Paid Members garynysmon Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 There's a part of me that's glad we couldn't access the Network, or even the internet as a kid. I can remember being shocked that one on my mates had bought a copy of Wrestlemania 1 from a bargain bin at a video rental shop for £2 and was mesmerised to watch something that felt ancient to my 10 year old self in 1994. Borrowing and copying videos etc was the in-thing at school and I look back at that with some nostalgia tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 Yeh i guess staring at pictures of matches in magazines and just filling in the blanks yourself is redundant to most younger fans these days too. Â I'd still have loved the Network back then though. I think if someone had told me what the Network would consist when i was about 12 my head would have fallen off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnybgoode82 Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 The Network and also Mattel churning out figures left, right and centre. No more four new ones and two rehashes twice a year from Hasbro. I would quite possibly have a house full of wrestling figures and the Network on all day long had they been around when I first got into wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinc Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 I think the live audiences booing the top babyface in the company for over a decade would have confused me had I been a kid throughout. I know aces like Hogan and Rock and Michaels all received negative reactions at various times in the old days, but the booking always accommodated it fairly quickly. John Cena has been the main character of Raw since about 2005. He's explicitly aimed at kids. Every time he comes out the whole arena chants 'JOHN CENA SUUUUUCKS' to the tune of his entrance music, and boo everything he does once his matches start. It'd be weird if everyone in the He-Man universe thought He-Man was a tit and booed the shit out of him when he did his transform-into-He-Man thing once an episode. It'd probably ruin the show for me if I was a 5-year old just trying to enjoy it. Â How have young wrestling fans dealt with this over the years? Is it something younger fans talk about as being a weird part of the show? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 Yeh i guess staring at pictures of matches in magazines and just filling in the blanks yourself is redundant to most younger fans these days too. Â Â I remember seeing a very old magazine in a shop with pictures of Bundy and Hogan and being amazed that only two years after becoming a wrestling fan, I now knew what the main event had been at all seven WrestleManias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 If you asked me now, those seven wouldn't be far off the only ones I still know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 I think the Internet stuff, both the network and all the backstage gossip sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members eugenespeed Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 I remember having a cupboard full of wrestling tapes. Thanks to the Network, I could have half emptied it!  Please excuse my ignorance, but what is ITR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 Probably the very notion that there was more than one company making wrestling worth watching than the WWF (as was). Â Building on that, the idea that by my 30s my favourite wrestling would be Japanese. Big screaming characters got me into it ; now I don't even have to hear my favourites say a single word to care about whether they win or lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted February 7, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 7, 2017 I remember having a cupboard full of wrestling tapes. Thanks to the Network, I could have half emptied it! Â Please excuse my ignorance, but what is ITR? Inside the Ropes. Scroll down.. Â https://ukff.com/topic/136206-conventionsigning-appearencesevenings-with-thread/page-38#entry3069866 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martyncb Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 I'm another one that thinks the network. As a kid, and up to probably my mid-20's, I couldn't get enough wrestling and would probably have watched pretty much anything and everything I could find on there. I subscribe now, but don't tend to watch it that much as can't really find the time, and in all honestly I've lost a bit of interest in wrestling over the last few years. But go back 20 years and I'd have been in my element! Â Â Pinc also makes a really good point about the booing of the top baby face, and cheering some of the heels. I remember as a kid watching wrestlers I'd never heard of but wanting them to win simply as they were the good guys, despite how rubbish or lame they were, and wanting to see the bad guys lose. If I was a kid watching wrestling these days, I'm not sure I'd understand who I was meant to cheer for. Â Leading on from that point a little... as a kid, even after I found out wrestling wasn't real, I still kinda believed it was real, and still totally bought into the rivalries and hatred. The only wrestling I saw was official WWF shows, or magazines, so wrestlers were always in character. Now, with social media, and wrestlers making more public appearances etc, they are often seen out of character... so to a younger version of myself, that would probably have helped me understand where the line was between wrestling and the real world, but might also have also ruined wrestling for me too, as I probably wouldn't have 'bought into' it so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 As a kid the network would have been great to see every show straight away, than the wait for tapes or copies from friends. Maybe it was that wait that made it feel more significant bak then, as those days. Even when I had the network, I had no urgency to watch ppvs as nothing significant happens these days story wise on them. It's always on tv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustinSeminate Posted February 8, 2017 Share Posted February 8, 2017 I dont know if I would get as into it as a kid these days as I did in the late 80s. It was the larger than life characters and wacky gimmicks, as well as the *need* to see PPVs for match-ups you just couldn't see on regular telly (e.g Owens versus Reigns for what seems like 400 weeks in a row on Raw, then at the RR). Â I think the sheer volume of content now can immune you to the wonder. My wee cousins like playing with their wrestling figures, but get bored of the show rather quickly. It's Firstname Lastname in trunks and boots versus Firstname Lastname in trunks and boots, for no reason, and here's a distraction roll-up. Â The network is great value, but if I had it, I would probably use it for a nostalgia kick, rather than anything current. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonworden Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I had all the tapes bar a few that went missing, I ever traded, recorded, copied etc up until about 3 1/2 years ago when I moved countries. At that point due to my mothers pushing I agreed to throw away all my non official tapes. There were some really obscure indy stuff buried in there loads of early ROH, MLW, OMEGA it was a real pride to collect these up as a teenager working to trade rather than just buy for instance. However the money I wasted on tapes postage and purchasing makes me shudder a bit.  I still have all my original VHS at home including the whole warner brothers PPV collection of WCW tapes which I was strangely proud of.  Reflecting back I probably only watched most tapes once or twice once I the collection got big. It just seemed a shame to get rid of the footage.  I will probably chuck the official tapes next time i'm home soon unless someone tells me they will have value. I might keep the odd one if I think it will never be found again. But i'm going to keep all the sleeves, no idea what I will do with those either but I feel I have to keep something from my youth there. Same with all the major label CDs I own.  I think if someone had told me in the future about the network I still would have bought a lot of the tapes then. If it was around I wouldn't have bought any and would probably be paying for loads of services not just the WWE app. Hell I would probably subscribe to the TNA app too if I was in my younger mindset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I think the live audiences booing the top babyface in the company for over a decade would have confused me had I been a kid throughout. I know aces like Hogan and Rock and Michaels all received negative reactions at various times in the old days, but the booking always accommodated it fairly quickly. John Cena has been the main character of Raw since about 2005. He's explicitly aimed at kids. Every time he comes out the whole arena chants 'JOHN CENA SUUUUUCKS' to the tune of his entrance music, and boo everything he does once his matches start. It'd be weird if everyone in the He-Man universe thought He-Man was a tit and booed the shit out of him when he did his transform-into-He-Man thing once an episode. It'd probably ruin the show for me if I was a 5-year old just trying to enjoy it.  How have young wrestling fans dealt with this over the years? Is it something younger fans talk about as being a weird part of the show?  I don't know if it would have been confusing, at shows I have attended kids kind of get a kick out of cheering for Cena when the adults boo him, its kind of pantomime in that the kids cheer and find it fun going against adults booing. Not sure how it would translate when watching at home, but kids love it at the live events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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