Heyman Deciple

I thought it would be kind of fun to look back at the first year we all became wrestling fans and share our thoughts on what we really liked from the time. Now it seems we're all so jaded towards wrestling but that first year is what made us fans and keeps us coming back looking for more moments like we got back in the day.

For me the year I became a wrestling fan was 1991.

I didn't have cable so I just followed through watching Super Stars and Wrestling Challenge on Saturdays.

My top Ten favorite moments of my First Year as a wrestling fan are:

1. Ric Flair beats up Rowdy Roddy Piper: there was a segment where Ric Flair made his Super Stars debut in October and he confronted Piper who was doing commentary and while Vince McMahon was trying to calm Piper down, Flair cheap shotted Piper with the Real World Title belt. Now we have Flair beating up Piper with Vince McMahon standing there and Randy Savage running around in the back ground because he was announcing as well. Then in the moment that put this segment right over the top, as Flair had been restrained Piper got up and wildly swung a wooden chair and nailed Vince McMahon from behind with it.

2. Reinstate The Macho Man: Randy Savage had been retired after he lost a match to the Ultimate Warrior but he wanted back in after being targeted by Jake Roberts and after weeks and weeks of begging for reinstatement he was finally reinstated only after one of the sickest moments I ever saw, when Savage was tied up in the ropes and Jake's king Cobra bit into the arm of Randy Savage.

3. Earthquake squashes Jake's Snake: It had been built up for a few weeks that Earthquake was afraid of snakes. Well one week on Super Stars during a match, Earthquake had Jake tied in the ropes and did the Earthquake squash to Jake's bag several times. What made the segment for me was each time Earthquake squashed the bag they would cut to Sean mooney in the control center who was just disgusted.

4. Sgt. Slaughter wants his Country back: Sgt. Slaughter had turned on all his fans and became an evil foreign heel and teamed up with the Iron Shiek (Col. Mustafa) and General Adnon and feuded with Hulk Hogan. This was a pretty big angle at the time and after his feud with Hogan played out. Slaughter apoligized to the audience and spent weeks going to the Statue of Liberty and elementry schools looking for forgiveness because he wanted his country back. I thought it was pretty cool.

5. The Snake pimp slap's Elizabeth: During a special PPV called Tuesday In Texas, Randy Savage met Jake Roberts in the big grudge match and while Savage was down he pulled his snake bag out but Elizabeth ran out to try to stop Jake and Jake demanded she start begging and then he slapped her across the face. This was really heavy for 1991 and Jake's almost orgasmic promo after wards was just awesome.

6. Bret Hart gets shocked: Bret Hart was about to wrestle the Mountie when Jimmy Hart threw a bucket of water on him and the Mountie shocked Bret over and over again with his caddle prod. In general I thought the Mountie sucked but this was a cool moment.

7. The Warrior locked in a casket: The Ultimate Warrior had gone on the Funeral Parlor, which I might be in the minority but I so enjoyed the Funeral Parlor so much more than the Brother Love show. But anyway the Warrior was on the Funeral Parlor and he was then attacked by The Undertaker and locked in a casket. After officials finally got it open Pat Patterson began giving the Warrior CPR and mouth to mouth which for some reason I find very funny right now.

8. Warrior surrounded by Snakes: To get over what the Undertaker did to him, Jake Roberts had been helping the Warrior doing several different things like locking the Warrior in a casket again and burying him up to his neck in dirt well this was the final test. The Warrior was locked in a dungeon of snakes and one of the snakes bit him and then The Undertaker appeared and it turned out Jake had been working with the Undertaker all along. Man Evil Jake The Snake ruled.

9. Hulk Hogan on the Funeral Parlor: Right before their Survivor Series showdown between Hogan and the Undertaker by the way at this time as a kid the Undertaker scared the crap out of me. Hogan appeared on the Funeral Parlor and he was about to check out that empty standing coffin because Hogan remembered what happened to the Warrior but before he could do that Ric Flair arrived. Now this was huge this was the first time I saw Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan go face to face and then after Ric and Hogan had words the Undertaker came out of the standing coffin and attacked Hogan but then here came Savage and Piper from the announce table to the rescue. In the final moment right before leaving the Undertaker ripped off Hogan's crucifix and held it in his hand and he had a look on his face like it was burning his hand and then threw it down.

10. Randy Savage Vs. Ultimate Warrior: These 2 had a career ending match at WrestleMania which turned out to be a really great match. After it was over and The Warrior won, Sherri who was Savage's manager at the time started yelling at him and kicking the crap out of him but then out of the crowd came Elizabeth who threw Sherri out of the ring. Savage and Elizabeth then had their big reunion which had some women in the audience crying. Women what a bunch of softy's huh?

Well those were my favorite moments from my first year as a wrestling fan, What were yours?

Flip

Well, I started watching with my dad in the late 90's and 2000, but at the age of like 8-9, you don't really understand everything going on. Especially in the Attitude era. I stopped watching wrestling for a bit, but then I watched an episode of Smackdown in 2003 at my friends house, and I got hooked on it again. I started watching Raw too. It was during the whole Lesnar/Angle feud, and I loved it.

I'll add some more later...

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Tommy Platinum

My first year as a wrestling fan was 2000. I got into it later than a lot of others, but this was during the period when pretty much everybody watched wrestling, I just didn't discover it for a while. When I did, I was instantly hooked. I believe the first actual PPV I saw live was Judgment Day 2000, and obviously I knew who the Undertaker was even though I had never watched wrestling. I found his return pretty epic, but everything was so dramatic back then. Sure it is partly because I was new to wrestling and I was more of a mark, but at the same time, I believe 2000 was a truly great year for WWF. I never got into WCW, but I never missed WWF. I used to record the PPVs and watch them when I got home from school more often than not, or sometimes stay over at a friends.

A few great moments from the year 2000 (some of which were before I started watching):

1. The Foley/Triple H feud. This was always going to be my first pick. Two great matches and overall a classic angle with Foley reverting to his hardcore roots in an attempt to reach the top once again. Great feud to start the year and some of the best promos I have heard.

2. Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit. This was back when the IC title was shown to be something worth fighting over. These two hugely talented wrestlers beating the hell out of each other for the right to call themselves the Intercontinental Champion. Obviously the feud became personal too, but that just made it a bigger deal. The backstage attacks etc all added to this, and I believe they are underused today. For the actual 'moment', I will pick their 2/3 falls match from Summerslam 2000, which is an underrated and often overlooked match. Why the hell can't they book like that now?

3. Undertaker Returns. It was pretty amazing seeing him ride out on a motorcycle in a full length leather jacket and start destroying the McMahon Helmsley faction.

4. Kane Returns. In 2000-2002 Kane was my favourite wrestler. I owned Kane tshirts, a Kane pendant, a Kane mask. I just loved the guy, and this was the first time I saw him. He basically returned to save Rock and Taker from the McMahons and DX, and chokeslammed everybody in sight.

5. Commissioner Foley. This was gold, and I am happy that TNA seem to be going for a similar Foley character at times. Some of the comedy segments with E+C and Angle were incredible, but my favourite moment was this:

Foley: ''In fact, I'm giving you a title shot''
Al Snow: ''Me and the Rock?''
*Foley spits out drink laughing*

6. Triple H revealing he was the man behind the plot to run over Austin. I love angles which are huge and involve the whole roster. It makes everything to dramatic. The whole inquest to find out who was behind it, conducted by commissioner Foley, was really intriguing and suspenseful, and I personally liked the idea of having Rikishi as the driver with Triple H the mastermind behind it all. Triple H's ultra evil heel genius persona was one of the highlights of WWF back then.

7. Kurt Angle seducing Steph. Kurt Angle in general was absolutely hilarious in 2000. His dorky heel character is definitely better than his epic serious intense character. I loved it when he kissed Stephanie then at Summerslam said: ''Yeah I'm sorry.... I'm sorry for not doing it a heck of a lot sooner!!''

8. The match that never happened. I loved the whole angle of Jericho defeating Triple H for the title after a fast count from Hebner, then getting the belt taken off him as Triple H persuaded Hebner to erase it from the history books if he leaves him alone. Got him great heel heat, especially after he destroyed Hebner, but I just wish they had given Jericho a face reign at some point.

9. The 6 Man Hell in a Cell. In hindsight it maybe wasn't too great an idea, and certainly wasn't a great match, but it was impossible not to mark at the time with all these guys in the cell at once. The angle with Vince wanting to end the match prematurely was great.

10. The Rock on the mic. Pick any promo.

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New Jersey's Favorite Son

2001...


It had EVERYTHING, WCW being bought by WWF/WWE, Invasion Storyline, Stone Cold turning Heel. Triple H getting injured. Awesome year for WWF/WWE, Probally (and IMO) the Best Year.

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Lord Have Mercy!

Jasmine

Summer of 2006. I started a bit late...

The major thing going on was basically Trish and Lita's retirement coming so close.

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Purple Haze

The end of 2005 (I started a bit late too), the first show I remember watching all the way through was Raw Homecoming. Id' watched bits and pieces of wrestling before, I still vaguely remember seeing Booker T vomit after a stinkface, The Rock doing his 12 days of Christmas thing, Carlito winning the US title, Undertaker cruicifying T-Lo, Matt giving Edge a Side Effect off the stage and stuff with Eddie/Batista, but that was when I become a loyal fan.

My list is going to be from October 2005-October 2006 by the way, since that's my real first 'year'' as a wrestling fan. In no order:

1-Raw Homecoming: The first thing that springs to mind. The Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels Ironman match caught my attention right away and made me a HBK fan for life.

2-The Return of DX: Whoa, this was epic. I remember watching it (I was still a semi-mark at the time) and when Shawn came out I almost jumped out of my seat I was that surprised, I legit though he was out for at least a month of two. Then when he came to the ring and helped Triple H I marked, as I was also a big Triple H fan. This led to some memorable promos and segments which I loved, even if it was as big or edgy as it once was, I still enjoyed it.

3-ECW returns: This was a huge moment in all of wrestling. Rob was one of my favourites and him winning the belt was awesome. The shows at first weren't great, but just the storyline of ECW returning with Foley/Edge vs Funk/Dreamer, Styles cutting a great promo and leaving Raw, the ECW vs WWE show and One Night Stand itself are incredibly potent in my memory.

4-Edge cashes in MiTB: Looking back I wasn't too happy as I didn't become an Edge fan until Wrestlemania 22, but this moment is still very cool. Edge was the monster heel and this began the Ultimate Opportunist and Edge becoming a Main Eventer. It may have lasted only 3 weeks, but that moment was still great.

5-Shawn Michaels vs Mr McMahon Feud: This was also a contributor to me becoming a huge Michaels fan. McMahon played the classic monster heel well and I thought the match at WM 22 was pretty good at the time, I still love seeing Shawn jump off the gigantic ladder.

6-The Debut of The Great Khali/Umaga: I remember seeing both these guys debut and just thinking holy shit (especially Khali). Umaga is to this day one of my favourites and though I hate Khali, when I saw him walk out I was in awe.

7-Eddie's Death: I was a very new wrestling fan when Eddie died, and back then I didn't really think it was as big as it was. But now I realise what a huge loss he was.

8-Raw vs Smackdown: I loved this storyline. Both of the teams were great and they booked it well, plus the SS match was decent and used in a way I think it should be used for.

9-Rey Mysterio becomes WHC: Taking away all of the people who think Rey got the WHC because Eddie died, I still thought this was great. It was the ultimate underdog story, Mysterio goes from 2nd to win the Rumble, he's screwed at No Way Out, added back into the match and overcomes both Randy and Kurt to become champion.

10-Rated RKO forms/vs DX: By this time, I was a massive fan of Randy, Edge, Shawn and Trips. So the four feuding was a real dream for me. Rated RKO were great on the mic, in the ring and I'll still always remember their entertaining segments, despite the team being rather short-lived it gave both men a big lift imo.

neXus