What is your "Old School"?

[Slyfox696]

Real simple, "old school" wrestling for me would be wrestling in the late 80s and early 90s, when I first started watching. I was 4-6 years old, a huge Hogan mark, and absolutely adored Sting. I remember running around my Grandpa's house with tassels around my arms and my shirt off pretending to be the Ultimate Warrior.

That's old school. What is yours? The Attitude Era? The Next Generation? 2002?

 

[klunderbunker]

I stated watching in 1990, but I'm a huge fan of old tapes. I distinctly remember renting Royal Rumbles 88-92 so many times I thought I owened them for awhile. For me, old school is probably 1990. If you're looking for what I'm interested in, it would be all of the 80s and early 90s. If you mean when did I start, then about 90. Old School to me is back int he 80s though. That's what I grew up watching and what got me hooked.

 

[Fizzy]

I'd say when I started watching wrestling. It was around the same time as you, and I absolutely loved it. So my old school would have to be around Wrestlemania 3 to Wrestlemania 13. It was when I started watching wrestling, and i'm still into it just as much as back then.

 

[Harthan]

Well, I've been watching wrestling since I was born, although obviously I don't remember much until around '97, which was a pretty year to get into it. The first show I remember clearly was WM 13, but I'm told the first match I ever saw was Legion of Doom vs Money Inc. at SummerSlam 1992. The first match that I can really remember clearly is probably the Submission match at WM 13, Hart and Austin. I don't even remember the whole thing, but I can recall bits. Probably my memory really kicked in around the time I was 8, I can recall King of the Ring 2000 pretty well. So obviously my old school is not very old school, but more of the general Attitude Era and the mid 90s time. I wasn't around for the first 8 Wrestlemanias, and can't recall any until 13.

 

[Shocky]

I'm one of the lucky ones I guess. Call it selfishness, but I believe that I had the privelage to grow up with two industries, and feel that those industries grew up with me. I started watching very early on. I have no actual individual memories per se, but I knwo going to WWF and NWA shows when I was very young with my dad.

My first wrestling memory is Wrestlemania 2 and watching Hogan rip his shirt off on top of the cage against Bundy. That's my earliest memory, and it's a good one. I've been a life long fan. Old school for me is everything up until Wrestlemania 3. Wrestlemania 4 is when I start having actual vivid real memories of the business, but I was around 7 at the time. Like I said, I know I watched before then, but the formative years were from Mania 6-8.

So old school to me is up until Wrestlemania 3, but thanks to my dad, I have a pretty decent idea of 70's wrestling, being able to find stuff that he had.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Old school for me is the late 80s and early 90s as well. I started watching around 87 or 88 when I was about 6 years old. My dad and older brother were big wrestling fans so they got me into it they actually went to Wrestlemania III but unfortunately they didnt take me because of how young I was. While most Dad's look forward to taking their kids to their first baseball game I think my Dad was like that taking us to wrestling shows. Any time WWF came to town my Dad had to get tickets for all of us(mainly for his enjoyment) one of my earliest memories of a live show was watching a Rick Rude vs. Ultimate Warrior cage match, I remember that match so vividly. Anyway I used to be a big Hogan mark as was pretty much every kid my age was, I also loved Demolition and the Hart Foundation. I have to admit it makes me feel kinda old when I see topics about Stone Cold or The Rock posted in the "old school" forum.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

My old school is very very ealry 80s, when Hulkamania was first blossoming, and JYD was winning KOTR tournaments. The coliseum home video of the one night 4 round tournament is my first memory, first video I owned. The first wrestling even I ever vewied was Halloween Havoc 1993, with Hulk Hogan Vs Ric Flair in a steel cage as the main event, and also has Maxx Payne and Cactus Jack Vs the Nasties in a falls count anywere match.

After watching that, I became obsessed, and got every old wrestling video I could, starting with the oldest stuff I could find, and going up. So while it was ACTUALLY 93, I was living the WWE from 1984ish on up. So thats my old school.

 

[Dead Kennedy]

Technically, I watched some WWF wrestling when I was a kid in the early '90s. I can't remember a whole lot of it, but my brother remembers that I watched it and what I liked and disliked. So I guess the time between 92 and the "New Generation" is my proverbial "Old School". Heh, I was such a mark for Bret Hart when I was a kid. Still am of course, but I mean a real mark.

 

[Checkmate]

I started watching wrestling in 2000, the week before Kurt Angle won the Title. I believe that puts my start in September. I watched Smackdown only.

Now, for what I consider old school, I think I'd put my old school as anything pre-attitude era. When I started watching avidly, I made it a point to see the matches that defined the era, meaning I saw much D-X, The Rock, Austin, McMahon, etc. from the time.

Outside of Hulk Hogan and Andre, any time an early 90's or prior matchup was shown to me, I had to look up who the competitors were. After a while, I grew to appreciate their work and could see the similarities to the future generation. I still can see where the 'old school' generation have left their mark in today's up and coming talent.

I originally marked out for The Rock, Undertaker and Kane, Austin, and HHH. When I found out about Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, I marked out for them too. Then, I saw the old school stuff, and marked out until my eyes popped out. LOL... Those were the days.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

Well when I think of old school I think of anything before 1995ish because that's when I first started watching wrestling. I was only about 5 but I began to get so invlolved. I remember being a huge HBK fan and loving everything he did. I also found myself always repearting Bret Harts phrase "the best there ever was...". I remember the Gunns being my favorite tag team and being in love with Sunny(who managed them at the times). I never got to see anything past 1995(not that I remember) so I classify that period as beyond my time(although Youtube is a wonderful thing).

 

[BooCocky]

I was 5 years old when i saw my first match, that would have been 1992, I didnt become a huge fan until about 1995. I watched it for about 6 years, then i lost interest in the product. Around the year 2003 i started flipping channels and landed on a Cena match. Immediately fell in love. I've been watching ever since.

I have old wrestling tapes, most are my dads, so I've seen matches from the 80's. But when i think of old school I think of the 1995-2002 period.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

I was 3. It was NWA. Sting and Ric Flair going back and forth. Sting was my ultimate hero. I lived to watch him perform. Then I started to watch the WWF. Having such favorites as Macho Man and Texas Tornado. I used to sit in front of the TV for the whole show and not move. My butt was imprinted into the carpet.

So I started off at 3 with the NWA and then progressed into the WWF and have adored wrestling ever since.

 

[RVDgurl]

My uncle used to be a big wrestling fan and he introduced me to the sport when I was about 4 years old. I remember watching AWA on ESPN after school when I was in first grade. I also remember what a big deal the first Wrestlemania was. I was lucky enough to grow up in the 80's when a variety of wrestling was on tv- I got to watch Ric Flair and the 4 Horsemen in the NWA and to witness Hulkamania through it's prime with the WWF. Old school for me would be the 1980's, especially the '83 - '87 period.

 

[joejoe]

The earliest memory I have would be somewhere around or after Wrestlemania 3. I was probably 3-4 yeras old but I can remember watching a segmeant with Bobby Heenan Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant where Bobby Hennan was explaning that the belt the WWF has isn't big enough for a man like Andre.

After that things are a bit of a blur but I do remember watching WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge every Saturday and Sunday morning and that was pretty awesome. Then in first grade I wanted Hogan to beat the Warrior but he didn't.

Of course what I actually watched on TV and what I watched via the video store is a a bit of a blur because when I was 6 I would rent nothing but WWF tapes from the video store over and over again. Sigh..memories...

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm not as old school as most on this thread but I started watching wrestling around 10 in 1998...First thing I remember was the Corporate Ministry and the Jericho/Chyna rivalry I think...Then I started watching WCW until it ended and since my cable provider switched channels I wasn't able to watch wrestling from 2003-2005....I started watching it again after WM 21 and have only missed 1 episode of RAW and Smackdown since

 

[Richard]

Well, my 'old school' would probably be when I started watching.

I started off with WCW in about 1998, Channel 9 was showing it at about midnight or 1am once a week and I stayed up one night watching TV when I was sick I think and saw it and was hooked from the first moment I watched it, I made sure to get it taped and I would watch it when I came home from school that day. So to me, that would be Sting, Goldberg, Nash, DDP because I'm not as old as some people on here and nobody in my family liked it or introduced it to me, I had to find it out myself.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Well with me it kinda got started in the early 90ies as well... It was pretty much the time that Bret Hart was champ that I watched most of my "first" wrestling. I mean, I knew about Hogan and Warrior, but it actually was a bit later that I started watching regularly. It also had something to do with the fact that over here in Europe, we really did not get many wrestling shows (back then I think they actually broadcast WWF Challenge and WWF Superstars)... and every once in awhile, when ratings dropped, wrestling would disappear completely for some time.

Back then Eurosport also used to have some Japanese Wrestling occasionally, and at some point another TV station started broadcasting WCW (although they were WAAAAY behind the "real" stuff due to the synchronisation process - so basically the stuff we got to see on TV was already almost half a year old in truth when we saw it lol), and it was when I first - pretty much coincidentally - saw the very first appearance of Hall and Nash on WCW TV, and thought... "Hey wait, I KNOW those guys!" And from that point on I started watching WCW regularly (since there really wasn't any WWF on TV at that time, actually), and got completely hooked with the whole nWo angle.

I think sometime in 1997, they also started broadcasting WWF on regular cable TV again, but at that time, WCW just was the better show, and of course I had lost touch with WWF over the past couple of years, and really didn't know a lot of those guys (people like Mankind, HHH, Austin, Rock actually), and since WCW had more faces I knew from my "old school" days, I preferred that show. Well the rest is history; and nowadays, they're broadcasting Smackdown on regular cable TV (the rest of WWE and TNA programming is available only on Pay-TV) - they still are a bit behind due to synchronisation, but only about 1-2 weeks these days, which is a huge improvement over the MONTHS of gaps we used to have in the 90ies lol.

However, on the Pay TV channels they also show the shows live and unsynchronised, which is awesome anyway. I really should get that channel lol.

In any case, old school for me definitely means WWF around 1990. Though over the course of the years, I also went to check some older stuff out whenever I got the chance to have a look at something.

 

[mvk112]

Old School for me is the mid 80's. I can remember the buildup to WrestleMania, and seeing the event on television the following week (the closed circuit was messed up in Pittsburgh, so they put the event on tv for free the next weekend). I loved the Saturday Night's Main Events, and I enjoyed the tag team wrestling of that era. Windham & Rotunda (US Express) coming out to Born in the USA was the best, when they left, I was big into the Brittish Bulldogs. I remember how the NWA television shows would always run out of time before the end of the match, leaving us wondering what happened, so we had to tune in next week to find out.

I was really into both the WWF and the NWA at the time. The NWA had the Four Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA, The Road Warriors, the Midnight Express, the Rock n' Roll Express... just great wrestling action, better than the WWF but not the star power of Hogan, Andre, Piper, Snuka, and crew.

That was the greatest wrestling ever was, in my opinion, culminating in 1987 with Wrestlemania III featuring Hogan vs Andre and Savage vs Steamboat. The last great NWA show was Starcade 86 - The Skywalkers, in my opinion. I still remember the Road Warriors on a scaffold outside somewhere throwing a pumpkin down and it splattering everywhere.

 

[George Michael]

I guess I was more involved/informed in 94 when I got back to North America, but I know I was a fan before. We rented videos from Blockbuster to catch up with all that had been going on while we were overseas. The first live event I saw was in 93 or 94 in Hong Kong. I was about eight or nine. The Bushwhackers were still around, and the two big draw matches were Bret Hart v. Owen Hart and Undertaker v. Yokozuna. We also ran into Jim Powers at a convenience store and got his autograph (we thought he might have been Bret Hart). I've only ever watched WWF/E programming and PPV's (I've always loathed WCW's production quality). I'd say from about Wrestlemania 9 and onward. That's my old school.

 

[JerryvonKramer]

Apologies for this mega-bump, but I wanted to respond to this topic and I'm sure others will too. First my own personal wrestling journey:

I was born in 1982, which makes me 26. I'm from the UK and, like most kids of that time, I got into WWF around 1990 -- it was difficult not to. Ultimate Warrior was a massive star, most kids were fans of either him or Bret Hart, with the odd one or two liking Savage. Hogan a bit less so, possibly because his gimmick is 100% American and we're British. I've always had a strong individual streak, even as a kid, so I rejected ALL the faces. I actively supported the heels: my fave wrestler being Ted DiBiase followed by Mr. Perfect, Ric "the Model" Martel and anyone who Bobby Heenan managed. Pretty rare for an 8 year old to only like heels, but that's just what I'm like. I supported Mumm-Ra and Skeletor against the Thundercats and He-Man respectively. I always wanted The Emperor to defeat Luke Skywalker. What can I say, bad guys are just so much more fun than goodies. ^_^

Anyway, here in the UK you could only watch wrestling if you had Satellite TV, which was much much less common than it is now. So there'd be like one privileged kid who followed it week to week and then everyone else. Because of this, we didn't so much "follow" wrestling as we just collected the Colosseum Home Videos. There was a rip-roaring system of video trades. We'd often be watching stuff like Wrestlemania IV or V, despite the fact those events happened a few years ago. I remember the absolute holy grail[/url] of these videos was Summerslam '88. There were a few reasons for this: 1. Unlike practically all the other videos it had a 15 certificate, and we all wanted to know why, 2. It had a white cover which was different to all the others, 3. It was rare as hell and practically no-one had it. I remember looking with great longing at the "Also from Colosseum Home Video and Silvervision" in-lays and wondering who won that Mega Bucks vs. Mega Powers match (and really really hoping it was DiBiase and Andre). This being pre-internet days no-one really knew what the results were until we saw the tapes. This sort of thing went on until about 1994. I remember the gap between Wrestlemania 9 and Summerslam 93 (despite the KoTR, which somone taped for me) seeming like MONTHS.

In addition, in 1991 one of our terrestrial channels -- ITV -- started showing WCW Worldwide at like 2 in the morning. I was into wrestling more than the average WWF mark, so I used to tape that too (I'd say only about 2 or 3 other kids did). I even remember not trusting the Video Recorder's timer system and setting my alarm to wake me up just to hit record!!! I have great memories of that WCW Worldwide show: Gary Capeta's unique announcing style (he REALLY made the jobbers sound shite!), Jesse Ventura's Arm Wrestling Competition, the Dangerous Alliance, Rick Rude with short hair as "WCW International Champ", and seeing Sting as a massively over star. Even back then, WCW seemed distinctly like the second best promotion behind WWF. I watched it because it was on, but WWF still felt like where it was at. I think ITV pulled it in 1994.

Around that time a few more people got Sky, and I'd regularly go and watch WWF shows and events at someone's house or get a tape recording. I remember "supporting" IRS in his feud against Razor Ramon and being gutted when he didn't win the IC title.

Then, wrestling seemed to die a bit. No one was into it any more and I just forgot about it until, say, 1998. By this time my parents had Sky and me and my younger brother watched Raw (and later Smackdown) every week until the invasion angle of 2001. Lots of my old friends started watching again during this period as well. After that the WWE really struggled to hold either of our interests. We saw the debut of Randy Orton and the formation of Evolution, and watched for about the first year and a bit of the Brand split. But then wrestling seemed to become rubbish again. It certainly went out of fashion for me and my brother, and most of my wrestling watching friends.

I think that journey of watching tapes from 1985-1994 then losing interest for a few years before getting into the attitude era between 1998 and 2002 is fairly typical of the average UK wrestling fan of my age. Any 20-something UK fans here to corroborate that?

So to the issue of "Old School":

For me "old school" should be just a bit before the era you remember, literally before my memory. In my case that is roughly the period 1985-7. To my eyes the product of that period is quite different from the time when I was a WWF fan as a kid (88-94). The main difference is the type of people on the card: people like Ken Patera, Harley Race, JYD, Don Muroco and so on -- that's a different, earlier generation of stars in my mind to the people I watched (Savage, DiBiase, Perfect, Rude etc.). Wrestlemania IV is the transition point: there's still quite a lot of those guys on that card but by Wrestlemania V they've all but gone. THAT's my "old school". Of course, I'd include in that the NWA/Jim Crockett promotions stuff from between 1985 and, say, 1991 when WCW came to our screens here.

Incidentally, I view the period before 1985 -- when it was WWWF and when the likes of Bob Backland was champ as being "ancient" or pre-history.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Simply put, I broke into watching Wrestling full-time in 1993. My Parents refused to order Pay per views, but I was capable of watching the Saturday Night shows that W.C.W. would have. TBS carried this program at the time. W.W.F. had a show I used to watch a lot as well, but it wasn't Raw and I can't think of what it was.

When I first got interested full-time, I did all the background research on it I could. I rented as many wrestling tapes as I found, dating all the way back before the original WrestleMania. So while I didn't get involved until 1993, my passion runs very deep indeed.

I didn't get the thrill of watching actual Pay per views live until 1996 though. WrestleMania XII was my first "live" Pay per view, and it was a Birthday gift I couldn't of asked anymore from, as Shawn Michaels (my all-time favorite) won his first Heavyweight title from Bret Hart.

Before that time, I had to wait months after the events actually happened, to rent them from the local video store. I was very lucky indeed, as the video store that had rented wrestling tapes, rented a TON! They had practically every VHS tape known to man from wrestling. And they rented for .50 a piece. I was in HEAVEN!

Growing up, as I said Shawn Michaels was my all-time favorite. When I watched older stuff, I enjoyed The Rockers. (even before I put two and two together on H.B.K. being in the group)

I never enjoyed Hulk Hogan, mainly because I dispised the color Yellow. The Ultimate Warrior was a favorite of mine, but even way back when I was a heel lover. Ted DiBiase & Rick Rude were two personal favorites.

 

[crapamaniac]

Old school to me was about the time the uk wrestling show on a saturday afternoon started showing the odd WWF match I can always remember the Hart Foundation then uk satelitte tv started showing wrestling challange and saturday nights main event and I was hooked from around 88, once hooked I quickly set about devouring everything american wrestling I could get my hands on be it tapes,books or magazines. I remember that the bug that had seized me had had a similar effect on a that many people that we were wrestling behind the local church for hours at a time. After that all ppv`s were spent at one anothers houses, climaxing when warrior fought hogan at wm6 I know the match was dire but as youngsters both were big favourites and nobody could guess the outcome . I watched nwa and wwf till about wm9 then kind of got distracted by that thing called college for while, then I started getting back into wrestling when my son was born again ,needless to say I was back to devouring what I had missed and both me and my son are as addicted to squared circle as ever

 

[JTS32]

My old school is definately the mid 80s. The heyday of "Hulkamania". The Intercontinental Title meant something, and so did the tag team division. My Saturdays were spent like this. 9am-Watching Continental Championship Wrestling a southeast regional promotion with Gordon Solie on play by play. The Nightmares, The Armstrongs, Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden, Adrian Adonis, Dutch Mantel, Wildcat Wendell Cooley and lots of others I loved to watch. Then at 10am it was "This Week in Wrestling" with Gordon Solie and Joe Pedecino basically a recap show of the big 3 and a ton of regional promotions. Then at 11 am is WWF Superstars and need I say more on that? I loved the Tag Team Division. British Bulldogs, Shiek and Volkov, Killer Bees, loved it all.

That's my old school

 

[jmt225]

Even though I don't remember much from it, I know for a fact that I started following pro wrestling around the build-up to Wrestlemania 3. I was very, very young at the time, but my sister, who's 4 years older then me, was a huge Hulkamaniac for a couple of years, and I just started watching with her. Even though she grew out of it quickly, I stayed a fan to this day.

My old school would have to be though Sting vs. Vader in WCW. Even though I watched a lot of wrestling when I was young, that feud, along with Randy Savage/Miss Elizabeth, to this day sticks out the most for whatever reason, up until the Bret Hart era rolled around.

 

[Scott Free]

My old school began while watching the old N.W.A. shows from LA, in Spanish no less. I didn't speak the language, but two guys in particular pissed me off on those shows, Black Gordman and the Great Goliath. Watching every week to see people like Mil Mascaras and Earl Maynard, Peter Maivia and even Freddy Blassie try and destroy the evil team got me hooked on pro wrestling. I kept watching N.W.A. and A.W.A. plus World Class Championship Wrestling, the then WWWF was local to me, but their TV shows sucked, mostly squash matches, I did go see Bruno defend at the Garden live quite a few times though, including his rematch with Stan Hansen.