Why are you a wrestling fan?

[Caitiff]

I'll admit. I've been asked that question for as long s I can remember, by more people than I care to try to count. After a while, instead of trying to explain it with words, I would just turn on a tape that I had prepared, specifically for this purpose. On that tape were things like Jerry Lynn vs. RVD, Hogan slamming Andre, Steamboat vs. Flair. But, at the very beginning of the tape was my favorite moment in wrestling history.

Sadly, I couldn't find a good quality video with just this moment, so I had to use this one. Just go to 4:45 and see what I'm talking about. Everything about that moment just screamed drama, and is a great example of everything I love about professional wrestling. Even watching it today, it gave me goosebumps.

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So, if you had to point to a single moment in time, what would you count as the best reason you're a wrestling fan?

 

[Platypus Palsy]

I started watching in 1998 as a child. There wasn't a specific moment that got me watching. Almost everyone in my house watched it, and at the time I was living with my extended family, so there were quite a few people in front of the TV. I had wanted to watch cartoons or something, but the TV was overrun and one day I decided to stay and watch. What I saw was amazing. I saw Stone Cold, The Rock, Kane, Triple H, Scott Hall, Hollywood Hogan, etc. We would constantly switch on commercial breaks.

I do have to say that what got me watching permanently was Big Boss Man. I like that he was a cop and had the night stick and would beat down people with it. I didn't have a concept of face or heel at the time nor did I really get who was good or bad from a pure fan standpoint. I enjoyed every minute of it and enjoyed every wrestler. I didn't pay attention to angles or bad booking or anything, so I'll admit I even enjoyed WCW from '99 onward.

When The Rock and Austin retired, I was still a child but had lost the love of it just for the love of it. They had become my favorites and I had really stopped caring about everyone. Then I started going to TNA events here in town. I got back into wrestling and I started watching WWE again and Cena and Brock were feuding, Cena instantly became my favorite. I remembered Angle from before so I started liking him again. I went along like this for a few years, and this whole time I had no knowledge of the IWC.

I finally got the internet in 2009, and found WrestleZone almost instantly. I joined up here and well here I am. I kind of took this topic a little farther and turned it into the autobiography of my time as a wrestling fan, but the answer to the topic is here.

 

[gers09]

i started watching early 90s can't think of a moment that made me a fan of it it was turned on and i thought this is great and became a fan

as for you video that is one of the best moments ever and you can see the fans change they cheer when Bret wins the match but when he goes back to put sharpshooter on again and ken stops him they go nuts cheering again

 

[peep4life]

Well i dont know if there a exact moment but i started watching in 04. one of the main reason was the Late Great Eddie Guerroe(thats not spelled right)he was very entertaining then him winning the title at No Way Out against Brock Lesnar when it seemed impossible. another reason is Rey Mysterio he was so exciting to watch in the ring and the Fued going on between HBK and HHH was to me the best fued in the history of wrestling and then the match at WM20 between HBK HHH and BENOIT was a classic(shame WWE will never show it again). but i think the MAIN reason is because i just abosuletly love the bussiness.

 

[dionlyone18]

Im 19 years old. I started watching about 1996 yeah i was fairly young...really youn..id watch it with my dad cause he was a huge HBK fan. so i started to love HBK then he stopped watching wrestling and i just loved everything about wrestling i couldnt miss a nitro a smackdown a thunder or a ppv. i remember going to summerslam when it came my way in 2000..where the first TLC took place where Shane mcmahon fell of the tron..this was my first ppv i attended and i loved it.theres just this feeling you get when you watch it its like really..indescribeableyeah we know its fake and yeah they do things sometimes thats annoying..but i can tell you i still turn my tv every monday night to raw and love every minute of it....

 

[Rhinestone Rick]

For me it was WCW Uncensored 1997 that did it, the first wrestling event I ever took the time to sit down and watch. The ad on TV for it featured Hogan, and I remembered people telling me how rad Hogan was when I was a kid, and it also featured Glacier. I was hell into Mortal Kombat at the time, so Glacier was enough to get me to watch. Anyway, I soon forgot all about him, when the nWo showed up. I didn't know at this point that it wasn't "real" so I though Hogan and the nWo were really giving a beat down to DDP and Kimberley, so I was appalled at the aggressiveness, but I couldn't look away, then Sting came down from the rafters and owned them with a bat. Soon thereafter, Sting became my favourite wrestler, and I was totally hooked on wrestling.

What I was most into was the aesthetic, the shock factor, the promos and the angles. I couldn't look away.

Then as I got older I started to care more about wrestling ability, more so than angles or gimmicks and I stopped really caring about guys like Sting, and started to be more about technicians like Bret Hart. But I still watch for all the other stuff, but only when it's done right. Besides, if I want to see a match I'll watch a PPV, I watch Raw for the angles and promos etc.

 

[Free Birds in my Basement]

I started watching back in the early 80s. I am 34 now and I was/am a huge NWA/territory fan. Some of my greatest memories are watching Wrestling at the Chase from my hometown, St. Louis, where a who's who passed through from Hulk Hogan to the Von Erichs and the Nature Boy, watching World Wide Wrestling in syndication and having Paul Jones' Barbarian scare the hell out of me at 9 years of age, as well as waking up on Sunday mornings and watching WCCW. The only reason I watch now is that I feel a strong loyalty to the sport, not entertainment, as well as I hope to see people that I have only heard about, like Bryan Danielson, appear and make a much needed impact in this Cena driven, over hyped WWF product.

 

[greg_74]

I started watching wrestling back in 1998 when I was about 10 years old. I friend of mine that lived in my neighborhood and still is one of my best friends got me started on it and I've been hooked ever since. The whole attitude era was great but the main reason had to be Stone Cold Steve Austin. To this day he is by far my favorite wrestler of all time. If he wouldn't have been in the WWF at the time I still would have become a wrestling fan because of guys like The Rock, Undertaker, and Kane but he is what got me hooked.

And the reason that I'm still watching is because it's so hard to stop. I kinda lost interest for a couple years after the brand split but I contined to watch Raw the whole time and have become a big fan again since around 2006 even though I hate the whole PG thing, which is why I'm liking a lot more heels now.

 

[Nicole13Edge/HardyFan]

I started watching wrestling in 2002 when I was eight years old. My daddy would watch wrestling whenever it was on and so one day I decided to watch it with him and I have been a wrestling fan ever since. My dad was a Batista, HBK and Stone Cold fan so I became a fan of theme to. Also I have been asked a lot of times why I am a wrestling fan just like most of you one of my friends asks me all the time why I am a wrestling fan and I tell her about the most memorable fueds during the attitude era.