Which Wrestler(s) Turned You Into A WWE Fan?

[Viola Moonlight]

I thought that I should dedicate a more positive thread & spice up the WWE Forum section by simply asking which wrestler made you take the switch into the unescapable world of wrestling, specifically a fan of Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment. For myself, I have two:

Mickie James - [Such a suprise coming from me!] Probably the best acquisition that the WWE ever made considering the women's division. She is the only reason that I still tune into WWE programming to this day because of just how much of a great female wrestler she is. There isn't anybody like the James. She is good-looking, has excellent wrestling ability in many specialist areas, can compete with the men if need be, a veteran of the ring, can carry any match, suberb ring psychology, great charisma/promo/mic skills & she was Alexis Laree.

Kurt Angle - [Didn't see that coming did you?] This man, I believe, is the greatest professional wrestler to step into the squared [or hexagoned] circle ever. He is the only Olympic Gold Medalist to switch from amateur to professional & has put on some great classics. The first time I tuned into wrestling was the debut of Kurt Angle. From that moment on, I watched whatever company he was with just for him. Everything about this man just equaled perfection [not taking away from Mr. Perfect or Dolph Ziggler] & he was the man to make me have an undying passion for pro wrestling, even getting myself to consider taking a career as a wrestler.

So, there are mine. What's yours?

 

[Paradox]

The Rock is the man that made me love the wwe. The guy was amazing. He could cut the best promos every night and then go out and have some of the best matches each night. As a kid I loved all of his corny names he had for everyone, and the way he mocked each of his opponents. Whether it was the Big show, as 500 pound piece of monkey crap. Or Undertaker and his 33 pound head and his mickey mouse tattoos. i love the guy and he really made me love Wwe

 

[Platypus Palsy]

Stone Cold Steve Austin - I grew up in the Attitude Era and my first experiences with wrestling was watching Stone Cold. He's just so damn entertaining I have never gotten tired of watching anything he's done.

The Rock - Just like Stone Cold, he's just so damn entertaining. He was funny and had great matches.

Kurt Angle - He was the reason I kept watching wrestling after the departure of The Rock and Stone Cold. He was funny in his work with The Rock and Stone Cold. The "you suck" chants were a plus as well.

Honorable Mention:

Big Boss Man - I have no idea why I liked him, but I did. Maybe I just liked the fact that he brought that night stick to the ring or maybe it was I thought he was cool because he wore a cop outfit. I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Felderino]

The Ultimate Warrior was the man that got me hooked on wrestling, the first match I ever saw was the steel cage match from summerslam 1990 with Ravishing Rick Rude.
Looking back he stank as a wrestler but as a 7 year old I loved the energy and rawness he brought to the ring and his entrance was awesome!!

 

[Klown_Karnage]

Frankly, there were two wrestlers that really got my attention and kept me coming back for more and more.

Rey Mysterio: I'm a major Rey-fan, not just because I'm a big fan of underdog stories, but because of the fact that he knows now and always knew how to keep a match interesting. You never knew where he was going to jump from or where he was going to land...or what acrobatic feat he was going to do once he did. He's been consistently interesting throughout his long and storied career, which ain't over yet, and he's also (to my knowledge) the last masked wrestler in the WWE. (Do correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

The Undertaker: Yes, I know this one is soon to be overused, but there's a reason. This guy has it all, showmanship, power, versatility, and staying power. He can go to the air and to the mat, use both power and speed, be both martial artist and grappler, do both face and heel, play it straight or silly, win and lose effectively. I'm sorry for going on and on singing this guy's praises, but I truly believe that he's the best all-around wrestler of all time. That's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[Lee]

It's weird as I can remember watching wrestling pretty young round my grandma's house. I can remember Hogan . Savage, Slaughter and Warrior. I remember Undertakers debut...but they didn't make me into WWE fans. That would be one man...the British Bulldog, here you had a guy from my country over there 'in America' and doing us proud. He was a true international star and to this day most of the Brits know who he is.

 

[CJ The Pirate]

That's a great question.

I'd have to say The Undertaker.

I can remember getting the Survivor Series on VHS taped by one of my brother's school friends and watching the Undertaker/Yokozuna casket match. The one where he lost and then ascended out. That was amazing! My brother says he can still remember the sheer amazement on my face from that day. I truely believed what happened had happened! It was brilliant!

If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doDoT9f5Vlc

After that, my viewing was very limited. Occasional videos. Occasional best of's. A sticker collection. But nothing like that.

I began watching regularly shortly before the 1998 Royal Rumble. I can remember that PPV. It was my second PPV ever.
I remember watching Kane destroy Vader.
I remember seeing the New Age Outlaws for the first time and thinking "These guys have no chance against the LOD." After that match, I was an Outlaw fan. In a huge way.
Stone Cold Steve Austin won the Rumble. Wow! It is Stone Cold that I give the credit of making the Rumble match one of my most looked forward to events of the year. This was the match. (2002's was even better) that did that.

And then... OH AND THEN... magic struck twice for me. The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels in ANOTHER CASKET MATCH. Taker lost. And I knew something else had to happen. It happened last time. Why could he ressurect that time but not this time. Kane clearly had the same idea and SET THE UNDERTAKER'S CASKET ON FIRE WHILST HE WAS STILL INSIDE! OH... MY... GOD!

That set off the whole Toll the bell ten times thing which I loved. It was like one of those old childhood dares (Say Michael Jackson three times in a mirror) It worked! And back he came! Wow! And then the match at Wrestlemania... followed by an Inferno match.

Undertaker means a great deal to me. The whole Kane storyline was My Storyline.

I've been hooked ever since.

 

[Auxygen]

Jeff Hardy, for sure. Just remembering how much of a daredevil he was made me want to watch WWE again.

 

[Dave]

For me it was one man and one man only:

The Game: Triple H

When I was younger, the only access to wrestling I had was Sunday Night Heat. I remember seeing him on one occasion and he was practically bitching Mosh and Thrasher around (I hope that was there names). Point is, that was what encapsulated me into the WWE and the reason that I am still watching today. Triple H has been one of very few wrestlers I will ecer mark out and my favourite wrestlers period. He has accomplished everything and I think he gets an undeserved bad rep from people.

Before that point though, I used to watch WCW because it was on the normal TV and not cable. I remember watching Hogan on it and thinking "Wow, look at that". I think that was when I really started to enjoy wrestling.

 

[bfprimetime]

Mine would have to be HBK! I wasn't a big wrestling fan, even would said I didn't like at all. Until I saw Wrestlemania 12 ,and it was his Iron Man match that turned me into the wrestling fan that I am today.

 

[Deadman4ever34]

Well being a older wrestling fan, I have to say THE UNDERTAKER! I first watched the 1990 Survivor Series on BETA, and I loved how different he was. and as I saw him, I thought the same. You always had Hogan, Warrior, Austin, Rock, but when talking about Andre the Giant and Undertaker, your in two WAY different classes! Personally I like something that is different, and back in the day Undertaker was it, hands down!!

 

[theBusiness]

Shawn Michaels and Diesel...

I started watching wrestling when these guys were the biggest faces in the company. I was only 6 years old but I vividly remember watching these two as the final 2 in the 1996 Royal Rumble (the first ppv i ever watched live) and I was so excited. I drifted away from wrestling once HBK started getting off the scene (1997). Stone Cold is another one. He brought me back into wrestling when the Attitude Era began to peak.

 

[Dexter]

DX. I'm just a total freakin mark for them and always have been. They're not necessarily the greatest wrestlers who ever lived, and they're often more side-show than actual wrestling content, but dammit, they're just fun to watch.

I just get burnout after a while watching an endless stream of guys that take themselves too seriously, but then here comes DX pretty much making a mockery of the entire sport, and it WORKS. They remind us that when it comes right down to it, it's not about the technical ability and all these things we talk about in the IWC. Ultimately, it's just about having fun and being entertained, and no one does that better than DX.

 

[tomcat2k2]

Bret Hart (esp his matches with Mr. Perfect) definitely got me hooked on WWE. I used to watch occasionally in the "glory days" of Hulk Hogan but I did not like the cartoony feel of the product in the early 90's. Bret made it seem almost "real" in a time I was beginning persuing amateur wrestling. While he may not have been the most charismatic guy around, any fued he was involved in felt like a must see and I wasn't disappointed (Feud w/ HBK, Stone cold @ WM13.)

Honorable mention for Kurt Angle. Around the time of Angle's debut my love affair with pro wrestling was waning but Kurt brought that "real" aspect that I fellin love with with Bret Hart. The man knows how to tell a story in the ring, enough said.

 

[Slowdude]

Rapper Cena
Eddie Guerrero
Chris Benoit
Wrestlemania 20.

I had been watching wrestling for a few months before WM20. I ordered WM20 because I wanted to see who this "Undertaker" character was. I also ordered it to see Goldberg vs Lesnar (Though I knew both were leaving before hand like everyone else). I loved the Cena match and was wow'ed when he fu'ed the Big Show.
I enjoyed the matches up until the Lesnar v Goldberg. That was a shit fest. I didn't even know the Eddie vs Kurt match was on the card. I laughed so hard when Eddie pulled the boot off. Taker vs Kane bored me, Taker took to long to get to the ring . Then Benoit vs HHH vs HBK. After Benoit Won and celebrated with Eddie i was hooked.

 

[flaboy]

i think for me it was kidman and the old school rey back in wcw then after the wars ended there waqs nothin really to watch but wwe and i remember the first match i saw of wwe was val venus vs old scholl goldust but what really got me in it was the hardyz jeff particually and the dudleys but also old school booker non of that king crap

 

[Tino571]

HULK HOGAN!! I started when I was young and always loved Hulk and whatever he did, and when he started the NWO I loved him even more.

I've always been a big fan of Undertaker as well, ever since his debut.

For some reason I was a big Mountie fan also, don't ask why I just digged the guy tazering people.

 

[BernacK6]

Guaranteed to be the only time this man gets mentioned on this thread: YOKOZUNA. Could anyone bodyslam him on the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid? If this guy could bury the Undertaker (with help, of course), who could stop him?

Yoko had so much intrigue surrounding him and watching the WWE Superstars of the New Generation attempt to stop this man was very entertaining.

 

[Spaceman Spif]

Hulk Hogan. He was the man when I started watching. I started watching young, real young and can remember it, the whole eat you vitamins and says your prayers speeches really got to me at a young, tender age when I still believed wrestling was real and if you followed the Hulkster's advice you would be a good person. How could that not hook anyone.

Randy Savage. OHHH YEAHHHHHH! The flamboyance, the intensity, the mic dazzling mic work and the over the top outfit, made for a flashy, brash, but tough and calculating wrestler who could hold you in the palm of his hand. I loved the Macho Man and even had his sunglasses. Everytime I heard his music, my little ass would be bouncing up and down on the edge of the couch.

Big Boss Man. Back in the day he was the man, I mean you couldn't help but mark out to a russian leg sweep pulled off courtesy of a police baton to the throat.

What can I say, when I was younger I was a gimmick mark and those men, plus a few more made me a fan. Man I miss those days.

 

[Taker316]

Well quite obviously Taker got me right into the WWE. Just when your a lil kid watchin it, it was just so believable! Haha like wayyy too cool the stuff he'd do!!

Also, gotta say HBK was one of my favorites of all time growing up, i remember the *sexy boy* song was just so damn catchy, i'd sing it when i was a lil fella and my parents would be like ''WHAT??? thats innapropriate!!!!''

 

[jmt225]

I became a fan around Wrestlemania 4, so the answer is definitely Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and I'd even have to give Miss Elizabeth some credit as well. I loved all three. Savage was my favorite until he turned, but he was still someone I loved to hate after that. Savage was just so damn unique and entertaining, and then he had the most beautiful woman ever by his side. Miss Elizabeth, like I said, was just gorgeous and genuinely seemed like one of the sweetest people who ever existed. How could anyone not love her? And of course there was Hulk Hogan, who was Hulk Hogan. The dude was just larger than life and you knew you were watching something special whenever he entered the ring.

 

[Sasori]

BRET HART!

Quite simply, the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. Than I'd say 'nuff said, but that might count as spam. Bret Hart was in the first match I had ever seen, I had no teeth, barely any hair, and was shitting in diapers. I was barely one years old. Plus he had like the best grappling and mat skills EVER!

 

[tLight]

I love wrestling when I was a kid, younger than like 7.

But the NWO and WCW is what brought me back to the sport

 

[ECDublegend]

I'm sad to say Chris benoit.. I loved his character and his in ring abilities were nasty. He was really edgy in my opinion and he seemed like he was an underdog kind of guy which made me like him more.

 

[Skrilla]

My had to be KANE. I believe it was 97 or 98. The first time I watched WWF by choice. I used to think it was really boring. I was in 5th grade and tuned into RAW and saw Kane hit Vader with a wrench. At that moment, I was hooked. I thought Kane was the coolest guy in the world. Though I am still a Kane fan, I can honestly say I am not a huge a mark as I used to be.