35 years ago today, Friday, May 4, 1979, my parents let my brother and I stay up late to watch Johnny Carson. We watched the monologue and the next skit and then my brother changed the channel. What I saw was something that I thought was the most ridiculous and stupidest thing my 5-year old self had ever seen. Who would have expected that over the next 35 years other than the “four necessities” of family, friends, faith and office that professional wrestling would be the most important thing in my life.
Wrestling has certainly changed dramatically since then and it has changed often. With the exception of the last 10 years, you could never look at wrestling from 3 years prior and think “yep, it’s the same thing”. And I love wrestling for that. Not every change has been great and it definitely doesn’t always get better, but it has kept me in the game, so to speak. We all have our complaints about the current state of the business, but every so often a new character will come along or a storyline will develop that ties me in, that keeps me thinking about wrestling in the middle of the day, and that keeps me emotionally invested in this crazy world.
I’m a sentimental guy. I’ve spent most of this weekend watching the WWE Network and reminiscing about the past 35 years and all of the joy that pro wrestling has brought me. Some random thoughts…
- Don’t ask me why I know the date of the first time I watched wrestling. Let’s suffice to say that it probably really isn’t May 4, but it is close. I used to think it was the Moondogs that I saw that first time we watched it, but now that I look back at history sites I realize it must have been the Valiant Brothers. I still think they were ridiculous. In turn, I would go on to become a big fan of the Moondogs.
- I didn’t really start watching wrestling regularly for another year or two later. The first big angle that really sticks out to me is the Sgt. Slaughter-Pat Patterson angle.
- My neighbor was a widow who also happened to love wrestling. She took me and my brother to our first live wrestling show at the Scranton (PA) Catholic Youth Center on August 18, 1982. Andre The Giant beat Blackjack Mulligan in the main event. Later that year we went to see Bob Backlund defend the WWF title against Playboy Buddy Rose. I also remember her taking us to a show involving George Steele…who frightened me greatly. She was a Jimmy Snuka fan, so I also got to see classics with him against Ray Stevens and Magnificent Muraco.
- S.D. Jones was my first favorite wrestler. To this day, I believe that if he had just not rushed the corner after throwing his opponent into the turnbuckles he would have won a lot of matches. They always moved when he did that. He should have stopped doing that.
- My neighbor also owned a satellite dish, while we did not even have cable back then. Every Saturday night, I would walk over to her house at 11:00 pm and we’d watch Championship Sports on Channel 11 out of Dallas, Texas (World Class). She grew raspberries and I’d get either shortcake or ice cream with her awesome raspberry sauce each week. The wrestling was awesome, too.
- She was also the first in the community to get a VCR. When we finally got ours, she would tape wrestling from territories across the country and let me watch it. I’d return the tape and get a new one each week. She didn’t tape the same shows each and every week, so there were a lot of holes, but I was very lucky to get to see some great action from pretty much every territory in a day and age where the only other means for me to follow wrestling would have been the magazines.
- I didn’t attend my first tv taping until I was in college. It was one of those 4-hour Wrestling Challenge marathons and took place in Binghamton, New York. Nothing of note ever took place at any of those tapings that I would end up attending…I think three in total, although my friends and I sat in a great seat for getting on camera at a taping in Wilkes-Barre, PA that included great shots of me waving my flag for Hacksaw Duggan, waving a fist at Ludvig Borga, and wearing a clown wig during a Doink the Clown match.
- As mentioned, I’m a sentimental guy. I remember fondly attending my first live Mania…24 in Orlando. I got to my seat pretty early. I sat down, looked around at the magnitude of the stage and realized that I had made it to a Mania. I’m pretty sure I shed a tear.
- I don’t know if its my short-term memory starting to go or a note on the quality of the shows lately, but I can’t recall the main events of the last seven WrestleManias even though I’ve attended them all in person. However, I can probably tell you about 95% of all of the matches that happened on the first seven.
- I’m starting to finally get accustomed to the idea that pro wrestlers die and many die young. It used to really bother me. My family was on vacation in Virginia when I heard that Adrian Adonis had died. We were staying in a hotel that has since been torn down. Adrian was one of those wrestlers that to me at the time, personified what was wrong with the cartoon era of wrestling. I always wanted to see him return to his old style and make a comeback. For years after, any time I was in Virginia - which was frequently - I would stand outside the door to that room and say a prayer for Adrian.
- One thing that for me that has not changed in 35 years, is that I am easily amused by new characters. My favorite part of watching the WWF as a kid was the end of the show and watching them say who would be wrestling next week to see if there were any new names. Even today, new wrestlers come up to the main roster and I am quick to jump on their bandwagon. Currently, it is Adam Rose.
- My favorite non-televised match I ever saw in person was a Scranton house show match between Ron Garvin and Greg Valentine. My favorite overall match ever was the Chi Town Rumble match between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat where Steamboat won the title. My favorite televised match I saw in person was the first Mania matchup between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Just a classic, as far as I’m concerned. Interesting side story, I was sitting next to a guy and his significant other. He was like me, not saying a word through most of the show while the girlfriend read a book. However, again like me, he became quite vocal during this match. The girlfriend at least watched it. He was clearly rooting for Michaels…me for the Undertaker. After the match he put his hand on my shoulder, breathed a deep breath and said, “That was awesome.” We both sat down and didn’t say another word to each other for the rest of the show.
- Ron Garvin was my favorite wrestler for some time. Growing up in Northeastern PA, most of my friends never heard of him. I will always remember the day I got off the school bus, my neighbor opened her door and yelled for me to come over. She gave me a tape and said I should watch it. It was the match where Garvin had won the NWA title from Flair. At the age of 14, I celebrated like I hadn’t before or since, running from room to room, jumping up and down on my parents’ bed and generally acting like a fool. My father returned home from work shortly after, and I put the tape back on to shortly before the finish acting like I hadn’t seen the ending yet. When Garvin won, I recreated my dramatic reaction for my father.
- I used to enjoy bringing wrestling into my schoolwork. I wrote a paper on the 1988 stock market crash and included as a reference an article from one of the Apter mags that had a quote from Paul Ellering. My teacher called it the most creative use of a reference she had ever seen. I don’t recall the specifics, but I had a computer course of some kind in the 10th grade where the teacher was doing some programming that required a phrase that would be repeated throughout the process. He asked for a simple one to use and I shouted out, “Hogan Cheats”. He liked it enough to use it for the rest of the week and used it for every class, not just mine. People I didn’t even know were coming up to me asking if the phrase came from me. Apparently, I had a reputation for not being a fan of Mr. Hogan. I had one professor in college I did not like at all. She gave us a project to write a journal that she would read “but feel free to make it as personal as you want.” We argued a lot and I knew she thought wrestling was the stupidest thing ever…so each and every journal entry I wrote was about wrestling.
- I don’t follow the indies all that closely; however, my biggest live mark-out moment came at the Chikara World Tag Grand Prix where C.P. Munk revealed himself to be Necro Butcher. I leapt from my seat. So awesome.
- I was in Hershey the night Jim Ross introduced fake Diesel and Razor Ramon. I think that’s the closest I ever came to saying I was done watching the WWF and to me is its low point.
- I was in Wilkes-Barre the night Vince McMahon blew up. Every time I drive past the arena, I point to it and say, “That’s where Vince McMahon blew up”. I do that even if nobody is in the car with me.
- I have a tendency to not show emotion while watching wrestling at a live show. I used to attend Afa’s WXW promotion in PA quite a bit. At one show Afa walked over to me, shook his fist at me (in a playful manner) and yelled, “Cheer!”
- I do, however, tend to react vocally while watching at home. In addition to the Ron Garvin title win mentioned earlier, I remember cheering loudly when the Godfather won the Intercontinental title, when Cena returned for the Royal Rumble at MSG, and during Occupy Raw. If anyone reading this ever saw the Bill Murray movie Scrooged, the ending has the Alfre Woodard character doing this great single clap where she’s so emotional but doesn‘t want to really show it. That was me when Daniel Bryan told Triple H that the match between the two wasn’t the only thing he wanted at WrestleMania.
- This past Mania weekend was a notable exception to my stoic live reactions. I Yessed myself silly.
- I am currently the Chief Compliance Officer of a small financial group. I am one of those people who doesn't take much time away from the office, so I get great joy from telling people that I will be out for a few days because I'm away for Wrestlemania Weekend. The reactions are priceless.
- I think today’s WWE is fantastic. The Shield, the Wyatts, Bryan, Bad News Barrett, Cesaro, Emma and Paige are all examples of people I could watch over and over. I’m also still holding out hope that Damien Sandow’s best days are ahead of him.
If anybody actually took the time to read all of this…thanks.
