Topic started in the Shout, but since I had to bail to drop the wife off at work, I didn't get to expand on it. Figured I'd start a topic here, instead. Lo and behold, as I catch up on the Shout, I notice Zero make a comment on hoping to find threads on the topic. Weird.

Anyway, anyone here interested in wrastlin'? As I said in the Shout, I haven't followed it in about 4 or so years mainly because I don't have cable. Other reasons involve poor storylines (geared more towards the kids now days), too much 'pushing' of the athletes in certain directions, and not enough kayfabe/breaking of kayfabe. I know it's kinda a double-whammy, but those always made things interesting for the next few weeks.

I started watching as a kid on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Loved The Ultimate Warrior and mostly the Hulkster. Became a fast fan of the Road Warriors Hawk and Animal after I met them and got their autographs. Apparently they were from Coon Rapids, MN. Where my mother lived at the time. Even though they were portrayed as heels on tv, they were awesome in person (they still stayed in character.. one even ripped the licorice rope off my neck and ate it right there in front of me. Before I could think to myself what a dick he was, he gave me 2 of HIS handfuls of candy, then signed my poster).

Wasn't too long before I lost interest. Then I heard something about Hulk Hogan (childhood hero, remember) defecting to the most hated group in wrastling.. the nWo. My cousin was HUGE into WCW, so I heard a lot from him and how much of a jerk Hulk became. Flash forward a few more years, in high school, my buddy and I had some off-shoot friends that loved the WWE (namely, Stone Cold). So while hanging out with them, I started to follow WWE more right before the Attitude era fully kicked off. I was hooked.

For a long while, actually, I was looking into joining a promotion in Duluth. And sent a tape to WWE for the Tough Enough thing on Mtv.

Became a huge fan of Foley and eventually the Rock (before he went babyface). Still have Foley's first two books, actually. Now, I like HHH mostly out of the respect he has for the business and his dedication to WWE (the company).

But as I said, I'm completely out of the loop. And even if I did have cable right now, I would very casually follow it.

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Yes.. Select Packers will be on the WWE (WWF) or whatever the hell they call it tonight.

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You can watch smackdown on Justin.tv starting around 8 am on Friday. The best part is the commercials are edited out. Just goto the sports section and you will see a few streams. If your wondering how they can do it, it is because they are actually in Australia and get the show way before the states.

Also they have a few streams that air older wrestling if your interested.

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Formo, you have to go back to the days of Georgia Championship Wrestling with Tommy Rich, Rick Flair, Harley Race, the Freebirds and on and on.

The AWA was alright too with Curt Henning, Larry Zbysko, the Rockers, Nikita Koloff.

I didn't really like Vince McMahon's league cause he changed things from wrastling to sports entertainment. Less skill with the boys now adays and more high risk/ high injury moves.

I prefer the wrestler to the puncher/power bomb guys.

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As an almost 29 year old, my favourite time periods in professional wrestling were the early 90s WWF, and the late 90s WCW.

My favourite wrestler would probably have to have been Bret Hart, followed maybe by Jake Roberts. The Canadian thing probably worked in Bret's favour for me, and there was just something about Jake The Snake. For whatever reason, though, it surprised the hell out of me last week to find out that Jake is 6'6!

I cannot say for certain right now, but I think my interest shifting from WWF to WCW had to do with WWF(maybe WWE by then?) shifting more towards "sports entertainment" where WCW seemed to stick more to the actual fighting. I was a big fan of the original nWo angle, but that kind of got a little tired as it got bigger and bigger, split into different factions, ect. To this day I get a real kick out of watching something like Hulk Hogan's "Holywood" entrances to Jimi Hendrix.

Can't say I really watch anymore though. If I see it on and there's nothing else really interesting to watch I might check it out out of curiousity, but it seems to have evolved into a large, generic group of pumped up, shiny men in speedos. Am I wrong?

Meh, I'd have loved them, if I were a kid back in those days. But because I wasn't, and if you were to sit me down to watch them now.. I probably wouldn't be super excited about it.

Not taking anything away from the classics like Harley Race, Flair, Henning, but I loved what Vince did for the sport. It desperately needed a 'pick-me-up', and Vince did exactly that. And you watch, in the next 10-20 years, there will be another resurgence of wrastlin' fans like there was during the WCW-WWF wars and the Attitude Era.

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Can't say I'm much of a WWE fan. It was enjoyable back when Rock and Austin were in, when the storylines weren't straight from a 3-year-olds storybook.

I'm more of a UFC fan.

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I had a brief interest in the WWF back when I was in grad school and looking for any opportunity to avoid work on my thesis.

Looking back on it, though, the only memory of note was "Miss Elizabeth."

An early "demure, but sleazy look".

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Never thought I'd see the day but I taped Raw just to see Clay