What Made You A Wrestling Fan In The First Place?

[Undertaker the 5th]

What got me into wrestling is probably me being bored. When I was about 11 I was tuning through the tv to see if there was anything good and all of a sudden I see Stone Cold breaking the Rock's guitar after he came out of the back of a truck I think. I didn't know who they were, but I liked it. It was the ending of of that Raw I think. I never saw it again because I forgot until we moved. I was just watching tv and my dad knows I liked fighting so he called me to tell me there was some wrestling going on. I switched and it was Undertaker in a triple threat against Brcok Lesnar and Big Show I think. That is the moment when I started watching it and became a fan of the Undertaker. It was when he won the rights to a buried alive against MR. Mcmahon. I stopped watching for like a year or so a while after and my cousin came to live with us. He was switching channels and started watching raw. He used to watch it before when he lived in Mexico. He told me about it and it was HHH on the screen. I told him to leave it there and I started watching again. That was like on 2004 I think. Had to read a little bit to see what had been going on.

 

[The Brain]

As a little kid I loved Saturday morning cartoons. One cartoon I really liked was Hulk Hogan’s Rock n Wrestling. This cartoon was my introduction to wrestling. It led me to get the toys and eventually watch Superstars and Challenge. That was nearly 25 years ago and I’ve stuck with it ever since.

Notice how everyone here says they got into wrestling when they were a kid. I think it is very rare for an adult to become a new fan. There are plenty of adult fans but I’m sure a great majority started watching as a kid. All the PG bashers should keep this in mind when they complain about WWE catering to kids.

 

[GameOver]

I came in a few months b4 the birth of Hulkamania. WWF was the only thing televised in Australia until around WrestleMania 8. other than on phone up wrestling lines i really knew little about what was going on in any other organisation.

Can't recall exactly but for the first 5yrs WWF started there global push Wrestlemania's 1-5 were televised on free to air delayed but no other PPV's, the rest were only on VHS 3-6months behind real time. and we only got Saturday morning wrestling show and occasionally other shows. after WrestleMania 6 they occasionaly showed heavily edited PPV's on free to air months after it happened. Til Cable PayTV kicked in

So WWF and Hulkamania and the 80's WWF drew me in. The characters, the catch phrases, some awesome technicians and stable PPV's that were all pretty good as an overall entertainment spectacle. The Mega Powers and Ted Dibiase were high on my list.
Though it was a show from top to bottom of the card.

First saw WCW in 1991, 3 PPV's that were released on VHS here in. SuperBrawl 91, Starrcade 91, Halloween Havoc 91. First saw WCW TV when it was in a small TNA style arena and the likes of Triple H "aka Terra Rising" were just starting out. PPV's came out on VHS from that point on and soon after the monday night wars kicked in

during the attitude era we got everything. WCW PPV's on PayTV, Nitro and Thunder (repeated often though so missed alot of stuff) and WWE Raw and eventually Smackdown and Heat and WWF Superstars (no not the current Superstars show)

was a good time to be a wrestling fan aslong as you could look pass the pushing the envelope way to far too often. Was also an expensive time bought all PPV's on PayTV for WCW & WWE from 1998 - when WCW folded.

Since then the darkest year was WWE was taken off PayTV for a full year and replaced with <Shudder> TNA, due to our PayTV provider Foxtel and the WWE not being able to come to terms on a contract to have WWE broadcast here. Money Money Money

Came back the following year after many complaints from fans.

anyway long story concluded, though it has become really bland and i so want TNA to pick there game up and show up WWE, it aint happened but i will still watch. I am hooked til i can't afford to watch anymore. WWE all the way

 

[Brahma Bull]

I guess my uncle kind of got me into it. It was on at my grandparents house, they never watched it, but it just happened to be on that channel. My uncle said, oh hey, check this out. And my first ever match i saw was Taker vs HBK hell in a cell, and a minute into watching it, kane debuted. So really i got spoiled to when i watched it. Then i would watch it on and off. The rock became my favorite, and what got me to be a huge fan was his match against foley in the i quite match. I loved them both, rock more, but that match was just everything to me. Even though the product sucks when compared to the attitude era, I still enjoy watching jericho, kane, taker, edge, and even hhh. They are, as one poster awhile ago rightly posted, like old time friends. I also like some of the new breed. When Sheamus came over to raw, i wasnt a poster on the boards yet, but i was thinking about joining and making a thread that predicted that he would be wwe champion by the next year. Little did i know he would win it so soon. I also like wade barrett and Cody rhodes. Plus, morrison, and others have really grown on me. I guess i will weather this pg storm because of some of the greats that still work, and the new guys that impress me every day.

 

[fenfool]

Wrestling was the only thing my dad & his dad had in common. I watched with my dad too...had a friend who taped WM3 and loaned it to me, that's what really had me hooked.

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

I started watching wrestling back in the early 80's, I remember watching TV one Saturday afternoon and being bored, until I changed the channel and saw these guys in face paint come running into a ring and just destroy these fat out of shape rednecks in about 30 seconds. My 11 year old mind was going crazy! I was like what is this awesomeness and why did know one tell me about this! The team I saw of course was the Road Warriors and it was one of the old NWA shows that I caught totally by accident. I didn't have cable yet so I did not know about the show on TBS until I went to spend the weekend with my cousin who was already a big wrestling fan and totally got me hooked on it after that. We got a cable shortly after and I was able to start getting the WCW Saturday Night show and also some WWF shows that introduced me to Hulk Hogan and I instantly became a die hard Hulkamaniac!

I have been following wrestling ever since, even wrestling for some indy promotions in the southeast for a couple year, and now I have introduced my own 4 year old son Connor to wrestling and he is loving it as much as me now. I don't think there will ever come a day when I am not a fan of wrestling in some shape or form.

 

[SyndicateSaint]

I actually don't remember a time when I DIDN'T watch wrestling. Being from the Chicago area, it was all about the Bears, the Cubs, and wrestling. My earliest memory is actually of wrestling. I remember my mom watching soap operas and me sitting on the floor playing with these two huge rubber "action figures". I had Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Iron Shiek. I've been a fan since I was at least 2 or 3 years old. So since 1986. Eventually, I would become a fan of the late 80's WWF (E) and my favorites were Roddy Piper, The Rockers, Jake Roberts, and Mr. Perfect. But something would also happen then, I saw my first WCW/NWA PPV. Halloween Havoc 1989. THAT show would plant the seeds for some of my all time favorites. The main event had an electrified cage match, that featured Ric Flair and a new member of the Four Horsemen named Sting. But it wasn't them who I became fans of that day. The opposition in that match was the J-Tex Corporation, in particular Terry Funk and The Great Muta. I started what is known now as a backyard wrestling federation, and I would be inspired by Funk and Muta so much, that even to this day I mimic them when I wrestle. I used to occasionally catch CMLL on tv on Galavision (I wanna say...) And got exposed to a few great wrestlers from Mexico as well.

I fell out of wrestling around 1996-7 or so as I moved and didn't get cable where I lived. But I got it back in 1998 right in time for the nWo and D-Generation X's high points. Also around that time I started hearing about ECW, and while I wasn't able to watch until the show on TNN in 1999, I was interested in it. ECW made me become a (no pun intended) hardcore fan of wrestling. Not in the garbage wrestling style that hardcore is associated with these days, but hardcore as in watching for the matches, and not just the crazy characters. I became a fan of WRESTLING and not sports entertainment then. I've become pretty jaded with wrestling today, but the Nexus, for a bit, drew me back in. I think they've dropped the ball though with them. Hopefully this CM Punk addition will make them interesting again.

tl;dr

Been a fan since I came out the nutsack as Fieldy would say...

 

[mikeyboy]

This question has been asked before i think but its a cool thread so ill answer again!
My Uncle Dave, i used to spend most weekends at his house when i was young with my cousins and he was always watching wrestling on saturdays ( NWA Jim Crockett promotions) and it got me interested in it, this was the mid 70's ( yes im an old fucker)and i was around 8 or 9 years old and ive been a fan ever since. Thanks Uncle Dave!!!!

 

[The Holy One]

Wrestling used to be something that my family would watch over a BBQ when I was a kid. Used to have a cookout for 3 or 4 PPVs a year, then I started to actually watch it weekly as I got older and really found a love for it. Then when I found out about the IWC a couple of years ago, I was introduced to the different style of wrestling other than WWE/WCW like the luchador style of AAA and the puro style of NJPW.

 

[TheWorldIsMines]

The Rock winning the Royal Rumble in 2000. It was the first wrestling pay per view I ever watched and The Rock instantly became my favorite wrestler from the promo earlier in the show.

 

[TNA cross the line]

I myself was a fan since birth sitting on my grandfathers knee watching hogan piper savage and the rest. I wouldnt be surprised if wrestling was one of if not the first shows i ever watched on tv

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

Thank you all for so many great responses. I really appreciate this thread getting the steam it did and having as much feedback. You guys are great to hear from. I feel I had a pretty good interaction here and look forward to more replies before the weekend is up. At least I hope so.

Otherwise no worries, this is a great topic and I look forward to posting some more interesting threads at some point here on the wrestlezone forum!

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I cant really remember a single incident that made me become a wrestling fan, I think I just sort of fell into it?

I always loved action, be it films with loads of guns and explosions or superhero cartoons, that sort of thing. When we got Sky TV one of the first things I remember seeing was wrestling, and I already knew a bit about it because my cousin loved it and had lots of the action figures.

I watched it and just got hooked on the spectacle, the entrance music, the big jacked up guys slamming each other etc, it was cool as hell to me. I obviously knew it was scripted but I still wanted to believe they were really fighting haha

I guess I still am attracted to action even today, I do much prefer seeing something spectacular in the ring rather than a big-man match, and I thought I would grow out of being a wrestling fan. I remember my Mum saying why did I still watch it when I was about 16, and me replying that I wouldnt be a fan when I was 20.....well I am 24 now and still love it, maybe even more now I can watch the old stuff again on You Tube and bring back those memories of the Attitude Era and WCW Nitro!

Wrestling is great

 

[WWE.IS.AWESOME]

My best friend in the world got me into wrestling. One day I was over her house and it happened to be on the night of Summerslam 2009, so she ordered it and we watched it and it was pretty good. I actually watched it from a kayfabe point of view because I hadn't really even heard of WWE untill then.

Even though I've only been a fan for about a year or two, I have seen so many moments, matches, etc. on Youtube and have talked about it so much on WZ that it feel slike I've been a fan since the 90's.

 

[jacdnwarrior]

My aunt's husband and my cousin were watching wrestling on their tv and I watched it with them. It was WWF, Killer Bees feuding with the Hart Foundation. I was hooked. I had one of those two dial tvs. One dial for VHF the other for UHF. And I'd only see the WWF programs, but the reception was crap so I just had to make due. I watched it pretty regularly for a long time. I was overjoyed when Randy Savage won his first WWF heavyweight title at WM4. I've never lost interest but now I find it hard to watch on a consistent basis.

 

[Haley]

It isn't so much a moment that got me into the WWE/WCW/WWF. It was how I spent time with my father and my brothers. They would sit in the living room and watch the shows together and I wanted to be apar of that so I would sit in there with them. Me being as young as I was I do not remember a lot of the increible things I saw during that period. Now days its just me and my father in the house and we still catch every single WWE episode. Its time I love spending with him. Even during the holidays when my brothers return with their wives and their kids we still gather around the T.V and watch wrestling. Its basiclly a tradition in our house, and if we were fighting or if we just pain did not like eachother at the moment we would still sit down and watch it. I would nver ever give up a single moment of it either.

 

[mrbrownstone]

I would say availability more than anything else.

Allow me to explain that, I started watching wrestling around the time of WM 25 (I think, it may have been a bit earlier but it was in that general time frame) so approximately two years ago. Around that same time my family shifted countries from New Zealand to Australia, coincidence? Nope. You see in NZ, wrestling was never on TV or if it was I had no clue about it, there were no ads for it or anything and I had no way of watching it. As a result of that for the longest time I had a poor attitude towards wrestling, thinking of course "that shits fake, it can't be good".

Then when I first moved to Australia one of the first things I noticed on TV was an ad for Raw, I couldn't believe what I saw it actually looked really good and cool. So I decided I would put my prejudices aside and give it a go, that episode I saw Randy Orton take out Hunter, handcuff him and kiss his wife, after that segment I totally was hooked. It seemed to be the ultimate act of evil and it made me want to watch next week, then every week after that.

 

[The Idiot]

I remember I went to my babysitters one night when our parents went out for dinner (family friends). I remember the babysitter and her brother were playing around with cables in the back of the TV to try and get "Hulk vs Andre the Giant." This was Wrestlemania 3...one of the most hyped up matches ever. I knew who they were but never really watched them. Cut a long story short...they failed to get the cable to work and were bummed because they wanted to know who was going to win. No internet back in those days...so they had to wait until the next WWF show to find the outcome. Never really paid any attention after that...but that was my first memory of wrestling.

Fast forward a couple years later to Royal Rumble 1989. My friend who was spending the night said he was going to bring over a wrestling tape that he recorded a couple weeks earlier. We watched the entire event: from the posedown with Rude and Warrior to the 6-man tag match and even the women's championship match that seemed to last forever. But it was the Rumble event itself that made me a fan...even though I was bummed that Big John Stud won and not Hogan. I will never forget it as long as I live.

From then on I had to watch every Saturday....I was as addicted to wrestling as anyone could be addicted to ANYTHING. I lived and breathed wrestling from then on until around WM 18.

 

[LitasRevenge79]

I fondly remember watching wrestling with my father, and my beloved Uncle Dennis (who kinda resembled a skinnier Hulk Hogan) as a little girl. I would watch him with excitement as we watched Cowboy Bob Orton, Hulk Hogan, Andre, Ted Dibiase Sr, Junkyard Dog,and HeartBreak Kid, and Brutus Beefcake and so on. It was 'our' time to be rowdy and silly and get into the excitement. It was a time I could lose all sense of reality and be as wild and crazy as I wanted to. I even got to dress up the part of the wrestlers to watch with him. I remember carrying a dog leash around when I was in my Junkyard Dog phase, wearing yellow tights, and a red shirt of his and yellow bandanna to look like Hogan. Then wearing his camo jacket to look like Sgt Slaughter, or his cowboy hat and boots to look like Bob Orton. It was our way of being able to create memories and watch history. Sadly, as I got older, I got more into the girly things and put those behind me.

Then around 2005, or so, I was dating someone who was into wrestling, and watched a show (RAW) and saw a handsome guy in a white suit. He told me "That's Batista, and that's Orton, and HHH." I recognized Ric Flair, and Udnertaker. He told me Batista betrayed Evolution and HHH by winning the title and taking it to Smackdown. I was hooked after hearing more about this type of storyline. I immediately got back in after seeing those legends, and then seeing the divas that would wrestle. It was like seeing an old friend I hadn't seen in a few years. I just needed to get re-acquainted again!! I still am as adamant today as I was back then. Especially back in 2008, when my beloved Uncle Dennis passed away, I put my collectible Hogan figurine in the casket to stay with him forever, since he (my uncle) was my original wrestling hero to me. I still can remember the fond memories with my dad, and my cousin Dustin (Dennis' son) as we recall Dustin doing his best Bobby Heenan impersonations. I love this sports-entertainment and it means so much to my family. Some people may never fully understand, and that's okay to me.

 

[Adiaphora]

I remember watching old WWF and WCW as a kid with my uncle (RIP). Roddy Piper, Hogan, Andre the Giant, Sting, Ric Flair were some of the best to watch. It is funny when I look back that my favorite as a little kid was one that didn't get over too well, Papa Shango.

My current fandom came from WCW in 1996 when I was a teenager. I love the artistic nature of it. It also helped that it proved a way to rebel against my mother, who refused to allow me to watch it (of course I found ways). It was NWO and Goldberg that brought me back into the fold. I didn't fully get into WWF until 1998/99 when WCW was really heading downhill.

 

[JGlass]

The X-Men animated cartoon series videos my parents bought me as a kid.

Let me explain...

When I was probably about 5 or 6 my parents bought me the X-Men animated cartoon series on VHS, and I fell in love. I don't know what in my early developing mind loved so much about the X-Men, but I was hooked. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated and entertained my Marvel's mutant superheroes and their adventures. This opened up the door to even more superheroes and soon the X-Men weren't the only superheroes I was interested in.

I couldn't get enough of superheroes. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to comic books and these were pre-google pre-wikipedia days (dark times indeed) so my ability to partake in Marvel's stories was limited to what I could watch on television and the occasional comic book my mom would bring home to me if she stumbled across a place that sold the junk while she was out.

Eventually I discovered wrestling, and it was just like comic books, except with real people. They all had their own super hero names like The Rock and Stone Cold. They all had their own theme music and their own costumes and even their own special powers in the form of finishing moves. There were the heroes and the villains that clashed on a weekly basis on my television screen and I couldn't get enough of it.

Wrestling started as a way for me to fulfill my need to watch superhero type shows, but I soon grew up and eventually grew out of wrestling along with most of my friends. However, in my junior or senior year of high school, I'm not sure which, I was flipping through the channels and wound up on Saturday Night's Main Event, and I remembered why I watched wrestling in the first place, and I was once again hooked. I haven't stopped watching wrestling ever since, nor do I plan on stopping.

Because my parents bought me the X-Men animated series on VHS I got hooked on superheroes, and the WWE became an outlet for me to watch superhero action on a weekly basis.

 

[The_Gene_Genie]

I think it was my older brother. He and his friends must have gotten into wrestling during it's boom. I used to steal his Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazines and read about these larger than life characters and the feuds they were embroiled in. I think it was back in '88 I started reading them. I saw my first wrestling programme around 1990, probably in the build up to Wrestlemania VI. It was a Rick Rude promo. I didn't see anything further on that show (it was my mate's house he was channel hopping), but I was hooked then. I read all about Wrestlemania VI in PWI, Hogan's rib injury at the hands of Earthquake, Brutus Beefcake's parasailing accident and so on. It was a larger than life world and I couldn't get enough of it. Then Sky TV came along in my household and the rest as they say is history!

 

[wonderfulwayne]

This might be the best post ever. I almost cried reading LitasRevenge79 post.
Wrestling to me has always been a very big part of my life. I can remember back in 1988, I was only 3, I was in the hospital about to have my heart surgery. I was laying down for the night and when I woke up the TV was on and NWA was on. It was Lex Luger vs Ric Flair. I couldn't find the remote to turn it, so I just laid there and watched it. The next day I had my heart surgery and I made it thur it. And for some reason I felt like those guys protected me, like they was my guardian angles. That's my earliest memory in life. Ever since then I watched wrestling all the time. I love everything about it.

 

[TakerDakSide]

I started out as a fan watching Wrestling little by little from 2000-2004 (No PPV's though). However I didn't offically become one 'til '05 Starting from the RAW Homecming of that year. My first rivalry I actually lived through was the Taker/Orton one. It was so unrealistic for Wrestling that it felt like a regular TV show. Then my mom told me 'bout The Undertaker & found him to be an interesting superstar for a man who can do multiple things (High-Flying, Inhuman Resilency) It was one of my best experiences I had in my life.