I'm a HUGE wrestling fan but I actually started out hating wrestling. My cousins used to come over and we'd rent movies from the video store and they always got wrestling shows. It was boring. Over the years I've developed an appreciation for 80s wrestling matches especially now since they're pretty much at my fingertips thanks to the WWE Network. I realized when I got older that it wasn't necessarily that I wasn't into the matches, I just didn't know the storyline because I didn't watch wrestling on TV so it made just watching random matches boring. I always imagine that maybe that's how people who aren't in to comics feel when they just see a movie like avengers infinity war or end game and just don't get why the rest of us who've been watching all these years are "so excited over a movie." Well some people... there are folks that don't like popular things just because they're popular and won't allow the rest of us who like it to enjoy them.
Today I'm still a fan of wrestling. Maybe not on the level I was as a kid (I mean I almost literally blew up every time Hulk Hogan's music hit lol) but I still love it. The matches are way better now from the perspective of athleticism. People aren't as ready to accept as much ridiculousness now as we were back then so the gimmicks have pretty much evolved into the wrestlers being themselves so it feels "authentic" to the viewing audience. I was a 90s kid so I was into the corny gimmicks and outcomes that never could have happened in real life. I didn't stop to ask myself why is this guy standing here waiting to get hit? Why doesn't he just get out of the way and then punch that guy in the face? So when my dad told us that wrestling was fake I was really heartbroken lol. I'll never forget it man. I was a hulkamaniac times 10. There had probably not been a black kid to look up to a white man this much since Webster (I laughed so hard at this lol). It all happened because Hulk Hogan lost the title to the Undertaker at Survivor Series. The day before Thanksgiving I asked my Mom if we could order Survivor Series on pay per view. I KNEW she was gonna say no but I asked anyway. I felt like I had nothing to lose and I was just doing my due diligence so a "no" wouldn't have been the end of the world...but when I asked her she said YES!!!! OMG, I almost couldn't contain myself. I was FINALLY gonna be able to watch the ppv and not have to just hear about it from my friends!! I was gonna be able to react to Hulk Hogan defeating this tall scary looking dude and put him in his place. Hulkamania was finna...run...WILD bruh!!! Man I was so hype. They didn't even do singles matches at Survivor Series. It was always a series of teams of bad guys vs good guys so this one was gonna be special. It was special alright smh. Just my luck that the first ppv we ever got to order was the biggest disappointment of my life to that point. Hogan lost to the Undertaker that night. I was so let down, like...Hogan not supposed to lose. WTH was going on here. I was straight up distraught and Bobby Heenan was on commentary yelling, "Hulkamania is dead!" I couldn't take it man. I cried real tears lol. My Dad eventually came into the room and saw what was going on in the show and laughed it off and told us "it's fake anyway." He wasn't even trying to burst out bubble, he was giving good perspective but maaaaaaaan I didn't know hahahaha!!!
Fast forward to the late 90s. Even though I knew the storylines weren't real (and I went out of my way to say storylines specifically out of respect for the real life entertainment the athletes sacrifice their bodies to bring us) I always liked to believe that at least some part of it was real. Especially during what wrestling fans referred to as the "Monday night Wars" where WWE went up against WCW in an epic battle for viewership supremacy. Degeneration X was one of my favorite factions of all time. Not so much the Shawn Michaels version until he came back later on but Triple H (also my favorite heel EVER), the New Age outlaws and X-Pac. They were saying all the stuff you weren't supposed to say on TV at the time and...it was just really cool to hate them and really like them at the same time lol.
I have friends that get surprised or whatever and say things like, "You STILL watch wrestling?!?" Well as a matter of fact, yes I do...and if you're not down with that, I got 2 words for ya....!!! Lol
I'm not into wrestling anymore but the second oldest is a diehard lol wherever wrestling is in CT he finds a way to go doesnt even matter how far. 1 time we was talking in the phone and I thought he was having a seizure, it sounded like his tongue was stuck to his mouth but then he yelled out wrestling lol.