this was so great to read! when you first mentioned being enamored by the undertaker, i audibly gasped and squealed a bit haha. i used to imagine him as my dad when i was in high school obsessed with wwe my entire junior year. also this article reminded me triple h’s real name isn’t even hunter😂 so much lore i forgot over the years away is coming back to me.
way back in the day, as an elementary kid, i adored rakishi bc, i mean, what kid wouldn’t find joy in that jiggly ass to face chaos? kane actually scared tf out of me back then too, in his masked days.
my return to wwe was in ‘09-‘10, my junior year, a time when wrestlers like chris jericho, randy orton, cm punk, undertaker, cena, shawn michaels, triple h, and batista were still at the forefront of the company. i remember being so weirdly infatuated with shaemus of all people too😭 he still looks the same, but drew mcintyre’s maturation has left me baffled. i only just realized he was the drew i remember beginning his career all those years ago during smackdown this past week. he really bulked up! also have such a love for cody rhodes bc my best friend and i used to cringely call each other cody and ted as nicknames taken from rhodes and his old tag team partner ted dibiase. i could not believe cody is the face of the company now! feels like my boy has grown up so well🥲 thanks so much for directing me to this post so i could take this nostalgia trip through your memories and my own. looking forward to more posts and sharing the excitement of the live events to come!
I wish I were able to remember what made me become interested in pro wrestling. They say you always remember your first match, but considering my family were avid pro wrestling watchers (my dad was at the first ever sold out WWF stadium show in Toronto), I was always around it.
My grandfather would do Ric Flair impressions. Whenever we saw America doing something silly on the news my dad would go into an Iron Sheik routine. The works, which causes me to not remember the beginning of my pro wrestling fandom, because it started before my memory does. Perhaps this is lucky in a world where fewer and fewer people are watching pro wrestling that it was used as a family activity like this.
I can tell our opinions on pro wrestling differ quite a lot. I'm not as much a fan of silliness in pro wrestling, and I don't know if fun is an operative word I would use for it if it were being done exactly for my tastes, but we agree on the most important thing. Nothing is better for a bit of escapism than the wacky, over the top dramaticism that is so common in the world of professional wrestling, and more people ought to give it a try.
That is definitely what’s most important. I also think that’s what makes wrestling so great. At its best it has something for everyone and is entertaining all around, even if something isn’t to your exact taste.
I love that you grew up with wrestling as a family hobby. That’s the way it’s slowly becoming in my house and my wife gets into it almost as much as I do. It’s much better than watching wrestling by yourself!
This was a great read!!!! As someone who never got into it all my life until this year, I’m now like how you were. Even went to raw, SD and AEW live. I write about it (from a new fans pov). But I try to learn about the old wrestlers and all that and it’s all so interesting!! You’re right it being more real than movies! And I love the stories written for the characters.
this was so great to read! when you first mentioned being enamored by the undertaker, i audibly gasped and squealed a bit haha. i used to imagine him as my dad when i was in high school obsessed with wwe my entire junior year. also this article reminded me triple h’s real name isn’t even hunter😂 so much lore i forgot over the years away is coming back to me.
way back in the day, as an elementary kid, i adored rakishi bc, i mean, what kid wouldn’t find joy in that jiggly ass to face chaos? kane actually scared tf out of me back then too, in his masked days.
my return to wwe was in ‘09-‘10, my junior year, a time when wrestlers like chris jericho, randy orton, cm punk, undertaker, cena, shawn michaels, triple h, and batista were still at the forefront of the company. i remember being so weirdly infatuated with shaemus of all people too😭 he still looks the same, but drew mcintyre’s maturation has left me baffled. i only just realized he was the drew i remember beginning his career all those years ago during smackdown this past week. he really bulked up! also have such a love for cody rhodes bc my best friend and i used to cringely call each other cody and ted as nicknames taken from rhodes and his old tag team partner ted dibiase. i could not believe cody is the face of the company now! feels like my boy has grown up so well🥲 thanks so much for directing me to this post so i could take this nostalgia trip through your memories and my own. looking forward to more posts and sharing the excitement of the live events to come!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! The history of pro wrestling is part of what makes it so captivating.
I wish I were able to remember what made me become interested in pro wrestling. They say you always remember your first match, but considering my family were avid pro wrestling watchers (my dad was at the first ever sold out WWF stadium show in Toronto), I was always around it.
My grandfather would do Ric Flair impressions. Whenever we saw America doing something silly on the news my dad would go into an Iron Sheik routine. The works, which causes me to not remember the beginning of my pro wrestling fandom, because it started before my memory does. Perhaps this is lucky in a world where fewer and fewer people are watching pro wrestling that it was used as a family activity like this.
I can tell our opinions on pro wrestling differ quite a lot. I'm not as much a fan of silliness in pro wrestling, and I don't know if fun is an operative word I would use for it if it were being done exactly for my tastes, but we agree on the most important thing. Nothing is better for a bit of escapism than the wacky, over the top dramaticism that is so common in the world of professional wrestling, and more people ought to give it a try.
That is definitely what’s most important. I also think that’s what makes wrestling so great. At its best it has something for everyone and is entertaining all around, even if something isn’t to your exact taste.
I love that you grew up with wrestling as a family hobby. That’s the way it’s slowly becoming in my house and my wife gets into it almost as much as I do. It’s much better than watching wrestling by yourself!
This was a great read!!!! As someone who never got into it all my life until this year, I’m now like how you were. Even went to raw, SD and AEW live. I write about it (from a new fans pov). But I try to learn about the old wrestlers and all that and it’s all so interesting!! You’re right it being more real than movies! And I love the stories written for the characters.
Excited for Bad Blood next weekend??
Thank you so much for your comment! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. Going to live events is a blast and I'm hoping to be able to go to another soon.
I'm very excited for Bad Blood! It's looking like a sneaky pick for show of the year if the matches live up to expectations.
I hope you do too! I wanna go again haha. Hopefully to a PLE next time. Was looking at Survivor series but damn, those prices haha.
It's got a hell of a lineup!! If it beats out the other shows this year, that would be insane. Because I thought Summerslam was crazy!
Great essay, Sam! I almost wanna watch with ya! 😉