As an old school pro wrestling fan, what would you look forward to?

Publish date: 2024-06-23
When I was a kid, I was a HUGE WWF fan. I would say from ages 6 or 7 through 11, I loved EVERYTHING about it and was still a pretty big fan up until around age 13 (WrestleMania VIII). After that, Hulkamania was gone and I lost that passion. Granted, I was never the biggest Hulk fan anyway, but that era had everything I loved. The New Generation didn't appeal to me and, though the Monday Night Wars brought me back for a bit of nostalgia and excitement, since then I've watched less often and, when I do, it's more out of habit than because I find it entertaining. But, man, when I loved it, I LOVED IT! That's probably what stops me from letting go of it completely.

I was hoping to get some responses from you old school guys--whether you loved it back when I did, beforehand, since...or all of the above--about what you looked forward to as a fan.

Recently, I was thinking back to the days when I was such a big fan and I realized that a lot of it had to do with constantly having something to look forward to. It's funny, it seems like there was WWF EVERYTHING back then, but at the same time, I liked it a lot more when it wasn't on everyday. I admit I'm not a fan anymore, so I won't say why I don't like monthly PPVs and so many hours of TV a week. I don't want this post to sound negative at all. So, I will just talk about how it was and why I loved the way it was back then. Here is what I looked forward to as a young WWF fan:

1) WWF Magazine - I got my first WWF Magazine, with Miss Elizabeth on the cover, from my parents on my first ever sick day home from school. This was the October/November 1986 issue. Soon after, they would be monthly and I LOVED going to the convenience store or drug store and hoping to see the new issue in the magazine stand. When it was there, I still remember how excited I was. Who was on the cover? Who was featured in the articles? Who had new t-shirts in the catalog? I would often find it before it was shown on Saturday morning TV, so this was all a surprise to me. Later, I would get the subscription and having it delivered in the mail each month was pretty exciting itself; but, those trips to the store--and sometimes more than one store--looking for the new issue, that is a great memory.

2) Saturday morning TV - I mentioned it and that brings a lot more memories to mind. My friends and I would sleepover each other's houses and wake up and watch Wrestling Challenge and Superstars of Wrestling. There were mostly squash matches, but it didn't matter. This is where you saw the wrestlers' move sets and learned about their storylines. They had interview segments like Piper's Pit, Brother Love, the Snake Pit, Barber Shop, Funeral Parlor, etc. where storylines were created/furthered. Mean Gene's Special Report often brought interesting news as well. I always looked forward to Saturday mornings. Cartoons, then wrestling...then American Gladiators. Haha. I remember one Saturday my Dad and I were going to the Mets game and I was excited--but a little bummed I would miss wrestling. We got to the stadium so early, the guys at the concession stand had wrestling on! I didn't miss it AND got to see the Mets game--what a day!

3) LJN Wrestling Figures - These things were AWESOME! The 8" rubber wrestlers that looked so much like (and sometimes nothing like) my favorites on TV. I had tons of them, plus the ring and the steel cage accessory--the old blue cage. Looking forward to which guys had figures out each and every time I went to Toys R Us...another cherished memory. I would often find out who was available by seeing them in person; not on TV first.

4) PPVs - The Big 4. WrestleMania existed already, but while I was getting to know the roster, the powers that be created Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. Mega cards where names I knew fought each other, not the guys I didn't know on Saturday TV. Up until then, I would see some shows from the Garden on MSG Network, but I would only usually catch a match or two before bedtime--which meant I saw matches like post-Killer Bees Jim Brunzell vs. Curt Hennig (not even know as Mr. Perfect yet) instead of the superstars I really loved at the time. So, these PPVs were AWESOME and I loved how it took months to set up storylines and make you look forward to when these guys would finally get their hands on each other. Often, their next feuds would be set up on these shows as well.

There were other things back then that I would look forward to seeing in the store like ice cream bars, coloring books, trading cards, etc. But those 4 were really my favorite things to look forward to enjoying as a fan. Like I said, I'm hoping to hear why other old school fans loved wrestling so much.

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