Never truly been a wrestling fan. I had a brief love of WWF back in the '80s when Hulk Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling cartoon was on and those awesome huge rubber action figures came out, but I liked superheroes better -- both were colorful, had backstories and rivalries, and fought a lot, I guess.

A while back, a friend of mine tried to turn me on to WCW. He helped me understand how the performance aspect of the whole thing was even more fascinating than the fake action taking place.

Still not my cup of tea, but I at least respect the artistry and passion behind it now.

I watched the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1960s, when Bruno Sammartino was Hero #1 and Gorilla Monsoon was Heel #1. Wrestling was not as easy to find back then. Before cable, wrestling was shown on independent TV stations, and in the New York area it was only on the Spanish-language Channel 47 for several years. I got used to checking the TV Guide for "Lucha Libre" on 47, so I got to know channel 47's lineup pretty well. There was one show every morning that I thought was a talk show hosted by a woman with an unusual name. A few years later I took a Spanish class and found out what the "Aprenda Ingles" show actually was.



One time the WWWF came to the town next to mine, and my whole family went. Here's what I saw that night, retrieved from wweppvresultz.weebly.com/wwwf-live-event-results-1963-1969.html:

WWWF @ South Plainfield, NJ - High School Gym - March 22, 1968
Crybaby Cannon pinned Angelo Savoldi after the 10-minute mark
Louis Cerdan pinned Bull Johnson after the 18-minute mark
Eduard Carpentier pinned Bull Ramos after the 21-minute mark
Victor Rivera, Dominic DeNucci, & Earl Maynard defeated Luke Graham, Bill Miller, & Virgil the Kentucky Butcher in a Best 3 out of 5 falls match, 3-1; fall #1: Miller pinned DeNucci; fall #2: DeNucci pinned Miller; fall #3: Miller and Graham were disqualified for choking; fall #4: Rivera pinned Graham

I grew up in central Illinois, which wasn't exactly a hotspot for pro wrestling. Chicago had been the biggest promotion in the nation, for years, including national tv on the Dumont network. Our local tv got wrestling shows a couple of times in the 70s and 80s, from the WWA (World Wrestling Association) promotion, out of Indianapolis (run by Dick the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder). The first time we got it was after their zenith, with guys like Bobby Heenan, the Blackjacks, Baron Von Raschke, the Legionnaires, the Chain Gang and Cowboy Bob Ellis. By the time we saw them (later 70s) they had guys like Jerry Valiant, Dr Jerry Graham Jr, Bruiser and Snyder, their sons-in-law Spike Huber & Steve Regal (as the Young Lions tag-team) Golden Boy Paul Christy, the Great Wojo (who had been a top amateur) and Lord Zoltan, who had a KISS gimmick. We got them again around 1981, with some of the same crowd, then they were off the tv. They occasionally did shows in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign; but, never came through Decatur, near where I lived.

Around 1982, we got the Poffo Family ICW (International Championship Wrestling), with Macho man Randy Savage, brother Leaping Lanny Poffo, father Angelo Poffo (as the masked Miser), One Man Gang Ronnie Garvin, Pistol Pez Whatley, Hustler Rip Rogers, George Weingeroff (a 2nd generation, whose father was manager Saul Weingeroff), Gary Royal, Rick Starr (Rogers, Royal and Starr were the Convertible Blonds, swiping the Freebirds gimmick), the Great Tio and his son, Chief Tapu. Randy Savage was champion and this was before he went to the WWF. They had some great talent and ran more angles, which the WWA hadn't and this made me a wrestling fan. Savage was amazing to watch, with his athleticism and his deranged promos. Lanny and Weingeroff were a tag-team, often feuding with the Convertible Blods. Ronnie Garvin had the Southeastern title and defended against Pez and challenged Randy for their World title. Also wrestling there was George Gray, who was known as Crusher Broomfield, recreating angles that had made Crusher Jerry Blackwell a hit in the Knoxville, TN promotion, for the Fullers. Broomfield would go on to wrestle in Mid-South and World Class as the One Man Gang, before going to the WWF as One Man Gang, then turned into Akeem, the African Dream (a rib on American Dream Dusty Rhodes).

ICW put on shows in Decatur and Springfield, on a regular basis. We also got a couple of cards from the Kansas City-based Central States promotion, with Harley Race wrestling Andre the Giant, Kerry Von Erich winning a battle royale and another cad with Race defending the NWA World championship against Dick the Bruiser.

The Poffos ran what was known as an outlaw territory, not affiliated with the NWA and running in opposition to the established promoter (Jerry Jarrett's Memphis-based promotion, in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana). Garvin and some others had broken away from the Fuller's Knoxville-based Southeast Championship Wrestling promotion, with Garvin taking their Southeastern belt. Fuller tried to sue to get it back but, wouldn't break kayfabe in court and admit that the promotion owned the belt and chose who was champion. Since he didn't do that, the court ruled the belt was the champion's property and Garvin had been the champion! Randy Savage used to issue challenges to Jerry Lawler, to face him and both promotions were in Lexington, KY, one night and everyone was packing firearms. Cooler heads prevailed. Savage did confront Superstar Bill Dundee once and Dundee di pull out a gun.

The Poffos buried the hatchet with Jarrett and went to wrestle for them, with Savage challenging Jerry Lawler and Randy and Lanny occasionally wrestling as a tag-team, especially against the Rock n Roll Express.

I saw Memphis, while visiting relatives, in southern Illinois. their tv came from Terre Haute and Evansville, IN and Memphis regularly visited Evansville and they carried the tv show. There I watched Jerry Lawler, Dutch Mantell, Bill Dundee, Bobby Eaton, Koko B Ware, the original Midnight Express (Norvell Austin, Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose), Jimmy Hart Robert Gibson (pre-Rock n Roll Express) and his older brother Rickie Gibson, and Andy Kaufman doing his gimmick with Lawler. They actually had several matches, not just the one featured on tv news and talk shows. This was the stuff you see in Man on the Moon.

We got cable around the summer of 1982 and I finally got to see Georgia Championship wrestling (now known as World Championship wrestling, with Paul orndorff, Ivan Koloff, Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, Masked Superstar, Mr Wrestling II and the Wild Samoans (Afa & Sika). I saw the debut of the Road Warriors, a rookie Rick Rude (using the spelling of his real name, Rood), Roddy Piper, Jack Brisco (occasionally, as he owned a piece of the territory), Ole Anderson, Stan Hansen, Tito Santana, Brad Armstrong, Tom Pritchard. Ric Flair would come through to defend the NWA title, Dusty Rhodes would do some shots, the Iron Sheik was there; lots of greats.

At the same time, the USA Network showed the monthly Madison Square Garden matches of the WWF, on Mondays, and I saw Tony Atlas, Greg Valentine, Bob Backlund, Tiger Mask, Jimmy Snuka, Pedro Morales, Don Muraco, Cowboy Bob Orton Jr, Andre, Blackjack Mulligan, Superstar Billie Graham, Big John Studd, Freddie Blassie, Lou Albano and the Grand Wizard. USA also showed Sothwest Championship Wrestling, promoted by Joe Blanchard, where I saw Tully Blanchard, Bob Sweetan, Wahoo McDaniel, Scott Casey, The Grappler (Len Denton) and Nick Bockwinkle defend the AWA World title.

The WWF soon took over the Sunday wrestling spot from Southwest and launched All-American Wrestling, with the dawn of Hulkamania and everyone who came through there. I cheked in regularly with the WWF (mostly watching the syndicated Superstars program); but, preferred NWA wrestling.

The Sunday program on WTBS showed reruns of the Saturday WCW show, plus matches from Alabama, Florida, Mid-Atlantic, AWA and Mid-South. Then, they started carrying Mid-south, right about the time that Vince McMahon bought the Saturday WTBS timeslot out from under Georgia. However, he was running tapes, instead of live studio wrestling and fans complained. the Georgia guys got a Saturday morning slot, while Mid-South ran on Sundays and did better ratings. Then, McMahon sold to Jim Crockett, who ran Mid-Atlantic and they took over the Saturday show, which became generally known as Crockett or the NWA, as they became the de facto lead promotion in the Alliance.

When ESPN added the AWA, I watched it (Greg Gagne, Nick Bockwinkle, Baron Von Raschke, the Road Warriors, Curt Hennig, Scott Hall, Larry Zbysko, the Midnight Rickers, etc..) and when they began to show World Class, with the Von Erichs (Kerry had his accident, which cost him his foot) and a young Jim Hellwig, as the Dingo Warrior. he went to the WWF to become the Ultimate Warrior. rick Rude was also there, as were Chris Adamas,Brian Adidas, Iceman King Parsons, the Simpson Brothers, and Skandor Ackbar.

For a time in college, I watched the WWF syndicated show, the NWA Saturday show and the AWA Wednesday show (which was preceded by Roller Derby). When I graduated, I went to Supply Corps School, in Athens, GA, for 6 months. WATL in Atlanta broadcast a 6 hour block of wrestling on Saturday evenings. It had one of the NWA syndicated shows, Memphis, Puerto Rico, Continental, and USA Knoxville. I would also see NWA, WWF and the dying days of the AWA. I also caught Polynesian Pacific Wrestling, while in Hawaii, on a midshipman training cruise. This promotion was run by the Rock's grandparents, High Chief Peter Maivia and his wife, Lia (Rock's father, Rocky Johnson, is married to their daughter, Atta). I also used to catch Central States and the Mid-South/UWF, while staying in St Louis, during college summers.

From high school until I left the military, I was a fanatic, reading some of the magazines, watching any wrestling I could and any tapes. I had tapes of some Japanese matches (especially Tiger Mask and Dynamite kid) a few from mexico (had an Ultimo Dragon compilation of matches from Mexico and Japan and the J-Crown tournament, where they united 8 junior heavyweight/cruiserweight belts. Ultimo Dragon held the titles when he came to WCW (which I watched during the Monday Night Wars era), won their Cruiserweight title and still separately held the NWA Middleweight title, in Mexico, giving him 10 championships, simultaneously. The titles were broken up after the WWF sent a cease and decist, as one of the belts was the old WWF Lt Hwt title, which was defended in the UWA promotion, in Mexico. The WWF used to have a talent exchange agreement with them and New Japan Pro Wrestling and created a Lt Hwt Title belt for the UWA and the WWF Lt Hwt title was being defended in Japan, by guys like Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid and the Cobra. The New Japan titles were also the WWF International title and the International Tag-Team titles. When they broke off the affiliation, New Japan rebranded the titles as the IWGP titles (International Wrestling Grand Prix, which had been a tournament championship, before).

I've since been able to watch some British wrestling on Youtube, from old World of Sport clips, with Marc "Rollerball" Rocco, Dave "Fit" Finlay, Leon Aris (aka Brian Glover, the actor), Adrian Street, Johnny Saint, Robbie Brookside,Kendo Nagasaki, Les Kellett, Steven/William Regal and as little Big Daddy as I can stomach.

So, yeah, I went from the local territory days, to the cable days, Monday Night Wars and tape trading and Youtube. Haven't watched since WCW went under, as WWF, without competition, became stale and the scripted promos and bad comedy skits were unwatchable. Also, the quality of mat wrestling deteriorated, in exchange for lots of high spots, with no psychology. I prefer mat technicians and guys who can tell a story, in a match, without rehearsing it. In the territory days, they were given a finish and a length and went out and improvised in the ring. promos were unscripted and it had a more real feel; or, at least, it was easier to suspend disbelief.

Never watched GLOW, though, as the matches were horrible and the skits were corny. Ironically, I love the Netflix series. The founder of GLOW, David McLane, had been the announcer and play-by-play guy for the WWA, in the mid-80s, when they were on life support. He was annoying then and his presence was enough to not make me watch the original GLOW. In the tv series, Bash is partially him and partially the money man, who owned the Riviera Casino, where they taped the shows.

I've also watched the early wrestling movies, like The Wrestler, with Ed Asner and Verne Gagne and the AWA crew of the period (Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch, Bruiser & Crusher, Nick Bockwinkle, a young brown-haired Ric Flair), Rocky 3, with the match against Hogan, as Thunderlips, Henry Winkler in The One and Only, the Sheik's I Like to Hurt People, Roddy Piper's Bodyslam (with Dirk benedict), All the Marbles (with Peter Falk and Burt Young, feature a womens tag-team, trying for the championship), No Holds Barred (ugh...wanted my money back) and a few others.

These days, I might watch some old stuff on Youtube and hangout at the Wrestling Classics Message Board, though not as much as here.

I grew up in the heyday of WCW/WWF feuding which made for spectacular television viewing. My actual beginnings was earlier though where Phoenix had a local Madison Square Garden downtown that my grandfather on my mom's side would take me to in the late 60's to see black and white televised matches from the New York Garden. Before the main televised show there would be 2-4 local wrestling and boxing matches, so I can actually remember seeing real matches when I was around 6-8 years old in the truest cigar smoke filled room! During the 80's WCW would be here in the fall at the local State Fair and run an matches that would be recorded for later airing on cable. WWF started coming to town in the mid 80's for recording some of the lesser cable shows and usually every 6 months or so they would come through with a Pay Per View live show. 

Watching wrestling live has its plus and minus. Nothing beats being up beside the ring where you can see the matches, the sweat, the beatings and SMELL the intensity as it occurs. While there is nothing more boring than a WWF 2 hour recorded show which actually runs 4-5 hours and the endless wait between the matches and the ring changes and set ups so it looks like another show. 

The best was WCW at the State Fair because you could move in right up against the ring, unlike WWF as the big gorilla in the room only had prepaid seating. And the WCW matches were more personal and the wrestlers and their girlfriends/wives would all be hanging out in the crowds and you could meet and talk with them about wrestling. Got to meet Ric Flair, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Rick Rude. 

Side story about wrestlers: I was working as front office manager/scheduler for a local Outpatient Physical Therapy company here in Phoenix during the early 90's and got a call for setting up a VIP patient appointment to be seen out of regular office hours to avoid "fan" issues. It was the wife of "Superstar" Billy Graham. I was given their home phone # from the Physician to call and arrange several weeks of therapy appointments for his wife. So for 3 weeks I got to speak with the "Superstar" daily and meet him and his wife and talk with Graham each morning when she came for treatment. I treated him and his wife as individual's and patients with all the respect and courtesy they deserved. Never once asked for autographs or pictures or ask him about his career but since he had nothing to do but hand out in our front desk/waiting room where I worked, he would out of boredom start talking about his life and wrestling career and stories of being on the road. Graham was gracious and appreciative for all our office was doing and he remarked to me constantly how thankful he was that I didn't go all fanboy and such with him. I very much adored the time spent with him those 3 weeks!

I used to subscribe.  Dave's historical stuff is great, as is his analysis of the business; but, man he needs an editor!  His run-on sentences and the overall formatting of the newsletter made it a chore, to read.

I used to listen to his podcast, on the old Eyada network and actually won a copy of the 1994 Super J-Cup tournament (won by Chris benoit, defeating Great Sasuke), by getting a trivia question correct..  I listened to his later show a bit, when it was available for free. With the death of WCW, then the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit (and the whole tragedy with his family) I just couldn't watch it anymore.  You'd sign on the internet and find out another 80s/90s star was dead by the age of 45, from steroids, booze, drugs, injuries/suicide.  It's a messed up business.  It's sad that more stars of the 70s are alive in their 70s and 80s than stars of the 80s.

I preferred the more technical style of classic British wrestling than the WWF.  The WWF always had the production; but, their product was horrible if you preferred more athletic, technical style wrestling.  My few pleasures with the WWF were guys like the Hart Foundation and British Bulldogs, and Ricky Steamboat.  The NWA style was built more around actual wrestling, with brawling thrown in, depending on the performer and type of match.  The WWF was punch/kick, strength moves and circus gimmicks.  It was also a place for big guys.  I preferred the junior heavyweight style, where the guys could go.
The British wrestlers (aside from Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks) could go.  Love the move-counter-move style, the emphasis on submissions, the storytelling with the round system.

For me, nothing beat technical matches, whether it was Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko going at it, Flair and Steamboat, Regal and Finlay, Angle and Benoit, or whoever.  One of the best pure technical matches I ever saw was on one of the WCW Slamboree tapes.  They had "legends" wrestle a bit on the card and had Nick Bockwinkel vs Dory Funk Jr, a battle of the former AWA and NWA World Champions.  It was amazing.  They went about 20 minutes, to a draw and it was like an advanced lecture in storytelling, through wrestling holds.  It was move and counter, with little in the way of cheap heat spots and no rel heel or babyface; just two masters showing how it's done.

For sheer excitement. though, nothing beat the Midnight Express vs the Rock n Roll Express, especially in the Mid-South promotion, where they originated the program.  Great ngles, superb matches that the crowds got deeply into.

For me some of the best "pure" wrestling ever comes down to Ric Flair versus Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat. From their very 1st match-up  in 1977 on into their trilogy of fights in 1989 with the brutal and classic 1 hour lesson in wrestling on April 2, 1989. These 2 guys are consummate professionals in that they worked perfectly together  and brought out the best of each other through EVERY match they had together in the ring. Any wrestler coming into the business should have to sit through ALL of their matches so they can truly see and feel what the wonderful world of wrestling is all about. Their's is a true rivalry that has endured the passage of time and remains the very best that wrestling has to offer..

My favorite quarterly wrestling show was WCW's Clash of the Champions ... I always watch that and I really miss it very much. It was on in the 80's and it was a treat to watch and mimic a PPV Event that you can watch on Cable TV for FREE.