Markish impressions you had as a youth

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

When I was like 7 or 8 I thought the Muta Scale/Crissom Mask stuff was "half movie blood" or something because a wrestler would blade like a stuck pig early and later in the match you could only see a small, paper cut size gash on the forehead and I'd be "No way THAT much blood came from something that small

 

Also for some reason I thought that, while the action was choreographed, the outcome of "lesser" matches on the card weren't pre-determined outcome wise (Not the MEs and not the matches on major cards, but like house shows, ect) For some reason I thought there was some "shooting" involved with wrestlers putting themselves over.

 

Don't ask I was young...

 

Speaking of not so much with the predetermined outcome, I actually believed the bulk of a Royal Rumble or Battle Royal was basically freestyled with certain limitations (i.e DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT TOUCHING THE FOLLOWING WRESTLERS...) untill a manageable amout was left in the match (don't recall what number I thought was the amount, probably 8-5 or something that is easy on the bookers to script out)

 

Steve

[spman 0]

Come on guys, how many of you really believed that Yokozuna was Japanese?

[Celtic Jobber 0]

When I was a kid, I thought Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Brutus Beefcake, and the Bushwhackers were entertaining.

 

And I found guys like Ricky Steamboat and the British Bulldogs brutally boring (although I was a fan of Davey Boy Smith's singles run).

 

...And yes, until I first got access to the internet in 1999, I believed Yokozuna was Japanese.

[BorneAgain 0]

When I was real young I didn't understand the concept of a championship and thus assumed that wrestlers fought for the ownership of the belt itself.

[The Decemberists 0]

As a very young mark, I sort of believed that the matches were competitive, and the storylines were changed according to who won the matches.

 

I guess that was my way of trying to keep myself thinking it was real, even though I could see that there were storylines.

[SamoaRowe 0]

I believed that Yokozuna was japanese, but then again, I'd never really paid that much attention to that detail or even questioned it for whatever reason.

 

When I was younger I seriously thought Sunday Night Heat was taped seperately from the other shows and was just a smaller show that wasn't publicized that much and that fans would go to it anyway because wrestling was so hot at the time. Once again, it was just something I didn't put too much thought into (seeing the Smackdown apron under the Heat apron changed that concept).

[MillenniumMan831 0]

I used to tell people that while the WWF was about 10% real . . . the NWA was at least 25-30% real.

[Some Guy 0]

I really thought that Vince didn't know who half the guys on the show were and had never met them. He was that good/bad at beinga clueless announcer that I thought he didn't even know his own employees. I thought this before and after I knew he owned the company. Before I knew I thought he had casually met a few of the top guys and never spoken to the heels outside of interviews and that he had never bothered to meet lower guys like the Rockers or whoever. After I knew I figured he just didn't care enough about guys like Flash Funk to meet them, with Al Snow it sort of turned out that I was right. he did meet him when he signed, but couldn't be bothered to talk to the guy until he brought him back from ECW. Watch Al's shoot and tells the whole story about calling Vince everyday for weeks and getting called back by Cornette or Bruce Pritchard.

 

I too thought that Yoko was Japanese. Besides, Hogan called him a "Jap" and if Hogan says it then it has to be true.

 

I really believed Hogan when he said he didn't do roids and that he just trained, said his prayers, and ate his vitamins. But I was like 10 or something at the time and didn't really know what steroids were.

[JoeDirt 0]

As I've said before on here, I didn't start watching wrestling until 1999. I REALLY got into things later that year and in 2000 and went crazy watching all sorts of stuff from the past, but in early 1999 I wasn't really on the net yet and was really a mark.

 

Remember that RAW episode in 1999 where Undertaker faced Big Show and Show chokeslammed Taker through the ring? I was watching that RAW at a friend's house and I remember talking about how great the match was going to be. I had no clue what workrate was, I was looking at it from a mark's perspective: Two big monsters who never lost were going to face each other. I try to keep that in mind when I watch wrestling with my more markish friends these days, though most of my friends don't watch anymore.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I didn't know Vince McMahon was the owner of the WWF. (ducks thrown chair)(

[AlaskanHero 0]

I thought that Undertaker was afraid of Bret Hart because he had never really beaten him, but didn't fear Sid because Sid was his bitch.

 

I also thought that Goldust killed Brian Pillman. Seriously.

[Carnival 0]

to this day i thought yokozuna was japanese

[JoeDirt 0]

to this day i thought yokozuna was japanese

If you hear his interview as the 2/96 IYH PPV, you can tell he is not. He definitely sounds a lot more Hawaiian than Japanese there.

[Carnival 0]

ah thats right now i remember hearing that.

 

I used to think that the ultimate warrior suffered brain damage from being locked in undertaker's coffin for too long so they had to find a new guy to be Warrior. I knew wrestling was fake, but i thought that was real.

[strummer 0]

During the early stages of the NWO angle in 1996, my cousin and I were dying to see a feud between Kevin Nash and the Giant. We thought the matches would be "awesome" 1996 was my last year as a mark thank God

[Guest LooneyTune]

I used to think the Giant Gonzalez and Ludvig Borga were the best in 1993 WWF... (goes to cry in a corner)

[MikeJordan23 0]

Ricky Steamboat really almost died when Savage attacked him on Saturday Night's Mainevent.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Savage dies from the snake bite on SNME from Damien.

 

Honest, I thought that.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

While I knew that Vince McMahon owned the WWF, I assumed that he only booked Hulk Hogan's matches and/or the main events . . . everything else, I figured he'd let his cronies handle and not want to be let in on it since that would spoil the 'genuine' surprise tone that Vince would have when commentating the matches.

[Celtic Jobber 0]

I thought Brian Pillman's death was a work.

[Phoenix Fury Legdrop 0]

I convinced a friend of mine in 5th grade that ECW was a shoot.

[Guest Frank_Nabbit]

Jobbers...or "wimpy guys" as i called them, didn't get paid if they lost

[Guest Shadow]

when i was a dumb child, I thought that midget wrestlers were really 8 year old kids wrestling.

[LessonInMachismo 0]

Jobbers...or "wimpy guys" as i called them, didn't get paid if they lost

Heh, when I first started watching, me and my friends thought the were "guys from the crowd." They were usually flabby and untanned and just looked like regular guys. That theory was shattered when I noticed the same guys showing up every week.

 

As for markishness...

 

I never thought it was real, and my parents' friends would always ask them "You've told him it's not real, right?" But at the same time, I thought that sometimes guys really get mad and try to hurt each other (Jake and Rude, for example.) That isn't too far from the truth.

 

My smartness first came in a small dose in 1987 from a little book called Wrestling Superstars II, which I believe was mentioned a few months ago. I got it from one of those little book sheets they handed out in elementary school. It's pretty much kayfabe with some shoot facts mixed in. However, the chapter on Vince McMahon, Jr. is like a straight shoot. It talks about how he pissed of traditionalists and ran off guys like Windham and Rotundo.

 

My second dose came in...1990, I believe. It was at Youth Group winter retreat. The preacher guy in charge made the name of the retreat "Slamming Your Giants." Of course, the "Giants" were analogs for your temptations. In his first sermon, he talked about getting on a plane full of WWF guys and meeting them. He told us how Ultimate Warrior trained to be a chiropractor. He told us their shoot names. The next day, they broke the whole camp into groups and we had to plan our own skits about slamming "Giants." Some dork in our group was a Pat Riley fan and slicked his hair back and stuff...he wanted our skit to be about slamming like in basketball. Everyone agreed with him. Everyone but me. I was unhappy.

 

Later on, I was talking to some older kid about wrestling and he told me about blading and stuff. Pretty cool.

[Jericholic82 0]

Jobbers...or "wimpy guys" as i called them, didn't get paid if they lost

Heh, when I first started watching, me and my friends thought the were "guys from the crowd." They were usually flabby and untanned and just looked like regular guys. That theory was shattered when I noticed the same guys showing up every week.

 

As for markishness...

 

I never thought it was real, and my parents' friends would always ask them "You've told him it's not real, right?" But at the same time, I thought that sometimes guys really get mad and try to hurt each other (Jake and Rude, for example.) That isn't too far from the truth.

 

My smartness first came in a small dose in 1987 from a little book called Wrestling Superstars II, which I believe was mentioned a few months ago. I got it from one of those little book sheets they handed out in elementary school. It's pretty much kayfabe with some shoot facts mixed in. However, the chapter on Vince McMahon, Jr. is like a straight shoot. It talks about how he pissed of traditionalists and ran off guys like Windham and Rotundo.

 

My second dose came in...1990, I believe. It was at Youth Group winter retreat. The preacher guy in charge made the name of the retreat "Slamming Your Giants." Of course, the "Giants" were analogs for your temptations. In his first sermon, he talked about getting on a plane full of WWF guys and meeting them. He told us how Ultimate Warrior trained to be a chiropractor. He told us their shoot names. The next day, they broke the whole camp into groups and we had to plan our own skits about slamming "Giants." Some dork in our group was a Pat Riley fan and slicked his hair back and stuff...he wanted our skit to be about slamming like in basketball. Everyone agreed with him. Everyone but me. I was unhappy.

 

Later on, I was talking to some older kid about wrestling and he told me about blading and stuff. Pretty cool.

ah wrestling superstars II gets another mention lol If I had read it back in when I was a mark, it may have surprised me.

 

And how were you supposed to know vince was the owner?

I basically found that out when he made appaearnces on tv during the steroid scandal and his federal trial.

 

 

Hey I thought Yoko was from Japan, even though if you really looked at him you can tell hes not.

 

Ah to be a mark again.

 

and I really feel bad for you guys who didnt get into wrestling until the late 90s, I mean sure you picked a goo dtime to join in, but you missed a lot of old school stuff. I mean Im still mad I didnt get into wrestling until 1990. My dad got me into it he would go to his friends house to watch mania every year and he woudl want to take me and I was all like no, being I was about 3-6 during these years so all I cared about was cartoons and toys. (well techincally the ninja turtles was m y obssession before wrestling )

[Vern Gagne 0]

I didn't know Vince McMahon was the owner of the WWF. (ducks thrown chair)(

*Ducks with LT*

 

I thought wrestlers were actually from "Parts Unknown".

[Vern Gagne 0]

During the early stages of the NWO angle in 1996, my cousin and I were dying to see a feud between Kevin Nash and the Giant. We thought the matches would be "awesome" 1996 was my last year as a mark thank God

When Hall made his Nitro debut, it was before i had internet access, so I thought there was actually going to be a WWE/WCW feud.

[iggymcfly 0]

I remember that I used to think that a bunch of different guys had played the Undertaker character, because I never started really watching the shows until '98, and he looked way different than I remembered him looking when I'd catch wrestling for a few seconds as I was flipping channels.

[Jericholic82 0]

During the early stages of the NWO angle in 1996, my cousin and I were dying to see a feud between Kevin Nash and the Giant.  We thought the matches would be "awesome"  1996 was my last year as a mark thank God

When Hall made his Nitro debut, it was before i had internet access, so I thought there was actually going to be a WWE/WCW feud.

Yea that was a weird moment huh? I guess I wasn't 100 percent surprised as Hall and Nash had dissapeared from wwf tv and werent even mentioned again past the good friends, better enemies ppv.

[Dimensions 0]

When I started watching wrestling in 1999 I truly believed that wrestlers, except for a few, didn't know about each other. WCW didn't know about WWF and vice versa. I think this all came about because of the unsaid rule of not mentioning the other promotion at all. However, that quickly went away after a few months of research and visiting some messageboards.