Smack2k Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 How do you go about introducing your kids to classic wrestling? My 4 year old doesn't watch RAW as he in bed at 9 PM... I really want to start getting him into some classic wrestling, but attempts so far to sit down and watch have been futile…trying to find an "in" or something maybe some other parents have done to get their kids into it.. He watched it with me when he was 1 and 2, but had no idea what he was watching... Now, he just won't sit down when I ask to watch and doesn't want to….trying to find a way to get him into it early in the hopes he keeps his passion going forward and we can enjoy it together, talk about it / etc…. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingsfan73 Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Good luck! My 14 year old is a fan of the current scene, both RAW and indies, but he tells me older stuff is "boring". For some reason, he did enjoy a War Games match, so I bought him the War Games blu-ray WWE put out. He did like that. I think he dislikes classic wrestling due to the slower pace. Never tried showing him 90s lucha or NJ jr heavies. I'd be interested to hear what ideas others may have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlittlekitten Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Golden age WWF or something with flippy guys would have caught my 4 year old imagination. But I wouldn't recommend anything to you. Poor kid's not interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 How do you go about introducing your kids to classic wrestling? My 4 year old doesn't watch RAW as he in bed at 9 PM... I really want to start getting him into some classic wrestling, but attempts so far to sit down and watch have been futile…trying to find an "in" or something maybe some other parents have done to get their kids into it.. He watched it with me when he was 1 and 2, but had no idea what he was watching... Now, he just won't sit down when I ask to watch and doesn't want to….trying to find a way to get him into it early in the hopes he keeps his passion going forward and we can enjoy it together, talk about it / etc…. Any ideas? This is a perfect topic as I got mine into classic wrestling ages ago. Basically when he was one or two we would be watching stuff like HBK/Owen from IYH or Hogan/Savage from WMV. Not at that age he would be too young to remember it so I basically just watched my fav matches and I do recall watching 2006 stuff mind you this was the same year so probably dont count. About 4 or so years ago when is was 5 I thought id collect what stuff is out there and go on a rewatch project. He was 5 back then and I thought a great time to start was 1998. Whenever I had some spare time it would be watch Raw and the PPV that happened. When I got to the end of 2000 I gave up on the project and felt maybe I should have done it properly with what footage I have. So him by then being a year older and taking more interest in it and well WWE 13 did help on the Xbox because you could play as alot of guys in the Attitude era. So I started from 1995 and worked through all the Raws and PPVs, and as I got to 1998 & 1999 I felt add WCW to the mix along with Nitro and WCW PPVs along with Heat & Thunder but buy Sept 1999 I thought I wanted him to go back further and experience the Hulkamania era because watching WCW made him a Hogan fan and thought see Hogan better then. So we started with 1984 Championship wrestling and it didnt take long to get through that year onto Mania and the SNME shows and the rest of that year and because I wanted him to see Hogan regulary defending the belt I had to include house shows where Hogan only defended the title. Now we have finally finished the show from 1986 and he must have enjoyed this era because when they brought out the WWE Supercard game he really wanted to get Tito Santana and if I hadent put this era on he probably wouldnt have been interested. He was chuffed getting a Red Hulkamania shirt for xmas and it seems now he wants the hulkamania workout game that is on the 86 commercials. Probably impossible to get with it being 2015. So we have finally got through the Big Event 86 and we will soon be onto 1987. Ive not a clue how to put NWA/WCW into the watching but I may just start that when I get to 1988. As far as current wrestling goes well I dont have Sky Sports so that pretty much rules out anything current era, and want him watching decent stuff rather than boring current stuff. He knows who guys like Rusez and Cody are probably due to the games and stuff unless its watching Rock smacking Rusev about or Hogan and Bryan posing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherwagner Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 I guess that if you show something from the 80s to a kid they will obviously react like it's uninteresting stuff. It looks and feels old. Late 80s Saturday Night's Main Event may be an exception with the over the top characters and great production values. Have you tried with 1996 Nitro? It's fast paced, cool characters, fun high flying, the matches are not too long and it doesn't look ancient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 I guess that if you show something from the 80s to a kid they will obviously react like it's uninteresting stuff. It looks and feels old. Late 80s Saturday Night's Main Event may be an exception with the over the top characters and great production values. Have you tried with 1996 Nitro? It's fast paced, cool characters, fun high flying, the matches are not too long and it doesn't look ancient. Im not sure about stuff being dated boring to kids. Kids tend to still love kids shows like Button Moon, 80s Sooty or Rainbow. NickJR was even airing them at one time and the kids absiolutely loved them and were glued to the screen. I suppose each child is different so some will like it and some dont. My boy still has a fondness to Super mario Bros on the NES & things like Pandemonium or Crash Bandicoot and probably enjoys them more than current games like Plants vs Zombies or Rayman Legends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Probably also important to go with something quick rather than anything epic or that features a long build. Try some of the countdown shows on WWE Network. The production is great, there's not much downtime and enough action that its tough to lose much attention. Maybe see where that takes things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOTNW Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 What are you trying to get him into exactly? Does he display apathy towards fighting/simulated fighting in general or just the stuff you show him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack2k Posted February 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 What are you trying to get him into exactly? Does he display apathy towards fighting/simulated fighting in general or just the stuff you show him? He wrestles with me all the time..he gets body slammed, chokeslammed, power bombed, razor's edged (all on his bed or couch of course) and LOVES it…he takes the FU,,,he even take the Cloverleaf (yeah, I am realizing if Child Services reads this, I am fucked!), but he loves it and of course, NONE of it is done in a manner to hurt him... So he LOVES wrestling with me, but when I mention watching it, he doesn't want to….It's more a case of getting him into the man cave to watch some... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Garrett Posted February 8, 2015 Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 As a Great Uncle to an 8yr old my experience was tied in with UFC. My Nephew has been involved in Martial Arts for 3-1/2yrs. He likes watching UFC with us, Hell I liked watching Boxing growing up and sure as hell would've liked UFC. His Pops and I popped in the Starrcade 85 IQ match and the boy was glued to it even with no context. Now we know how violent it was so I guess it comes down to what limits ya put on what your youngster views. Anyway I think it tied in with UFC because of the cyclone fence. Since then he has watched the Dibiase/Duggan smorgi of stips match. Actually showed him this with the build. He's watched the Final Conflict. He's watched Lawler/Idol. He's watched the first two Wargames 87. He's likes all of them. Then again he's not much into WWE at all so it is what it is I guess. I guess if the child watches WWE and has his favorites then I would try to match those guys up as much as I could with guys in the past who they're similar to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 As a Great Uncle to an 8yr old my experience was tied in with UFC. My Nephew has been involved in Martial Arts for 3-1/2yrs. He likes watching UFC with us, Hell I liked watching Boxing growing up and sure as hell would've liked UFC. His Pops and I popped in the Starrcade 85 IQ match and the boy was glued to it even with no context. Now we know how violent it was so I guess it comes down to what limits ya put on what your youngster views. Anyway I think it tied in with UFC because of the cyclone fence. Since then he has watched the Dibiase/Duggan smorgi of stips match. Actually showed him this with the build. He's watched the Final Conflict. He's watched Lawler/Idol. He's watched the first two Wargames 87. He's likes all of them. Then again he's not much into WWE at all so it is what it is I guess. I guess if the child watches WWE and has his favorites then I would try to match those guys up as much as I could with guys in the past who they're similar to. If you want to impress a kid with WWE blood just put the Rumble PPV on from 2000. What are you trying to get him into exactly? Does he display apathy towards fighting/simulated fighting in general or just the stuff you show him? He wrestles with me all the time..he gets body slammed, chokeslammed, power bombed, razor's edged (all on his bed or couch of course) and LOVES it…he takes the FU,,,he even take the Cloverleaf (yeah, I am realizing if Child Services reads this, I am fucked!), but he loves it and of course, NONE of it is done in a manner to hurt him... So he LOVES wrestling with me, but when I mention watching it, he doesn't want to….It's more a case of getting him into the man cave to watch some... I think most kids like to play fight but actually watching wrestling isnt probably what every kid wants to watch. I suppose if you get it in their system at a early age they just get used to it. Majority kids will watch it but I think introducing them at a early age like 3 or 4 years would be the best option as time they are 8 they are used to it. With me I was just stuck to watching it from a very early age on a Saturday Morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Eh, he's 4. Kids are going to be unpredicatable and inconsistent in what they're interested in especially that young. I doubt there's much to "do" really, just keep watching and inviting him to watch with you and hopefully he'll start showing more interest as he gets older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 The simple answer is colorful, flashy characters - Macho Man, Rey, etc. That's what kids like. 1984 Mid-South (or whatever) may be your love, but that may not necessarily resonate with kids. Anything dull, dingy, and regional probably won't work with really young kids - at least not at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted February 13, 2015 Report Share Posted February 13, 2015 Word of warning. Never take a 10 year old non fan to a TNA taping when on vacation in the US. Now hates all Wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I always felt 1984 was a great starting year to get a kid into old wrestling stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I always felt 1984 was a great starting year to get a kid into old wrestling stuff. Care to elaborate why? Due to the start of the national expansion from WWF or another reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I always felt 1984 was a great starting year to get a kid into old wrestling stuff. Care to elaborate why? Due to the start of the national expansion from WWF or another reason? Main reason due to the first month being the start of the Hulkamania! I remember this is the year when Vince started grabbing talent from other companies and bringing them in. I really enjoyed the Sheik/Slaughter feud as well as Tito/Valentine battling over the IC belt. Some great moments there. Im thinking Piper debuted in 83 as when I tuned into the first week of 84 he was already doing Piper's Pit and I was suprised just how far into the show the Frankie Williams one was. I kinda presumed it was the first Pit but nope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 That's all well and good, but I can't really see a 4 year old giving nary a toss about a Santana and Valentine feud from 30 years ago. I can't imagine anything much more boring to the modern BMO of Adventure Time loving rugrat, in fact. Although BMO is pretty fuckin' great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted February 17, 2015 Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 Actually, wrestling video games are a good entryway too. I myself got into wrestling thanks to the old Wrestlemania NES game (yeah, i know, but in 1989-90 it was considered good). Hogan, Andre, and Savage were mainstream and known to me, but i wanted to learn more about Honky Tonk Man, Ted Dibiase, and especially Bam Bam Bigelow, so i started watching the weekly show and getting old tapes to fill in the gap. Find a game with classic wrestlers thats not too complex (no overly complicated button combos to do moves), and it may lead to the child wanting to know more about the wrestlers in the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted March 16, 2015 Report Share Posted March 16, 2015 Do you have any old wrestling figures? My 2-year-old is playing with my old LJNs and WCW early 90s figures. He knows Hulk Hogan & Terry Funk by name and for some odd reason Butch Reed. I have shown him video of Funk but I'm trying to keep him away from wrestling for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Who doesn't love Butch Reed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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