When did you first start watching wrestling?

[Deleted]

I can't remember when exactly but I know that the first time I started watching was sometime between Diesel's run and before WM12. I remember seeing Warrior (somehow, probably old replays or something) and I remember them hyping up the Hart/HBK match. I specifically remember watching this video on tv.



And also another video that showed Shawn training before their match. I was around 8 so seeing this was amazing to me.

[ayumidah]

The first match I remember watching was Mankind vs Rock on Halftime Heat. So I was still pretty new to the whole world of wrestling (And just barely over 12 years old) when Owen Hart died.

[Nickybojelais]

I'm sure I started watching shortly after Wrestlemania 6, but my first clear wrestling memories are of the '91 Royal Rumble and the Hogan/Slaugter and Warrior/Savage feuds building up to Wrestlemania 7.

[riseofsetian1981]

I remember as a kid a lot of my friends were obsessed with it. Growing up in the 80's there was Hogan, Warrior, and Savage but I didn't get into wrestling at the height of their stardom so to speak. What first drew me to wrestling was when Jake The Snake had his King Cobra bite Savage.

For some reason that really just struck with me because I hadn't seen anything like it. So from then on I started to have my parents record wrestling, I would watch it with friends, watch it at home, buy the magazines, and was just completely obsessed with it. I had to be about I think maybe 10 or 11.

[Duke Cameron]

Around Wrestlemania 4.

[sabretooth]

In 1983. One of the first matches I saw on TV was a condensed version of Race vs. Flair in the cage.

[sonofblaine]

When I was little, I'd catch Rock n Wrestling or bits of whatever saturday morning recap hour WWF had. Most distinctly remember Warrior getting bitten in the face by Ol Strikey.

But I consider the beginning of actually watching regularly being when I was a teen flipping channels and stopped on Hogan, dressed in black telling me to stick it. It was the Nitro after the Bash at the Beach nWo formed and I was hooked.

[chazraps]

I'm a fourth generation fan who grew up in Minnesota whose Mom has been friends with a certain wrestler-turned-politician since they were in high school, so growing up it had off-and-on always been around. I have vague memories of Savage and Liz's wedding in '91, and seeing Ultimate Warrior escape from Undertaker's bodybag live at a '91 house show.

But the time I became a hardcore follower was late winter/early spring of '96. I was a big arcade game guy and became consumed by everything the Mortal Kombat team made. WWF The Arcade Game hit my video store shelves with a strategy video that (re)introduced me to all the characters, so the next week I rented Mania X on vhs. The passion grew stronger, rented more tapes, started watching Mania (i'd only remembered wrasslin as a saturday morning thing, and monday was mom's murphy brown night) then decided to order the next WWF PPV, which was in your house: good friends better enemies. That was the moment there was no turning back.

I have taken some breaks where I legit didn't watch anything remotely wrestling related (sept 2000-mar 2002, sept 2004-jan 2008, june 2010-may 2011, may 2013-aug 2013) but the same joy of seeing performers control a crowd remains.

[H-Virus]

1990. WCW Saturday Morning Power Hour. The main event was The Z-Man and Flyin' Brian vs 'Stunning' Steve Austin and Beautiful Bobby of The Dangerous Alliance. The Alliance won after hitting a double-team Stun-Gun on Z-Man.

The show also featured such legendary talent as Arachna-Man, PN News and 'Heavy Metal' Van Hammer.

[Deleted]

Around September-ish 1998, though I saw some WCW in 1995 or 96. The first match I plainly remember is Mankind vs. Ken Shamrock.

[SkullTrauma]

Farther back than I have memories.

[FAR5222]

Shawn Michaels dancing in the ring around 1996-97.

[Big Bad Kahuna]

Summer/fall 1992. Didn't watch regularly but had the sticker album, thus got to know all the different characters (loved Tatanka and Bret, didn't get the big deal with Flair)

This was a pretty good period to start, all the roid monsters got phased put (Sid, LOD, Warrior), while the more exciting athletic guys (Bret, Shawn, Perfect, Razor somewhat) were in the spotlight

[MichaelMartini]

Around 84-85

[Big Poppa Pumpkin]

First wrestling-related thing I remember watching is King of the Ring 1993 but that was a VHS tape recording I watched with my grandad, I can't remember exactly when that was but I know that I had seen a Bret poster in my sister's room and asked my grandad who it was and that was the reason he got me to watch that show. My guess is around 1996-97 but I dunno for sure.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

I first watched when I was 3-4 (Around 97-98), but I can't remember much of that at all.

First solid memory was when I started watching again on and off around 2002, saw Mysterio's debut and was amazed by him, and he was my favourite for years.

After that, weirdly enough, the thing that stands out to me the most was a tag match of Rey, Booker and RVD against Kenzo Suzuki, Jibble and Renee Dupree. Dunno why, but it really sticks out in my memory.

[The Sam]

Like 3 weeks ago. I heard it's fake.


But seriously, the first match I remember seeing was Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna vs Doink & Dink from WMX. However I didn't become a fan until mid 1999.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

1985 or so. Sometime around the first Wrestlemania.

[Deleted]

My earliest memories of watching wrestling are of Yokozuna being the champion and Lex Luger slamming Tatanka through a mirror, so I figure that would have been sometime in 1993 (when I was 4). These memories are extremely, extremely vague though, and probably a little augmented by the fact that I'd take a weekly trip to Blockbuster with my grandfather and rent a VHS tape of whatever wrestling PPV I could find pretty frequently.

I became a true fan in 1996, when Beware of Dog got rescheduled and moved to my home city of North Charleston. My dad took me to the able - I was 6, and was immediately hooked by the spectacle of it all. I probably saw the Hardy Boyz job in 3 separate matches that day and my 6 year old self was blown away by the Yokozuna/Vader match. I got a Vader and a Flash Funk action figure for my birthday that year, and the rest is history. I'll always have fond memories of 1996-1997 WWF, even though in retrospect it wasn't really the greatest time period for the company in retrospect.

[auph10imitated]

I had caught bits and bobs through 1990 and early 1991, but my first actual show that I recorded and watched (then watched religiously after this) was Summerslam 1991, it was taped on my 8th birthday during my birthday party and I watched it the following day. The reason I got into wrestling however was getting the 1990 Merlin Sticker Album and collecting the stickers with everyone else at school, so I knew all the characters I just hadnt really watched it (apart from catching small bits as I said) I was then bought the August 1991 WWF Magazine in the days leading up to my birthday which lead me to getting my parents to record Summerslam.

These two both play a huge part in me becoming a wrestling fan and I have fond memories of both