Hello wrestling fans and welcome to another edition of Old School’s Take. Send all feedback to [email protected] and I can be reached personally at my new AIM SN WZoldschool. My Talking Points memo will talk about me recent audio show adventure and some new adventures I will be taking in my writing career. I recorded the January 22 edition of The Wrestling Crossfire which is Exclusive to thewrestlingvoice.com which is a cool site and has a who’s who of wrestling columnist. http://thewrestlingvoice.com/audio/, that is the link to the audio show and just click on my date and listen to the show if you want to hear my opinion on some really cool issues. I also in addition to writing Old School’s Take will be writing a Sports Column on www.mopsquad.com. it’s a good sports site and it does include great wrestling columnist. I hope you go and read my first Column which will be called West Coast View, to get my opinion on other sports besides wrestling.
I started watching wresting at the age of 3. My dad was flipping through the channels and I saw two guys fighting and I didn’t know what it was. My dad left it on for a while and explained to me that it was wrestling. I cant tell you the date or what the current storylines were. But from that day on I knew I had to see it again. And its been like that ever since. Although I don’t look at it the same way, I really enjoy watching the product and any type of pro wrestling I can get my hands on. But my perception of the business has changed and the evolution of watching wrestling sets in. sit back and enjoy what I have to say and I know so many of you will relate to my experiences and it will bring back some great memories.
When I first started watching wrestling it was so awesome. It was probably the best time I’ve had as a fan. Waking up on Saturday and Sunday mornings were such a joy and everyone knew that when Superstars and Challenge was on, you had to leave me alone. Raw came along in 1993 and I had just got cable, so it was really good timing. 1993 was when my love for wrestling really began to grow. Which is really interesting because experts say that was the year that a big downward spiral stared and pro wrestling went in the toilet. But of coarse that was before the IWC came in the picture. I was so caught up in being a fan of the All-American Lex Lugar and hating the villain Yokozona. I never saw the fact that the in ring work may have not been he best. I was caught up in the thrill of seeing The All Americans take on The Foreign Fanatics, seeing Men on a Mission and the Bushwackers dress up like doink and defeat Bam Bam Bigallow’s survivor series team. It was a era that will live in my heart as a great time in wrestling history, although many people look at it as a down time in wrestling.
I was only seven at the time, that may be why it was such a great time for me. In fact the Mid 90’s offered us so much. The Bret vs. Owen feud; which brought us the brother vs. brother rivalry that was awesome and one of the best rivalries ever. It was used several times with Edge and Christian plus with The Hardys as well. We saw the spark of Shawn Michaels career and he really got over that year. Something people do forget. Kevin Nash, at that time going by the name Diesel was champion and dominating. People loved him and you can admit it or not, but you did to. In fact, the whole Kliq, besides Trips, ruled the mid 90’s and carried the company on their shoulders. Meanwhile in WCW, Nitro had just kicked off and wasn’t really making and impact on me. I wasn’t aware about ratings wars or anything like that. The fact was I never watched WCW and that was that.
However when I saw Scott Hall (Razor Ramon) on Nitro it caught my eye and I was really shocked. No lie, I turned on Nitro right when it was ending and Hall was telling Bishoff he was going to bring his buddy on next week. I might have missed just a handful of Nitros after that tell there folding in 2001. It was such a weird and freaky time in wrestling. Again, the Internet was just starting and not to many people knew about it. That’s why it worked. I was freaked out and in shock when I saw Hogan become a heel at Bash at the beach and join The Outsiders. But that was the end of the Innocents of wrestling plain and simple. Wrestling was at one time Family Entertainment. But the nWo storyline changed the business and there was no turning back.
The Attitude era was another fun time for me and I was still caught up in the storylines. I knew it was all scripted, but for some reason I never thought of it as I was watching it. I loved watching it but I really saw a lot of things I did not like. For one was the disappearance of faces and heels. I’ve already explained this on previous columns and if you would like to read them just e mail me and ill get you a copy. Another thing is the focus went of the wrestling. We weren’t seeing awesome matches like WrestleMania XII’s main event Iron man match. We were seeing Mea Young give birth to a hand, People being crucified, and countless other stupid storylines that really got me mad. It got to the point where I was real fed up with the product that I was ready to stop watching. Until the night that Vince McMahon’s kisser showed up on Nitro saying he had Bought out WCW. I saw Raw and I couldn’t wait to get to school to talk this over with my friends. Then came a moment that would change my perception of wrestling forever. One of my friends asked me if I had ever heard of topwrestling.com. I told him know but I checked it out and I liked it. A few days later the sites that I was learning about continued. Wrestlingdotcom, Prowrestling, and Wrestlezone. I began to check the news boards every day like I was addicted to it like a pothead is to pot. Then all of a sudden something happened, Wrestling became awful to me. I couldn’t stand it. I’m not going to get in a huge IWC rant. Once again reach me by E-Mail and ill send you that column.
Right now I don’t read the news boards anymore and wrestling is once again great. Right now, TNA is not doing so good in the rankings and it is #2 to WWE. Although I feel like I did in the late 80’s to early 90’s when I watch it. Because its about wrestling to me. Some may disagree but its really a great experience for me to watch it. With all its downfalls, TNA really reminds me of a old school wrestling show and I love old school wrestling.
To wrap this up, Wrestling is something that is close to our heart and we all saw the business as being at top when we first started watching. If you say no, your lying. I speak to several fans who started watching around 2002 and 2003, they thought it was awesome. I was still caught up in the IWC to realize that everything was still new to them and its all they knew. The Innocents in wrestling was still there for them. Which is why the news boards are so bad. Its like the mafia of the Wrestling World. You could also throw several columnist in there as well. There are several columnist that are good and several who are part of the wrestling mafia and are evil members. If you do E-Mail me or catch me on AIM I will tell you who I’m talking about but I wont here because this is not the platform to do it in.
The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day centers around JBL. What a great champ this guy has been. No intelligent writer or fan can deny that. But yet there are some people who still dislike him. For what reason, I have no idea. But I guess it’s the whole Mafia thing. I’m not really sure. I am sure of one thing though. These individuals are ridiculous.
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