Paid Members JNLister Posted February 26, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 26, 2015 So yeah, this may be a generational thing as today any pop culture or other thing is a click away, but growing up back in the day you only really knew about stuff in mainstream media, which was limited, particularly when it came to UK fans and foreign stuff. But if you were as obsessed with wrestling as me, there were plenty of occasions when it gave you an insight into other worlds. For example...  Morton Downey Jr: The random memory that inspired this thread. He was a big (well, overly lengthy) part of WrestleMania V, my first PPV. I still really don't know what he really was or his place in culture, but I'd have never heard of him otherwise.  Run DMC: In my early teens I had zero interest or knowledge in music. If you weren't a former Neighbours cast member or the 1986 Liverpool FA Cup squad, I wasn't interested. However, when we started doing German in school, along with all the usual starter phrases like "My name is...", "I'm x years old", "I live in Stevenage" we had to say out favourite band. Thanks to WrestleMania V I could say "Meine Lieblingsband ist Run DMC" and pull off a brief moment of credibility. (The Family Fortunes style best answer would have been De La Soul.) I even dipped my toe into buying http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rap-Trax/release/205788 but didn't take it much further, though DJ Jazzy Jeff was indeed correct with his insightful assertion that Parents Just Don't Understand.  Music Generally: By university I was much more into music and doing that 5-7 year period where you buy most of the CDs you'll ever own, but it was fairly limited to 70s/80s rock and metal and contemporary Britpop/Indie. However, I then made four ECW ring music compilation cassettes to sell through Hulk Who? (now available, subject to licensing, on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/user/jnlister/playlist/3Cq8SH3UJRISIRMA1l39O5?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open). In those days there was no downloading single tracks. Save for a few gangsta rap tunes I got from Rob Butcher, I had to get the full album for every track I needed, which meant I soon owned albums by Patsy Cline, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Kingsmen, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, MC Lyte and the Butthole Surfers.  Sexy Ladies: Yeah, it was simple enough to discover some famous women who looked good in that scrapbook you made from Daily Express pictures (Claudia Schiffer literally stuck to Jet from Gladiators) and later in FHM, but wrestling brought a good few new discoveries like Cameo Kneur, Rhonda Shear and Ashley Montana. Good times, as recalled here:  http://ukff.com/topic/128950-hotties-from-back-in-the-day-vintage-crushes/?p=2521129  South Park: I knew about this *months* before it aired in the UK because the New Age Outlaws wore a South Park t-shirt. It was at a time when it was amazing for a wrestler to wear a non-wrestling shirt, let alone one that was actually culturally relevant.  Bodybuilding: I used to watch WBF Body Stars (see Cameo Kneur and Ashley Montana) because it was basically a WWF show (I think it may have aired after Prime Time here) and went through a ridiculously brief period of buying Flex and stuff from the market stall where I used to get old Apter mags for 50p because they'd been unsold and got 'lost' on the way back to the distributors. Soon got bored when I realised every issue and every article pretty much said "eat a load of protein, then lift increasingly heavy weights doing reps until you can't manage another one."  Steroids: I knew they existed because of Ben Johnson, but not much else. I was reminded this week of going for a university interview at Canterbury 20 years ago and spending the journey reading my first copy of the Observer, borrowed from Dean Ayass, which was from the previous summer and covered the Vince steroid trial in ridiculous detail (including Afa being thrown out of the courtroom for mouthing 'not guilty' at the jury.) The punchline came when I got home to find Dean had left a message with my mum to say Eddie Gilbert was dead. I've now outlived him by five years.  Kitty Kelley: She was a gossip writer who specialised in unauthorised scandal-filled biographies of people like Jackie Kennedy, the Royal family and Nancy Reagen. I read an Eddie Ellner column in PWI revealing she was doing a book on Hogan. It must have been five years of looking for that book before I realised it was a joke.  So what did wrestling introduce you to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted February 26, 2015 Awards Moderator Share Posted February 26, 2015 American geography! I knew some of the states and the odd big city, but so many of the places I've heard of in the US come from wrestlers' home towns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baz Windham Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Ditto HG, I'm decent on US state capitals thanks to wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I remember getting props in school for using 'via', which I'd gotten from "The Nasty Boys beat The Hart Foundation via pinfall" or something similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members stumobir Posted February 26, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 26, 2015 American geography! I knew some of the states and the odd big city, but so many of the places I've heard of in the US come from wrestlers' home towns. This, 100%. If I'm ever trying to associate a town or city with a state then I just put on Michael Cole or Lilian Garcia's voice in my head and it subconciously rolls off the tongue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Same here on the US Geography. Although until a couple of years back I always thought that Boston was more inland rather on the east coast. I was under the impression it was near Milwaukee or Chicago and so never understand why NY and Boston sports teams had a rivalry. Once I realised where Boston was it made sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon-Carr_92 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I actually discovered YouTube because of TNA uploading links on their website. I think they were one of the first major companies who really saw its potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members herbie747 Posted February 26, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 26, 2015 American geography! I knew some of the states and the odd big city, but so many of the places I've heard of in the US come from wrestlers' home towns. ^^ This. Â Stone Mountain, Georgia. Glen Falls, New York. Sarasota, Florida. San Antonio, Texas Calgary, Alberta, Canada Portland, Oregan. Â etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reverend Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Sports Arenas of America - I could name all the big sports arenas of the 80's and 90's and the cities and states that they're in. I also was a dab hand at roman numerals at school due to Wrestlemania. I also remember using the word 'inaugural' in a 7th year essay and getting commended on it - I'd read it in WWF magazine in an article about Summerslam 88 Sports Arenas of America - I could name all the big sports arenas of the 80's and 90's and the cities and states that they're in. I also was a dab hand at roman numerals at school due to Wrestlemania. I also remember using the word 'inaugural' in a 7th year essay and getting commended on it - I'd read it in WWF magazine in an article about Summerslam 88 Sports Arenas of America - I could name all the big sports arenas of the 80's and 90's and the cities and states that they're in. I also was a dab hand at roman numerals at school due to Wrestlemania. I also remember using the word 'inaugural' in a 7th year essay and getting commended on it - I'd read it in WWF magazine in an article about Summerslam 88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted February 26, 2015 Awards Moderator Share Posted February 26, 2015 The Pledge of Allegiance: Thanks to Hacksaw reciting it, I can still quote it 25 years later. I just have to stop myself adding "tough guy" to the end. Â Oh and all those weird US TV phrases like "pre empted", "sweeps". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 American geography! I knew some of the states and the odd big city, but so many of the places I've heard of in the US come from wrestlers' home towns.  Exactly what I was going to say! I know lots of places in most every state due to wrestling, either through wrestlers home towns or 'Live from.....' intro's at the start of shows. Get smug points whenever shit like 'In what American state does the city of Taladega appear?' on Eggheads or the like and I go 'Alabama!' and think 'Bob Sparkplugg Holly!'.  Its the little things..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 American geography is a huge one for me, probably know it better than my Australian geography. Â Others: Â American sports stars/TV personalities/musicians- Pete Rose, Lawrence Taylor, Maria Menounos, Michelle Beadle, Saliva, Drowning Pool, POD, Downstait- also, it was Austin's 2001 theme that got me into Disturbed. Also, before Wrestlemania 24, I knew the name Floyd Mayweather vaguely, but he could have bumped into me in the street and I wouldn't have known. Â Playboy- only knew about it because of Sable/Torrie Wilson and the Divas that followed. Â Oh, and I think I'd have to count UFC. First, Ken Shamrock appeared in the WWF and they made reference to his fighting background, but I wasn't watching closely so didn't pick it up at the time. Then, my uncle ordered UFC 40, with the main event of Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz, and I was interested in watching because of Shamrock. The same thing happened years later with Lesnar, and this time I became a UFC fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Eddie Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Can I stretch this slightly to include stuff that wrestling made you get wrong or look stupid over...  I recall as a youngster a conversation with my older brother and my dad where talk of the tax man came up. I made mention of IRS, a wrestler who worked for the Internal Revenue Service, this resulted in much laughter and mocking at my child-like mistake, because in the UK it was of course the Inland Revenue Service rather than the American alternative name. Thanks, and fuck you Capt Mike Rotunda.  Also the word "hyperbole". A word that I had only ever encountered either written down in wrestling mags or as used by a certain Jim Ross on commentary. Stupid Old JR pronounced it "hyper-bowl" and as that's pretty much how it's written,  I used it as JR did for a while. "Hyper-bowl? Did you mean hyperbole, thicko?" Thanks Jim and fuck you too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 As already mentioned geography in and around america.  Music - The likes of Nu-Metal around the late 90's and Limp Bizkit.  And not sure if this counts but the likes of ECW/WCW I learned through the WWE which I may not have even known about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Maverick Posted February 27, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted February 27, 2015 Hyper-bowl happened to me too. Still get mocked about it. Bastards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.