlund and Tito Santana. I liked Hogan okay once he hit the scene, but was not really a Hulkamaniac. We got cable in 1985 and I was exposed to the NWA, AWA, World Class, etc. Oddly enough, my initial reaction to these new federations was not positive. I remember thinking it was going to be impossible to get to know all these new wrestlers. LOL. Anyway, huge fan up until around mid-1991 when I turned 16. The last major angle I remember from that era was Flair's arrival in the WWF, but once the initial shock wore off, I just didn't care. I bought most of the PPV's from this era, and the last one I bought was Bash 1991.

 

1991 - 1995 (16 - 20): Did not follow wrestling very much, however a friend kept tabs on what was happening, and even called me up when HBK fainted on the live RAW (1995?). We had no exposure to the sheets or RSPW in those days and assumed it was legit. But I still didn't care enough to tune in to find out what happened next. I did order the 1994 Survivor Series, for the sole reason that Backlund was wrestling Bret for the WWF title. I thought the PPV was okay, highlighted by Backlund's insane post-win promo, which I thought was hysterical and can recite verbatim to this day. But, again, I never tuned in to see what happened after.

 

1996 - 2001 (21 - 26): I think it was, believe it or not, Ahmed Johnson that really pulled me back into the product. I remember seeing Ahmed and just being amazed at his size, and he looked pretty good in the ring (hey, what did I know back then?). I was also intrigued with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, two guys who I associated with 80's tag team wrestling, battling it out over the world title. It was also around early 1996 that I found ECW on Sportschannel, and then Austin gave his KOTR promo, and that was that....I was a huge wrestling fan again. Taped pretty much every episode of ECW, RAW and Smackdown during this time and still have them. Could never get into WCW, though. I tuned in for some of the NWO stuff, but there was something about WCW's overall presentation that bothered me, so I was strictly a WWF/ECW fan.

 

2002 - present (27 - 39): The last PPV I ordered was WrestleMania 17. I recorded it to watch later, which I never did. Yep...I still have the VHS tape and have never watched it. The WWF product became too scripted and phony for me, including a lot of the in-ring stuff with obviously timed spots. I've tried tuning in a few times since then, and just cannot get back into it. I re-discovered old school wrestling in the late 2000s, and now watch stuff from the 70's - 90s on a regular basis.

[rzombie1988]

Been watching since I was 2. I went to a bunch of mid-90's WWF shows but I don't know if I watched the TV or not. My parents say I did. I remember getting big back into wrestling in 1997, with ECW's Barely Legal really doing it for me. I stayed interested for 1-2 years, stopped due to the shows being really raunchy. Got back in during the Invasion and WM18. I stuck with it up until the last few years. Had a big year of watching in 2012-2013, but haven't watched much at all this year and I don't feel like I've missed a thing. I hate the commentary in WWE, I hate the format and you couldn't pay me to sit through 3 hours of Raw.

[Lee]

I'll go through my spiel another time but a friend of mine, a couple of years younger than me (I've not long since turned 31) who was a casual fan, not "smart" in the sense that he wasn't visiting websites for insider information or anything like that, and without any kind of influence from anyone on the subject, once told me that he'd stopped following wrestling in the early 2000s (in his teens) "when Triple H beat everyone and it got shit."

[Zenjo]

I'm 34 and my first exposure to wrestling was the dying days of World of Sport in the 80's. Unfortunately my abiding memory from that time is of an obese middle aged man named Shirley belly butting people.

 

I first became a fan of American wrestling in 1991 when I started getting WWF videos, action figures and magazines. Plus I would go to the live events whenever they toured over here including Summerslam 92 of course. WCW Worldwide began airing at around that time so I became a fan of that to. By early 94 I'd lost interest and watched nothing for the next few years. 93-95 killed off most of the casual fanbase.

 

That was until September 1997 after I finally convinced my parents to get satellite TV. It was for the sport, but I decided to try wrestling again and found a much more appealing product than before. I started to watch Raw and Nitro every week and was hooked. I gave up watching WCW a couple of weeks before the Russo era as I was going off to Uni and it was complicated enough getting my Dad to record Raw whilst I was away. What a wise decision that proved to be.

 

That was good for me until 2001 when I started to get tired of the WWE. I wanted more workrate and less BS. So I became one of those fans who didn't particularly enjoy it and complained about wrestler X not getting pushed and all that tiresome message board crap. I was ready for something else but had no wrestling knowledge outside of it, and wasn't aware of the alternatives. It was in early 2003 that I got my 1st taste of Japanese wrestling. Before the end of the year I'd stopped watching WWE entirely as I started buying tapes of all the Puroresu classics that I could find. Even before 2003 I'd stopped watching Raw and only followed Smackdown. Believe it or not it used to be the better show. So I guess you could say the HHH 20m promo era killed it for me as well. Since that time my WWE viewing has never been more than sporadic, and I've never joined the Cenation.

 

From 2003-08 I watched hundreds of Puro videos and DVD's as my appreciation reached new levels. I followed the current scene in Japan as well, but that got worse by the year and I haven't seen that much since the time. I never stopped watching but my viewing had certainly dipped in my late 20's as other interests took over. Then in mid 2011 I discovered Goodhelmets comps. With the 80's sets and the Yearbooks project my interest was revitalised once more and is as strong as its ever been. I don't envision my life circumstances changing dramatically in the upcoming years. Whatever happens I hope there'll always be a place for wrestling. Sorry, I should've said Sports Entertainment at least 10 times by now.