Monday, July 23, 2007

For Love Of Wrestling: A Fan No More

I was maybe 5 years old, flipping through channels on a Saturday morning, the mornings that I lived for. Great cartoons, great cereal, great times. And I happened upon wrestling, Tugboat was wrestling a "jobber" I remember the day clearly. I put it on, my Mom refused to watch it telling me if I was going to watch it, then to go in the other room. So I did. And I was hooked. Most kids in schools were all about people like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, and Andre The Giant. My favorites were The Million Dollar Man, Mr. Perfect, and Ravishing Rick Rude. They entertained me the most.

The day finally came that sent me over the top in my love for wrestling, my Dad had gotten us tickets to an event. It was leading into Summerslam and I got to meet The Texas Tornado, got to see Dibiase and Perfect wrestle live. Hogan fought Slaughter. And They also tapped some matches for Superstars. I remember my Dad buying me everything I wanted from the merchandise stand. I got my foam LOD shoulder pads, a foam title belt. A Hogan finger. and a T Shirt with some superstars on it. Michaels and Jannety split up so I took my marker and drew a line between the two on my shirt. I was a kid obsessed.

One day at recess I got into a fight, the kid threw me to the ground and kicked me, I instantly jumped back up, shot up a finger and pointed at him, my eyes wide, doing my best Hogan impression. Waved my finger back and forth and then socked the kid in the nose. Wrestling helped me win many a school yard fights. A knee drop onto a kid from the top of the slide got me detention for a week. Flipping my school bus driver the bird Stone Cold style got me kicked off of riding the bus. Every job I applied for, hours available, any hours except Monday nights. Working at Blockbuster once they actually put me down for working a Monday night, so I quit. Nothing in this world got between me and my wrestling. I never missed a show when it came to town.

John Cena. A name that will stay with me forever, the guy that made me quit watching. Bobby Lashley another name that made me quit watching. But the biggest name of them all, Vince McMahon. All of my favorite wrestlers quit, retired, or were released. And if they werent, then they were just reduced to midcarders and would stay there forever (Matt Hardy). The writing on the shows got horrible, the wrestling got stupid, and everything was so predictable and eye rolling that I just could not take it anymore, and gave up. In the past 4 months, I have only watched 1 full episode of Raw, the episode of Vince blowing himself up in a limo, some saw it as great, I saw it as stupid. ECW coming back was an awesome thing for 2 weeks, then it got stupid and was worse to watch than Heat and Velocity. Smackdown was just a giant piece of crap but I had actually gained interest in it since Edge was champ. Edge was always a favorite of mine. And now, Khali? Give me a break. John Cena on Raw is apparently the greatest wrestler of all time since no one can beat him, not HBK, not Orton, not HHH, no body. So whats the point in watching? None. Because of things like that, I have given up, I can say with a heavy heart that I am no longer a wrestling fan. I read wrestling news every now and then, and will read some of the results of the shows. But other than that, wrestling is dead to me. Thank you Cena, thank you Vince. You have turned away a life long hardcore wrestling fan. Will I ever watch wrestling again? Maybe, but it would take a lot to do so.

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