My Evolution as a Wrestling Fan

[TravJ1979]

I did a quick search for "Wrestling Fan" within the title of posts to see if this had been done before, but I did not find any. After listening to the great podcast(s) done by Chad and Parv regarding their Top 100 Matches of all-time and listening to Chad talk about 1/20/97 I got to thinking about my own journey as a fan. I really enjoyed hearing his story, as most did judging by the comments, so I decided to do a recap here and encourage others to do the same.

 

I was born in 1979 and my earliest memories of wrestling come around late 1986-1987. Growing up in Southern Indiana, I lived on Saturday morning Memphis wrestling. From 1987 until we got cable in late 1989 it was this and WWF syndication for me. While I vaguely remember seeing Jeff Jarrett as a referee and getting attacked along with Bam Bam Bigelow coming out at WMC Studios to the theme from "Jaws," my first solid memories are the feud between Soul Train Jones (aka Virgil) and Rocky Johnson against Downtown Bruno's Big Bubba (Typhoon)/Goliath. This and the build for WrestleMania III had me intrigued, but April 1987 got me hooked for life.

 

I lived only 30 minutes from the Louisville Gardens, but I never went to see a show there until September 1997 for WWF's Ground Zero PPV. My dad would tell me all the time about him going to the Garden every Tuesday night until someone, around 1977 broke into his car and stole his radio. He would never go back so I missed out. I appreciate my dad being a fan otherwise I may have never got into it. He would take me to the store and I remember October 1987 issue of Wrestling Power being the first magazine I ever got. I also got numerous packs of the WrestleMania III trading cards.

 

... Jerry Lawler ...Tommy Rich ... Austin Idol ...Paul Dangerously ... The chain match, the crotch on the ring post and the Hair v. Hair cage match where Lawler gets his head shaved. One of the greatest angles in Memphis history happened to take place just as a I was getting invested. I was hooked.

 

1989 only fueled the fire. With cable I could now get Prime Time, Clash of the Champions, Saturday and Sunday's at 6:05 EST, World Class on ESPN in addition to Memphis. I still couldn't get PPV's and wouldn't be able to until 1996's World War III. I did have neighbors with the gigantic satellite dish and so I did see various PPV's through the early 90's with the most memorable being WrestleMania VI. When the Ultimate Warrior pinned Hogan, I grabbed the VHS tape and ran out the door performing the new champs entrance music all the way to my house. My mom had to stop me on the porch as to not give away the finish to my dad and uncle who were waiting for the tape inside.

 

I would still watch wrestling any time it was on, but in 1992 my fandom started to fade. I stopped subscribing to the WWF magazine or talking about it outside of when I watched it with my dad. Then came by junior year of high school in 1996.

 

Matt knew things that I didn't and this pissed me off. He knew real names. He knew masked identities. He proudly work HBK and Goldust shirts to school. During lunch I would fire off questions and be amazed and jealous at how easily the answers came to him.

 

You see, Matt had America Online. I wouldn't get online until December of 1999. Yet I was determined to be as smart, if not smarter than Matt. My thought was to start buying every kayfabe magazine on the shelf and going back to look at my old magazines to find historical information. This lead me to the PWI Almanac and its title histories and PPV results. I was on a roll. I graduated high school in May of 1997 and still had tapes, no Observer and no Internet. I still felt confident enough to challenge Matt to a trivia contest via a proxy as I had graduated and he was a Senior. I made a list of questions and sent them via a friend and he returned with his. His questions were much more difficult, but looking back both lists would be laughable to me today. No winner was ever determined.

 

I asked my mom to purchase me a magazine during a grocery trip. I didn't care which one. So she comes home with New Wave Wrestling magazine. I as sort of pissed and complained until I opened it. There it was in black and white REAL NAMES! 'INSIDER' INFO! I thought I had hit the jackpot. I immediately subscribed and wrote in the be included in the fan pages. Before I knew it I had a pen pal (In 1998, still no internet), a subscription to Karl Stern's GPWN newsletter (still had no idea what the WON or Torch was) and was on the mailing list of a tape dealer by the name of Mario Gatling. I'd realize later that Mario's list was basically a huge list of dubs from RF's catalog.

 

So in 1998 I thought I was the smartest wrestling fan in the world. I had no idea what a "smart mark" was, but with my ever expanding tape collection of 4th generation WCW and WWF tapes and "Best of Cactus Jack" tapes that included tv squashes and his PPV losses I was pretty confident. Somewhere around this time I started hearing about Japanese wrestling and that 'serious' fans were into it. I thought I was a wrestling genius and so if Japanese wrestling was what they were watching then I would as well. So off went a money order to Mario for FMW: Story of the F and IWA King of the Death Matches 1995.

 

The first website I ever went to, and I made sure to type it correctly, RobVanDam.com. As big of a wrestling genius that I thought I was, I decided RVD was the best wrestler in the world. Everything changed at this point. Down the rabbit hole I went -- to the point that I quit my job as I had sent the last 36 hours online with no sleep. AOL Grandstand, Scott Keith, on and on and on.

 

I quickly came to the realization that I wasn't the smartest wrestling fan in the world. This pissed me off. I would soon make my way to AOL chat rooms and square off in trivia competitions against the likes of DACrusher, UltimoDraq, and the WrestlingGuru. I actually had an impressive W/L record as if that is anything to brag about. I spent most of my time being a huge prick to the casual fans. "The Rock sucks," "You've never heard of Hayabusa." and similar insults would be pounded out from my keyboard. Sadly, this period of my fandom would last, and shamefully, get worse over the course of the next five years.

 

In real life I am bi-polar and stayed undiagnosed for years. I also developed an extremist attitude. That and Ebay does not mix. Not only did I want to buy and collect wrestling magazines, I wanted them ALL. Thousands of dollars spent on wrestling magazines, figures, and other memorabilia. Around this time I discovered the WON and spent years collecting every single issue. This was also true of the Torch. Before it was all said and done I had 95% full runs of both of them. I had 100% complete runs of WWF, PWI, RAW magazines with near complete collections of Inside Wrestling and The Wrestler.

 

Besides death match wrestling my exposer to Japanese wrestling was limited to a random tape of AJPW 97 TV I bought off Ebay after seeing Misawa and Kobashi placing so high in the PWI 500. I wasn't that impressed and couldn't figure out why these guys were so highly regarded. Imagine basing your whole opinion of AJPW 90's on random episodes of '97 30 minute TV. Then I came into possession of the Super Power Series 1999 commercial tape. Kobashi vs. Misawa for the Triple Crown was the greatest match I had ever seen up to that point in time. I even made a website listing my Top 10 greatest matches. This was #1 and the rest of the list was laughable in hindsight. it even included EZ Money v. Kid Kash from a recent ECW PPV. Oh brother.

 

Not only was I satisfied that my whole identity to my family and friends was formed by wrestling and that I was known as the definitive source among them, but I wanted to entertain them as well. Enter backyard wrestling. Yes, i did it. It started off modest enough. My first match involved thumb tacks as the most hardcore stunt. Falling in them with three layers of clothes on with the outer layers being a thick sweatshirt and jeans. each subsequent show got more and more daring thanks to one part Foley one part IWA Mid South running locally. My second to last show involved a shirtless backdrop into thumbtacks, a flaming table and a spear into a barbed wire-light tube table. A substantial amount of blood loss and $2.000 doctor bill later, I had 'retired' from that racket. You see, I didn't think it through when I had the idea of my 260 lb friend spearing me into the table that the objects between my body and the wood would compact once it hit THE TREE it was propped up against! The barbs embedded in my back and a sliver of the light tube broke off and stabbed me in the back. My doctor would later tell me that I was an inch away from puncturing my lung. While it makes for a cool video (especially the visual of the referee, who coincidentally was, Matt, the guy who started me on my smart mark path, carefully trying to remove the barbed wire from my back while telling me "You're fucking ripped open.") My last hardcore match would come many years later after I was married and my wife was pregnant. I had hooked up with a guy in a town called Corydon to wrestle in his Death Match Tournament. One last hurrah I thought to myself, as I announced it to the dismay of all my family and friends. It turned out not to be so bad. I as eliminated in the first round in a thumbtack bat match. I wish I hadn't done it because it did not turn out the way I wanted it to, but at least the guy had an actual ring.

 

"If I had to choose between paying the light bill or renewing my subscription to the Observer, we'd be without lights." I remember telling my then girlfriend, now wife during dinner at AppleBee's. Of course, that wasn't the case as I would end up not only ending my subscription, but also selling all of my WON's, Torches, and Magazines on Ebay. I had a few years earlier sold my near complete collection of Coliseum Home Videos, recouping most of the money I had spent since my first day online. "I don't want to learn anything other than wrestling because I'm afraid if I do, something in my wrestling knowledge will be removed," I once said this to a friend. Looking back it was so stupid.

 

Other than an autographed photo and t-shirt of LuFisto and the soon-to-be arriving Louisville Gardens book from Cornette, all that remains of my collection is DVD's, ISO's and MP4's. A funny story about the LuFisto 8x10. My previously mentioned extremist attitude coupled with my bi-polar disorder had me attending every show within a hundred mile radius that LuFisto appeared on. I was obsessed. I would go to her gimmick table every time and buy merchandise -- shirts, DVD's, pictures and tell her how great she was. She is a very nice person, by the way. I would even get on twitter and tweet Triple H about how they were missing out on her and send him YouTube clips. it was getting creepy so I stopped. However, I am still a fan.

 

There are many more anecdotes I could share in my evolution as a fan, but this stream of consciousness post has went on long enough. Now, I no longer have the smark attitude that so many evolve to and stay in for the rest of their lives. I like talking to all wrestling fans, no matter their level of interest. I no longer snicker at so-called 'mark' comments my friends or family make. I am content just being a fan. I enjoy watching all the PPVs on the Network with my dad one Sunday a month, I enjoy being puzzled at my six year old son's disdain for wrestling. I am thankful for outlets like this to converse with like minded people. I love that the internet has provided me with avenues to sample wrestling from all over the world. I am a pro wrestling fan.

[mprice]

Extremely interesting post. I loved reading your experiences and at the same time, you being able to have the insight to realize that certain things were not as healthy as they appeared at first. I am a very "all or nothing" type person as well with certain collections ranging from DVDs to baseball cards. That "down the rabbit hole" feeling is one of the most amazing things until you realize you have spent days away from everyone or everything that you needed to maintain true sanity. That's the bad thing about the internet now: One click and you are sent going in 86 different directions.

 

Anyway, I appreciate your honesty and hope to hear more from you if you post again.

 

Mick

[dawho5]

I know there has been at least one topic like this, but it's something that ought to happen now and again. It is always a far more fascinating thing for me to see the journey rather than the end result. Or rather, now it is a fascinating thing for me to see the journey rather than the end result. Wasn't always that way even if I didn't realize it. I enjoy seeing other people's journey represented because it gives me an idea as to why they like the wrestling they do. Even if I can't stand that wrestling style or wrestler it is a fun exercise to see how different people got to where they are.

[UKWildcat]

I hate that happened to your dad because you missed out on some fantastic times at the Gardens.

 

Here was my first night and I was pretty much a regular until late 96. It sounds weird, but I always do something wrestling related to celebrate that anniversary (the second Tupelo Concession Stand brawl is what got me hooked)

 

http://wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=181576

[BigBadMick]

Really interesting read, especially as I'd be MichaelM1978 if I used that type of handle

 

Things were certainly different in Ireland - I vividly recall a Savage-Hogan lumberjack match interrupting the usual British wrestling schedule one Saturday in mid to late 80s, but apart from that I had little access to US wrestling until WCW came on in 1990 sometime.

[BigBadMick]

The big landmarks after that were starting to read Superstars of Wrestling/Power Slam from the start of 1992 onwards, and then beginning to tape trade in 1994. Really, a huge amount of the tapes I got were influenced by Power Slam coverage at that time and Rob Butcher’s lists (ECW, SMW, NJPW, AJPW, Sabu).

I was lucky enough to have gotten most of the NWA/WCW/WWF tapes I really wanted by the time things tightened up on that front towards the end of 1996 (in the UK, anyway). It was easy to follow both the big two while at college, especially when most of my housemates became casual fans.

Started online around end of 99, and read Slam wrestling daily for a few years, and then other sites (honestly can’t remember which ones). But I never got into the message boards sites, until here in 2013 (first as a lurker, eventually signing up).

Another big turning point was getting back into what was now dvd collecting in 2005, gathering up loads of RoH and TNA. Then, other means became available to keep up.

 

I'm glad I've always enjoyed wrestling without it ever becoming my only hobby. And I'm grateful that the massive viewing opportunities available now were not when I was in school - not sure if I'd have been disciplined enough to keep schoolwork a priority.

[Loss]

I'll just add that as a teenager, I thought my dream job would be to work for Pro Wrestling Illustrated. That might have been cool if I was 20 years older, but print media would have been a dead end in the long run. I'm glad life took me in a very different direction, and as much as I love wrestling, having to make a career working in it seems yucky.

[soup23]

Thanks for sharing TravJ. I contend also that the journey each person has taken here is more interesting than the end result. Wrestling has provided me with hours of entertainment, but it is an entertainment source and there are times when I have to make sure of that. I always love doing Where the Big Boys Play but it does always take time away from my family to record them due to the time zone difference between Parv and myself. That is a balance I have had to strike the last year or so with a newborn, more demands at work, etc. As a result, the show output has faded, but the desire is still there and the entertainment is when I carve out time for wrestling.

[drew wardlaw]

Really cool post. It's always interesting to hear, like your and Chad's stories, the emotional attachment and importance wrestling has in people's lives.

[Coffey]

There's a thread in the Suggestions folder where some many posters share their stories such as this. It's a really fun read!

 

Here's what I wrote about myself in the random Meng nomination thread:

 

 

I have watched pro-wrestling since 1987-1988. I started with WWF due to getting drawn in as a child with Hulk Hogan. I watched the Mega Powers explode & became a big fan of the Ultimate Warrior. I was a typical kid. I ate the babyface shit up & loved the larger-than-life colorful heroes. When I hit my teens, Hulk Hogan went to WCW & became a bad guy. He was the rebellious heel & was with the "cool" nWo. I, as a teenager, cheered the bad guys. Then I got into ECW, because pro-wrestling had blown up. I had watched wrestling my whole life but now that it was super popular, even in high school among non-fans, I wanted to see the "underground" stuff (lol), so that I had more information than the people that just watched RAW or Nitro. ECW PPV was available on Time Warner Cable in Indiana starting with ECW Guilty as Charged 1999. I missed that one due to not having the money to order it, however I saved & bought the next one. Then I didn't miss a PPV of theirs (or an episode of ECW on TNN) until they closed. During the time in-between Guilty as Charged & Living Dangerously, I started reading up about ECW. I had just gotten internet at my home at the end of 1998. I even (shamefully) had a subscription to Wrestling Digest magazine... One of the first things I remember reading online about pro-wrestling were people crapping on Kevin Nash (whom I liked) for "using backstage politics to end the Streak." I had no idea what they were talking about...a whole new can of worms was opened.

 

As I read more and more about wrestling, I became more interested in the backstage stories than I did the on-air product. I would read rumors, I would read message forums. I would read "dirtsheets." I read Dave Meltzer or, at the time, Scott Keith (which was where I first saw people rating wrestlers/matches). I was on several wrestling message forums. Starting with WrestlingGames.com (due to WCW/NWO Revenge on Nintendo 64). Then I ended up at quite a few others, including TheSmartMarks and DVDVR. I got in contact with Goodhelmet, had some VHS compilation tapes made & got into Puroresu. Later some DVDs. I learned about Misawa, Kawada, Kabashi, etc. I got into Ring of Honor, after ECW died, and I watched Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, etc. Now I watch Indies and try to catch some other odds & ends stuff.

 

All my heroes growing up, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, etc. I found out were pieces of shit. I read how they weren't good workers way before finding out about their out-of-character lives. Without those guys, I never even become a fan. I can't get into most Lucha (I like Lucha Underground but have been told that's not "real lucha"). I don't watch wrestling from England or other non-Japanese areas. I've pretty much only seen WWF, WCW, ECW, ROH & the "holy trinity" Puroresu stuff, along with some modern NJPW & ROH from about 2004-onward. Throw in (very little) territory stuff & things from YouTube over the years & that's the entirety of my pro-wrestling timeline.

 

So I am closing in on almost thirty years of watching pro-wrestling & WWF/WWE. With only a little break sometime around 1993/94 to 1996/97. The internet is responsible for me being a fan now moreso than the product. Just having like-minded individuals to discuss your hobby with makes it feel so much more rewarding. I have not been to a live show in several years. Last time I think was either a Smackdown brand house show or an ROH show in Ohio when The Embassy was still a thing & they brought in Abyss.

[BigBadMick]

Looking through the introduction to the board thread, it's interesting that a lot of people pop up there and then only post less than 20 times.

 

Are there loads of people on here that read and very rarely post - just asking?

[Zenjo]

I even made a website listing my Top 10 greatest matches. This was #1 and the rest of the list was laughable in hindsight. it even included EZ Money v. Kid Kash from a recent ECW PPV. Oh brother.

You see, I didn't think it through when I had the idea of my 260 lb friend spearing me into the table that the objects between my body and the wood would compact once it hit THE TREE it was propped up against! The barbs embedded in my back and a sliver of the light tube broke off and stabbed me in the back. My doctor would later tell me that I was an inch away from puncturing my lung.

it was getting creepy so I stopped.

 

Great post. Thanks for sharing.

[smkelly]

First match I remember seeing was Hogan vs. Warrior at WrestleMania 6. I recall seeing some WCW around the same time and was an instant fan of Sting - I even had a few of the WCW action figures, which IIRC, included Sting and Brian Pillman.

 

I recall seeing some ECW, don't know the year, but I was young enough for my mother to censor my viewing it after she saw bloody faces.

 

My memory becomes clearer during the Attitude Era, particularly of Stone Cold. I was grounded from watching wrestling after me and a few friends at school had a Royal Rumble match and I gave one of them a Stone Cold stunner...and subsequently got suspended for it. I followed Goldberg all throughout 1998, and this is when I became aware of Chris Benoit if memory serves right. During this time I had the N64 and the IMO, very best wrestling games ever made: WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF No Mercy, WWF WrestleMania 2000 and WCW vs. nWo: World Tour.

 

I became involved in the tape trading scene in 2000 or 2001, which is when I was exposed to puro, joshi and lucha. I took an instant liking to puro, especially All Japan and the New Japan juniors. I continued watching wrestling after graduating high school and joining the Marines. When I was in the fleet I ordered some DVDs from Will, the 2005 MOTYC set IIRC.

 

After getting out of the Marines, I continued watching regularly until June 2007, when the Benoit murders happened. After that, I sporadically watched, mainly All Japan from the '90s. My interest waned considerably thereafter following a family tragedy. I downloaded a few matches here and there that had received praise, but otherwise didn't watch much of anything wrestling related on any sort of regular basis.

 

It wasn't until recently that I started watching wrestling again, mostly documentaries or compilations I could find on Youtube.