How I Became a Wrestling Fan

[Guest TSMAdmin]

It’s going to be a bit different format this week. I’m not doing a specific match analysis. Because something happened last week shares a connection with why I became a wrestling fan.

 

Miss Elizabeth died. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. In no way am I trying to say that her death had as big an effect on me as it has on her close friends and family. At the end of the day I’m just a fan. I only knew her through television, videos and watching from afar in the stands.

 

And I know that these days, as sad as it is true, we’ve become…well accustomed to wrestling personalities dying. Most recently Curt Hennig died and sadly it wasn’t a surprise to learn that drugs played a part in it. And as shocking (for me at least) to learn that Elizabeth’s death might be connected to drug use, our response has become a common one of “well that figures.”

 

But I’m not going to go on about how this business needs to take a look at itself in the mirror. When I analyze a match, I don’t try to bring in politics or other smark words du jour. I view a match on the only merits that matter to me: how good or bad the match itself is.

 

So I’d like to tell you all today how I became a wrestling fan, and why Miss Elizabeth played an integral part in it.

 

February 1989. I was 10. My brother and me were staying up late to watch “Saturday Night Live”. I think John Goodman was hosting that week. But before 11:30 rolled around we found ourselves watching The Main Event. I had never watched wrestling before, except for the occasional episode of “Hulk Hogan’s Rock n Wrestling”, but I was aware of it. And we tuned in midway to see The Twin Towers (Big Bossman and Akeem) battling The Megapowers (Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage).

 

And, as always, at ringside was the lovely Miss Elizabeth. But something different happened on this night. Savage got knocked out of the ring and plowed right onto Elizabeth. I didn’t know this at the time, it being my first time watching, but nothing like this had happened on WWF TV. Elizabeth had been threatened before but never got attacked during a match. Hogan immediately picked her up, worried sick and carried her to the back.

 

Of course this left Randy out there all by himself. And when Hogan returned after several minutes of worrying over Elizabeth, Savage was none to pleased by his abrupt exit with his woman. So when Hogan asked for the tag, Savage was more than happy to tag.

 

Tag him right in the face.

 

Savage left Hogan out to finish the match. And *gasp* to my amazement he won the match. When he got back to the dressing room, Savage met him with accusations of jealousy and lust for Elizabeth. Elizabeth, laid out on a stretcher but conscious enough to try and play peacemaker, tried to ease the situation. Savage would have none of it and when Hogan looked away…

 

BAMM

 

Savage laid him out with a shot from his WWF Title. Now I was pretty sophisticated for a 10 year old, and I sided with Randy on this one. I always thought that Hogan was selfish to leave Randy out there for like 10 minutes while he pawed over Liz in the back. Orange, leather-skinned, walrus-mustached bum got what was coming to him! True, it was Randy’s intensity that really took my attention that night, but the demure Elizabeth, with her elegant classy beauty, made an impact on my pre-adolescent heart.

 

Two years later I’ve ordered my first PPV, Wrestlemania VII. And that’s when I saw the culmination of the angle between the two people who got be hooked on wrestling. I don’t know if I shed a tear that night when Randy hoisted Liz on his shoulders, but it’s still one of my favorite moments in wrestling.

 

I miss you Miss Elizabeth. You were and always will be The First Lady of Wrestling for me.

 

Next week I’ll return to my regular Wrestling Analysis. I’ve got my email link worked out now. Send all comments/suggestions to: [email protected]