I grew up watching wrestling when I was 5 years old. My family was big into amateur wrestling. Kinda weird because growing up, nobody in my family had an issue with pro wrestling. But when I look at amateur wrestlers today, they all knock it. I remember most of the kids understood fully that pro wrestling was 'fake', but they just were into it much like some kids are into comic book heroes.
I think the first thing that I got into was Sgt. Slaughter. Eventually my parents got one of those old, giant satellite dishes which rock because they can get virtually any TV station known to man. So I used to grow up watching WWF, NWA Georgia Championship wrestling which later became WCW, World Class with the Von Erichs, and AWA. Eventually a family friend of mine became a pro wrestler, but I won't mention his name.
Later on I got to see a lot of Lucha Libre. Today's Lucha I'm not too much into. But this was AAA in the Los Gringo Locos days (Art Barr & Eddy Guerrero) Eddy was the better athlete, but Art was really good in the ring and I never saw a guy who could just make a smirk and cause the fans to almost riot. He was the most natural heel I ever saw.
Then came ECW. I had a friend going to Penn and he taped one of their shows and I really enjoyed it. A few months later it showed up on MSG Network. I came home a bit early from a party and discovered it was on TV (1st MSG episode as well).
I made it to the ECW Arena a few times. It's kinda funny how much I loathe Philly sports fans, yet have such a high respect for Philly pro wrestling fans. Usually it's the opposite way. I went to the Elks Lodge in Queens twice and vowed never to go again because the fans there were vile, drunk and high, and looking to start a riot. And they were more about getting themselves over than getting the wrestlers over. ECW Arena, to me, was about as good as it got.
It also coincided with when I first got on the internet and I met so many good friends thru that. I always shrug when people think that wrestling fans are a bunch of morons as by far and away, some of the most brilliant people who are very successful financially are wrestling fans.
College came and pro wrestling hit its peak. My family friend was long into WCW by that time and I got to make some backstage visits and meet guys like Steve Austin. There's a reason why Austin turned into the, IMO, the greatest wrestler ever...he's a bright and creative guy, works hard and loved wrestling and thought about 24/7.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of ugliness in pro wrestling. Lots of guys are good guys deep down, but once they get messed up with drugs you'd rather not have anything to do with them. Bam Bam Bigelow was like that. Great guy, but if he was drunk or high, he just came off as more pathetic than anything else. Not that it's anything new with people and drugs, but the drug problem is so rampant in pro wrestling, you get that all of the time.
Now I hardly ever watch wrestling. I'd probably watch Chikara if it were on TV. TNA is just making the same mistakes that WCW made (Vince Russo used to live down the block from me in Atlanta) and I kinda got sick of the WWE after Owen Hart's death.
YR
