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Basically... Run. ER, I mean basically the first time you saw pro graps. Simple as that. Doesn't have to be video clips, just how you were initiated to the show. First, WWF. I can't remember what the deal was or how I stumbled across it on TV, but man was it awesome. Tito Santana vs. Greg Valentine steel cage match in the mid 80s or so. After seeing it and being on the edge of my seat the whole time (remember, people seriously and truly believed this poo poo was straight up fightin' back then), I was hooked. Then I heard about this Hogan guy and on and on and on. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x73441_tito-santana-vs-greg-valentine-stee_sport And there's the NWA back when it was starting to grow out of the Mid-Atlantic, courtesy SuperChannel TBS! The show started out with a Flair vs. Nikita Koloff cagematch and after Dusty stunningly saved Ric from a Russian beatdown, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew - Arn and Ole, then absolute complete unknowns - hit the ring, started beating on Dusty and just before Flair jumps off the ropes to 'break' Dusty's leg, it cuts to the World Championship Wrestling intro. There's Dusty at ringside, leg in a cast, talking to Dave Crockett, when Tully Blanchard and the Andersons come out and attack him. They're run off, and I'm completely stunned at what I'm seeing. WWF didn't do this poo poo whatsoever. And then the coup-de-gras - they come back from break and theres a graphic that says Tully Blanchard vs. Ron Bass, National championship. And Bass is pacing around the ring yelling at Tully about attacking someone with a broken leg, get in here and fight someone who can fight back, etc. Match happens, slingshot suplex yadda yadda. MIND BLOWN First, title matches were never, ever ever on TV except for rare occasions. It was squash-a-jobber all the time and come to the house show to see the real good stuff. But to see an actual title match, with an enraged Bass pacing the ring, well, it was so cool that I didn't watch WWF anymore. And 5 p.m. Saturdays became my religion. So how about you guys?
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Jul 8, 2014 08:47
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The very first wrestling memory I have is Jericho loving up a ring announcer's suit after he lost a match, and then coming out for his next match to apologize with a fresh new suit for the guy. IIRC he lost again and promptly destroyed the new suit. I wish I could find it because it was great.
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Jul 8, 2014 14:13
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I think I must've been about 5 years old but I was watching a Steamboat match (a jobber squash on Maple Leaf Wrestling) with my cousin and was cheering for the jobber because he had cool purple tights and Steamboat had boring white ones. My cousin got mad because I was cheering on the heel.
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Jul 8, 2014 14:22
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I don't recall what my first wrestling memory is (other than it being WCW and I think involving cruiserweights), but my first WWF memory was borrowing a tape of the 1990 Royal Rumble from the library, and how Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin in a submission match was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. I was really sad because our savior Sting had just lost to WCW Title to Savage, who immediately lost it to Hogan, so after watching that tape I decided to tune into Raw. Austin was on and I became one of the millions of people who constantly flipped between Raw and Nitro, mostly watching Raw except for Goldberg/Hogan, which is my last WCW memory until the final Nitro.
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Jul 8, 2014 14:32
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TAKA vs Brian Christopher, and it was awesome
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Jul 8, 2014 14:47
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June 1994, Clash of the Champions XXVII. My birthday was about two weeks before and as a gift I got a TV in my bedroom. I was a huge baseball fan and because I now had control over a television, I decided to turn to TBS to see if there was a Braves game on. First thing I saw was the introductions for the Sting-Flair unification match. Watched the whole thing and was immediately hooked. Went to the video rental store with my mom the next day and snagged about 10 tapes. Watched them all in a matter of about 3 days. From there I started watching Raw and WCW Saturday Night whenever they were on and my parents had the VCR set up to record the local station at midnight every night because they had wrestling every night at that time, rotating ECW, USWA, SMW, WCW Worldwide, WWF Superstars and some weird old thing that had Slaughter and Santana (I think it was AWF but I'm not sure).
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Jul 8, 2014 14:47
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I was about 8 years old. I remember flipping around the TV, way past my bedtime, and catching some show called War Zone. It started off with a recap of Austin stunning McMahon and getting dragged off in handcuffs. I didn't know who either person was but I remember thinking "this is the coolest thing ever." That kicked off an obsession that has lasted 'til this day.
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Jul 8, 2014 14:50
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Andre leg dropping Hogan. Hogan getting stretchered out. It made the local news. This would have been like 84 or 85.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:15
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My first memory of watching would have been a Main Event featuring Hogan/Andre from when I was about 5. My main memory of that event now consists of me watching a Hogan promo with my older brother when our dad comes down the stairs to watch it with us. The very first thing he says to me is "You know this is all fake, right?" I was a very small child and honestly didn't give it any thought one way or another, but it didn't surprise or really even bother me and so I didn't look like a dumb baby in front of my older brother I just said "yeah Dad, I know". Only really started getting in to it a couple years later when I went to my first house show.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:22
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The first wrestling I watched was '97-98 WCW from a friend's house. Never WWF - I didn't even know WWF existed until I heard about Owen Hart falling to his death. But I wasn't watching wrestling anymore by that point. I didn't understand any of the storyline stuff because I was a little kid and it was all in English, but my favorite wrestler was Rey Mysterio Jr.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:27
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The first wrestling I remember seeing was it being on TV at a friend's house when we were in middle school. One of the Raws right after Austin 3:16 happened, because they showed a recap of Austin's win and his promo. I also remember Paul Bearer telling Undertaker about Kane for the first time. Maybe it wasn't the same show, but those two moments were when I started watching, and they're my earliest memories of the show. I was aware of the older incarnations, but I never watched those ones.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:34
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I went to summer camp and the older kids were calling themselves the Wolfpac Red and Black. I had no idea what they were talking about. I clearly remember seeing my first episode of Nitro the night after Fall brawl '98, but my first really clear memory that wasn't a hype package is Bret Hart doing that on the ropes knee buster thing he loved to do on DDP, and Dallas selling it like he was dying.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:35
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The only things I remember about wrestling from when I was really little and watched it with my grandfather are 1) that I really liked Tatanka and 2) Papa Shango making Ultimate Warrior's head ooze goop.
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Jul 8, 2014 16:14
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Earliest I can remember watching is the SNME where the Mega Powers exploded. I must have watched wrestling before that, but this is the earliest thing I can remember. I remember thinking "Why doesn't Hogan tell Macho they won the match? That would calm him down!  "
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Jul 8, 2014 16:14
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My first exposure to wrestling was Armageddon 1999, it must have been a repeat of it a few days later. I was seven at the time and my parents just left me with the television, and the first thing I saw when I swapped over the channel to this was Viscera making his entrance. I thought my god this guy is a monster  I've been a Viscera mark ever since, RIP Big Daddy  Only other thing from that show I remember is Triple H fighting Mr. McMachon and thinking HHH actually killed him.
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Jul 8, 2014 16:27
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Royal rumble 1990 at my friend Himesh's house. He was a hogan fan, I was enthralled by the Warrior. Other early memory was watching an old superstars episode where the LOD took on jobbers. That was when I realised this would be utterly cool.
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Jul 8, 2014 16:32
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I watched wrestling before this, but I can't remember anything specific. I remember my brother flipping over to Raw for Nitro for what I now believe to be "IT'S ME AUSTIN!" aw son of a bitch. That's the earliest specific memory I have of wrestling.
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Jul 8, 2014 16:41
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First match I remember specifically watching (although I'm sure it wasn't the first match I ever watched) was Rollerball Rocco vs Dynamite Kid when I was almost eight, watching along with two retired school teacher maiden aunts who hated Rocco more than anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyU7ycVWh0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGEdJMYhZQE
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Jul 8, 2014 16:47
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The first specific thing I remember was Rey vs Eddie at Halloween Havoc 97.
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Jul 8, 2014 17:01
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What got me into wrasslin' for good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGsBRImD0po
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Jul 8, 2014 17:03
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I don't remember my first specific ones, hilariously, but my pre-watching memories include: A commercial for what I believe to be a WCW ppv, since I'm pretty sure it was on TBS or some other channel with lots of daytime movies, and it had a poo poo ton of dudes just slamming into each other in a ring. Also they were all green, but I'm pretty sure that was some seriously hosed up color issues on the behalf of the TV. Also at a friend's house, having him excitedly make me watch two chunk-rear end motherfuckers on Nitro and laughing my rear end off at someone... who I think was Buff Bagwell. I don't remember if I was entertained or if I just thought he was garbage, because I wasn't a discerning kid by any means but sometimes there are limits. Oh, wait, I also remember enjoying Disco Inferno and then everyone at school finding that fact hilarious.
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Jul 8, 2014 17:14
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I vaguely remember being at a Nassau Coliseum house show in the 80's where my dad says I slapped hands with Hillbilly Jim. But I really started paying attention to wrestling right after Wrestlemania 7. Kinda went on and off during the decade until I guess early 1999 and the height of the attitude era. Hearing about Vince as a bad guy and Stunning Steve Austin becoming the biggest name in the WWF was intriguing as hell, among other things. e: Right before the National (a sports newspaper) went defunct when I was 9 I started reading the column by Meltzer where I found out, among other things, Mr. Perfect was changing managers. Maybe I would have been a smark a lot sooner had it existed for a little while longer Vertical Lime fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 18:01
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Seems like I'm a good deal younger than most of you, but the earliest I remember watching wrestling was Channel 5's WCW show that aired at 7pm on Fridays (Worldwide? UK dudes can probably clarify this) in 1999 and 2000. I watched it with my school friend, and we totally got into it despite the presentation being fractured and nonsensical; little did we know that it was just as ridiculous if you were following it closely! My friend's favourite was CROWBAR. On at last one occasion we were excited for Sid Vicious. I hated Jeff Jarrett: I distinctly remember one match ending with a guitar shot and one of the commentators crying "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE GUITAR SHARDS REF!!!", and I was like, yeah he shouldn't get to use the guitar! WWE was always more popular at school though and I got into it soon after (with help from the video games). Because WWE was primarily on Sky - which I didn't have - I didn't see much of it, but in a hotel one weekend I remember watching a Smackdown with my brother, headlined by Rock/Taker vs The Dudleyz (I was like, Dudleyz are never gonna win... then they did! And Undie put Rock through a table). First PPV I saw was Backlash 2001 because it was one of those offered on Channel 4, and it became a regular thing from then on until 2005. Because of this I have fond memories of The Invasion. 
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Jul 8, 2014 18:11
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I have two very vague memories of watching in the 80's. I remember watching with my cousins and them making fun of me for liking the Million $ Man and Jake the Snake more than Hogan. And I remember being at a house show where Savage defended the world title against DiBiase, but I don't remember anything clearly about that, I just have vague memories of seeing Savage and DiBiase in the Moncton Coliseum. After that, my next really clear memory of wrestling was a staredown between Undertaker and Nailz.
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Jul 8, 2014 19:41
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Watching cartoons on USA and accidentally watching either Superstars or All-American Wrestling. I remember Warrior and Papa Shango. I was very young. My dad recognized that I enjoyed it and remembered how he liked to watch wrestling as a kid so we started watching WCW together since it was here in Atlanta. Then we went to a bunch of Saturday Night tapings.
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Jul 8, 2014 19:50
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I don't know how or why we found it, but my brother and I started watching WWF some time in the Fall of 1991 when I was five years old. The first thing I specifically remember was watching Survivor Series 91 (and being confused by the phrase "paper view"). Me and my brother cried when Hogan lost the title, so our parents decided it was a good time to tell us it's fake.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:00
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Honestly I started watching wrestling because Saved by the Bell was a repeat. My first memory is of WWF Challenge or Superstars and seeing Legion of Doom just destroy some jobber tag team. I was hooked as soon as I saw the Doomsday Device.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:10
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Watching some jobber get killed dead by Jake Roberts is mine. He cut a promo beforehand. I promise you, nobody ever rooted for a WWE jobber harder than in that moment, because Jake scared the poo poo out of me. Jake hit him with a short arm clothesline that the guy probably still feels when he eats chewy or crunchy foods. Keep in mind I was like, 5 years old at the time. El Gallinero Gros fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 20:36
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Hedgehog Pie posted:the earliest I remember watching wrestling was Channel 5's WCW show that aired at 7pm on Fridays (Worldwide? UK dudes can probably clarify this) Back when England had five TV channels, it was pretty easy to begin watching total rubbish just because it was the only thing on. I must have been 11 or 12 at the time and caught part of WorldWide. I'd set a tape to record Fort Boyard, which I watched religiously as it was kind of like The Crystal Maze but presented by Melinda Messenger (quite the combination when you're a 12-year-old boy), but something was messed up with the VCR's clock and it recorded an hour off and I got WorldWide instead. They started with a match with Crowbar, David Flair and Daffney. I didn't know who they were and only had the vaguest idea of what wrestling was, but I'd never seen people like that before and that was enough to keep me watching. I genuinely didn't know what goth culture was and Daffney jumping around screaming was incredible. Then they had a match with Psicosis and Rey Mysterio, and lastly, it was Hulk Hogan, Goldberg and Sting vs Kevin Nash, Sid Vicious and Rick Steiner. Far from the most technical match you'll ever see, but this was mind-blowing to me as a kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tYU3SHE-64 Sting, in particular, had me hooked. I think if it hadn't been for Sting and Daffney, I probably wouldn't have ever paid any attention to wrestling. (I also probably wouldn't have gone through my goth metal phase; swings and roundabouts.) I became quite the Jeff Jarrett fan, too, because hitting people with guitars and calling them "slap nuts" is hilarious when you're young and hopped up on Dib-Dabs. Oh gods, thinking about it, I even liked Buff Bagwell. I was the worst child. Eventually Channel 4 picked up WWF Heat and a couple of PPVs, but they showed them live, which was 3am our time and not convenient for a kid at school. I'd set the VCR to record each show and I watched the 2001 Royal Rumble and Backlash so many times I wore the tape out within the year. I played WCW Mayhem and Smackdown 2 so much the discs broke. WCW folded, of course, but by that point I'd seen The Undertaker and Lita and I was happy enough with WWF, especially once they started the Invasion angle and lots of WCW guys I recognised came in. I remember being at school the night after the Invasion PPV and having a big falling out with another kid because he said "we won" and I thought "we lost." Yup, we were still keeping the wars alive, back in 2001.
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Jul 8, 2014 21:01
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coconono posted:Andre leg dropping Hogan. Hogan getting stretchered out. It made the local news. This would have been like 84 or 85. Incredible. I wish I'd lived through a time of kayfabe being on the news. When I was ten, my best friend had a Shawn Michaels poster on her wall so of course I wanted to see this dreamy guy on television! Monday Night Raw was on after my bedtime, though, so I ended up watching WCW Nitro. The first show I ever watched was the 05/27/96 episode of Nitro, and what I remember the most was Scott Hall's debut promo. I didn't know who the hell this guy was, or what he was talking about, but something made me come back the next week, and the week after that. My dad had loved wrestling when he was a kid, so I think he's probably a lot of the reason that I stayed interested. He would tell me about seeing guys like Argentina Rocca and Gorgeous George wrestle at the local fairgrounds. Gorgeous George used to throw real gold georgie pins at the crowd! sunsweet fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 21:03
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My brother was into wrestling and had a friend over to watch No Way Out 2001. I wanted to be cool like them so I watched it with them, and the Dudleyz/E&C/Taker & Kane tag table match blew my mind. I stuck around for Wrestlemania X-7 the next month and was hooked for years. Dropped out for a few years in the middle, came back for the 2009 Rumble because I was bored one Monday night in the dorms, have stuck with it since. To this day I'm still a Kane mark because of that tag match and the Hardcore title match at X-7.
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Jul 8, 2014 21:09
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Started truly watching early January 2014, Damian Sandow and Kofi Kingston having a competitive match where Sandow looked like a beast on, like, Superstars or something like that. Made me love Sandow, as well as planting the unfortunate thought that these dudes must surely be pretty high up on the card to have such a good 15-20 match (Turns out I was wrong!) November-December 2013, watching random matches and poo poo on Youtube, nothing major, I think I started with something like Foley's fall off the cage or some early Wrestlemania stuff. Early 2000s?, the clip of Mr Pogo slicing a dude up in the Conan O'Brien lullaby sketches, as far as I can tell a concussion I sustained ~11 years ago must have scrambled that memory up, because until I asked about it I thought I had actually watched some wrestling before, but turns out no
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Jul 8, 2014 21:15
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First time properly watching was Royal Rumble 2000 and it's pretty much one of my favourite PPVs ever. I don't remember why I started, but I do remember us watching wrestling PPVs during lunch at school. 2000 was a fun time to get into wrestling.
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Jul 8, 2014 21:21
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I used to go over to my grandma's to watch the PPVs because I wasn't allowed to watch Raw and Smackdown at home. I think the first one I saw was Summerslam 2000? After TLC I was hooked.
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Jul 8, 2014 21:21
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First segment I remember seeing was Austin throwing the Intercontinental title into the river. I think I saw some before but that's one of the first memories that stick with me. Though as far as PPVs go, I never ordered them live but a Blockbuster nearby got all the tapes in so I'd watch them 6 months later or so. I didn't see any PPV live until I became friends with a kid who lived a street away who's family bought most of them, and the first time I went over was Survivor Series 1999. Watched from that whole era until 2002, and I turned off Raw for a few years after the Katie Vick segment. I wasn't offended or grossed out, I thought it was stupid and with my growing 12/13 year old apathy I just figured I outgrew wrestling. Got back into it when I decided to watch the Eddie Guerrero memorial shows and decided to stick around and check out what was going on the next week. Got into ROH and TNA around this time too. Stopped again in 2009 when I was starting college. Started again in 2011 when my friend's and I started playing WWF No Mercy multiplayer a lot again, and I thought "Huh, wonder what's going on right now" and CM Punk had JUST cut the big pipe bomb promo.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:10
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I remember vague pieces of early 90s SNME, but most of my younger childhood memories re: wrestling were in video game format. I'd always pick Yokozuna. I started watching weekly/getting really into it mid-1999, but Jericho's debut is the first RAW I really remember seeing. Became a hardcore fan, until the downswing in the product made me tune out in early 2003. Minus bits and pieces, I've kept up on the news but stayed away until the Rumble this year.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:24
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Samoan Swat Team destroying some fools in a squash match on one of the WCW tv shows. Wasn't impressed, and really didn't get into wrestling until I saw WWF for the first time a few years later in 1993.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:35
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I can't remember my first wrestling memory. I know it's somewhere in the early-mid 90's because I remember watching Bret Hart before he was a big deal. The moment I absolutely remember was the first time I stumbled upon ECW on my local UPN or WGN affiliate. I remember seeing the Dudleys cut a creepy backstage promo and someone getting mauled by Sandman. I remember being confused by the crowd cheering for someone I thought to be an obvious heel. Between the grainy video quality, the blood/violence and poo poo like "The night Kimona Wylanna danced atop the ECW Arena", I was convinced I'd found some illegal pirate broadcast. It was amazing.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:37
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I can't really remember a specific match but I have a memory of watching wrestling on my grandparents Sky TV which at the time was rare and expensive. My grandad then used to tape episodes or events for me to watch. I know I had been watching for some time when Undertaker debuted and I think that cemented it. Even as a kid I fast forwarded through Gobeldy Gooker.
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Jul 8, 2014 22:45
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First thing I ever remember seeing was Earthquake squashing Hogan on the Brother Love show. It was such a bizarre thing because I was visiting my Grandfather in the hospital and I was just flipping through the stations, when BOOM! I see some huge guy crushing Hulk Hogan. I knew about Hogan of course and thought wrestling was fake and lame, but seeing that huge guy crush that loser Hogan was pretty awesome. Yes, I tend to like heels still. Don't really watch anymore, though. Mr. Noseybonk fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 23:05
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