That Decisive Moment...

[Guest Jim Ross]

Forgive me for the ambiguous title, but I was wondering, when was the moment that you guys realised that wrestling was not all that it seems... and furthermore, how did you guys get back into the sport.

 

Let me elaborate. When I was a child I thought that it was all real. I genuinely believed that these people were really going at it and I loved every minute of it.

 

While I was a fan I would often have my father mocking me for watching wrestling (even though he introduced me to the sport) He would sit back on his chair and laugh saying "How can you watch this rubbish.. its all fake!" But as a child who thought he knew better, I didnt believe a word of it. Of course I had my nagging doubts from time to time but i was pretty certain it was all real.

 

Then in 1989 things radically changed. It was 'The Main Event' in early 1989.. the very episode where the Mega Powers broke up. Near the end o the broadcast I recall Savage and Hogan having a brawl in some kind of brawl in a medical room... and then Savage left the area. Hogan was then seen walking around backstage looking for Savage and screaming his name. Next thing the 'Copyright Titan Sports' text came up on the screen signifying the end of the show. But just before it faded to black I recall someone off screen saying 'Alright! That was Excellent!'. This drastic Mis-timing by the WWF made me realise that it wasnt the sport i once loved. I still watched for a few years after but I never had the same love for it.. and soon i stopped watching altogether. I belive Wrestlemania 7 was the last PPV i watched.

 

Then one night I came home from my local bar.. put the TV on and I saw HHH and Cactus going at it in a streetfight. Now I was forearmed with the knowledge that the sport was not real.. but the fact that these guys were doing this shit when they didnt even need to intrigued me. I soon found a new level of respect for these people who are willing to do all this just for the benefit of my entertainment.

 

So, what im basically asking is.. when did you guys realise that Wrestling wasnt real... and what then made you love the sport as you do now?

[Tawren 0]

I started watching when I was 9-10, and I knew after a few shows that it was fake (my parents wouldn't shut up about it being fake). Since I didn't have the extended time you did watching as a fan who considered it real, it wasn't hard for me to keep watching and getting more and more into it.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I never thought it was real (as in predetermined. Not to disrespect the workers). I always knew the truth before I got into wrestling.

[Guest sanyo]

I don't love it! Its spare time for me. I used to love it but I realized women are more interesting to be around. I haven't watched SD in a long time and Raw is the only show I watch. Even like 2 yrs ago I watched everything and I couldn't miss it- Raw, SD, Heat and those stupid saturday recap shows. Now nothing interests me- even Raw is dull most of the time. Guess I'm just growing up. Oh yeah I realized wrestling was fake at WM10 when my uncle told me that it was pre-determined and they are all friends backstage- it was the Savage Crush match I think. If you guys take this way too seriously, then I feel bad. I watch it for enjoyment and that's all...the only time I bitch is on this board. But I don't go nuts...only this JD card is really pissing me off because I realized Vince is the biggest dumb-ass in the world and the reason I have asked people to boycott it. But wrestling is a hobby at best that's all.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

I know my grandmother used to watch old Hogan/Andre era WWF and I'd see a few matches but not really pay attention. My Dad put it down as soon as he found out I was watching and informed me it was fake. I don't remember what the hell it was other than SNME, or who was in it at the time. So, basically, the doubt was there from the moment I only had the most passive "What's on TV" interest.

 

So I always figured that the guys on TV like Undertaker are just guys putting on an act like in the circus, but the realism of the action going on in the ring was questionable.

 

The first match I can remember actually watching and remembering was Royal Rumble 92 (a friend with a cable box means watching PPV even if you don't care what's going on.) Even if it was fake, this guy who had won the match and was now shouting Whoo at the camera a hundred times was in there for a long time, even if it's just a performance, and really did look pretty wiped out. It was then I realized that hey, even if they're just acting it out, they're still having to put effort into it. I was only interested in the Rumble match as an attraction in itself and it didn't make me want to start regularly watching the WWF or anything.

 

Then, in Rumble 99, which happened to be on TV when I was visitng the same friend (PPVs come on at 5PM in the afternoon on this coast). I saw the match that made me a regular viewer: Rock vs Foley in I Quit, the one where Foley's wife just about had a conniption in the front row and had to drag the kids out of the room. This match had elements that was both VERY fake (falling into "power equipment" as sparklers goes off and the room briefly dims) and VERY real (the ungodly number of chair shots.)

 

It was that match, even though it was overly brutal, that taught me right away that there is some actual pain and suffering involved along with all the tacky theatrics.

 

 

On a side note, in the summer of 99 I met online a kid aged somewhere between 10-12 that was the King Of Marks. He actually believed that Undertaker really was a dead guy brought to life. That shit that Gangrel spit on the crowd was "some sort of blood juice," etc. This was the height of Russo booking, and I wonder what happened to that kid's poor world when Russo left and booking took a turn to angles that revolved around the concept that the show was fake and everyone was performers. You know the ones. Suddently, Undertaker has a wife and she's been kidnapped. Suddently, Kane who was trapped in an asylum is talking about how he couldn't drive stickshift 10 years ago. Suddently, Hogan and Rock are shaking hands after one guy drove a mack truck into the other and the other guy no-sold it in two weeks.

 

That poor guy is messed for life.

[haVoc 0]

I was 10 when my uncle got me into wrestling and he told me it was fixed right from the start. But being that young I still believed a lot of it was real.

 

Then he took me to my first live event which was a "Superstars" taping and one taping was good for 3-4 weeks worth of TV. I saw guys wrestling two, sometimes, three times that night. Interviews being done and feuds happening that haven't taken place on TV yet. The damn wait in between matches and of course not being able to hear the commentators during matches.

 

Plus, the main event was WWF champion Hulk Hogan Vs IC champion Randy Savage and it made no sense to me because both those guys had feuds going with different guys.

 

It was confusing, yet, it finally made sense.

[Papacita 0]

Yeah, my brother got me onto wrestling when I was like 3 or 4 and told me it was fake then. I didn't really get into it until I was 7 or 8 but it being fixed was never really an issue.

[Steviekick 0]

Because my parents always belittled me for watching wrestling, they would be mean and tell me its fake and stupid since I started regularly watching it in 91. I personally started realizing it was fake when I'd see people getting gimmick/character changes. In 1996 or 1997, I went online the first time ever, read my first dirtsheet, realized what those mini shoot comments in ECW were and never looked back.

[spman 0]

I nevr really thought it was real per se, I guess I just evolved into learning the whole truth when I got on the Internet.

[Drury37 0]

I started watching wrestling at 3 years old and I was always told it was fake so I was alright with that so I never really went through a time period where I thought it was real. Although some the wrestlers like put a little fear into me at my young age but that was really about it. For some strange reason it like amazed me when I like 4 I mean when I was 3 yeah I watched it but I real got into it with storylines and everything when I turned like 4 and everything from that time period (1991-1992) just amazed me and I still amazed at heart about stuff from that time period. I could look up stuff about then and watch old videos from back then all day. I mean I am sure it wasn't as great to a lot of people as it was to a little 4 year old but I think around 1994 I started to think it was going down a bit and I wasn't so amazed by it like I was from about 1991-1993.

Thanks.

[Guest ian.]

From day 1, my dad told me it was fake, but it never detoured me. He was a fan too, and watching it with him got me more into it. This was about 89-90. First wrestling memory is seeing Brian Pillman cutting a promo on wcw tv. I haven't lost any love for wrestling since, I've hated what they've done, but havent even come close to saying 'I'm gonna quit watching this'

[Guest frowned]

I started watching in around 89 / 90 (I was about 7/8) and absolutely loved it but was always pretty sceptical cos of my parents constant snide comments I'd probably worked it all out completely by 91 and started to grow weary around the time of the Warrior vs Slaughter rumble (so yeah - not far into 91, I think I'm remembering the dates right). But I thoroughly enjoyed the Macho Man / Warrior retirement match at WMVII and that had me thinking that there was probably something more to this wrestling stuff. Then the Summerslam Hart vs Perfect match just totally blew me away - from that moment on I just didn't give a fuck about "fakeness". I remember when I was 10 or 11 some kids at school were taking the piss cos me and some friends were swapping WWF stickers, "you know it's fake don't you?" and I replied with some excellent witty sarcastic retort - something along the lines of "well derrrr....!". It made me feel happy.

[Jericholic82 0]

I first started watching regulary after survivor series 90. My dad was watching it and told me to watch it with him, cuz it was fun. I did and never looked back. after that I started watching both the wwf and wcw tv shows and had my first live show expereince at an msg house show late 91 (the sat after survivor series 91, 3 days before tuesday in texas, so taker was champ but not on the card ) and the main event was hogan vs flair. My friends and I would talk about it and have matches at lunchtime in the schoolyard (dont worry we didnt hurt each other-often I would play the ref and always turn my back when the heels cheated and such )

 

I remember crying when I fell asleep watching royal rumble 91 (during the rr match) and waking up the next morning, knowing I'd missed the ending.

 

Now my parents didn't go out of their way to say it wasn't real, but gradually I heard comments about it, but paid no attention. Maybe I knew it was fake, but still thought like a mark (cheered for the good guys hated the bad guys with hardly any exception-though after rumble 92 I kinda thought flair was funny and cool,but I could not actually cheer for a bad guy then). I subscribed to wwf magazine ( and still do to this day as sd mag) and bought pwis and the such as well as wcw mags and beleived everything in them. This continued all the way to my move to the west coast in 94. In 96 I went online for the first time in school. I was blown away by the internet. I didn't read any dirt sheets, I was just looking for theme songs and videos and pic etc

 

By 97 I pretty much knew it was fake but was stubborn to accept it (even though I was in 10th grade by then) and my high school got net access and I discovered online rumor and news sites from a classmate of mine. The first revelation I discovered was that Glen Jacobs (formely issac yankem and fake diesel-even though I didnt even realize that was him) would be portraying Kane (this was in sept a ful month before he debuted.) I didn't do much dirt snooping after this till may 98 when my dad bought a webtv and the rest is history. At the time my fav site was the Internet Wrestling Zone and started to read spoilers and rumors alot, and it kinda ruined it for me. Then In 98 wrestling t shirts started to be sold at almost every store and I kinda overstocked on them as I had not seen any in stores since 91ish. I had a whole bunch and wore them often to school, but wrestling was cool then so it was ok, thought one guy kinda goofed on me(now I see his point lol)

 

To this day, I still go online and read it all, but I still watch, maybe its a force of habit or a hobby. I don't enjoy wrestling as much now, only if the match is so great it gets me into it (like recently the wm xx main event) or a good storyline is played out. But yet I continue to watch and buy dvds and games and subscribe to both raw and sd magazine (though now raw has become lame and more of a mark mag than it used to be) I have the most fun when I go to a live show, but I haven't been to one since unforgiven 02 in la, of course I wanted to go to jd last night but now I realize it was a good thing not to waste my money on that crap lol.

 

 

geez I'm sorry for being long winded, but I get nostalgic talking about the old days of wrestling.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I realy started watching right when the Attitude era was kicking off, so I was about 11 at the time. I always knew wrestling was fake, but I just started watching because my friend Billy was always quoting Steve Austin (specifically the "and that's the bottom line" bit) around me, and he informed me that he was quoting a WWF wrestler. I started watching, curious, and became hooked. The first match I remember is actually the Tag Team Flag match between Bret Hart/British Bulldog and Vader/The Patriot. Of course, my first PPV was Badd Blood, so hey, it ended with the legendary Hell In A Cell match between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels when both men were in their prime. I dig it.

 

It's funny, though, because I was a smark before I even had the 'net. I got the 'net in October 1999, and I already forged my own smark-like opinions about who I liked (mostly a lot of the same guys the smarks liked, coincidentally), didn't like, and the reasons why. I didn't like Hogan outside of the fact that he could get a place interested in a shitty match. I didn't like Kevin Nash outside of his mic work. And I fucking HATED HATED HATED Billy Gunn when Road Dogg wasn't carrying his ass. I also felt there were too many old guys in WCW and not enough good matches in the WWF. Weird, eh?

[The Mandarin 0]

I was first informed that wrestling was fake when watching an episode of Superstars and seeing Tatanka's mentor died. Had I not found out about it being staged, that would have scarred me for life.

 

But anyways, I first got into it in '97, the best year for WWE storylines. The Dude Love/Steve Austin team was a hook, as was the US vs. Canada war. I loved both the US and Canada wrestlers (Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Austin and ESPECIALLY Undertaker), but I just loathed Shawn Michaels. Pretty funny.

 

I really got into it via the WWF magazine, PWI and the Jakks Bone Crunchers. I'd have Vader beat the shit out of Ahmed Johnson every day.

 

The first time I watched WCW, was suprisingly, nWo Nitro. May have seen a few Saturday Nights before that, though. Crow Sting (up to Starrcade) was one of the coolest characters ever.

[alfdogg 0]

.......

 

 

 

 

WRESTLING'S FAKE??????

 

*runs into bedroom and cries*

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

it'll be okay Alf. we'll get through this together...by bashing Popick.

[IWD 0]

I knew it was a work from the beginning, although I didn't know all the terms and stuff.

 

I started watching in around 1982 or 1983, and stopped watching after WrestleMania IX, simply due to the stupidity of the event. I caught the odd event over the years, but I think it was King Of The Ring '98 when I started watching again from time to time. In 2000 I was really enjoying it, and started tracking down the events I had missed from Ebay.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

I started watching it when I was around seven or eight because my uncle watched it, and back then he was the shit in my book. My cousin and I would wrestle on a trampoline on occasion, wrestling being clotheslines and the Scorpion Deathlock (Which I refused to call the sharpshooter until I found out that it was invented by the Harts).

I, like Laz, developed some smarkish ideas before I became a smark, but I really came into full smarkdom about 4 years ago when I got the internet in my college dorm. I already knew it was fake, but I spent hours scouring the net for any information on wrestling. My best friend is now a wrestler in Aiken, SC (home of the Big Show, whoopity doo) so I've seen how rings are built and talked to workers in the locker room. There are times where I wish I believed it more, but honestly, I'm glad I'm a smark. Especially after watching wrestling with a guy who is a full on mark. Man, I feel sorry for him.