Your first memory of Pro Wrestling

[Scott Malbranque]

My earliest memories of wrestling are as follows, and they all kind of blend together in my head so I assume they’re from in and around the same time :

 

A vignette of Macho Man pushing Elizabeth down a waterfall or something. I’ve never seen the vignette since, but I distinctly remember him pushing her off something and it going to a wide shot of her falling. Now, I could be getting this confused with the opening credits of The Fall Guy, but this was a vignette that happened in my head, even though that Google mob can’t confirm it.

 

The Hart Foundation stealing Matilda.

I just Googled this and it turns out it was Heenan and The Islanders. Approx 30 years of lies.

 

Dynamite Kids anti smoking PSA. I remember not being able to understand a single word he said but the point was made coz of something coming out of the dogs earholes.

Bret Hart telling me not to smoke coz it wasn’t cool, was another one. I listened to him until I was 14 because he looked cooler than everyone else on the roster!
 

Oh...OH...Bad News Brown hitting Bret Hart with the Ghetto Blaster after they shared the win of a Battle Royal. That happened, didn’t it? And essentially turned Hitman goody?

[JNLister]

The Savage/Elizabeth water slide was on the fourth episode of Saturday Night's Main Event (April 86) where between the matches they had skits in a water park.

[Otto Dem Wanz]

Rikishi’s arse.
 

It was the summer of 2000, I was seven and the WWF was hot in the UK. The talk of the playground in fact, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
 

Adding Smackdown to my Saturday morning Sky TV routine of the Simpsons and Soccer AM was an inspired decision, and while Raw was always on past bedtime I don’t think I missed an episode of the blue brand until late 2002. Over the school holidays I must have watched a Smackdown with Rikishi holding the Intercontinental title, as I remember being corrected that the champion was now Val Venis by a primary school friend who was clearly into looking up results on the internet even then. Bellend.
 

As to why it was Rikishi that grabbed my attention is unclear as I write this, I’m assuming that the cool music and the novelty of a fat bloke dancing in sunglasses ignited my passion for something I still watch (despite several breaks) over 15 years later.

During that summer holiday I’m pretty sure they showed Summerslam during an afternoon (they did this for a couple of years didn’t they? I remember doing the same in 2001), so also remember the TLC match very clearly. I was overawed at the stunts and wondered what would happen if the belts dropped from the ceiling and randomly hit the mat during the match. I think I assumed the first person to grab them would still win, and envisaged a tug of war or bundle as a finishing sequence. That’s a finish they could use today!
 

Oh WWF 2000, The Rock was the coolest man on earth, I was innocent and Rikishi was my favourite wrestler.

[JNLister]

First stuff I saw was the standalone ITV show and the earliest I can date is 12 December 1987 which, a mere six years after the Wembley match, was still made up of a Giant Haystacks win and a Big Daddy win. I remember the show because the TV Times said that in the Big Daddy/Kashmir Singh vs Rasputin/Spoiler match, the Spoiler would be unmasked if he lost. My mum said that was a load of rubbish that they just printed to make you watch and it never happened. As the video below shows, he was indeed unmasked, which was the first time I ever saw my mum be wrong:

 

[Scott Malbranque]

The Savage/Elizabeth water slide was on the fourth episode of Saturday Night's Main Event (April 86) where between the matches they had skits in a water park.

Well, thank fuck for you, Mr.Lister!!!

I just googled Savage Elizabeth Waterslide and turns out somebody uploaded this video last year.

I can't believe I've seen it again. So I was 6...6 years old when this happened. 6! And my first memory of wrestling is of domestic violence.

 

[The Gaffer]

Ernest The Cat Miller being interrogated backstage by the off screen 'Powers That Be' Vince Russo character is honest to god my first memory of wrestling, which I guess is a bit like your first romantic experience being a legover at the bus stop. I remember it perfectly because wrestling had started to get spoken about a lot in school but I had yet to be exposed to it myself. This would have been the fall of 1999 and I would have been 8 going on 9.

 

I guess it was a Nitro or Thunder on TCM/Bravo or whatever channel they used to sporadically air. A young me was channel flicking, a rare treat and probably one brought on by virtue of my parents being drunk/me staying down in my nans house. As soon as I figured out what it was I put the remote down and stared on with rapt interest. I'd heard the playground convorsation slowly shift from whether Pokemon Red or Blue was your alligiance to Rock or Austin but I'd never actually seen any of these human beings.

 

I was amazingly unexposed to wrestling up until I started watching for myself. I guess I could recognise Mankind and Kane from pencil cases and the like but I had no concept of who Hulk Hogan was so stood about as much of a chance of joning in convorsation about the hardcore championship as I had getting an invite next door from the neighbour I fancied for a strawberry cornetto and a quick go off her tits.

 

My initial thought was that I hated the talking. Despised it. I just wanted to see shiny fights with none of the fat, even though I would more or less immediately come to be fascinated by the soap opera elements of it more. I think the first match I saw on that WCW was Meng Vs. Someone Mamaluke, by the way. It might have been all the Mamalukes.

 

I quickly figured out WCW was the shit promotion and for some muddled reasons I can't remember didn't have access to Raw and Smackdown until right after WrestleMania 2000 the next year where I qickly realised my mental image of the Rock being Les Battersby in boxing trunks was way off and immediately sided with Triple H on absolutely everything because he seemed cooler and also to get along with bully/mentor combo Scott Kelly better who was our years only Triple H fan.

 

Scott got bored of wrestling and became a footie head within a year because "you can't fucking read what the writers have planned for Man U next week, can you?". I stuck around.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Mine would be from 1979. As a 7 year old I would get the bus from my house to my nan's house every Saturday morning. I would have lunch with my nan then get another bus to my Aunty Mary's house. Mary was a very prim and proper woman who wouldn't say boo to a goose under normal circumstances. She didn't have a colour TV because the only things she watched were Songs of Praise and athletics, apart from wrestling that is. When you think of World Of Sport wrestling you think back to the crazy old women who used to hit the villains with an umbrella. That was her. She hated Jim Breaks, and she didn't hate anyone. So I would sit and watch the wrestling with her and she would occasionally shake her finger at the screen and tut disapprovingly under her breath, and clap when the good guys won. I was drawn in at that point. She loved The Royal Brothers tag team, and Alan Dennison, and also Ironfist Clive Myers. I loved Big Daddy and Young David. Little did I know where all this would lead in my life. She took me to my first show at the Drill Hall in Lincoln and here I am getting on for 37 years later and still watching, and having done the same thing for my nephews, taking them to their first shows.

[Guest]

I'm only 23 so what feels ancient to me is much later on in time than probably everybody else who's contributed to this thread so far. I remember the catchphrases in primary school 1998-2000. Some kid once tried to shoot pedigree me, it turned into a mini 'match' and then when he had me on the floor he counted "1, 2, 3" at the pace of a crooked official, and then spat directly into my nostrils. I wish I had a less traumatic first memory to share.

 

so I knew of Austin, Rock, HHH, Taker, Kane, Rikishi, etc. very well without ever really having to see them at work. Games like Know Your Role and Here Comes The Pain also did their bit to ingrain lots of guys in my mind. I still shout "SHAVE YOUR BACK!" whenever I see Matt Bloom on my screen

 

Think I first caught an extended bit of it in 2002. Scott Steiner was doing something on Raw with Test and Keibler. I was mesmerized by Poppa Pump and his nine biceps, still not seen anything quite like that to this day, and with wellness policies - I never will! 

 

Wasn't until 2004 I was able to follow the product, the wonderful SmackDown of the time being on Sky one, I'd follow Raw using Heat and wwe.com. Then the following year I discovered TNA and ROH through the wrestling channel (the fact both this channel and Channel U no longer exist makes me wanna pawn our telly) and was one of dem for a while, based on the respective strengths of the companies at the time - I forgive myself for becoming a TNA-is-better mark. It was an easy mistake to make at the time.

 

Said this before, but being hooked in by 04 Smackdown is how you know you're a lifer. Not like Raw was knocking it out of the park completely either with all those Eugene storylines.

 

Stand-out memories from the 04/05 time period where nothing else in the world mattered to me; Eddie's fire, Eddie's horrendous botched blade-job, Taker being mesmerizing in his new-old gimmick, wondering why Faarooq never came back to punch JBL in the mouth, wanting a padlock around my neck like John Cena, Foley v Orton, giving myself nosebleeds and doing swanton bombs on my dorky mate, getting put in the Walls of Jericho and shoot-tapping, watching Low Ki and Joe kick the fuck out of people, watching AJ look like superman in X Division bouts, complaining that Paul London never got a push (I still think he could've been the companies answer to no longer having Jeff Hardy, but oh well), my granddad's disappointed tone when I was on the internet and he thought I was looking at nudey ladies but it was just a pic of Steve Corino with a bloody face. Those were some times alright.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I have a vague memory of watching Big daddy while at my Nans house in the early 80s. Then nothing until the late 80/early 90s when I went to my cousins house and I saw a tag match featuring 2 guys in yellow/orange trunks with what looked like pistols on them. I was sure it was WCW as well.

[CavemanLynn]

Sticker books. Must've been around 1992 because I remember getting my one and only ever issue of WWF Magazine which was hyping the Wembley Summerslam and had a write-in competition to win a clotheslining Undertaker toy. It was just the look of these guys. For someone raised on Thundercats and Ninja Turtles, it was mental seeing people who looked like cartoons but IN REAL LIFE. Those annoying four-sticker profile pictures where you ended up trying to trade off three of Mr Perfect's left hip for Mountie's snarling cheekbone. The toys all looking boss. I'd never seen a single match, but JAKE THE SNAKE COMES WITH AN ACTUAL SNAKE, MUM!

 

The first matches I saw were the WCW Worldwide bits that got shown on some Pat Sharp Saturday afternoon ITV show (name?). I remember Rick Rude taking so many atomic drops that when he tried his hip swivel for the ladies, it hurt his back and it was the funniest thing EVAR. Sting vs Vader went to Sudden Death Overtime wherr the first guy to have his knee touch the mat lost, and nearly shitting myself when Sting missed a clothesline and nearly fell as he hit the buckle - did his knee touch??? Did his knee touch??? I'd only seen the guy for a few minutes and he was my hero and he just couldn't lose. Could he?

 

First WWF was round some family's house. Me and my two brothers, their three daughters of our ages, so a bit of attempted parental matchmaking happening, but scuppered by RAW on some TV channel they had called Sky. Adam Bomb had green fuckin' eyes. Santa Claus gave Doink the Clown a present, which turned out to be a little midget clown. "I'm gonna call him Dink!"

 

Went quiet for years til my little brother had his mates round to session WWF Attitude, and I remember wondering where all the characters had gone. Then his mate started recording RAWs and PPVs for us, and I was back in again. This was post- Michaels vs Austin at Mania, the absolute height of the Attitude Era. Everyone was over, the crowds were insane, commentary was on form, the games were boss. Used to love waiting for WCW Nitro on Fridays too via our dodgy German skybox.

 

I've seen more classic WWF and WoS now than at the time, thanks to the interwebz. But I like to think I dipped into the best of each of the major eras. Whether it's age or experience, but wrestling in the past 15 years just hasn't got me as viscerally as those old matches. Warrior vs Savage retirement match and post-match angle still brings a lump to my throat. RAW main events still raise them goosebumps.

[handspants]

The first match I can remember watching was The Rock vs Big Boss Man at an older friend's house (he was the son of my mum and dad's friends).  I also remember playing Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, but that's a different story.

Anyway, because my mum and dad and his mum and dad were up drinking, we got to stay up too and watch RAW.  It wasn't the first match or anything (I mean, c'mon, it's The Rock), but it's the earliest one I remember.

[Tommy!]

For me this falls into three sections (cheating I know, but quite fun)

 

The earliest memory I have of wrestling was playing with a Hogan and Earthquake figure and hiding hundreds of conkers under that blue WWF ring because I had no friends to play conkers with and I'd only make a mess of trying to make a hole in them anyway. I've always been a massive twat-face-bum-hole I guess. I had the headshrinkers and LOD too, and a Bossman I stole from someones house, along with the annual. I had a WCW sticker book from somewhere too. The odd thing is I don't recall ever actually watching it. I guess it was a ploy to make friends, like my interest in power-rangers. It didn't work though, curse of the twat-faces-bum-hole I guess.

 

In 99 I was a WCW guy, as we didn't have sky sports and sky was new in our house in 98. I loved watching it, but all I really recall is Ric doing that spell as president from a comedy asylum. I'd been watching for ages to that point, Friday nights if I recall correct, until I fell asleep midway through whatever was the second show, Thunder I assume. I think I remember this bit because I was just a casual fan and even at that age I thought "this is a bit shit isn't it. I bet there's some bird with her tit's on on channel 5". My first real memory of wrestling is me thinking how shit it was. There's something about me being a twat-faced-bum-hole due here I'm sure. Me and a mate would play at WCW back then. He'd be Goldberg or Nash and I'd be Norman Smiley. I know, twat-faced-bum-hole.

 

The memory which really stuck we me and was the first time I thought "this i what I'm going to be super into until I'm in my late 20's and just give up on it and the dull smear of grey of life in general" was a recap of the HHH Vs Cactus feud building to No Way Out. I'd found WWF on some sky channel, sky one I guess, and had been watching Metal and Jackked for weeks. When I found Smackdown I shit a kitten with excitement let me tell you. But there was a bit where HHH tricked him into a little cage and dragged him off behind a bus. I was just super into the little montage and the story and wanted to see HHH get his comeuppance. A few weeks later there was an add for the 3 way ladder match at mania, just the graphic of the three teams and a neon green ladder rotating as Cole talked over it, and I was desperate to see it. I picked up the VHS of WM16 from WH Smiths (still have it) and got the Rumble 2000 for my birthday (still have it and got it signed by Foley. Off topic but he signed it "Cactus Jack Bang Bang" but I read it as "Cactus Jack Big Boy" and spend the rest of the day a little bemused as to why he wanted a slice of Tommy's knocker). No Way Out was the Christmas present. I was hooked big time.

 

I remember odd little tit bits, two lads having a silence for Owen in 99 and a mate calling them a pair of butch lesbians to see if he could get them to speak. They didn't. I just asked who Owen Hart was. I remember a lad in first year of highschool, 99 - 00, going every lunch to buy a pack of WWF stickers to complete the album. but that's just general stuff. For me it was those three bits which I recall for me.

 

My folks weren't big fans, as I'd sit and watch back hours of tapes. My mom liked that fast little Chinese bloke, which was Taka Michinoku FYI, and my dad would much rather have watched New Yankee Workshop on Discovery Home and Leisure. It was odd how I fell into liking it. I don't regret being a fan, I don't regret building up what must be many, many hundreds of tapes, I don't regret giving it a try and seeing if I could do it. I don't regret traveling to UK shows and I don't regret spending my childhood lost inside the imaginary world of the "Panto in Pants" that is wrestling. It does make me sad it doesn't make me happy any more, but then nothing does I guess.

[Polish Dad]

The Kat's tits. Or Miss Kitty, I can't remember what she was called back then.

I was twelve years old, and my dad had only just got the internet installed in the house so, bar my French teacher's bullet nips, adolescent me was very unfamiliar with the female form. My cousin Andrew, a year older than me, confided when his parents were out that he had a tape of Armageddon '99, where The Kat flashed her baps at the end of an evening gown match. I'd never been interested in wrestling before, but the thought of three seconds of grainy VHS footage of a naked woman was more than enough to make me want to get into it.

Excitedly we started going through his VHS tapes (none of which were labelled) to find the correct one. As luck would have it, we never got to that tape, because we found Summerslam 2000 first, stopped at the first ever TLC match. If there was one thing 12 year old me loved more than the idea of naked women, it was violence. At home, I wasn't allowed to watch martial arts movies, or even own a pretend sword, and here was a guy doing a somersault to put another guy through a table. We watched the whole match twice before his parents came home and from that moment I was hooked.

The first six months he would record all the PPV's and we'd watch them in secret, then my step-mum left and my dad stopped giving a fuck so I was able to watch wrestling and internet pornography as much as I wanted. Tot his day I've never actually seen The Kat flash at the end of that match, so if you're reading this Andrew, you still owe me.

[Sonny Mustang]

Summerslam 92. The whole of the U.K. was whipped into a frenzy over the upcoming event- except me and our kid that is.

 

Mother was concerned that little bro would be ridiculed in the playground if he hadn't seen it (apparently I was beyond saving), so i was sent on my bike over to my dads pub where they had sky to retrieve the previous vhs.

 

I think he watched about 20 minutes of it, but I was hooked! Not having sky til 96 was tough (can you imagine having the network then!) and now back into it after having a 10 or 12 year break,

 

I also live in Tampa so have a mini freak out whenever I see someone in the grocery store/at the zoo/Starbucks who 'could' be one of the 'superstars'!

[Juan Manforce]

My folks weren't big fans, as I'd sit and watch back hours of tapes. My mom liked that fast little Chinese bloke, which was Taka Michinoku FYI

That could be another thread of its own, reactions from parents who didn't get it. My mum fancied The Rock and Edge, and my dad liked the Hardys and "that wee green guy", aka the Hurricane.