Anyone here a wrestling fan?

If so, what companies and which wrestlers?

I have been all my life but ever since WWE acquired WCW and ran ECW out of business, my interest has waned.

I think Vince it just producing crap because he has no real competition.

TNA is OK but I think they keep shooting themselves in the foot by featuring ex-WWE guys.

ECW was my favorite company to watch because you never knew what was going to happen next. Paul Heyman is a genius booker IMO.

I loved Mr. USA Tony Atlas when I was a wee-lad - so much so that my dad bought me a little American flag to wave when he came out!

I watched it when it was on TBS in the early 80's. After that I drifted away, never to return. But I have fond memories of Tony Atlas, The Iron Shiek, Abdullah The Butcher, Junkyard Dog, Super Fly Snuka, Cap't Lou, Arn Anderson (?), Rick Flair, Dusty Rhodes and a few others. Amazing how those names will never go out of my head.

The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Jake The Snake Roberts, The Million Dollar Man, Road Warriors, Junkyard Dog, Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Macho Man, Ms.Elizabeth , etc...

I miss the classic days.

Yeah! Them too!

From the ages of around 7-14, WWF (it just changed to WWE when I stopped watching) was my life. I have very fond memories particularly of the attitude era (late-1998 to early-2001).

My first favourite wrestler was Bret Hart. When I was about 9, he was my idol. My Dad took me to see WWF in Winnipeg when I was in grade 5. He bought me a Bret Hart action figure and pink sunglasses to go with my shirt, hat, and sign. I freakin' lost it when his music hit; that was one of the happies moments of my life. And, I'll never forget the next month when he left WWF. I remember exactly where I was: outside the Keewaitin, Ontario areana (waiting for my brother to come out of the change room) in November 1998. I was so sad that I cried. But, I soon found another idol.

Stone Cold Steve Austin quickly gained my interest, and, for the next 4 years, became my idol. My fandom was even more intense than my love for Hart. I had piles of t-shirts, posters, movies, toys, etc (not just for him, actually). Imagine a kid in grade 6 wearing shirts that say HELL YEAH on the back and have pictures of bloodied wrestlers. I was an Austin fanatic. I rented all the paperviews; I had all the merchandise; my room was covered in Austin and WWF stuff. I went to WWF a seconf time in July 1998 and saw Stone Cold face the Undertaker. The craziest thing was how much I learned about wrestling and WWF history. I watched all the old videos, too. I was a WWF history buff. You could've asked me anything, seriously ANYTHING, and I could've answered it.

I started to gradually lose interest with the WCW/ECW invasion story. For months I was just in denial; I could tell I was losing interest, but I tried desperately to look for the good things (which there still were...ppvs were still nothing but matches). 2002 started out with a bang. HHH had become my favourite wrestler after Austin turned on WWF. HHH won the Royal Rumble after his comeback and went to Wrestlemania and won the title, which blew me away. That was probably the last time I enjoyed wrestling. After that, things got more and more stupid. The last ppv I watched was Judgment Day 2002 (I remember there being a Hell In A Cell between HHH and Jericho that just sucked). Then, during a June episode of Raw (soon after the ppv), I just stopped myself and had an epiphany: I thought, why the hell am I watching this? This is stupid; it's not even about wrestling anymore. And, truth be told, I just didn't seem to enjoy even the actual wrestling parts anymore. I stopped watching immediately, cold turkey. I took down all the posters, and boxed up all the videos.

Every few months, I'll check out Raw for a minute out of curiosity, and I think it's just horrible. Since I've gotten off of it, I've seen Kane as a necrophiliac, Vince having affairs and love childs, a wrestler who is supposed to be mentally disabled, and, aside from many, many more things, Rick Flair still wrestling.

I became a fan shortly after WM6 and the about the exact time Undertaker made his debut. I've followed it almost straight (except for my first 9 months in the navy). I got inot WCW around the time of the Dungeon Of Doom and followed it up until the Wolfpac broke up. I love the mid 80s and early 90s the most (WWF and WCW). It has gone way downhill as of late but I'm so intuned into it that I can't tear myself away. My favorite of all time is The Undertaker and he WAS followed closely by Chris Benoit until his death then I dropped him like a rock (I have cooled off a little now with the knowledge that he was suffering from too many concussions which turned his brain into mush setting off dementia). My other favorites (past and present) are more or less these:

Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, Legion Of Doom, Chris Jericho, Demolition, Steve Austin, Sting, Eddie Guerro, Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, The Hart Foundation, Big Boss Man, Andre The Giant, The Big Show, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, RVD, Cactus Jack, Maxx Paine, The Nasty Boys, Fit Findley, Hugh Morris, Bill Goldberg, The Fabulous Freebirds, Dean Malenko, Ric Flair, Rey Mysterio Jr., Kevin Nash (Disel), Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), DDP, Roddy Piper, Saturn, Randy Savage, The Stiener Brothers, Sid Vicious, Ultimate Warrior, Dr. Death, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, Papa Shango, The Rockers, The Natural Disasters, Terry Funk, Sabu, The Hardy Boys, Mr. Perfect, Hercules, Ahmed Johnson, Jeep Swenson, Brock Lesnar, The Bushwackers, Rhyno, Ken Shamrock, D.O.A., Brutus Beefcake, Tajiri, Jimmy Snuka, Sgt. Slaughter, The Ultimo Dragon, and others.

Least favorite: Hulk Hogan .

Hogan is a joke. It's funny that he has believed all the hype McMahon created around him. He really can't wrestle for crap.

However, Ric Flair is a personal icon of mine for reasons other than just wrestling.

Quote :

However, Ric Flair is a personal icon of mine for reasons other than just wrestling.

Lovely golden locks??

Ric Flair is high on my "coolest men that have ever lived" list.

I'll post it one day. He has qualities that I highly admire and the locks are one of the top contenders.

Flair is a classic! Not only could he wrestle but he was one of the best talkers in the business.

I always liked him better as a heel than a face. He was just so hateable...

Stone Cold Steve Austin is my favourite.

I also like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Undertaker and BookerT.

I use to watch Jerry"The King"Lawler,Bill Dundee,The MoonDogs,The Fabulous Ones way back in the day.I got into WWE a few years ago when the Rock was getting so popular.Then I just lost interest after they split the Smackdown and RAW groups.

thrasher73 wrote:

I use to watch Jerry"The King"Lawler,Bill Dundee,The MoonDogs,The Fabulous Ones way back in the day.I got into WWE a few years ago when the Rock was getting so popular.Then I just lost interest after they split the Smackdown and RAW groups.

Sounds like you were in MidSouth country too. I loved that promotion. I was living near Memphis when the whole Andy Kauffman thing was happening. Now THAT was entertainment. Every Saturday morning at 11am, Channel 5 would show live in-studio wrestling and Kauffman would come out and give the viewers hygiene lessons.

tohostudios wrote:

thrasher73 wrote:

I use to watch Jerry"The King"Lawler,Bill Dundee,The MoonDogs,The Fabulous Ones way back in the day.I got into WWE a few years ago when the Rock was getting so popular.Then I just lost interest after they split the Smackdown and RAW groups.

Sounds like you were in MidSouth country too. I loved that promotion. I was living near Memphis when the whole Andy Kauffman thing was happening. Now THAT was entertainment. Every Saturday morning at 11am, Channel 5 would show live in-studio wrestling and Kauffman would come out and give the viewers hygiene lessons.

Oh Yeah

It was on Channel 3 here near Louisville.Great stuff.Too bad wrestling isnt like that anymore.

The Moondogs were great for concession stand brawls.

Yep. Have been for nearly 30 years. Mick Foley is my favorite.

I love 80's and early to mid 90's WWF and WCW. Not so much a fan now, but there was a time around '97 or '98 that I hit Monday Nitro pretty hard and that was awesome. I miss the good old days though.

My favorite wrestler(s) were/are: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty(The Rockers), The British Bulldog, Dynamite Kid, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Curt Henning, Greg Valentine...many more.

My favorite event each year was The Royal Rumble; the only time that a bunch of my favs were in the ring at one time...Awesome!

used to be a big fan but it has just lost its appeal as of late. But I was a fan of ecw and wwe the dead man has always been my favorite wrestler

I used to watch this a lot when I was in Grade school and junior high. I was heavily into the Jim Crockett Promotions company which was on the WTBS TV Station. I liked some WWF and AWA as well. But here were the wrestlers I liked.
Brad Armstrong, Johnny Rich, Tommy Rich, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Tony Atlas, Bam Bam Bigelow, King Kong Bundy, Jim Garvin, Greg Valentine, Iron Sheik, Junkyard Dog, Paul Orndorff, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Harley Race, Butch Reed, Rick Rude, Jimmy Snuka, Scott and Rob Steiner, Jimmy Valiant, Chris and Jay Youngblood, Larry Zbysko, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, The Great Kabuki, George the animal Steele, and a few more. I have no interest in it now but it was great back in the day.

This guy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKECiyIsq3I

MetalGuy71 wrote:

This guy...

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKECiyIsq3I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKECiyIsq3I[/quote[/url]]

Yeah I'm a huge wrestling fan but all we got here is TNA. It's real to watch tought. I haven't watch it in month tought so...What happenned to Abyss dude? He was one of my fav. I heard that he loses a fight agaisnt Sting (My personnal favourit) and then we just never saw him again.

yeah abyss is back without that dumb manager dude he had. Now he wears all white.

Yep. Ever since I was a kid & Grandpa used to take me to the Mid-South matches at Irish McNeil's. We made the pilgrimage to Wrestlemania in Detriot last year & will be going to Houston next year, cant wait. TNA is ok, but I rarely watch it. I've been friends with Mark Henry since before the 92 Olympics, he is one BIG dude.