Your Wrestling History

Tommy Platinum · 06-26-2009, 04:47 PM

By this I mean, how long have you watched wrestling, and more specifically, have you watched continuously for that whole time period, or have there been times when you have decided to take a break from wrestling and come back to it in a few months or even years? Also, what promotions interested you at any one time. Finally, do you ever see yourself taking a break from wrestling again, or even quitting watching the product completely?

My wrestling history is fairly simple, and I doubt I have nearly as much viewing experience as a lot of people here, even some reasonably young members. I had never watched wrestling or taken any interest in it until 2000, and then I suddenly discovered WWE (or WWF as it was then) when we got Sky TV. With everything in life, if I get into it, I get into it in a big way, so I became a huge fan very quickly, with my favourite wrestlers being The Rock, The Undertaker, Triple H, Kane and Chris Jericho, and my favourite divas being Trish and Lita.. obviously. I also loved The Hardyz and The Dudleyz. I never actually got into WCW. I was honestly unaware of its existence until the Invasion angle in WWF (unbelievable I know) so I never saw that promotion. The same goes for ECW.

I continued watching through 2001 and 2002, but by that stage I didn't really like the way it was going and I gradually lost interest in the product, eventually quitting watching in early 2003. I didn't even think about wrestling for the next few years, and if people asked me about it, I just told them that I'd "grown out of it".

This was not the case, as I met somebody at university who was a big fan in 2006, and he succeeded in getting me back into the product after a 3 year hiatus, introducing me to new talents and informing me of some of the things that had been going on while I wasn't watching. I thought the product sucked compared to the one I was used to, at first at least, but I eventually got into it again, particularly the Cena/Edge feud which was my first viewing of Cena. I bought Summerslam 2006 without watching any wrestling since 2003 and thought it was a pretty decent show, although I only really bought it for Ric Flair against one of my favs, Mick Foley. Gradually I got hooked on wrestling again and went on a DVD spending spree, even briefly getting into ROH, although I can't claim to be a fan anymore having not watched any for years.

Recently, I took another much shorter break due to the poor quality of mainstream wrestling, but now I feel like I am sufficiently interested to watch again, and am looking forward to Smackdown tonight and The Bash on Sunday, for which the card looks very promising.

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Sorry if this was a long read. You don't need to put such detail in your own answer, just basically briefly answer the key questions at the start. How long have you been watching? What promotions? Have you ever had breaks? Do you ever seen yourself quitting?

Sir Satan · 06-26-2009, 05:02 PM

I've always have watched wrestling since I was born. My mom and family used to be big fans until they found out it was fake. But my mom continued to watch it and since she was watching it, I decided to do so also. It was until the early 2000's that my decided to stop and i continued to watch. Never turned back to wrestling, except when Kane unmasked himself. But that was only for a short period of time.
I've watched it all the way up to now, taking short and monthly breaks for 2006-2008. So to answer some of your key questions, Well only two since I answered most; Back when I was watching it, I could have never saw myself quitting but it ended up happening in the future as I stated. The main promotion I watched was WWE, as it was the only promotion that had my attention.

Slim · 06-26-2009, 05:05 PM

I started watching it every week back in 97, but i would watch it every now and again a few years before that.

God · 06-26-2009, 05:09 PM

Started watching as soon as i could sit up as my Dad was a fan so he would watch it and i'd watch with him. Saying that, the first thing i remember clearly was King of the Ring 1996 when i would have been 8. I watched for a long time before then but honestly, dont remember much of what happened. Bret Hart was my early favourite with Owen in second place. Jim Neidhart, Brian Pillman and Davey Boy Smith also became favourites in 1996-1997, i'm sure you can figure out how i got to them from Bret.

When Bret left i didnt really have one favourite but i always enjoyed Jeff Jarrett, Ken Shamrock and eventually Degeneration X. I didnt have the channel that WCW or ECW aired on but i knew they existed, i just didnt know much about them.

I got rid of Sky Sports around 1999 and missed a couple of months until Smackdown debuted on Sky One. I watched that everyweek aswell as getting a friend to record the PPV's. Edge and Christian soon became my favourites.

I continued to only watch Smackdown and PPV's until 2002 when i got Sky Sports again. It was around this time i started to become a little disintrested in WWE. I continued to watch Smackdown but started to pick and choose which PPV's i'd watch and only occasionally watch Raw. This continued until 2004 when The Wrestling Channel started up. It was there i first saw TNA and watched it every single time it was on. The started with the old shows in random order so it was a little hard to keep track but eventually they cought up so that they were only six months behind. At this point i figured out i could download them the very same week as they originally aired.

I continued to watch Smackdown until about 2006 when i lost intrest in it and only occasionally watched it. Raw even less. I was now onto iMPACT! and whatever other wrestling was being shown which was becoming less and less until it eventually changed from the Wrestling Channel to the Fight Network and i stopped watching it. Since then i have downloaded iMPACT! every week aswell as cought up by watching all the weekly PPV's in the correct order.

It's hard to see myself stop watching wrestling completly as i also watch CHIKARA, Dragon Gate and ROH aswell thesedays.

The Postman · 06-26-2009, 05:25 PM

I was made aware of wrestling when I was about 7, when I rented WM7, then 3, from Blockbuster and loved both. I saw the odd show here and there, but I didn't start watching regularly until WCW Worldwide started on Channel 5 when I was 11. A year later, my folks got Sky, and I started watching WWE Smackdown every Saturday morning religiously on Sky One. Since then, Smackdown has always been my number one show, and I've been a WWE fan for almost 10 years now.

I found out about TNA and ROH from The Wrestling Channel, and liked both a lot, although I don't watch that much of either nowadays.

I honestly don't see myself ever quitting wrestling. As a fan, I've seen a lot of questionable stuff go down, and I've still remained loyal to the product.

MrBeeTeeBee · 06-26-2009, 05:31 PM

I began watching wrestling at the age of three years old in 1998. The promotion I remember watching was probably WWF and I wasn't fully aware that there were two promotions at that time because of my brain IQ and so I thought both promotions were called WWF. The only wrestler I paid full attention too was my idol at that time, the Great One, The Rock. Obviously I also loved watching Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Kane, The two guys that I forgot the name of lol, Hawk and Animal I think it was, I had action figures of them too, I also loved watching the Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle and more. In 2000 was when I really got into wrestling and it was like my life, though I was only five years old, the invasion caught myeye even though I didn't fully comprehend it.

At six years old I took a 3 months hiatus and then got engaged again and at seven I remember having new idols such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio and the smaller guys but I also loved watching D-Generation X. I took another hiatus because my parents thought I was violent so I missed the whole 2003 year and I got engaged when Evolution came to be birth and I was addicted to Monday Night Raw. When I saw Eddie also betray Rey I was devastated and that's when I thought wrestling was real and I hated Eddie Guerrero with passion, I also loved stuffs like the Booker T and Eddie Guerrero teaming Eddie and Benoit winning Wrestlemania, JbL being hated majorly by me, me loving the raps Cena made. When 2005 came and tragedy hit WWE, my brother broke it to me and I was in denial and disbelief till he showed me WWE.com and I almost cried since then I forever remember him as my all-time favorite wrestler. Then Rey Mysterio took place in my second favorite wrestler. By then I realized wrestling was fake and when Rey won the World Heavyweight championship and the Royal Rumble one of my wrestling dreams were realized and I was happy forever at Wrestling. 2006 was a blur except for the Edge and Cena feud. 2007 came and Chris Benoit tragedy came and I hated him for what he did to his family.

In 2008 I heard of TNA and watched it 10 times in the whole year and once 2009 came I adored the feud with Shawn Michaels and Undertaker. Today one day after the death of Michael Jackson I watched a tribute of him then Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit and realized Chris Benoit is still a legend a probably was still traumatized by Eddie Guerrero death and reacted badly and now I've added him to my top along with Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero.

I also began watching TNA at Destination X and have loved TNA a lot, putting AJ Styles among my list of legends and Kurt Angle a long with Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock

The Brain · 06-26-2009, 05:51 PM

When I was around eight I walked in on my horrified, female cousin watching Ricky Steamboat getting stretchered out of the arena after 'having his larynx crushed' by Randy Savage. I watched every week after that for awhile until my parents finally convinced me it was fake.

I started watching again around the time Savage and Hogan were a team, because I was intrigued by Randy not only being the champion, but now a good guy. I got even more into it when Savage turned on Hogan. I watched every week and every SNME until around the time Papa Shango was putting curses on Warrior. I was embarrassed to be caught watching it.

I sort of halfway kept up with it after that. I heard about WWF losing lots of talent, especially Hogan, to WCW. Then I heard Hogan had turned heel, so I just had to see what that was all about. I watched every Nitro and every WCW ppv up until a month or so after "the fingerpoke of doom". I refused to watch WWF for some reason, but wish I hadn't.

Two or three years ago I got on YouTube and started watching some old wrestling I hadn't seen in years. Then one night I was at home flipping through the channels and saw Undertaker on TV chasing the World Title which was around the waist of some guy named Batista. After doing all that reminiscing on YouTube, it was cool seeing Taker on TV again. I've been watching ever since.

Bigpapa42 · 06-26-2009, 06:21 PM

I started watching when i was just a kid. My dad was a fan from the 70s, as we lived in the old Stampede Wrestling territory, so he saw guys like Harley Race comes through back in the day. I guess my interest came from him, and I can remember watching WWF and Stampede Wrestling on TV in the early to mid 80s, when I only would've been 4-6 years old. That's what I grew up on, though the WWF probably moreso. I went a few shows of each back then, and seeing live Stampede shows with the likes of Brett Hart, Owen Hart, and Brian Pillman is probably my greatest claim to fame as a fan... I watched through the late 80s and early 90s, mostly WWF. I was always aware of other promotions like JCP, but rarely got to watch. My watching tailed off in the mid 90s, though I remained aware. I started watching reguarlly again in 1997, as I started university and it was a popular thing - one quad would have Raw on, while another would have Nitro. We often got PPVs. It was good times. I stopped watching again in 2001-2002, then watched sporadically for a couple of years. It was mostly just catching Raw now and again, but rarely watching PPVs. I started watching regularly again last summer, simply for lack of anything better to do.

RaiZ-R · 06-26-2009, 10:06 PM

The first time I saw wrestling I was about six or seven years old. Jake Roberts DDT'd the fuck out of a jobber on Superstars and I was mesmerized. My stepdad recorded the following PPV for me, Summerslam '91. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect made me take notice and on and off, I watched whatever I could.

Losing Sky, I got to watch the ocassional PPV when my Dad got his friend to record it, but he thought wrestling was a bit gay... And still does. So that was rare.

I lost interest cos I couldn't get hold of anything and gave up. When I got back into it, it was due to a friend in college who got me reading PowerSlam. I had Sky again so started watching Smackdown cos that was all I got. And picking up PPV's every now and again. This was around the Invasion angle, which I loved and hated equally at the time.

I jumped in and out of WWE but when I finally really started watching, it was about 18-24 months until Eddie Guerrero died. Eddie was my favourite, and his death effected me so personally, that I stopped watching for several months. When I came back I was in for the long haul, and although Benoit's death effected me it didn't stop me watching.

I doubt anything will anymore.

Roxy · 06-26-2009, 11:44 PM

I've been watching wrestling near enough all my life. I started watching when i was 3, my older brother watched it so i kind of just sat there and watch it with him. Obviously i didn't understand basically anything that was going on, but as i got older i understood the concept more and i carried on watching. My favorites quickly became Taker, The Hardyz, Eddie, and Stone Cold. I watched Raw at my own house, then my nan and grandad would tape WCW for me. I remember watching Eddie/Rey at HH, and it is possibly one of the best matches i've ever seen in my life.

From then on i carried on watching, then in 2002 or so, my brother started watching TNA, so i started watching that with him as well. I was only around 9 i think. Styles was my favorite from the start, and still is one of my favorites, the guy is awesome in so many dimensions it's unreal.

Anyway, about 2/3 years ago i got into ROH. I actually watched it on and off even before that because my brother bought the DVD's and i often stole them and watched them in my room. For me wrestling was wrestling, i didn't care about the promotion at the time. I'm still into ROH and in the past 18 months i've gotton into puro. Basically i'm talking New Japan and Noah, i also watch AJPW every now and again. I can't talk about it much though seeing as i'm a bit of a noob when it comes to it lol.

On top of that, i also got into Shimmer a while back. I love Womens Wrestling, and always have (esp since i hope to work for Shimmer or something one day). So i keep up with that as much as i can as well.

But WWE will always be my favorite promotion, because it's the first thing i watched, and will always be something i watch. I've never taken a break from wrestling, it's been like a drug for me, i'm addicted and can't get enough of it. So yeah erm, i've been watching for like 12 years now, and simply put, i can't ever imagine myself not watching.