Born and raised in Miami, Florida, so from the get-go it was Championship Wrestling from Florida with the legendary "Walter Cronkite of wrestling" on the mike, Gordon Solie. I started watching at about age 8 in 1979 and was hooked on the Florida territory and National Wrestling Alliance style of action in general.
I abhorred the WWF product of the "Hulkamania" era, and I abhor today's as well. I can tell from some of the responses in the thread that the extent of their wrestling exposure has been Vince McMahon's product. If so, you guys don't know what you've missed. Old-time "territory" wrestling like Florida, World Class Championship Wrestling from the Dallas Sportatorium as was mentioned in this thread, Mid-Southern Wrestling from Memphis's Channel 5 studios, Georgia Championship Wrestling from the Techwood Drive studios in Atlanta, that was incredible, non-cartoonish wrestling action.
What I miss the most about those days was the gripping psychology that weaved through a lot of the "storylines" and matches. No one had to get on a microphone and spew a single obscenity to get a rise out of the crowd either, as seems to be the norm nowadays.
Ironically, a lot of the WWF stars that many reminisce about from their childhood days had much more entertaining and compelling runs in the NWA and/or AWA years before appearing in McMahon's circus.
If you loved Piper on Piper's Pit in the 80s, you'd be on the edge of your seat watching him save his broadcast partner Gordon Solie from an attack by Don "Magnificent" Muraco on the set of Championship Wrestling from Georgia in 1981, his incredible matches in the Pacific Northwest territory in the late 70s, and his equally thrilling encounters with Ric Flair throughout the NWA's Mid-Atlantic region in the early 80s.
If you think, like Hostile rightfully does, that Hogan was overrated and a boring wrestler, you'd be surprised to see him pre-WWF competing in the AWA for the world belt in some matches you'd never thought he'd be able to put together.
If you thought "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was a riot opening up Budweisers and insulting McMahon, you would have gotten a kick out watching him put on a wrestling clinic in WCW in the 1991 and 1992, often as part of a spectacular tag team with the late Brian Pillman, when they were the Hollywood Blondes. He was great in World Class Wrestling as well in the late 80s in partnership with the "California Stud" Rod Price.
Top 10 fave wrestlers (no specific order):
1) Mil Mascaras
2) Barry Windham
3) Ric Flair
4) Arn Anderson
5) Bobby Eaton of the Midnight Express
6) Stan Lane and Steve Keirn as the Fabulous Ones
7) Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton as the Fantastics
8) Mr. Wrestling II
9) "Stunning" Steve Austin (pre-WWF/WWE days)
10) Chris Adams
