Zoo Enthusiast

I'm 30 and pretty much fit, as well. I'm from AWA country and my dad was probably a nostalgic fan like we are now (he tells a story of drinking at a local bar with Curt Hennig and Bock) and we would watch it together. I always pretty much knew it wasn't on the up and up but absolutely loved it. I remember watching SNME's, etc. with dad during the Mega Powers stuff. My earliest vivid memories involve a house show in Green Bay that featured my mom yelling at Mr. Perfect, as well as me scoring a foam Hacksaw Jim Duggan 2" x 4" and a Bushwackers foam finger thing. I was so hooked. Mania VI was a big deal as my friends and I were all big Warrior kids. Then, I fell out of it the first time in '95 or so. I think it just wasn't very cool anymore, even as a 10 year old. Hogan was gone, there was the standard "you know it's fake, right?" stuff, and "they are all on steroids." Plus I was obsessed with baseball and other sports. I got back in at the time when probably everyone who fell out at the same time as me did: the nWo. "What, Hulk Hogan is a BAD GUY now?!?!" Instantly obsessed, and had really never watched much WCW aside from knowing Flyin' Brian and Sting thanks to a kid who I went to school with that had their shirts and told me about them. Anyhow, another buddy was like "WWF has this guy called Stone Cold and he swears all the time." His high school aged brother and his friends were ordering PPVs and wrestling was cool. Borderline cutting edge, even. Another friend's older brother gave me a PPV copy of Uncensored '97 and I was over the moon. I still really wasn't watching much WWF until a guy that worked for my dad gave him a tape of Badd Blood IYH. All along this journey was my dad, too. We started ordering every WCW PPV from Spring Stampede '97 on, and I taped them all and watched them over and over. We started doing the same with WWF with Royal Rumble '98. Everyone I knew fucking LOVED Stone Cold. Even my mom got into him, which is when I knew wrestling was a pretty huge deal again. It was the talk of the playgrounds, the lunchrooms, the hallways, everywhere. The new video games were awesome and if we weren't watching tapes we were pulling all nighters playing World Tour and drinking Mtn. Dew by the Cube. These were THE DAYS. Somewhere in here, my dad finds ECW somewhere late at night on the C-Band satellitle dish, and we're staying up late on Saturdays watching that like we were with SNME 10 years prior. It was so fucking badass and edgy and we loved it and started ordering all of those shows, too. I'd like to say something that makes me sound like I am such a smart fan, booking ruined it for me, blah blah blah, but I quit watching in 2000 because I was 16 and had a car and a job and was interested in the opposite sex, etc. Surely it had become less enjoyable in the '99-00 time period, but the other stuff was a bigger reason. Plus I imagine I was burnt out a bit, as much as that happens to a 16 year old. I would have brief dalliances with watching again (watching the last Nitro, Mania 17 on VHS, etc.), but went mostly dark from '00 until 2010 or so, when I started watching a little for no real reason. I went and watched all the first few years of Nitro and the PPV's after downloading a torrent of them. I tried getting into WWE but it was a struggle. Then The Rock came back for Mania 27 and I started watching the current show again, at least the PPV's. I dabbled in TNA for a while, too, because my old WCW faves were there. I had a car accident in '11 that knocked me out of commission for a few months, and I watched tons and tons of wrestling, listening to podcasts, learning, etc. I have always been drawn to history, be it sports, the world, politics, or even wrestling, so I wanted to learn as much about it as I could because I prefer to have informed opinions of things that I enjoy. Now, since this past summer, I am pretty much out on the current WWE show, though I follow PWG and other indies, as well as keep up with NJPW. I realize I have started to become "I hate new wrestling" guy, which makes me slightly sad, but so it goes. I still love the shit out of wrestling, but it's Eric Embry or Billy Joe Travis or Gary Young rather than Seth Rollins, Fandango, or Adam Rose. I'm sure I'll get back in again at some point, but I don't miss it. Not to mention the fans/hate-watchers that do nothing but complain about it. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble so much.

They should always be working toward creating more main eventers. It's not like you can have too many stars. If they are looking at their roster and saying they are set for a decade, they are idiots.

YES!!!

This. The most offensive thing a promotion can be is boring. This is where I have been with WWE for the past four months or so. I'll probably sit out til Rumble and see if they can get me interested again.

I don't own a Chromecast, so someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe there is an app involved at this point. You would just "cast a tab" from the Chrome browser on your PC to your Chromecast/TV.

Lapsed Fan will fill some time for you, and it's entertaining (to me).

Yes. With Cabana at his side, wrestling truly would be saved. Making towns in a '94 Escort, like the good ol' days when it was fun.

Haha. This must have been great.

I don't hook my laptop up to my TV because I like to use my laptop. It's a pain in the ass and I don't need to do it for anything that I stream nowadays. If anything, that's the more stone age way to watch stuff on your TV. Any streaming service worth anything has game console apps, smart TV apps, or set top box apps. If the point of this is for NJPW to be more worldwide, they should certainly add apps for those devices. It's common sense for them to do so.

I will probably hold off until there's a Roku app.

Oh, he's such a rebel that Punk! He blocked the company he worked for on Twitter, what a wacky, crazy and funny guy he is! Zzzz Definitely qualifies Punk for inclusion in the legitimate badasses thread.

Just a really fun match. Obviously not much to add on Pillman, who was incredible. Sid was destroying worlds all over the place. Calling spots loud and proud and almost killing Pillman. Rick Steiner also tried to take a flip-bump on a clothesline from him and landed on his head. Great stuff.

"Woo. Good gawd!"

I loved the hell out of this until the ref blew the finish. I also enjoy the commentary trying so hard to legitimize Jarrett, as Mike is clearly reading scripted praise for him that leads to a mispronunciation of "plethora."

Hogan and Savage were spectacular here. "Too hot to handle and too cold to hold!"

Serial. Add me to the list of people that are hooked on the show.

"He was born into this business, he was bred for this business, and he comes from the loins of the American Dream." Only Dusty.

This was fucking great. Probably my favorite non-match of the Yearbook so far.

Not that it hasn't been going on since Paige beat her that Raw after 'Mania! It still comes up every time she loses. There are some fans who want to think that the wrestlers take things as seriously as they do. Every loss is a "message."

I'm sure it was a real scorcher.

I do like that they have gone with the full heel authority figure nowadays. Has spiced things up.

Pro wrestling - the only business which figures if you're a fan of said business, you're an idiot. Pretty much. I don't know of any other business that has such contempt for their consumers. Politics, I guess?

That is the alcoholic I assumed you meant. "Meltzer will always be a mark when it comes to the biz brother. HH" - @hulkhogan

Dave wasn't positive. He said he was told by a source who said he was 99% positive, but Dave himself wasn't sure. I should say he felt confident/positive enough about it to report it. Not taking shots at Dave. I love Dave. Just that that one sticks out so badly as an example of him getting worked hard - doesn't he still talk to Heyman? Whomever his source was must have been very well-placed for him to not really (seemingly) do much legwork on something that was a huge story at the time.

Yeah, I'm a moron.