What Made You?

[Just Dave]

Oh yeah, the video stores ruled. I rented the 1993 Survivor Series like one thousand times. I LOVED that main event. I was 10. If I ever come off as pretentious, just remind yourself mentally that I unironically loved the 4 Doinks vs. Bigelow, Bastion Booger and the Headshrinkers. 

[SirSmUgly]

I genuinely can't remember a moment. There's an old pic of me as a toddler wearing a Hulkamania t-shirt. As far as I can remember, I always loved pro wrestling. 

[Matt D]

I hated the idea of wrestling as a kid. I was a pretty irritating/snobbish/nerdy kid in the 80s. Picked on a lot, etc. I didn't like Gi Joe because all the kids I didn't like in elementary school (the mean, more popular ones) did. Same with football. Same with wrestling. It seemed dumb and fake. I liked Karate. Karate was good. But I somehow got it into my head that I had to see a SNME in fall 1990 for social reasons. I have no idea why. I don't think I actually got to see it but I did get hooked right around there immediately. I was 9-10 and missed most of the 80s boom actually. I had a couple of friends that were really into it too. I had a friend who's uncle worked for Titan Sports so I got to go backstage at a Boston Garden House show and meet Bret in 91. I started getting the 1990 WCW trading cards soon thereafter and that opened my eyes to that world. I think I saw it the same way I saw comics. All this history to learn and all these characters. I fell off by 92 (advent of Watts in WCW taking out a lot of what I liked in the Dangerous Alliance and Light Heavyweight division) and 93 (Papa Shango/Luger turn that I didn't buy into, just getting into other things). 

I came back in 98 when WWF was in Boston for Mania. It was just big in high school and some things were interesting (Stunning Steve was what now?). Plus there was the internet and message boards and rumors and Scoops and 1Wrestling and whatever. There was a whole identity you could have as a "smark." And by 99 there was DVDVR. So I missed WCW winning basically. Through college I got into local indies and ROH, etc. and I had people to watch with.

After college when I went to England for a year (Just watched Mania 20 that year) and into 06 I was fairly casual. Then when I moved in with my wife to be and stepson in 07, less than a month later, Benoit happened. 

I got back into things in 09 as I was on the bike prepping for the wedding and when streaming and goodhelmet sets had become much more prevalent. This is when I went back through late 80s WWF as a comfort and the DVDVR 80s AWA set hit and when I probably really developed my viewpoints that I have today. It's when I got into PWO lurking and then posting.

In 2014 I needed to up my wrestling output for various reasons of needing more of an outlet/hobby and started writing at Segunda Caida as a way to figure out lucha primarily. 

So I got "made" a bunch of times. But I was fairly steady state by 2014-5 when I was nearing my mid-30s. 

You can look at how media worked too. For the 90-93 I'd rent a few PPVs (Survivor Series 90 a lot). In 98-99, I'd catch up on PPVs with these 5 movies/5 days/5 dollar rents at the local VHS place. Plus I'd buy a couple of comp tapes. In the early 00s, you'd start to get DVDs, especially the WWE big comp ones. And increasingly discs from others. Then in the late 00s it was the big sets from Goodhelmet (Dangerous Alliance, etc) plus streaming. And now the world is at our fingertips. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Matt D

[Curt McGirt]

This is something that can't get understated on my part, too: the influence of Youtube. When it came up that I could finally watch all this Japanese shit FOR FREE with little to no effort then I was all in. Even if it still had to load I jumped right onto Misawa vs. Kawada (for the first time!) and was blown away.

EDIT: Note, the first Misawa/Kawada I watched was the '99 one where Kawada won so I am biased to that match, actually. And I don't think I've seen it since! Now there's a homework assignment for today...

Edited September 27, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[SirSmUgly]

45 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

This is something that can't get understated on my part, too: the influence of Youtube. When it came up that I could finally watch all this Japanese shit FOR FREE with little to no effort then I was all in. Even if it still had to load I jumped right onto Misawa vs. Kawada (for the first time!) and was blown away.

EDIT: Note, the first Misawa/Kawada I watched was the '99 one where Kawada won so I am biased to that match, actually. And I don't think I've seen it since! Now there's a homework assignment for today...

This was true for me, but with WoS. late '70s/early '80s WoS is one of my favorite promotions ever, and I got into it when a couple of very thorough uploaders started to put it on YouTube. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by SirSmUgly

[Curt McGirt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw7oedg3b0I&ab_channel=ClassicsPuro83

It was '98, not '99

[Technico Support]

February or March of 85 (so I'm about 9 1/2 years old), I'm playing at a friend's house in east Baltimore and it's Saturday after 4, so WWF's syndicated show is on WBFF, channel 45, the show that would become "Wrestling Challenge."  Hulk Hogan and Mr. T were on and it caught my imagination.  Maybe because I loved The A-Team?  No idea.  I was hooked from then on.  My sister and her boyfriend took my brother and I to our first live show in January of 86 (tickets were a Christmas present).

WWF @ Baltimore, MD – Civic Center – January 5, 1986 (13,000)
Pedro Morales defeated Moondog Spot
Jose Luis Rivera defeated Rene Goulet
Hercules defeated Lanny Poffo
Scott McGhee fought Tiger Chung Lee to a draw
WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan defeated WWF Tag Team Champion Brutus Beefcake
The Junkyard Dog defeated Greg Valentine via count-out
Cpl. Kirchner & King Tonga fought Nikolai Volkoff & the Iron Sheik to a no contest

I somehow stayed a fan even after that.

I had another friend whose house I often stayed over, and he and his single mom introduced me to Crockett/NWA.  He and I went to our first NWA card, a Bunkhouse Stampede matinee show, in December of 86.  It was a more innocent time where nobody batted an eye at two 12-year-olds taking a bus downtown to see wrestling.

JCP @ Baltimore, MD – Arena – December 13, 1986 (just under 10,000) (matinee)
Brad Armstrong defeated Shaska Whatley
Bobby Jaggers & Dutch Mantell defeated Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev
Big Bubba defeated NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion & NWA US Tag Team Champion Ron Garvin in a streetfight
The Road Warriors defeated Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey
Dusty Rhodes won a Bunkhouse Stampede match
NWA World Champion Ric Flair defeated NWA US Champion Nikita Koloff

I started posting here in the green board, no login required days (so I guess 1999 ish?).  My love of WWE waned through the first decade of the 2000s because it kinda sucked and there was no competition.  I went to a few ROH shows (the Kenta Kobashi tag in Philly and the Joe/Danielson/KENTA/Marufuji tag in NYC) but didn't really keep up with them as a DVD only product.  I heard Alvarez describe his experience with PWG at BOLA 2010 and had to check that out, so I pirated it and fucking loved it.  Eventually, I stopped sailing the high seas and started buying their shows.  I stopped watching WWE in January 2017 when the McMahons posted that pic on themselves in the oval office with Trump, all smiling from ear to ear like a bunch of hillbilly conmen who'd finally made it to the big city.  I stuck with PWG, and other stuff I could find, etc.  Then PWG begat AEW and here we are today.

TL;DR, I guess a pre-Mania 1 WWF syndicated show started it all.

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Technico Support

[Godfrey]

The first thing that really made me as a wrestling fan was Bret Hart's return at Survivor Series '96 and that I was fortunate enough to attend Canadian Stampede in '97. I'd been watching for a while and had been to a house show but nothing could compare to seeing that show live. Not only was it an incredible crowd and a fantastic main event, it was also the first time I saw Great Sasuke and Taka Michinoku which led me to getting imports of These Days, Best of the Super Juniors, and eventually finding Schneider comps and this board. I also started scouring the Japanese and Chinese corner stores for pirated VHS, writing down the katakana of puroresu and checking tape by tape

[BloodyChamp]

On 9/24/2023 at 8:52 PM, BobbyWhioux said:

I would sit through any match, no matter how bad the action, no matter how forgone a conclusion the outcome was.  Match after match, hour after hour.

 

I can still do this today as I’ve explained many times when I’m in the mood to watch rasslin.

20 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

Also the existence of video rental stores helps a lot (Blockbuster, MovieGallery) and the internet

We had a membership at a private video store that came and went and never another one. No Blockbuster, no Movie Gallery etc in my parents house. But that one video store was an influence because they had exactly 1 tape and you could probably guess which one it was, 1 of the few widely distributed tapes that came out of my mold of rasslin. It was GAB 89. I also rented Rambo II and Tour of Duty like 90 times. And Daddy rented Rambo III as a surprise and I marked out when he showed me it as hard as I ever did watching rasslin. That might have been the last thing we ever rented because the store was gone soon after. 

When I grew up I would shop at all the video stores and ask if they wanted to sell any of their wrestling videos. I never got anybody to sell me a thing. They would always say no because people still rented them. 

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by BloodyChamp

[Technico Support]

Hell yeah.  Video stores fueled my wrestling love in the 80s.  The weird thing is a young dude named Brian Knighton worked at my local store, which is hilarious to think back on.  Anyway, WWF had those 3 releases like every month, maybe?  One "Best of the WWF" tape, one spotlighting a wrestler, and then one gimmick tape with a certain theme.  Then I'd join the really shady stores who'd have non-WWF stuff like "I Like to Hurt People," "World Pro Wrestling From Japan vol 1 & 2," those PWI tapes, etc.  Man, what a time.

I forgot to mention in my weird history of wrestling viewing that I attended Bruno's last match ever, which is kinda wild.

[bobholly138]

Paternal grandparents took me to my first show when I was under a year old. 

Far back as I can remember I have been watching. Sure I have taken breaks,mostly 90 thru about 97 and 2007 thru 2009.

Think what got me hooked was even with just a rooftop antenna and rabbit ears I was getting pretty much every syndicated wrestling show between 4 channels. So Saturdays was WCCW,JCP,Mid South/UWF,Memphis,GLOW,Florida and all 3 WWF shows.

 

Pretty much now for modern stuff I watch Impact and ROH most weeks. Then hit up at least 2 to 5 indie show every month. Lucky enough to live in an area with a thriving indie scene.

[twiztor]

On 9/24/2023 at 5:31 PM, Just Dave said:

So, tell me; what were you exposed to that formed what you like and don’t like in the wrestling business? Not a favorite match, per se, but shit you saw and heard on your screen? I’d love to hear from y’all…

Growing up, my only exposure to pro wrestling was the WWF. i didn't see WCW until the Nitro era, and had no experience watching AWA or anything else. So it started out as a very narrow view, and if i'm being honest with myself, i still take a very focused approach to what i want to watch. My favorite wrestler was (and is) "Macho Man" Randy Savage. the look (the tassles! the colors! the....cowboy hat?), the voice (oh my god, the greatest voice in the history of wrestling!), the intensity, the catch phrase (ooooh yeah!). Plus he put out some excellent matches. Just a complete package. Almost all of my other favorite wrestlers were also these larger than life characters with a lot of these same characteristics. Ultimate Warrior. Legion of Doom. the Undertaker. a few years later, Shawn Michaels (not so much the Rockers, but his solo run with Sherri and beyond). 

Pro wrestlers were/are real life superheroes. 

they perform feats of strength/agility/flexibility that are unreal. There are a lot of parallels between the costumes of both. Most of the story is told in broad strokes, but if you pay attention close enough and/or long enough, you'll find so much more. Motivations, specific actions, nuances, all that stuff. your typical kid viewer doesn't catch these things, but as you grow with the sport, you appreciate them more and more, and they are what keep you invested. 

i think that is such a big reason that i enjoy stuff like gimmick matches so much. I don't care if it's a ladder, a cage, something on a pole, or exploding barbed wire death matches. an added gimmick makes my interest level rise. i want to see these spectacular stunts. these are what separate pro wrestling from the actual combat sports like MMA, Boxing, Karate, or Jiu-Jitsu, all of which are legitimate competition and therefore have inherent real meaning or stakes. But none of them can offer that adrenaline dump that the best pro wrestling can offer.  i'm constantly chasing that childlike wonder and intrigue. 

[Cobra Commander]

somehow someway, I remember watching Captain Planet, which was on TBS, but either they didn't air commercials about watching WCW or I didn't notice them

then again, Captain Planet and the Power Hour didn't air on the same day

[BloodyChamp]

On 10/14/2023 at 8:19 PM, twiztor said:

none of them can offer that adrenaline dump that the best pro wrestling can offer.  i'm constantly chasing that childlike wonder and intrigue. 

[Shartnado]

I think I have gone through at least some of this before. I can't say when I was actually hooked AFTER I first started watching wrestling (which was in very late 1987), but there had been instances where wrestling had already reached out to me prior to that, and I had always shown interest towards it, even if I really didn't know what the hell it was! Thinking back on it though, most of those early instances have been around '87, not much earlier, except for Hulk Hogan in Rocky III. The earliest things that had to do with wrestling for me, was seeing (and later on, actually playing) the arcade game Exciting Hour and watching some of For All the Marbles (up until California Girls win the tag team titles, but not until the rematch?). I remember seeing Exciting Hour and thinking that's a weird kind of karate-game! And later playing it and loving a move like a piledriver! I then see the wrestling movie and think "So women do this stuff I saw in that cool game, too? And are apparently very good at it, as well!"

Being into action figures and cartoons already shortly before this, seeing how big and muscular a lot of the wrestlers were, was also very intriguing. I saw some late era WoS on Super Channel on Saturdays before Superstars of Wrestling was on Sky Channel later that night. Those two shows were among my first times actually seeing wrestling, but I think the very first match I saw was Honky Tonk Man vs Randy Savage for the IC-title, where The Hart Foundation interferes, Savage gets the quitar shot to the head and Liz gets Hogan to help.

Somewhere along the line (and that was relatively soon) the habit became something that is so ingraned in me that it would be very difficult to be me without it. I was one of the last kids in my class to actually see wrestling on TV, but just about the only one who stuck with it after 1990. I know I said '88 before, but there were still a few other kids that stuck with it a bit longer than that.