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Post by bookerbill on Mar 13, 2015 16:06:10 GMT -5
Perhaps this has been discussed on the board before but I thought it might be interesting find out what everyone’s first experience with professional wrestling was.
I first saw pro-wresting in January 1984. There was a kid on our block (I will call him Joe but the names have been changed to protect the innocent) who was the neighbourhood bully. In hindsight it is obvious to me now that he likely did not have the greatest home but on one Saturday morning I ended up hanging out with Joe and he suggested we watch some television. We ended up at his place and I recall that the home was creepy. It was poorly lit and had a weird smell. It was one of those situations where if given the choice to go ten times I would likely not gone nine of them. Joe’s dad was set up in a recliner (old school bad ass recliner at that) and was watching WWF’s Saturday morning show which may have been All American Wrestling (I don’t think Superstars was around then but I could be wrong). Joe and I took a seat on sofa and watched the program. I don’t recall most of the show but the main event was Bob Backlund against one of the Samoans. Of course Albano and Samoans got the upper hand on Backlund and none other than Hulk Hogan came to his rescue. The ending of the show had me wanting to see more.
A couple of weeks later, I decided to switch from Saturday morning cartoons over the WWF and the featured match was Hogan against the Sheik for the title from MSG. It was six minutes that changed my life. I was hooked and never looked back. Everything about it was amazing. The Eye of the Tiger. The crowd. Finkel on the house mic. The echo of the ring bell. It was just magic.
Next came the magazines (my mom worked in a smoked shop so I would “visit” her and check out the titles. My first was Main Event (Hogan against Dr. D featured along with Sheik v. Slaughter. Shortly after I picked up the issue featuring the NWA night of champions from the Meadowlands that featured Steamboat putting Flair in a sleeper in the centerfold poster. From their I expanded to PWI etc etc and eventually spotted the Spike babysitter add and that lead me to Filsinger Games.
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Post by aceldamas on Mar 13, 2015 17:34:51 GMT -5
I was first exposed to wrestling about 1981-82. I was up late and my dad was watching TV and flipping through the channels. He stopped on Portland Wrestling and I was captivated. What was this? My dad kind of explained it and probably mentioned that it was 'fake' which I promptly forgot for many years LOL. That first match that I remember was Rocky Johnson and King Parsons against Playboy Buddy Rose and either Matt Borne or Stan Stasiak, best two-out-of-three falls for the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship. From then on, every Saturday night at 11:00, I would watch the likes of Buddy Rose, Rip Oliver, Brett Sawyer, Chris Adams, Billy Jack Haynes etc. etc. (Also, after wrestling was over, Kung Fu Theater would come on. My first chop-socky flick was The Five Deadly Venoms, hooking me on that genre as well.)
I introduced my best friend to wrestling and he loved it too. That next school year I met a couple of other guys into wrestling who had been watching it a while. One of them got me into the Apter mags which opened up a whole new world. He also educated me to the fact that the Portland guys wrestled in our town once a month. Safe to say we were there almost every time. A lot of great memories form those shows. One that stands out was daring a friend of ours to sneak a peak into the heel locker room where he saw the mysterious Mr. Ebony with his mask off and was afraid that he was spotted. We ran out of the building sure that he would come after us for learning his 'secret'. Ah...kayfabe.
Soon we all had cable TV and USA Network and TBS where we could see everyone from the wrestling mags. I remember how strange squash matches were because everything we saw from Portland were competitive bouts. A friend's grandparents had a satellite dish where we watched the first WrestleMania. We also found World Class and crazy wrestling from Mexico where everyone wore masks and killed themselves diving out of the ring. I could go on endlessly but this is how it started for me.
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Post by throwingtoasters on Mar 13, 2015 18:22:01 GMT -5
Great topic. Love these stories just as much as the, "How did you find Filsinger Games?" stories. I recently told my story on my podcast. www.mrgrant.com/2015/02/gc-008/ |
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Post by TTX on Mar 13, 2015 20:00:32 GMT -5
1988, I randomly turned it on one Saturday morning and saw Randy Savage announcing Hulk Hogan as his tag partner for Summer Slam. Savage quickly hooked me into wrestling.
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vtturk
Infinity Challenge
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Post by vtturk on Apr 18, 2015 6:17:48 GMT -5
On TV it was Capitol Wrestling in the 1960's, mainly. It was a regular broadcast in our area. I remember seeing The Mongols (Bepo & Geeto), Bobo Brazil, Bob Backlund, Chief Jay Strongbow, Cowboy Bob Ellis among others. First live show was a Grand Prix Wrestling event in our hometown. Got To see Giant Jean Ferre (Andre) vs Don Leo Jonathan, also got to see Edouard Carpentier.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2015 10:49:34 GMT -5
In 1985, every kid knew who Hulk Hogan was. One day at Wal-Mart, my mom told me I could pick out a toy, so my plan was to get a MOTU or maybe Superpowers figure to add to my collections, until I saw the WWF LJN figures. Something about the packaging just grabbed me and so I picked out Hulk Hogan BEFORE I had ever really seen a wrestling match. Then, it wasn't long after that we were at home and I hear my mom say "Hulk Hogan is on TV", so that was the first time I ever really watched wrestling. It was Hogan wrestling Brutus Beefcake. Even though I ended up always siding with Orndorff, Savage or whoever Hogan was feuding with, it was Hogan who got me into wrestling.
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Post by Shane Sullivan on Apr 18, 2015 15:34:02 GMT -5
My first match was Tony Garea beating up some dude he tied up using the ropes. I think I was five and I was so upset that he was cheating and not fighting fair. My mom forbid my dad from letting me watch wrestling. My next match was Andre the Giant beating the hell out of three guys and then pinning them all. I was very impressed and that hooked me. I think I was nine or ten.
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Post by ajcostello on Apr 18, 2015 17:57:49 GMT -5
It was 1980 and thanks to an ugly divorce, I didn't get to see a lot of my dad.
One weekend in the early winter he got to actually get in his visitation with my brother and I, and since his boat wasn't in the water we couldn't go fishing so he wracked his brain looking for something to do with us (an eight-year-old me and my thirteen-year-old brother) and he chose to take us to see the wrestling matches in New Haven that weekend.
I can't for the life of me recall who was on that show, but I can say that I was totally amazed by all the craziness and stuff.
After that weekend, I promptly forgot about it all for a couple years until one Saturday morning in 1985 when I had nothing to do but watch TV and for whatever reason, I kept the TV on after the cartoons were over and there it was... wrestling on TV.
I was glued to the TV for hours until my mom forced me to go do something productive like go play outside with all my Star Wars toys and whatnot.
Later that night, after my mom went to work and I was waiting for my brother and step-sister to get home so they could commence with their "babysitting" of me, I was flipping channels and came across TBS and a completely different type of wrestling than I had watched in the morning.
... and I got hooked all over again.
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Post by awsomsinger on May 3, 2015 20:18:12 GMT -5
It started for me in the early 70's, watching "Big Time Wrestling" on Sunday mornings with my dad, seeing Bobo Brazil, Pampero Firpo, El Bracero, Lord Athol Layton, Bulldog Don Kent, Big Money Hank James, and of course, The Sheik.
That was the first experience, and when it went off the air I didn't see it again until the early 80's when lo and behold, there was Lance Russell and Dave Brown with Championship Wrestling Saturdays at noon on Channel 22. Me and my buddies watched and talked about the matches when we were together. They even came to the Dayton Convention Center.
Shortly after, there was Georgia Championship Wrestling and their monthly visit to Hara Arena, which was expanded to twice a month because Dayton, OH, was always known as a hotbed of wrestling.
And here I am now, still a fan and slowly converting my wife.
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Post by jimsteel on May 3, 2015 22:35:15 GMT -5
I was 2 and went to first wrestling show with my father and was hooked
My father died 3 years later and i still watched and still do
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