When was the first time wrestling broke your heart?

[air_raid]

OK kids, I was recently engaging in my November tradition of watching all the old Survivor Series (and by all, I of course mean only the first five) and I stumbled upon a match that brought back some incredibly strong childhood memories of the first time something that happened in pro wrestling really emotionally affected me, absolutely knocked the wind out of my sails. Possibly, the first time I really cared about results and what happened to the wrestlers. I was wondering if any of you had any decent stories of the first time wrestling knocked you about a bit.

 

Obviously, this is more geared towards longer term fans and very probably a time before you were 100% smart to how it all worked and desensitized. Yes, we all knew or at least suspected it was choreographed, but a lot of us cared at some point. If you never did, this isn't the thread for you, and replies of "never" of the like will be treated with an appropriate level of disdain.

 

So, here's the match that prompted this particular train of thought to leave the station :

 

The Dream Team VS The Million $ Team

(Dusty Rhodes, The Hart Foundation & Koko B Ware VS Ted DiBiase, Rhythm & Blues & a mystery partner)

 

Just to give you the background to this - it's about Bret Hart. As I've mentioned numerous times, I got into wrestling by watching WrestleMania VI. Now, the Harts had kind of grabbed me by looking the business both prior to and in the process of smashing the Bolsheviks in 40 seconds. In addition, Bret looked captain cool-as-fuck pinning poor Boris. He convinced me that he and the Anvil were the real deal.

 

 

 

 

The next chance I got to see the Harts was the 4th Annual Survivor Series tape. The match seemed to take on extra meaning for Bret when Roddy Piper on commentary poignantly told us that his brother Dean had passed away the day before, and expressed his admiration for Hart's professionalism, and that he had dedicated the match to Dean. The Dream Team really had their backs to the wall from the outset with the debut of the then-terrifying and enigmatic Undertaker, and as the match wore on they ended up down to three-on-Bret after Undertaker pinned the American Dream himself. Obviously at that point, Bret's goose seemed cooked.

 

Suddenly the odds were reduced when Undertaker got himself counted out, deciding that it would be fun to beat Dusty's fat ass all the way up the aisle, and who could blame him for that. Hitman was still severely disadvantaged having taken a bit of a kicking from Valentine, but he caught a quick one by reversing the Hammer's attempt at the Figure 4 into an excellently executed small package to further reduce the arrears.

 

 

 

 

That still left Bret, who had taken a fair amount of abuse from Valentine, Taker and Honky, against the wily veteran DiBiase who was relatively fresh. Remember, this isn't five time WWF Champion Bret Hart, the "best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be." This is Bret Hart of the Hart Foundation, one half of the tag team champions. He was never going to beat a top player like the Million Dollar Man, was he?

 

Right from the off Bret was like a man possessed, rocking Ted with an atomic drop that sent him spilling to the floor and then a pescado - the first time I'd ever seen a wrestler dive over the top rope to the floor. It impressed the hell out of Piper too. DiBiase had his moments, but for the bulk of this fast-paced closing stretch, it was 80% Bret. We had a pendulum backbreaker and a second rope elbow, and my God, Bret started to convince me he could do it.

 

When he snatched this backslide out of the corner, I thought he had the bugger. He didn't have that lethal killing blow like a DDT or a Rude Awakening, but he could do it with wrestling. He could catch his opponent with technique, like Mr Perfect did with the Perfect-Plex. I thought he had him here.

 

 

 

 

After that, Bret played possum feigning an injury - a moment of ingenuity I had never seen - and wrapped up DiBiase with an O'Connor roll and again, I thought he had him. He'd outsmarted the evil bastard. I thought he had him, but he didn't.

 

 

 

 

Then suddenly, Virgil grabbed a hold of Bret, and I feared the worst. The bodyguard would be the undoing of Bret, as he had been of Neidhart earlier in the match, and Jake the Snake at WrestleMania. Bret evaded the knee strike from DiBiase and grabbed a snug schoolboy. THIS WAS IT! They had toyed with my emotions perfectly - I knew this was it. From the jaws of defeat Hitman had snatched victory....

 

 

 

 

... but it wasn't to be. DiBiase kicked out, and in the very next spot, an exhausted Hitman went for a crossbody, which Ted rolled through and hooked a leg, locking fingers tightly, from which Bret could not escape.

 

 

 

 

Bret's instant reaction at the time was to visibly exclaim "Fuck." Which as a child, I didn't notice, but as an adult, I really have come to appreciate. It's not audible, so nobody need get too offended, but the astute adult viewer will have spotted it, and it makes it seem a little more realistic because, well... you would feel like that, wouldn't you?

 

I was crushed. Bret had won me over as a hero in showing spirit when the odds where against him and then pushing such an established technician and sometimes-main eventer to the brink, but in the end it was a bridge too far. It was obviously an important lesson that not all stories have a happy ending, but I felt awful. Not just because the guy I wanted to win didn't, and that the underdog didn't quite prevail, but I felt bad FOR BRET, despite him being "just a character in the wrestling."

 

 

Fuck.

 

 

 

In hindsight, Bret came out of the match looking a lot stronger in defeat. This was a match that proved, certainly to me, that he had the fire and (subtle) charisma to make people care and get behind him on his own two feet. He was the master at that, was Bret. He knew the real value in the match was that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, just how good you each look. It would happen to him again later on, when even in dropping the title to Smithers at SummerSlam 92, he sent out the clear message - put me on last, give me twenty minutes or more, and I'll give you a main event calibre match. I won't let you down. And to my mind, he never did.

 

Of course, wrestling Bret was when Steve Austin fully, completely transformed from foul-mouthed anarchic ass-kicker to the hardest bastard you'll ever see at WrestleMania 13, and I genuinely believe that in the WWF title match at Survivors 92 (one of my favourites) Bret and Shawn Michaels had the kind of match that might have opened some eyes to Michaels' main event potential, even in defeat. It was Hulk Hogan (ironically enough) that put it best : "It doesn't matter whether you win or whether you lose ; the only thing that matters is what kind of winner you are, or what kind of loser you are."

 

Bret Hart : the courageous loser. Brought a lump to my throat.

 

Did he have shit on the market?

... oops, sorry. Gimmick infringement.

 

 

 

Your turn.

[King Pitcos]

Great post, air_raid. I can't compete with that and am too lazy to find pictures and such, but for me it came a year later. I bawled when Undertaker beat Hulk Hogan for the title at Survivor Series '91. The Hulkster had been champion since I'd started watching wrestling that summer, and I thought he was invincible. And he was dead, and it was Ric Flair's fault. Not this way, not this way.

 

My nephews cried when Flair won the Rumble, almost definitely as a pale imitation of my Survivor Series performance.

 

I think the next time I cried at wrestling was Christmas '95. I realise he had to walk away, no more yesterday. I was twelve and a half by then, which is a bit old to cry at wrestling's tacky heartstrings scams. And I'm not ENTIRELY sure I cried at that video, but I was a right little poof and I still get teary when they do videos like that, so I must have.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Hogan losing to the Warrior was a crushing blow. I remember watching it up my Nana's and comfort eating a Trio in the kitchen as the tears rolled.

 

I still don't think I've quite gotten over Crush being injured by Doink and forcing him out of the Royal Rumble he was definitely going to win in 93. I was more upset about that than Brian Adams' actual death. Its stopped me enjoying the Attitude era as well, because when I saw the Rock made it big in Hollywood, I always thought "should have been Crush".

[Reznor]

I wouldn't be able to remember when the first time was, but in my early days of watching the wrestling, the one occasion that made me the most gutted was the Barber shop incident, as I absolutely adored the Rockers. It was made all the worse because it's exactly what i had been fearing in the weeks/months leading up to it. Then came the elation and relief when it looked like they were reconciled, and we all know what happened next. That was a real pisser.

 

No decent story, sorry

 

Cheers for that link btw.

[moofasa]

When Hogan retired Flair at Halloween Havoc 94, I can still remember seeing it on the cover of Inside Wrestling in the newsagents. I found this very hard to take, even with Macho mans return from retirment the previous year, I felt that, that had been a special case and Flair was done. I was an avid reader of powerslam at the time and didn't have sky so was limited to worldwide on LWT so Hogan was shit and Flair was god in my mind. Flair was on home turf and would show Hogan up to be the cartoon charachter that he was. But alas no, Hogan took the belt at the bash, flair didn't get a pinfall back on him and was retired by the end of the year. It cut deep, fuck you Hogan.

[chrisisfear]

Shawn. Marty. Barbershop Window. No more words are required. Still burnt into my brain as the first time I cried and shouted at the TV.

[Maverick]

When HHH retired Foley in the cell, was a huge Foley fan back then after reading his book, really thought the Cell was his specialty and he'd go on for a title reign, hadn't really seen anyone high profile retire (even for a few weeks) at that point in my fandom either.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

I think the next time I cried at wrestling was Christmas '95. I realise he had to walk away, no more yesterday. I was twelve and a half by then, which is a bit old to cry at wrestling's tacky heartstrings scams. And I'm not ENTIRELY sure I cried at that video, but I was a right little poof and I still get teary when they do videos like that, so I must have.

 

 

I'm struggling to remember, what is this a reference to?

 

Don't think I had any genuinely upsetting moments as a kid. It didn't help that mates that had seen a tape already would tell me the big stories before I got round to watching them. One thing that does stand out though is Jake setting his cobra on Savage's arm. I didn't know how to feel about it cuz I was more of a Jake fan then a Savage fan back then so part of me wanted to enjoy it but the mark kid was thinking - shit, he don't need to do this, I know most of this stuff isn't real but that poor bastard could die right there on TV! And then add Vince's repeated line on commentary. "THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!" plus Piper going batshit and Liz crying her eyes out, it shit me right up and I felt bad for watching it. I remember feeling huge relief when Jack Tunney popped up and reassured us in his calming tone that Randy was okay and that the snake had been devenomized. I mean, I didn't even have a clue what devenomized meant but I gathered it had to be a good thing. Such a well done and underrated angle.

[King Pitcos]

When Hogan retired Flair at Halloween Havoc 94, I can still remember seeing it on the cover of Inside Wrestling in the newsagents. I found this very hard to take, even with Macho mans return from retirment the previous year, I felt that, that had been a special case and Flair was done.

Surely by the time Inside Wrestling's coverage of Halloween Havoc '94 hit shops though, Flair was riding high in Evolution.

 

I think the next time I cried at wrestling was Christmas '95. I realise he had to walk away, no more yesterday. I was twelve and a half by then, which is a bit old to cry at wrestling's tacky heartstrings scams. And I'm not ENTIRELY sure I cried at that video, but I was a right little poof and I still get teary when they do videos like that, so I must have.

 

 

I'm struggling to remember, what is this a reference to?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hScbdBtJaM4

[bAzTNM#1]

Tugboat turning heel on the Bushwhackers was a right kick in the teeth for me. Did not see that coming at all.

[Bus Surfer]

 

This happened mid 1990, but I'm unsure of when it was broadcast in the UK or if I saw it on one of the videos I'd borrowed. I'll guess I was around 6 or 7 to avoid the blushes, but I can remember bawling my eyes out when I saw

Re-watching it now, I can remember exactly how that music haunted me as a child. I was convinced I would never see Hulk Hogan again. The closing locker at the end sealed it for me.

[Sexy Dad]

The first time I was a wreck because of wrestling was when I wrongly thought I'd put the video recorder on slow play to record Backlash 2000. It was half term and I spent the Monday watching a beast of an event enjoying every match and finally the main event I had been awaiting for months had come; The Rock vs Triple H for the title. Rocky had rock bottomed Triple H and that bastard of a ref Shane McMahon through the announce table and then the video stopped.

 

Absolutely fucking gutted. Had to wait until the following weekend until my mate had got back off holiday to watch the end.

[Your Fight Site]

WCW going out of business.

[Joey Joe Joe Jr]

Finding out that Wrestlemania 16, my first Wrestlemania as a WWF fan, was not being shown on Channel 4 for free like the Rumble was. Looking back, it was a bit much to ask.

[TezzRexx]

The Rock leaving for 4 months during 2001. Felt like an eternity at the time. True story.