What Do You Love About Pro-Wrestling and What Drew You Into It?

[D-Man]

It's a simple question. We all have our reasons. I just want everyone to reach down within themselves, find the passion they have for the sport, and express where it came from below.

Is it the acting? The action? The drama? The promos? The storylines? The athleticism?

For me, I got drawn in when I was a child... by accident.

The first thing I ever witnessed in wrestling was Hogan's title victory over the Iron Shiek on MTV. I stayed up until almost 12:30 watching TV that night, risking being grounded by my parents for not being in bed. I caught it just as Mean Gene was interviewing Hogan and Andre the Giant was pouring champagne all over everyone. Hogan's passion during that interview just seemed to draw me in.

As I watched the program further, I noticed the managers and the roles they played throughout the show. For some weird reason, I felt a connection with them because they were mostly small, skinny, and didn't look like they could beat anybody up... but BOY, could they talk shit. I just felt like that could've been me.

It's a shame that after all this time, the thing I loved most about professional wrestling is pretty much a dead issue... Managers. But I'll save that for another thread.

So what about all of you?

1. What do all of you love about the sport of professional wrestling?

2. Do those characteristics still exist in wrestling?

3. What drew you into watching it the first time? Tell us all a story.

(Please remember, this is a Non-Spam forum. Make sure to read the rules before posting, otherwise risk infraction.)

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

1. What I loved about professional wrestling was the battle between good and evil. I was a little older than a lot of fans when they first started watching but I was 13, and always had an appreciation for the threatrics. I began watching in 1990.

It was Good vs Evil
It was the flashy gimmicks at the time
It was the antics of the Heels and the Heel managers at ringside
The in-ring action
The Promos
The Angles



2. Very few of those characteristics exist anymore. The managers and their unique personalities are gone. All of the gimmicks and flashy personalities have been toned down. The in-ring action is great, but doesn't mean diddly squat unless I actually care about who's wrestling in the ring, which WWE doesn't give me enough reason to, anymore. Promos are few and far between from the entire roster, like they used to be. Angles are boring.

People try to make comparisons between the Hogan Era and the PG Era all the time, but the reality is ... coming from someone who lived through both Eras .... these two Eras are nothing alike. There truly has never been a more dull, and boring Era in wrestling since the 1980's then the PG Era of WWE today.


3. The first thing that really got me into following wrestling was the infamous ambush of Hulk Hogan from the Earthquake on The Brother Love Show. I ALWAYS cheered on the Heels, even in my days of being a mark and when I thought it was real. I loved seeing Earthquake squash Hogan 3 times and put him out of wrestling, while his manager Jimmy Hart was jumping up and down with glee, and while Brother Love also looked on with encouragement.

Of course, then Hulk was put out of wrestling for a couple months (taking time off), and eventually came back at SummerSlam 1990 to get his revenge.


The personalities and flashy characters was one of the key things the Hogan Era OWNS the PG Era on. This Era is the absolute worst Era as far as character development goes. They basically take any two guys out there, throw them in the ring, tell you who is the face and who is the heel, and expect you to cheer and boo accordingly.

It is extremely, extremely lazy booking and has really sucked a lot of my enjoyment out of wrestling these past few years.

 

[Ferbian]

1. What do all of you love about the sport of professional wrestling?

well thats quite simple, i love the "constant" excitement about it, the constant action in the wrestling matches, even if its not big moves, or a finisher-fest, there's just something that draws me in, but i guess its also a part of the fact that i've always loved boxing, basicly growing up with watching boxing like once a month when a danish boxer was in a fight on saturday nights, staying up till midnight or 1 am (danish time gmt + 1) now i don't watch as much boxing because there's basicly ever any on television that i know of without watching eurosport.. and thats not rly something i wanna spend my time doing.

2. Do those characteristics still exist in wrestling?

the constant action certainly does still exist, considering i've only watched wrestling for like a years time (got into it 2-3 weeks before wrestlemania, actually at the episode where orton decided which champion he wanted to face)

3. What drew you into watching it the first time? Tell us all a story.

i got into watching the first time having a on and off conversation about wrestling and such, with my best friend, and me being a complete mark, not knowing that the moves could actually be faked and the storylines weren't true, which completely intensified my interest for it, slowly loosing the mark part all thou, i simply kept enjoying it, all thou now knowing alot of the backstage stuff (which i get through this page) it's still exciting, but in a complete new way.

anyway to answer the question, my friend asked me to watch raw, kinda like "dude you have to watch..." so i looked it up on youtube, couldn't find anything, then ended up finding a stream somewhere else.. as i mentioned earlier, we don't have wwe in denmark, except for raw on a channel i don't have.. had it once, but realised it's episodes from 2 weeks before what i watch online.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

The first PPV I watched (Live) was the 1996 Royal Rumble. I really only remember two things about it, seeing as I was 6 at the time: Duke "The Dumpster" coming in at #30 (I'm guessing the name was so weird it stuck into my head) and HBK winning it. My brother was sitting in a chair writing down the names of the enterants.

After that, I didn't really pay much attention to it. I was 6, it was 1996, Power Rangers were the greatest thing ever. A few years later, I picked up WCW vs. NWO World Tour. I'm surprised the cartridge still plays after all the hours me and my neighbor clocked playing it.

I didn't really get into watching wrestling again until 2004, because someone from school just wouldn't shut up about it, EVER. I really only started watching after the 2004 Survivor Series. For some reason I can't remember, I was hooked. I'm guessing it was something about the excitement and the mystique about it. I also became a massive Benoit fan, which, thinking back, is odd. There was this kid at summer camp who I'd talk to occasionally, and we both went to it's extended day. I guess someone brought up wrestling, and I pretended to know what I was talking about. This was around 1999. Anyway, his mother turned to me when she was picking him up, and randomly went, "I don't like Chris Benoit." I wouldn't be surprised if this influenced me liking him, 5 years later.

Anywaaay, one of the biggest things for me being a wrasslin fan is how absolutely anything can happen. This might be why I'm a bigger TNA fan than WWE, even before the PG move. I'd rather take Russo's "Hey, it's been two weeks, time for another heel turn!" to McMahon's steady pace. The other factor would obviously be the in-ring action. I've always been a huge fan of cruiserweights, the whole fast paced train wreck action.

The characters have never been too big for me. Now that I've watched pretty much every era of wrestling, I kind of prefer the 80s and 90s gimmicks to the modernized ones. Piper is still my favorite wrestler of all time. If you haven't seen his DVD, I suggest you take a look at it. There's a whole disc devoted to Piper's Pit segments. Then again, this might have been why I liked Benoit so much, and guys like him. He doesn't down the entrance ramp bouncing around and humping the barricade, bobbing his head out of tune to his music. He doesn't do some pose. He just walks out, maybe cracks his neck a bit, maybe looks around. Gets in the ring. Throws his arms up or so. Then he just beats the living crap out of his opponent and leaves. I love that.

I guess, long story short, I like surprises.

 

[RVDgurl]

What drew you into watching it the first time? Tell us all a story.

When I was in kindergarten, I would get picked up from school by my uncle- because my mom was still at work- and I would go to my grandma's house until dinner time. At the time, the AWA had a show that aired on ESPN and my uncle watched it everyday, so I would sit and watch with him. I remember that the wrestlers seemed larger than life and that's what drew me in.

The way they spoke in their promos was captivating- I've always loved the interviews. They added fuel to the fire and made the fueds more intense. The interviews made the matches more important, like they really meant something.

What do all of you love about the sport of professional wrestling?

First of all, I love the way this question is worded. I love the sports aspect of wrestling. I'm much more drawn to the actual wrestling then the skits and backstage segments. I love the athleticism, the technicality and the skill of performing moves and telling a story with them.

Do those characteristics still exist in wrestling?

All the things that I liked as a kid still exist in some form today. Keep in mind that I'm much older than most people on this forum, so the whole face of wrestling has undergone some extraordinary changes since I first started watching around 1985. Promos, for example, are just as much the focus as are the matches these days. Sometimes the promos receive more attention then the matches, which is something I'm not too fond of.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

Well my "entrance" into the world of pro wrestling was spawned by something somewhat unusual I guess, as I haven't heard of anyone else getting into pro wrestling the same way I did. I was drawn in through the action figures.

Let's go back to 1990. I was 5-6 years old at the time. Hasbro had just become the new toy company to make WWF toys (I didn't know that at the time, I'm just relating that to everyone here). LJN had done the WWF toys throughout the 1980's; which were the big 8-9 inch rubbery figures (very good collectables nowadays). The Hasbro figures were about 4-5 inch plastic figures.

So anyways, I was sitting at home one day watching TV. At the time, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the big thing for me. I watched the cartoon religiously. Collected all of the toys. Then one day a commercial came on the TV advertising these new WWF action figures. I didn't know what wrestling was at the time. I just remember seeing Jesse Ventura and Randy Savage yelling at the screen showing off these action figures being played with in a toy ring and convincing the viewer to go out and get them. The toys were so flashy and cool looking. Jesse and Randy were so loud and over the top. I was amazed and drawn in instantly. Then I saw Brutus Beefcake yelling at the screen cutting the screen with his scissors. After the commerical, I was like, "I have to get those!" Soon afterwards, I was at a department store called Phar-Mor (I don't think they're in business anymore, at least they haven't been in Indiana for years). I bought a figure of the Million Dollar Man, which was my first every wrestling figure. And though it was cool to have him, I needed someone for him to fight with. Luckily my birthday wasn't far off, and my parents got me a Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior figure. Now I was set. I used my dad's comic book boxes to have my three figures fight on. And that's how it all started.

Right after that I started renting Survivor Series 90 at my video store all the time. I loved the Survivor Series format so I kept wanting to watch it. That was the first wrestling I remember watching. Then after some friends of the family told us about Wrestlemania VII and how awesome it was, I asked my parents if we could start watching wrestling on TV (because I didn't yet know how to get it on TV or what channels it was on), and we found Superstars and Wrestling Challenge, and then we were off and running. So after Wrestlemania VII, I became a total fan. We bought the toys. We watched in on TV every week. I kept going to the video store and renting all of the old ppvs. I went to my first house show/live event in June of 1991 (the main event was the Undertaker and the Ultimate Warrior in a bodybag match). The first ppv to happen after I was a fan was Summerslam 91. Unfortunately we didn't have ppv (I wouldn't get ppv ironically until 1996; 5 years after I became a fan of wrestling), but my mom's friend did, and she ordered it for us and taped it so we could watch it. Again I didn't have ppv for another 5 years (ppv wasn't near as common and easy to come by in the early 1990's as it is today), so for the ppv events throughout the next 5 years, we either found someone to order them for us, or we would just wait until they came out on video. But I watched Superstars, Wrestling Challenge, Prime Time Wrestling, All American Wrestling, and Saturday's Night Main Event (although only 3 more episodes were made after I became a fan (one in April of 1991, February of 1992 (when Sid turned on Hogan), and October of 1992 (when Shawn Michaels won the I-C title for the 1st time))) every week. About a year after I became a fan, I attended my 2nd live show, 1st ppv event, and to this day my first and only Wrestlemania event, Wrestlemania VIII which was at the Hoosier Dome (which was tore down a few years ago to make way for Lucas Oil Stadium) in April of 1992.


So that's pretty much the run down of my first year or so as a wrestling fan.

So while the action figures are ultimately what drew me into wrestling, what exactly was it that kept me watching and made me become a hardcore fan? (which I remained as such until about 4-5 years ago, whereas now I'd say I'm a moderate fan, but still a big fan of "old school" wrestling). If I had to pin it down to one thing, I would say it was "the characters."

Every wrestler was larger than life and interesting to watch in that era. Even the wrestlers that weren't the big names or didn't have amazing mic skills. Most of those guys (take a guy like the Warlord for example) still had something interesting about them. Either their size or physique, or a manager to talk for them, or just a really distinctive costume or something. Every wrestler was distinctive and unique and could draw you in to watch. Forget the Simpsons or Full House or Family Matters or Law and Order or Seinfeld, or whatever shows were on in the early 90s. The most interesting characters on TV for me were Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, Jake the Snake Roberts, Ric Flair, the Undertaker, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Mr. Perfect, Bret Hart, Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Miss Elizabeth, Mean Gene Okerlund, etc.

Professional wrestling to me was just a larger than life, outlandish movie. Just as I was drawn into cheering for Batman to take out the Joker in the original Batman movie, I was drawn into wanting to see Randy Savage get his hands on Jake Roberts for what he had done to him and Miss Elizabeth. Just as I was scared to death of, yet fascinated by Freddy Kruger or the spiders in Arachnaphobia, I was scared to death of, yet in awe, of the Undertaker. Just as I would laugh at the antics of Wayne and Garth in Wayne's World, I would laugh at the pure ridiculousness of someone like the Repo Man (as I talked about in the guilty pleasure thread). Or I could just watch Bret Hart wrestle, and be inspired by his athleticism, and by his no-nonsense, work hard mentality. Wrestling had everything that could make you want to watch a movie or a TV show, or see in a play at a theater (although I didn't go see plays much as a kid).

It was larger than life and fascinating for a kid. I've never enjoyed reading more than watching something on TV. When I hear about a good book being made into a movie, I don't go out and get the book. I just wait for the movie to come out. I'm one of those people that would much rather SEE a story play out before my eyes, than for me to read a story play out. I guess I'm just not that imaginative. So while I collected the cards and the toys and would watch the cartoons on FOX of the Marvel and DC superheroes and villains, I never really read the comic books much (despite having plenty of access to them as my dad is a life-long hardcore comic book collector). In 1991 there was no visual outlet (being TV or films) really for larger than life superhero and supervillian like characters, with the exception of the Batman and Superman films (the X-Men and Spider Man cartoons on FOX didn't come out til around 1993 or 1994). But there was wrestling. I didn't like to read much. So I didn't have to sit through an X-Men or Spider Man comic and be bored. I could just watch Hulk Hogan on TV come back, draw in the energy of the "Hulkamaniacs" and beat his latest arch-nemesis and then pose in victory for the crowd at the end in a big celebration. I could just watch the Ultimate Warrior run down the ring like a maniac, shake the ropes, talk like a superhero on television and just act like a raging lunatic, which is something every 6 year old boy deep down wants to do. We're all little lunatics at that age, right?

Wrestling was just my visual outlet to larger than life characters that every young male seeks out and "needs." All young males in that era (late 1980's/early 1990's) had GI Joe or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or He-Man or Transformers or Marvel or DC Comics for the fictional heroic characters to look up to and admire. GI Joe, Transformers, and He-Man for some reason I didn't really click with much. I had no visual outet really for the Marvel and DC comic characters (except the Batman movies) (and because again, unlike most people, I didn't like to read so I wouldn't read the comics), so I didn't follow them much. I got into the Turtles, but wrestling was what really worked for me. Those wrestlers were the fictional superhero like characters that I followed and looked up to.

Of course as I got older and watched it longer, I understood it more, learned it was really a performance art and not a comic book come to life, etc. But in those early years, it was the characters, the larger than life heroes to cheer and villians to boo and hate that glued me in and made me watch and become a fan.

 

[Big Time]

I actually only began watching wrestling in 04, though I have been aware of it since I was a kid. For me, what draws me in is the story telling and characters and such. I want to feel like I'm watching a fight, I dont care that much for spots or anything like that. Genuine brawls and match wrestling is better in my view. I want to feel like the champions fight over titles that mean something. I remember Evolution being in its heyday when I began watching, just after Orton turned face for the first time

 

[Monkey_Mania]

What drew me in? Shit I was 3 years old when I was flippng through channels. Then I saw this guy with bright facepaint. His name was Sting. I remember going, "Huh, this is sweet." I was then attached to every one of his movements. They way he would fly onto his opponent. The way he would be pretty much impervious to anything. He was like Superman. Only at the time I thought it was real. Ever since then. I've continued to watch.

I just don't know if today's wrestling still intrigues me anymore. I still watch, and I still love it. There's just something missing. Maybe when I found out wrestling was fake, yet I even then I still loved it. I've always loved wrestling though, I've seen absolute shit, and then I've seen pure gold. I'll always watch, and I have one guy to thank for it. His name is Sting.

 

[ashe draven]

To answer your question I love the way a story can be told in a match by the best of wrestlers. How a feud, if well done, can be so captivating. & when ur watching something special & u know it, weather it be a match or promo, u hang on every move or word. THATS what i love about wrestling. Does it still exist now? Yes, but not as consistent as it was in the past. But i know ill watch it till my end. And when was i hooked? Shamefully it was when i was around 10,when my cousin was over, who was very into wwf, demanded we watch WWF superstars on a sunday. I watched Warrior dismantle a jobber in seconds. It was AWESOME at the time. I was hooked ever since.

 

[Freddy4190]

I started watching wrestling when I was about 8 years old. Right in the mayday of the Attitude Era. I was flipping channels and landed on Smackdown. I didn't have cable, not alot of channels to flip. Hah. UPN, channel 65 here in Richmond. Or was at least. Anyways. The Rock and Triple H and Stone Cold were the ones I remember. Triple H and the Rock were on the microphones talking shit, then the Rock said "i'm gonna take that sledgehammer, shiiiiiinee it up real nice, turn that sumbitch sideways, and stick it straight up yo candy ass!" I loved that. I laughed and continued watching, much to the dismay of my mom and dad. I tried to watch it as much as possible but couldn't really until about 2001 or so. Just the athleticism of these dudes, the way they carried themselves. They kicked total ass, they were hilarious, they just defined awesomeness. I've been drawn in ever since.

 

[Chill]

What drew me into pro wrestling and what I intially loved about it was the larger than life characters. It all began for me around 1997 when I saw Sting on WCW, everything about him was just so cool, from his look to his wrestling, I just thought Sting was the real deal. So I would actually have to credit Sting for drawing me into wrestling and from that day on I've been a fan ever since.

At first, I was a WCW guy but then when I saw Kane debut in the WWE, I then developed a big interest in Vince's company and of course some of the stuff WWE was doing at that time was so outrageous and entertaining that a young fan like myself couldn't help but like it. Then as I became more privy to the worked nature of wrestling, I began to respect and appreciate all the tricks of the trade and athleticism which these guys use to draw us in and make it appear real, when it's actually just this great big illusion.

Today, the landscape of pro wrestling is very different, WWE is obviously the dominant mainstream wrestling company and at times wrestling (not just WWE) lacks the aura of unpredictability that it once had but hopefully that will change if TNA is able to become a legitimate competitor in the future.

As to the question of whether the characteristics of pro wrestling which intially drew me in still exist, I think that they do, but you just have to dig a little deeper to find them. Obviously the larger than life characters have been toned down some what but they still exist, the storylines are not as creative as times gone by but every now and again they come up with something that draws us in.

Overall, I'm still as big a fan today as I was when I first discovered wrestling and while it might be true that the business is experiencing a lull right now, that doesn't change the fact that there are still positives and I'm always excited to see the next direction it will go in. In a way following wrestling is like following your favourite football team...there are times when you feel like giving up but you never do, I don't know how many times I've threatened to stop supporting my team if their form didn't improve but in reality of course, I've never missed a game.

The same love/hate relationship applies to wrestling, there are times when you question yourself for watching but my interest in the art of pro wrestling is what ultimately keeps me coming back for more, no matter how dire it gets at times...