I loved watching the first few minutes with the flashback scene, where Barry Blaustein talked about going to his first event when he was 8 with his father, against his mothers wishes. In the scene you see an excited kid sitting, taking in everything in wide-eyed amazement while his conservative father sits next to him with his arms folded. That was so like me at that age!
What about the rest of you?
When I was a kid Sky Channel (England) aired in Denmark and I would watch Saturday Nights Main Event every weekend. They even showed the pay-per-views for free and especially Wrestlemania 3 blew me to smithereens.
Sadly for me Sky Channel split itself into several channels shortly after in order to grow into the television monster it is today and wasn`t available in Denmark for a long time after that. I had to drop watching rassling and became a massive football fan instead.
Then amazingly another supporter of the club I follow whom I ran into a few years ago turned out to be a huge wrestling fan. He had lotsa videos and dvds I could borrow and he gave me links to various internet sites. I instantly bought the Wrestlemania 1-21 boxset online, fell back in love and have bought countless dvds since and whimpered about my obliviousness towards ECW while it existed.
I spent countless Monday nights at the Memphis Coliseum.
Long live Austin Idol
"The Dude Abides"
For my 8th birthday, my parents took me and 9 friends to a wrestling event, and I was a little Hulkamaniac. In the bathroom, some dude was being a wise guy, going "who wants a piece of me?" Being a bold 8 year old, I said, "I do." He picked me up in a powerbomb, but I through in a scissor leg lock around his neck and "got him to tap out"... I fell out of touch for a few years, but when I heard that Hulk Hogan had turned bad and joined the Outsiders to form the nWo, I jumped on the Black and White express and never looked back.
shareMy mom was a big wrestling fan and when I was 3 she would sit me with her and watch it and I remember seeing Ric Flair for the first time and he became my hero and that was 27 years ago
shareI was hooked the first time I saw 'Superstars of Wrestling' as a kid in the 80's.
Never looked back, my brothers think I'm a freak.....they don't know what they're missing!
'You just spilt my warm cup of piss.' Joe Halenbeck.
I was a casual watcher through the 80`s .. I got hooked the first time I saw the undertaker debut at survivor seriesI used to have a signature, but George Lucas sued me...
"I think I'm cute, I know I'm sexy..I got the look's that drives the girl's wild, I got the moves, that will move'em, I send chills up and down their spines..I'm just a sexy boy, SEXY BOOOOY, I'm not your boy toy, boooy toooy, Just a sexy boy, SEXY BOOOOY."---HBK
The Most exciting wrestler EVER. Period. I'm 23 years old and I remember watching this sh!t ever since I can remember. It's entertaining and if you think anything different then why the hell are you on the "Beyond the mat" message board anyway.
Best Wrester Ever-Shawn "HBK" Michaels
Best Match Ever-HBK VS BRET HART WM12
John Cena SUCKS
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For me, it was 1982. I would watch World Class Champiosnhip Wrestling every Saturday. Then I discovered WWF through Saturday Night Main Event in 1985 (I still have the first episode). But World Class was more important to me than the WWF. However, I started getting with the program in 1987. The station that showed World Class took it off, and my only outlet for wrestling was SNME and renting wrestling videos. I didn't have cable, so I had to tune in stations from San Antonio to watch WWF, NWA, UWF, World Class, and Powerful Women of Wrestling. By 1989, an Austin station was finally showing Superstars of Wrestling. I went to house shows and a TV taping for SNME and Superstars. By 1992, I was up in Pennsylvania, and finally had cable. I got to see a lot of WWF and WCWs programs.
When Owen Hart died, that was the beginning. And the world of wrestling was changing too much for me. I started weening myself of it. One week, I would miss an hour. Another week, I would just tape it. Sometimes I will watch a few minutes of it today and just get turned off. Now I will just watch old school wrestling on DVDs. I still go to wrestling sites to see what the old school stars are still up to.
MM
I watched the WWF a lot when I was a very young kid, back in the early 90's, but fell out of it, eventually. I got back into it during the late part of 1996, watching the Mankind and Undertaker tear it up on an episode of Raw. I guess that's why I've always had a fondness for Mick Foley and--to a lesser extent--the Undertaker.
shareGrowing up I used to watch some pro wrestling on Saturday Mornings at Noon in Omaha after Lone Ranger, can't remember names, the earliest wrestling moment I remember is a guy who carried a HUGE "Ghetto-Blaster" (that is what we used to call them), to the ring, and as he's wrestling some heel came out and smashed his radio, D batteries flying everywhere.
Then, at the age of 13, I'm flipping through channels, and came up to WWOR I'm memory serves me correctly. They are introducing a match between a guy who looks like Tarzan (Superfly Jimmy Snuka) and Rowdy Roddy Piper.
During the match Roddy his Snunka outside the ring with a chair and Snuka is busted open, later rubbing the hair out of his eyes, wipes his face and looks at his hands covered in blood. He looks at Roddy, Roddy isn't bleeding. Realizes it's his own blood and goes nuts. Roddy runs back to the dressing room. You would think I would become a Snuka fan, but I became a Pro Wrestling and Piper fan. Liked Hogan, but mostly rooted for the heels.
I'm dating myself, but the one storyline that really drew me in was when Greg Valantine was going around "breaking" people's legs with the dreaded Figure Four. There was something terrifying about his this strange talking man could get the strongest guy on the mat and snap someones bones like that. He finally got to Chief Jay Strongbow and the whole thing unfolded like a crime scene. I was 9 - 10 years old and it remember it like it just happened.
In side note, I met Valentine at a fundraiser 30 or so years later and gave him some old snapshots from a WWWF Boston Garden show. He was a nice guy, quiet, but approachable.