Confessions of a wrestling fan

[Ace]

Ricky Ataki got me to go to my first independent show.

I never went to a live WWE event until I was 1996, despite watching since 1986.

I have never been able to enjoy a Misawa match.

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Raven is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time.

Public Enemy were one of my favorite tag teams for a while, pretty much until the end of their WCW stint as by that time I was starting to realize they weren't that great.

Count me as another Raven fan.

There is nothing wrong with being a Raven fan. The Raven character introduced me to the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

I was a fan of Mantaur. I'm Greek. My mother is half Greek. My father is from Greece. In Greek mythology, the minotaur had the head of a bull and body of a man. He was billed from Crete, where my family is from. It just made sense to me when I was 14 that I should be a Mantaur fan.

[MADCAP]

The first time I had heard the term "shoot match", was when Kevin Sullivan fought Tommy Cairo, so I was pretty confused when I learned of and watched UWFI and Pancrase.

[Cristobal]

I bought a New Age Outlaws shirt in 1998.

[DouglasC]

There was a time when I used to look forward to Jerry Flynn matches.

 

I don't think there was a time that I didn't look forward to Jerry Flynn matches. If Lightning Foot made an appearance on RAW next week, I'd pop like a schoolgirl who just saw her favourite One Direction guy (is that the one they squeal for now? If not, insert whichever boy group it is.)

[Skelemania]

Kind of funny since I just changed my avatar the other day to Raven but in high school, I was a huge Raven mark. I had a school folder that was just Raven shit, which including printed out pictures of him DDTing people & the words to his promos. One time, during an essay in English class, I plagiarized one of his promos even. When I went to Origins Game Fair that year in Columbus, Ohio, during one of the days I was dressed as Raven. Not CosPlay, just with cutoff jean shorts with a hole in 'em & a flannel tied around my waist like that was normal for a fat kid in the late 90's. I was an über mark. I met Disco Inferno at said Origins dressed like that & I looked like an idiot.

 

Later on, I got pretty big into ECW. Trying to sell all my friends on how great it was & how much better than WCW & WWF it was. I used to read Wrestling Digest magazine in study hall & try to convince people that The Dudley Boyz were the greatest tag team not just in the world but of all-time & that the 3D was the be-all, end-all move of professional wrestling. My first username when I got internet, back in the days of WrestlingGames.com (1999) was ECWFan1. I literally wore an ECW hat every day & an ECW wrestling T-shirt to school pretty much five days a week.

 

Another thing that I didn't think I was ever going to live down was defending Val Venis on the old Smart Marks message forum. I thought he was a 5-tool wrestler & was being underutilized. Apparently, judging by the comments & PMs that I received, that was not a popular opinion. I remember getting really heated trying to defend him & I basically became a running joke where people kept trying to "poke the bear" to get a rise out of me.

[Cobra Commander]

The first time I had heard the term "shoot match", was when Kevin Sullivan fought Tommy Cairo, so I was pretty confused when I learned of and watched UWFI and Pancrase.

wait, you mean Pancrase isn't like 1993 Kevin Sullivan?

[HumanChessgame]

In high school I dressed up as X Pac for a skit in front of the entire student body.  I wasn't a fan of his, but he was about the only wrestler I could realistically portray.  Still, I figure imitating him in front of 700 or so people is something one wouldn't exactly be proud to admit as a wrestling fan.

 

Another thing that I didn't think I was ever going to live down was defending Val Venis on the old Smart Marks message forum. I thought he was a 5-tool wrestler & was being underutilized. Apparently, judging by the comments & PMs that I received, that was not a popular opinion. I remember getting really heated trying to defend him & I basically became a running joke where people kept trying to "poke the bear" to get a rise out of me.

 

I was also a big fan of Val Venis as a wrestler.  His porn star gimmick and promos were one of those thing that made me embarassed to watch wrestling though (Oddly enough, I always found Joel Gertner's raunchy intros hilarious).  Val and Bob Holly were one of my favorite short-lived tag teams.

[Matt D]

I have never been able to enjoy a Misawa match.

 

Having just done REMEDIAL WRESTLING, I'm curious about this. Expound. (Also, Phil, come on!)

[The Z]

I really thought it's finally time for Scott Hall to become a World Championship during his 2002 return to WWE.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I'm glad people are getting into the spirit of the thread, and have enjoyed reading the responses. Keep them coming.

[Tromatagon]

You know, I never really got Misawa either. I bought a five disc set of his from Highspots and all it really did was really make me love Jumbo and Kawada. It actually made Kawada my favorite of the All Japan dudes from that era, which left me in a sea of Misawa and Kobashi fans. Like shit dude, I could watch Kawada and Taue matches all fucking day. A lot of people fucking hate Taue so much these days.

I still don't know why this is. I mean, I love lucha libre and the Undertaker, but Kawada fits in there somewhere with his stupid fucking haircut

[supremebve]

You know, I never really got Misawa either. I bought a five disc set of his from Highspots and all it really did was really make me love Jumbo and Kawada. It actually made Kawada my favorite of the All Japan dudes from that era, which left me in a sea of Misawa and Kobashi fans. Like shit dude, I could watch Kawada and Taue matches all fucking day. A lot of people fucking hate Taue so much these days.

I still don't know why this is. I mean, I love lucha libre and the Undertaker, but Kawada fits in there somewhere with his stupid fucking haircut

I wouldn't go as far to say I don't enjoy Misawa and Kobashi, because I love those guys, but I enjoy Kawada more than both of them.  Something about being the badass and the underdog make him one of the most fun guys ever in my opinion.  But that isn't my confession...

 

I've never watched a single Jumbo match.  I'll probably watch one as soon as this week if I can find any of his matches from the Meltzer list on Youtube, but I've completely missed him on my puroresu excursions. 

[mattdangerously]

I don't like Kawada. I would much rather watch Val Venis matches.

[Matt D]

Val Venis matches are great. 

 

I liked Taue the best out of the four, btw. 

[Justin877]

I once made a fan-idol website for Mariko Yoshida for an HTML class I took in college

[The Z]

I put a photo of Samoa Joe on my page of my "high school" graduation yearbook (or whatever you call that thing).

[DukeCaesar]

The Dungeon of Doom segments were a major part of me becoming a more regular wrestling viewer after I lapsed as a kid in the early 90s after the Hulkamania era ended.  My dad and I would laugh at the cheesy Master/Taskmaster segments and it was also cool at the time in terms of seeing what ex WWF guy would debut next. Not even a year later, the NWO debuts and it was off to the races with my Monday Night War watching and discovering the IWC.

[Ace]

  Val and Bob Holly were one of my favorite short-lived tag teams.

 

I always called them "Hardcore Porn".

[Ultimo Necro]

Wcw was / is my favourite promotion ever.

I loved Cody Deaner in TNA.

Even though I know it's downright stupid I love death match wrestling.

I thought the beautiful people were the best tag team in the world at one point, wwe had no real teams at that point.

I once attended an MMA seminar with Dan Severn even though I had never done MMA before and hadn't done judo in around 5 years prior.

I missed my senior prom to stay at home and watch an All Japan Comp that came in the mail the day before.

[Skelemania]

WCW was / is my favorite promotion ever.

 

The more I think about it & re-watch, I think I'm starting to lean this way too. The WWE Network letting me go back & watch the old WCW PPVs & shows like Clash of the Champions, the early 90's through the year of 1998 or so was great. The early stuff had a lot of compelling stuff with guys like Big Van Vader, Dustin Rhodes, etc. not to mention the working relationship with Japan. The nWo story later was great, compelling weekly television. You had the Cruiserweights & a strong midcard during the Monday Night Wars. Honestly, I remember being upset that WWF "won" the Monday Night Wars & that WCW went out of business. Not because WCW went away but because I wanted them to "win" & WWF to go away. Hindsight being 20/20, that probably would not have been the best thing but I definitely remember liking WCW more than WWF then.

 

WWF got me into wrestling as a kid, during the height of Hulkamania in the late 80s. I took a break around '94ish or so, after Hogan left. WCW & the nWo (with Hogan) got me back into wrestling. I was big into ECW for about two years. I loved some ROH in 2005ish. I love early 90's AJPW. But as far as an overall promotion over a long period of time, I think I like WCW more than WWF because it feels more like an athletic competition. I just watched Great American Bash 1992 yesterday & I was more excited for that than I was for SummerSlam.

 

The last years of WCW were bad, admittedly, but I've watched YEARS of bad WWE. Like, the last twelve or so. There's been some good matches but there's been a ton of shit TV.

[JohnnyJ]

I keep a Sheamus and a Jeff Hardy figure in my night stand. I had a Punk but his arm fell off after taking a particularly nasty cross armbreaker.

 

The officiant at my wedding gave a lovely speech which included a Yes chant.

 

 I cried more when Daniel Bryan won the title at Mania than I probably have in 5 years. 

[Skeeball Wizard]

I vaguely remember a match on Action Zone pitting Mantaur against Aldo Montoya. I am pretty sure it was them. I also remember going to class the next day and telling people, "This is a great example of why the New Generation is going to be just fine."

I remember thinking Avatar (Al Snow's short lived masked gimmick) was gonna be huge. He had a tag match w Aldo vs. 123 Kid and Sid, I remember thinking "here's where the big win that's gonna catapult him to the top is gonna happen." They lost in 5 minutes. The next week Avatar jobbed to Issac Yankem. I lost all faith in wrestling.

[NikoBaltimore]

I was at No Way Out in 2006.  I knew the insider stuff but for some reason it blocked out of my mind for Orton/Rey.  I just thought there was no way Orton would win after all the stuff about Eddie.  Sure enough he did.  I got pretty pissed off and left right before 'Taker/Angle.  On my way out I saw Sergeant Slaughter going to his car.  I told him how I felt and he said that it'll work out.  And I got a picture of him anyway.  The whole drive home I was ticked off and felt justified in leaving.

 

Sure as shit, the next day I woke up and realized what I've done.  I remember that people were pissed at the result, but I don't think they had a reaction like I did.  Rey won at WM, and I can see the match now on the Network.  But man, for whatever reason that match drove me nuts.

[Death From Above]

When I was in high school I emailed the WCW Power Plant inquiring about possibly signing up, they told me to get back to them when I was done with school.

 

That's right, of all the wrestling schools I wanted to join the WCW Power Plant.