What Wrestler or Wrestlers Got You Hooked?

[OSJ]

Seems like we haven't done this in a longass time and demographics of the Board change, so I thought it might be interesting for us to dial up the wayback machine and cop to who got us hooked on this craziness in the first place? I remember being taken to a match by my much older cousin when I was six or seven and seeing Mad Dog Vachon and Tough Tony Bourne. I also saw the Sheik at a pretty young age and he was terrifying! It's funny now that a guy like Dustin Rhodes is getting ready to hang it up and I can say that I've literally watched his entire career from his first televised match until now...

 

I know it's common for everyone to think that their local fed was the best ever, but you'd have to go a long ways to convince me that anything was better from the early sixties through the early eighties than the scene in the PNW. Everyone who was anyone came through on tour, so it wasn't just that the local guys were that good, (they were, but they had some terrific guest stars to work with too). As a kid I got to see the Destroyer, Abdullah the Butcher (when he was in shape), Larry the Axe Hennig, Dutch Savage, the list goes on.

[twiztor]

my answer to this has always, and will always be the "Macho Man" Randy Savage. and Miss Elizabeth.

as a young kid, i didn't watch wrestling regularly because my Dad didn't really like it. But if i happened across it (at my Uncle's house, or a friend's house, or whatever) i was glued to the TV. I can't tell you an exact time, but i assume it's around Mania 3 sometime. i remember there was a promo by Savage that just had me awed. his voice, his mannerisms, his outfit, his crazy. i don't even remember if he was a heel or a face, or who he was feuding with (not sure if it was still Steamboat), but i became a Macho Man fan that very day. IMO he's never been a heel, because i'm always rooting for him. Him winning the WrestleMania 4 tournament was such a joy to me, because i was sure Hulk Hogan was going to win it again. That main event vs. Ted DiBiase had me excited and nervous and everything. i would've been all of 5 years old.

Rooted for him until the day he left WCW and essentially retired. Never saw his lone TNA match, but i do remember being super pumped for his World Wrestling AllStars match (that was eventually scrapped). When he showed up in the Spider-Man movie, i marked out. And still use the phrase "BoneSaw is READEEEE!"

 

RIP Mach.

[Pete]

I know it's common for everyone to think that their local fed was the best ever, but you'd have to go a long ways to convince me that anything was better from the early sixties through the early eighties than the scene in the PNW. Everyone who was anyone came through on tour, so it wasn't just that the local guys were that good, (they were, but they had some terrific guest stars to work with too). As a kid I got to see the Destroyer, Abdullah the Butcher (when he was in shape), Larry the Axe Hennig, Dutch Savage, the list goes on.

 

As OSJ sets himself up for a million jokes...

[cwoy2j]

Abdullah the Butcher was in shape at one point? I'm sure by "shape" you mean "round".

 

Alright, that's my lame joke of the day. What got me hooked was watching JCP at 12pm as a kid with my uncle. I also spent a good portion of the summer of 1986 with my aunt and uncle in Northern VA who somehow had a channel that got UWF. Eddie Gilbert was my favorite there and I was also a big Dick Murdoch fan. The things that really stand out as the moments that got me hooked were the Tully/Magnum I Quit match, The Horsemen breaking Dusty's ankle and then hijacking a cameraman to break his arm, hearing about Flair defending the title against a bunch of guys like Animal, Hawk, Morton, Gibson,etc during the Great American Bash and The Road Warriors rushing the ring to beat the piss out of jobbers while Iron Man played in the background.

[Mistah Na1m4rk]

I still remember the very first time I saw wrestling on TV.  I was in 5th grade and vaguely aware that there was something called "wrestling" from overhearing snippets of conversation between other kids in my class, but I wasn't very interested in sports so it never really penetrated my consciousness.  

 

One sunny Florida Saturday morning I was sat down on the floor of my grandparents' bedroom with a toaster oven pizza and eagerly turned on the TV to watch the Saturday Creature Feature, the weekly horror movie show that introduced me to such classics as "THEM!" and "Creature From the Black Lagoon."  As I turned the dial to find the right channel (yes kids, see, at one time televisions had a "dial" that you had to "turn" to find a "channel") I ended up passing by something that made me do a double-take and turn the dial back.

 

There on the screen was a wrestling ring in front of perhaps 100 people.  In the ring was a man wearing a black-highlighted shiny mask and he was towering over another man who was seated in the middle of the ring.  The masked man was punching down at his unfortunate victim with wide, swinging hammer fists while the seated sap was grimacing and cringing with each blow.  Now I'd grown up watching boxing with my mother, so the idea of a man punching another man wasn't particularly novel or interesting in itself to me, but the idea of a man wearing a mask to conceal his identity struck me as sort of cool, so I kept watching.  And that's when it happened.

 

The masked man raised his right hand, which was clad in a silvery glove, and swiftly brought it down to grip the skull, temple-to-temple, of his poor opponent.  And the crowd was screaming, and the man on the canvas was screaming, and a raspy voice on the air was screaming, for this was the Bionic Claw, and The Spoiler was here to send a message to all of Florida.  And the blood began to flow like I'd never seen blood in a boxing bout before, and I was transfixed.  I literally could not avert my eyes from the horrific spectacle unfolding before me.  And as the television faded off and the show ended for the week with the Spoiler still crushing a man's skull with his bare hands, I sat there mute with the sort of queasy, giddy feeling I wouldn't know again until puberty put its own clawhold on my physiology, and I made sure to be there in the exact same spot on the floor the very next week.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

Gino Hernandez and the Von Erich/Freebirds feud in World Class.

[offspring515]

The Ultimate Warrior. I was seven and a huge fan of He Man and other action adventure type cartoons.

My Uncle was going through a divorce and came to stay with is until he got his own place. He turned on wrestling and I saw a dude who looked like one of the cartoons I loved come to life. The paint, the tassles, the muscles, the running, rope shaking ...dude was awesome.

[JustJay]

The Road Warriors and Hogan. I remember me and my uncle(who was only 4-5 years older than me) painting our faces up in the early 80's like the Road Warriors. 

 

I started watching religiously around Mania 4 and Macho man an Hogan drew me in and then the next year was the first ppv that I begged my mom to order to watch them battle it out. Before Mania 4 I watched the shows and kept up on NWA and WWF but after Mania 4 I watched everything that I could and rented any videos from the local vhs rental place.  

[Sublime]

Ultimate Warrior is the reason I first tuned into wrestling because all my friends loved the dude I thought he was pretty cool too, but what hooked me was Bret Hart and Mr Perfect. SummerSlam 91 was the first big event to happen after I started watching (in the summer of 91) when i rented the VHS when it came out that IC match cemented my lifelong wrestling fandom. Mysteriously after I rented said VHS a once blank VHS suddenly contained a copy of it and I watched that match so much, the tape started to get worn down from rewinding back to the start of the match.

[OSJ]

I am desperately trying to find a pic of Abby circa early 1960's. No, he wasn't a poster child for physical fitness, but he was like a six-foot version of Kevin Sullivan. He was heavy, but it was all muscle mass and he hadn't developed the man boobs that we've been nauseated at for years. He looked like he could play DE for any team in the NFL and put a serious hurting on people. I'd guess he was probably 280-290 then and for his frame that's hardly fat. Within a decade he'd ballooned up to the behemoth that we're accustom to seeing, but back in the day he was a scary sight indeed. As to his ring work then, I really couldn't say, ten year old me thought the Sheik was quite the ring general...

[Word Hoard1]

I am desperately trying to find a pic of Abby circa early 1960's. No, he wasn't a poster child for physical fitness, but he was like a six-foot version of Kevin Sullivan. He was heavy, but it was all muscle mass and he hadn't developed the man boobs that we've been nauseated at for years. He looked like he could play DE for any team in the NFL and put a serious hurting on people. I'd guess he was probably 280-290 then and for his frame that's hardly fat. Within a decade he'd ballooned up to the behemoth that we're accustom to seeing, but back in the day he was a scary sight indeed. As to his ring work then, I really couldn't say, ten year old me thought the Sheik was quite the ring general...

[Curt McGirt]

There's a bunch of good pics in the Stampede book of Young Abby. Indeed, he was svelte in comparison to the man we know. Even skinnier than in the earliest All Japan footage we have of him, also barefoot and with a mustache! 

 

My story is uninteresting and maybe apocryphal, but I seem to remember an angle with Roddy Piper on crutches and Ted DiBiase was attacking him. Did that ever happen? That is my very first wrestling memory beyond watching WWF Superstars at my grandparents' when Taker locked Warrior in the casket and Jake was machinating and there was a voodoo priest. The horror elements initially got me in I guess. After that Raw started and Nitro started and ECW was in the Apter mags and yadda yadda. Your stories are gonna be far better than mine. 

[Jenalysis]

Midnight Express squash matches.  They're still my all time favorite jobber squashers.

 

Also Von Erichs vs Freebirds feud watching after school on ESPN.

[Michael Sweetser]

Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, and Sid Vicious.

 

SummerSlam '91 was the first PPV I had ever seen, and the Bret-Perfect match on there blew me away and hooked me as a fan.

 

Sid Vicious was the first guy that really grabbed me with that "it" factor and I remained a fan of his forever.  I don't care that he sucks.

[Skeeball Wizard]

Survivor Series '88 for me. It was during the buildup to Wrestlemania 5, I stuck on USA after cartoon express for some reason, and saw an episode of All American Wrestling. I dont remember anything I saw on there, but I remember wanting to see more wrestling after that. So I had my mom take me to the video store to see what they had for wrestling tapes. I saw the cover for SS '88 and settled on that one. I remember seeing Demolition and the Powers of Pain, and immediately thinking they were the most badass dudes ever. I must have watched that tag team elimination match a dozen times of the next two days. From then on I watched every single time it was on.

[Hail Sabin]

Bret Hart, Mankind and the motherfucking Ringmaster!

[A Guy Named Tracy]

I grew up in southern Wisconsin in the early 80s, so that meant I was an AWA fan. AWA was amazing around 1982-1983. I liked all of the colorful characters like Hogan and Ventura. The High Flyers team of Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne also grabbed my attention, but for some reason I became a huge fan of Tito Santana.

He was a standard fiery white meat babyface, but he was my favorite. I was confused when he stopped showing up on AWA television because I didn't know there were other wrestling promotions out there. It wasn't until late '86 that my area got WWF television and I was able to watch Tito again.

[Biz Smarkie]

Probably Vader.

 

I had watched wrestling up until that point for a while now, but I was too young to really remember who stood out for me. It wasn't until Vader that I really remember a guy hooking me. I thought it was amazing that he could squash multiple people at once, and he legit had me worried for Sting during their feud.

[BobbyWhioux]

I watched the occasional wrestling show here and there before, but I didn't really get hooked on wrestling (or get allowed to watch it enough to get hooked) until 1991.

 

Just the right time to get on board with newly minted WWF singles competitor Bret "The Hitman" Hart, who I immediately liked more than the hero I was "supposed" to like.  If Hogan was Superman, then Bret Hart immediately resonated with me as Batman, an ordinary human who got the absolute most out of himself, was a little less than squeaky clean, and beat people with skill and smarts.

 

And Macho Man Randy Savage of course, because he has the all time greatest "pro wrestler voice" and even before I really watched wrestling I knew him as the guy every kid at school tried to do an impression of.  If you took someone who had literally no idea what Professional Wrestling was, then spent an hour explaining the premise to them, then asked them at the end of that hour to imagine/visualize a pro wrestler and what he would look/sound like, they'd probably come up with someone almost exactly like Savage.  Larger than Life done right.

 

And of course you can't talk about Randy Savage in 1991 without the man who even more than the above two got me hooked on wrestling.  Jake The Snake Roberts, who spent 1991 turning into and being The Most Evil Man In America (or so it seemed).  Wrestling has two hooks:  heroes you believe in and cheer in is one, but the other is the villains you despise, fear, pray to see repudiated and destroyed...but often, deep down, you admire.  More often than not they are the engine of the drama.  The Heel is pro-active.  He fires the first shot, launches the first sneak attack, he stirs the drink and poses the threat that the hero ultimately rises to defend against.

 

And Jake was a fucking MASTER.  Just like Bret Hart was my guy because he fought with his brain as much as anything else, Jake stood out because his monstrosity was likewise mental.  No big brute like Hogan's Cannon Fodder of the week.  Nah, Jake was devious, and he whispered where everyone else shouted.  So when Jake the Snake began to fuck with Macho Man Randy Savage it was like nothing I had even imagined before, let alone seen.

 

"The thing in the bag was merely a toy.  Something for me to amuse myself with.  I've always been the snake you should worry about, and for six years you still haven't caught on!  It amazes me that anyone -- even you -- could be that ignorant."

 

I remember that line better than I remember some friends' birthdays.

[Brian Fowler]

Marty Jannetty and the Hart Foundation.

 

Yes, just Marty, not the Rockers.

[odessasteps]

Cornette. Fat, glasses wearing smart ass with tennis racket. Perfect doppelganger for 15 year old me.

[Spritenaut 32]

First wrestling I remember watching was Crockett Saturday evenings on TBS.  Was a huge fan of the Midnights and Arn and Tully.

 

A few years later, Muta came in and my mind was blown.  I had never seen anyone like him and had yet to even really become aware of NJPW and AJPW.

 

I rooted more for heels at the time.  You had to be kinda dumb to be a babyface in Crockett.  The RnR Express and Magnum fell for the same obvious heel moves time and time again and guys like Sting kept doing dumb things.  As a teen, I couldn't figure out why Sting tried to beat Flair with submission moves when, by the time he got Flair in position and got the Scorpion Deathlock on him, the other three Horsemen - who Sting knew were at ringside - would just jump in the ring and break up the pin before Flair could give up.  Just like they did the previous ten times Sting tried to make Flair submit.

 

Lol, I knew wrestling was fake, but I was basically in denial about how worked it actually was.  Kayfabe was still alive and well.

[Andrew POE!]

Probably Ric Flair, even though I was too young to understand anything he said in interviews. His match against Steamboat at WrestleWar '89 stuck for me especially for the post match piledriver on Flair by Terry Funk.

 

I found myself as a young Andrew POE! preferring NWA/WCW to WWF although half the gimmicks from them would not work nowadays (like Norman the Lunatic or Doom).

[piranesi]

When I was a kid King Kong Brody was the first person that made me remember I needed to check the t.v. every day to see when wrestling would be on.  I will admit that part of that was me needing to make sure that I knew where King Kong Brody was at all times...just to make sure he was somewhere else.

 

Later years when I got back into it, it was Foley in 98-99.  I hadn't been watching ECW and didn't have cable, so had missed the whole Brett/Shawn thing and the attitude era up to that point...and watching Foley as my first dip back into wrestling was like overload...dark and weird and just completely enthralling.  Like contraband. 

 

It was a similar sensation to when I saw my first Jackie Chan movie, a combination of intoxication over seeing someone so enthusiastic and dedicated to what they were doing, and this weird feeling like I was seeing something that shouldn't be...this crazy creep who was going to light himself on fire or jump off a building, like I should draw the blinds before watching because this was not right.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

I don't know if it was the first time I saw pro wrestling, or just my first conscious memory of pro wrestling, but I was 5 years old when I saw Lex slam Yoko on the Intrepid at my uncle's new girlfriend's house (along with the kid who would later, through marriage, become my cousin/best friend). We didn't follow the then-current WWF too much at that time, but became big time fans of Macho, Bret, and Hogan through the Coliseum tapes at our Blockbuster. We didn't really become full-fledged fans until well into 1995 (at which point we were 2nd or 3rd graders, if my math is right). Because of our love for both the Hogan-era through Blockbuster, and the then-current New Generation guys, we later became die-hard every-fucking-week fans once the NWO hit.

 

My aforementioned cousin will never, ever, ever admit this, but his guys were DDP and Raven. Don't tell anyone.