Wrestling

I can’t remember, in complete certainty, what the first wrestling I watched was. I can remember the first Pay-per-view I saw- WWF Royal Rumble 2000 on Channel 4- and remember having my recorded VHS copy for more than a decade. I can remember watching WCW Worldwide on Channel 5 Even at 7 or 8 years old I found it inferior to the output I saw from the WWF, via their episodes of Heat.

I remember pestering my dad for almost every new WWF VHS tape that arrived in Woolworths, W.H. Smiths, MVC, Virgin or whatever other archaic media store we happened to be visiting. Wrestling figures were also a common purchase. I remember buying a 3 pack of Jakks Pacific WWF figures featuring Too Cool and Rikishi. They were always my tag team champions and never lost any of their high-octane battles with The Hardy Boyz, X-Factor (yes, I owned a Justin Credible figure), or The Bashams.

Smackdown and Smackdown 2 on the Playstation were my first introduction to video games. I’ve played almost every Playstation WWE game since, less a 2 year break between 2010 and 2012 when I became more interested in film as a passion and my wrestling fandom took a backseat role in my life.

I started learning more about the business side of the industry and discovering more about wrestling outside of North America when I started to read the monthly Powerslam magazine edited by Findlay Martin. I consumed every issue cover to cover multiple times and have since bought many a retro issue off of eBay to peruse whilst watching some of my favourite matches of the era written about in the magazine. I remember buying my first issue whilst on a family holiday in the seaside town of Weymouth as a cure for boredom. I adored the annual PS50 issues and would read them again and again in order to try and commit the names of the non WWE and TNA wrestlers to mind to search for later. I was saddened when publication ceased in 2014. FSM is a decent magazine that is still available, but I find it to be beset with typos, and not half as engaging as Powerslam was.

I watch around half of WWE’s monthly specials live. The Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania are the main attractions of the calendar but I also greatly enjoy the NXT Takeover specials too. I remember watching the main event of Wrestlemania 31 live and having to pace relentlessly as the seemingly prophetical Roman Reigns victory nearly occurred.

My current weekly wrestling viewing is not particularly consistent. I watch most episodes of Raw, a couple of Smackdown’s a month and the occasional NXT, NXTUK and 205 Live.

I intend this space to be somewhere I can celebrate the things I like and berate the things I don’t. Reviews of the monthly live network specials or the occasional weekly tv episode will be the most common post, but comment on important news or events may pop up every now and then.

I’ll leave you with a picture of my first favourite wrestler and my best wishes for the week ahead. M x