The Wrestling Nerd Analysis Survey
December 8th, 2013 by Gavok |Recently, in a thread at Something Awful’s wrestling subforum, discussion led to a survey about how we each got into wrestling. Some started during the Attitude Era in the late 90’s. Some during the Hogan Era. Some during the early 2000’s, when things weren’t as good as they used to be. I think it’s a pretty good idea for a discussion and deserves better than being hidden in a massive forum thread that moves several pages a day. So while I’ll answer the questions myself, I suggest you guys answer it as well. Toss it in the comments or even reblog it if you have a blog to call home. Even if you stopped watching wrestling years ago, give it a shot.
The questions:
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Here’s my take.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
I have a vague memory of being there with my brothers to watch Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant on Saturday Night’s Main Event in early 1988. It might not have even been that night it aired, but the replay of the events on another show. The match itself was lead-up to Wrestlemania 4. Andre defeated Hogan for the WWF Championship thanks to a crooked referee and while the WWF brass let that stand, they put their foot down when Andre immediately sold the belt to Ted Dibiase. The championship was suddenly vacated with the champion to be recrowned in a one-night, 14-man tournament to take place at the following Wrestlemania.
The first match that I recall watching for reals was “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka vs. some jobber on WWF Challenge in early January, 1991. Challenge was on Sundays at noon for me, so I was already awake and active from having to deal with Sunday School. I channel-surfed into seeing Snuka walking to the ring to face a generic victim, who he proceeded to annihilate within three minutes, culminating in a Superfly Splash off the top. Some research led me to discover that the guy’s name was Spike Jones. I found the match online, which of course included commentator Bobby Heenan discussing how much he used to love his music, much to Gorilla Monsoon’s chagrin.
Monsoon also made a rather funny line in retrospect, where he said that Spike wasn’t likely the man’s real name, but it sounds a lot cooler than something like “Dwayne.” This would prove to be more true than Monsoon would ever realize.
I was a fan of Godzilla movies at that age and watching the match made me wonder why I wasn’t watching this stuff to begin with. It was choreographed, but at least everyone moved a lot better and I didn’t have to deal with hours of drama from non-fighting characters who I didn’t give a shit about. Shortly after that match, they hyped up the upcoming Royal Rumble with a look at all 30 wrestlers involved. I loved the outlandish and diverse designs and found myself immediately hooked in.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The first major angle I can recall is Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Rick “The Model” Martel in 1990 stretching into 1991. It started before I was watching, but they did a good job of showing the highlights. It all started when they were each guests on the interview segment hosted by Brother Love. Jake was talking about whatever with his massive python Damien around his shoulders. Martel, a smug narcissist constantly peddling his own brand of perfume called Arrogance, found himself disgusted by the snake. He kept trying to spray Damien with some Arrogance, which he always distributed with a big atomizer can. Eventually, Jake got in his face over it and Martel accidentally-on-purpose sprayed him right in the eye with the perfume. Medical personnel scrambled and Martel snuck off.
In a later installment, Jake and Martel were brought back. Jake was wearing sunglasses and carried a walking stick to show that he was blind. Martel proceeded to make fun of him and antagonize him even further. Soon, Jake got close enough to grab at him, but reached Brother Love instead. He dropped Brother Love with a DDT (it’s okay, he was a jerk anyway) and Jake’s sunglasses came off to reveal a gross-ass, milky eye. It was awesome.
The feud was stretched out over months because WWF had the patience to do that back then. Martel was constantly ducking Jake. It wasn’t even about having them see if Jake could beat Martel, but seeing if Jake was capable of getting his hands on Martel. They captained their own teams at Survivor Series, leading to Martel’s side getting the first clean sweep in that show’s history. Jake was the last member of his team and rather than go out fighting, he grabbed Damien and chased Martel to the back. Jake was legal and Martel wasn’t so Jake got counted out. They tangled again at the Royal Rumble, but Martel was there before and after Jake’s tenure in the ring.
Finally, Martel signed a contract to take on Jake at Wrestlemania. He didn’t realize the fine print until it was too late: it would be a Blindfold Match. The two men would be blindfolded, which added to the idea that the drama wasn’t about Jake winning, but Jake even getting to him in the first place. On an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event, Martel would get his own test version of the bout by doing a Blindfold Match against Koko B. Ware. Rather than humor it, Martel instead waited for Koko to put on the blindfold first before beating the everloving crap out of him and laughing it off. It was kind of sad to watch and made Martel that much more of a guy you wanted to see destroyed.
Their match at Wrestlemania 7 is one of the most hated matches in the show’s 3-decade history, but I’m willing to defend it up to a point. It certainly could have stood to lose about five minutes, but there were some definite fun spots and it was satisfying to see Jake finally drop Martel with the DDT, pin him and drape Damien over his body.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
That would be the Ultimate Warrior vs. “Macho King” Randy Savage, also in 1991. When I started watching, Warrior was in the last month of his 9 month long WWF Championship reign. Years later I’d discover that it was a business failure and later after that, I’d realize that he was basically set up to fail. Warrior beat Hogan for the title at Wrestlemania 6 and they immediately said that there would be no rematch. That meant Warrior had to deal with the top heels of the time and there were a couple to play around with. Earthquake was a big deal and even made his debut months earlier by crushing Warrior. Randy Savage was a big main eventer and Warrior vs. Savage sounded like a fresh match. It didn’t hurt that the guys genuinely liked each other in real life and wanted to make each other look good.
Instead, Warrior fell to the waysides, allowing Hogan to take the spotlight despite not being the champ. Hogan got to be the one to fight Earthquake during all this time and Warrior was given feuds with guys like Mr. Perfect and Rick Rude. Guys who nobody could buy as being on his level, especially since he’s destroyed them already. Warrior even spent a while in a feud alongside Legion of Doom against the three members of Demolition. That’s not the worst idea for a feud until you remember that he’s the champion and has no reason to be there as long as he holds the belt.
And what of Savage? WWF decided to finally get around to this feud in a way that didn’t make much sense to me. WWF was finally building up some new contenders with the returning Sgt. Slaughter (now an Iraqi sympathizer) and the newcomer the Undertaker. Warrior was slated to defend against Slaughter at the 1991 Royal Rumble and earlier in the show, Savage’s manager Queen Sherri asked him via seduction whether Savage could get a title shot down the line. Seduction or not, that should be a no-brainer. By the very definition of his name, Ultimate Warrior should be a fighting champion who takes all comers. Despite the many problems with John Cena’s character, he’s at least a guy who will never back down from a challenge.
So of course Warrior screams, “NNnnnnNNnnNnNNNOOoOOOOOOooOoooooOOOOOO!!” in her face. This caused Savage to come out during Warrior’s match with Slaughter and break a scepter over Warrior’s skull. Warrior got pinned and had a reason to want a match with Savage. Savage, coincidentally, no-showed the Royal Rumble match itself because there was a berserk dude with facepaint trying to outright murder him.
Their match at Wrestlemania 7 was a Career-Ending Match and the lead-up was nothing but insane promos by both men. The match itself is entirely worth watching as it’s easily one of Warrior’s top three bouts. Warrior won, Savage was fired, Sherri screamed abuse at him and then his old manager Elizabeth showed up to drive her off and reunite with her old love.
Savage was back as a wrestler eight months later.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
#1 was probably “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. I loved the guy’s “take no shit” attitude both as a commentator and a wrestler. Dude wasn’t built like a house and didn’t do any crazy flips, but he just had this defiant, insane energy that made him so likeable. One of the moments that always sticks out is a tag match of him and Hogan against Ric Flair and Sid Justice. Piper’s in the ring with Justice and you wonder what he’s even supposed to do to a guy that big. When Justice is taken down, Piper proceeds to strangle him and then angrily bob his head up and down the mat while sort of dragging him around the ring.
Next would be Mr. Perfect. He was one of the first heels that I genuinely liked and it made it that much better when he went face at the end of 1992. Everything from his finisher to his gun-swatting to his ridiculous high-level confidence made him the coolest guy in wrestling. His own Career-Ending Match with Ric Flair in early 93 is one of the most exciting matches I’ve ever watched and had me standing the entire time. It’s a shame they didn’t do much with him other than feeding him to Lex Luger and Shawn Michaels afterwards.
Similarly, Earthquake was another heel wrestler I thought was cool and hoped he’d turn face. He wasn’t the tallest guy, but he was definitely my favorite big man wrestler as a kid. He’d always present himself as a tense, yet quiet monster that would flatten you if given the chance, yet his promos had him angrily yelling through a soft-spoken voice. Turning him into a tag team wrestler with Typhoon was a fun twist and I was pumped when they were building up to a huge feud against Yokozuna post-Wrestlemania 10. Then he simply vanished and snuck off to WCW.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Right now it would be Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and El Generico/Sami Zayn. Wrestlers moving from the indies to the WWE has become like translating a comic book into a movie. Changing stuff is going to happen, but sometimes they change so much you wonder why they even bothered. Let them be what made them so special. It’s refreshing when CM Punk got to play on stuff that made him popular in the indies on a bigger scale in WWE.
I’m hoping it works out in that sense for Sami Zayn. As El Generico, there was never a time when he was on screen that I wasn’t entertained. So far they’ve taken away his mask and have chided him for climbing onto the ropes to get cheers, but the guy has what it takes to become a popular name if given the chance.
So what are your thoughts?
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Ah, good old-fashioned involved poll. Since I don’t have a blog, here we go.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
I’m having trouble really pinpointing a single match. The first wrestling thing I remember somewhat specifically is some early 90s WWE show where during the main event it was Hulk Hogan against someone and the match ended in shenanigans, then it seemed like the entire locker room ended as one wrestler after another just started coming out and it ended in this giant brawl with chairs and everything. I know I watched some before that but I can’t picture anything specific.
The first match I actually remember clearly is the the Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez match from Wrestlemania 9. So I got that going for me.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
I guess that would have to be Lex Luger coming into WWF as the Narcissist, then the aforementioned WM 9 where Yokozuna beat Bret Hart to win the championship, then Hulk Hogan pinning Yokozuna to win the belt. Then after Yokozuna beat Hogan to get the belt back, Luger turned face and slammed him at the bodyslam challenge. Then lots of other stuff happened and Luger and Hart had matches to face Yokozuna at the next Wrestlemania which I also watched. I guess all that counts as an angle?
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
Ah, here we go. After all that I didn’t follow wrestling very closely for awhile. I watched RAW here and there but pretty much stopped during 96 I think. I never liked WCW so I never really watched it. The angle that got me back into wrestling was, of course, the Stone Cold/Shawn Michaels/Mike Tyson angle for Wrestlemania 14. At first I actually heard and saw some ECW stuff and that sounded pretty sweet to a teenage me, but then I heard about Tyson appearing on RAW, and this new guy Stone Cold who straight gave no shits and fucked everybody up. I think I caught the RAW right before WM 14 but didn’t actually see that WM until years later. After that me and my friend were hooked, and then we got some more friends that like wrestling. So that was nice.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage. I don’t think I really need to explain any of these.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Sami Zayn, Kurt Angle and Robert Evans. I don’t think I really need to explain any of these.
>.>
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
The first match I can specifically remember watching was the Mega Powers vs. the Twin Towers on Main Event in February 1989, when Hogan took Elizabeth out of the ring area. I’m sure I watched wrestling beforehand, but this is the first specific match I could call out by name.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The Rick Rude / Jake “The Snake” Roberts feud wherein Rude had his tights painted to show Roberts’ then-wife. 1988 I believe.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
I lapsed out of wrestling in the early 1990s; I remember going to see WCW Battlebowl live and being totally out of the moment. What brought me back was my friends who worked an arcade with me telling me about ECW in around 1998. I happened to get in on the upswing of the Attitude era, but specifically the first angle I remember watching was the build in the Sabu/Taz feud.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Demolition and Nikita Koloff.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Antonio Cesaro, CM Punk, Samoa JOe. The latter is on the downswing, but he still surprises me with good matches from time to time.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
The first wrestling-related thing I remember watching was WrestleMania IV when I was eight years old. A friend’s dad invited our family over to watch the show. I dug the colorful characters and what not (I remember being particularly impressed with Bam Bam Bigelow), but I wasn’t particularly interested in the show, instead spending most of the time chatting with my friend. My dad and brother, however, were instant fans.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The first angle I remember showing real interest in was the Mega-Powers exploding, in the lead-up to WrestleMania V. That was amazing to me at the time.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
What really got me following wrestling was when my dad took the family to see a live NWA/WCW event in Las Vegas (I think it was later in 88, during their Great American Bash tour for the year). Something about being in that crowd and feeling the energy made me a fan for life. I started religiously watching the weekend wrestling shows and voraciously consuming every wrestling tape the local Major Video had (ironically, despite it being a WCW show that got me into it, I ended up being a WWF fan because most of what Major Video had were the old Coliseum Video tapes).
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and the Road Warriors. Remember that NWA/WCW show I mentioned earlier? IIRC, the main event was Sting & Luger vs. the Road Warriors, and I thought the Road Warriors were the most amazing thing I ever saw. Naturally, when they ended up in WWF, my mind was blown.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and Colt Cabana.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
Buzz Sawyer vs Tommy Rich on Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS 1982. This was before their big blow off of the epic feud “The Last Battle of Atlanta”
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The Four Horsemen forming. I’m sure there were others and you can even put the Buzz vs Tommy with each of them having a brother enter the feud before that. But the big one that left a lasting impression was the founding of the 4 horsemen.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year? Rich vs Sawyer 1981
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers? Ric Flair, Tommy Wildfire Rich and Michael PS Hayes (Followed closely by Arn Anderson, Roddy Piper and anyone who was beating the hell out of Dusty Rhodes)
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today? CM Punk, Brian Daniels, Samoa Joe (I don’t watch hardly any wrestling anymore but when I do it is those 3)
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
I don’t remember exact specifics because I have an awful memory, but cruiserweight stuff in WCW wast he first things I remember being really impressed by in the wrestling ring and the thing that still sticks with me today.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The NWO would be when I started watching wrestling again since I stopped watching it when RAW went to USA as I didn’t have cable and once I got cable just never found wrestling again.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
Despite watching wrestling for most of my life I didn’t really start to follow it closely until the creation of Ring of Honor when I discovered Indy wrestling which would be about 2002.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Billy Gunn, a holdover from my earliest days of watching wrestling when he was a member of the smoking Gunns. Rey Misterio Jr. because he did the coolest things in the ring. HBK he was just awesome.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Daniel Bryan, Shinsuke Nakamura, Roderick Strong, that was a fucking hard number to wittle down to.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
Golberg vs Hogan for the title when it happened in 1998 on Nitro. I had seen matches before this, but this is the first one I significantly remember because it seemed like a huge deal at the time (and I guess it was). I had been watching enough to figure out anything major happened on PPV, which I never watched, so I figured this match would end due to interference or Hogan wouldn’t come out or something. When he did and lost, my 11 year old self went nuts.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
Chris Jericho vs Dean Malenko from 1998. I loved the Cruiserweight division in WCW more than anything when I first started watching, and this really caught my attention because it was the main feud for the belt, I think anyway, it’s been a while.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Mr. McMahon, in 1998. I started out with WCW, but most of my friends were WWF fans and were always talking about Stone Cold. I eventually started watching Raw and was enraptured by the Attitude Era-WWF, watching every week to see what at the time I thought was the craziest stuff people could get away with on TV.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Diamond Dallas Page, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Eddie Guerrero
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
Antonio Cesaro, Daniel Bryan (who got me back into wrestling last year) and Sami Zayn. Honorable mentions to Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, and The Young Bucks.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
Undertaker vs Giant Gonzales at Wrestlemania! Pretty terrible wrestling when I rewatch it, but a spectacle par excellence! Plus the open outdoor arena was absolutely charged with energy!
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
Probably the Sable-Jaqueline bikini match, for obvious reasons. Before that, the Nation of Domination and the rise of The Rock.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
The attitude era is probably when I actively started following wrestling.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Bret The Hitman Hart, Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
I haven’t followed wrestling in a long time, but when I was last watching, I rather like Christopher Daniels and A J Styles.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
Wrestlemania 9, in 1993, is the first wrestling show I ever watched, and also the first WWF event shown on what was then Israel’s only dedicated sports channel. The first match I clearly remember is Doink vs. Crush, which was third on the card. It featured a clown, his double, and a prosthetic arm as your foreign object du jour. What’s not to love?
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
Bret Hart vs Jerry Lawler, with Lawler heckling the Harts (still in 1993); There’s also Undertaker and Kamala, which happened in 1992, but since I know for a fact that I began watching with WM 9, I may have caught that one on a VHS.
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
I was following pretty closely from that point onward, but the ones that really made me a fan were Bret vs Lawler (how dare he disrespect Stu and Helen Hart?!), Bret vs Owen (How could Owen betray his older brother?!) and Undertaker vs Yokozuna, which was a goddamn spectacle.
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Bret Hart for being the greatest-est who ever greated. Undertaker for being a MONSTER. A few years later (and jumping from 6yo to 10-11), Chris Jericho for being hilarious.
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
I fell in love with Punk when I first saw his “This is Straight Edge” promo from his feud with Raven. I cheered like mad for him in the Joe matches and the Jimmy Rave feud and the ROH title win, and absolutely loved the turn that followed and his ROH goodbye tour.
Daniel Bryan wasn’t someone I immediately fell in love with in such a way, and to be honest he only grew on me during his own ROH championship reign. I never imagined that he’d make it to the WWE, never mind the main event.
I discovered Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi when they were still a tag team. I somehow caught on to New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2004-2005, but they weren’t the ones who sparked my interest – those were guys like Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Minoru Tanaka and Masahiro Chono. Still, Nakamura and Tanahashi were young superstars in training, and they’ve delivered on that promise in spades ever since.
1. What is the first wrestling match you remember watching? What year did you watch it?
First one I can remember was the Minnesota Wrecking Crew vs The Rock n Roll Express from 83 on a replay of an AWA/Smoky Mountain match.
2. What is the first angle you remember? What year?
The Four Horsemen and Dusty Rhodes… cue the car door… I remember that I was shocked because I thought it was real. I turned to my dad and asked why no one called the cops?
3. What match or angle first got you following wrestling closely? What year?
Same angle. I burned with hatred for the Horsemen after that…
4. As a kid, who were your top three favorite wrestlers?
Junkyard Dog, Million Dollar Man, Rock & Roll Express
5. Who are your top three wrestlers today?
I love the fact some of my favorite indie wrestlers have broken through to the big leagues: Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Austin Aries
1. Jake the Snake Roberts vs a jobber on Superstars in early 1990.
2. The Ultimate Challenge: Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior for both the World and IC belts.
3. After visiting my local Blockbuster, I rented Wrestlemania 4 and was hooked. Became an INSTANT Macho Man fan.
4. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Ric Flair.
5. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt.
@Daryll B.: Love that there is someone else old like me out there. That Dusty Rhodes beat down by the Horseman still makes me smile inside.