@Vacant - What got you so into Wrestling?
Ohhhh now this is an easy one. So I had just turned 5 when I saw my first ever wrestling show on TV. Its one of my earliest memories as me and my two older brothers went around the next door neighbours house to play with him. They put the TV on and there it was, the Royal Rumble 1996. Our neighbour and my brothers were already into it so knew who everyone was, but to me it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. WWF/WWE was full on cartoony in the mid 90's and so many of the characters were straight out of a comic book. I was captivated by it.
From there we started watching regularly and I became sucked into the world of wrestling. It had heroes beating villains and cool action to a kid like me thats all I needed.
I think I felt so strongly about wrestling as I have 4 siblings and we all vary wildly in our tastes, interests, hobbies and social circles. One of the very few things we all hold in common is an interest in Wrestling. That one thing we took from early childhood to now is something special for us in our family I think.
Naturally, we wrestled each other too. In fact, we roped in like half a dozen other kids down our street and created our own federation. We all had several characters we created to wrestle, made belts out of cardboard and would schedule shows and PPV's. How any of us avoided serious injury is a mystery, as our favourite matches were Hardcore matches (weapons allowed, no rules kinda affairs). I remember hurting like hell after we had a construction site match (they were building new houses not far from us and we snuck in on the weekend). I jumped off of the scaffolding and missed everyone in my failed Jeff Hardy mimicry.
I don't remember when it clicked to me that it was fake. This was pre-internet for me but it was probably when i got to around 11ish. Normally thats a good break off point for a lot of people. But it had the opposite affect on me. I became more interested in the inner workings of it. Who decided what, who did they compose matches and do the stunts they did. It added another layer of fascination onto it for me, as you started to learn and discover the real people behind the characters they played onscreen.
However, around 2004ish we no longer had cable at our house and that combined with puberty and the usual teenage interests took over. It wasn't until Christmas of the following year that it reared its head again. I got a PSP for Christmas and as part of the bundle it came with Smackdown vs Raw 2006 (a classic to this day). I didnt play it for the first few weeks, as I was far more interested in GTA. But then, one day I decided to have a look and I got pulled in again. I was enjoying the game and ended up playing the career mode. Although it had been less than two years since I'd stopped following wrestling, there was so many new faces and changes. Gone were The Rock and Stone Cold, to be replaced by John Cena and Batista. I got so curious, I started buying the PPV DVD's with my paper round money.
I haven't looked back ever since. I always find that Wrestling scratches an itch nothing else can. It has a massive influence on my interests in writing as well. I'll be the first to admit that the writing in Wrestling (namely US promotions) is very hit and miss and it can feel like trying to find the diamond in the rough at times. However, its core is scripted athletic drama.
The best sports contests, be it boxing, UFC, Football or Baseball all have a narrative to them. It could be a rivalry, a players last season, your captains just returned from injury, the fighters are both undefeated going in etc. whatever it may be it builds anticipation for the event. Then there's the actual match itself. We all remember the drama of when Silva lost to Weidman, or when England snapped their penalty losing streak against Columbia in 2018.
What Wrestling can do is manufacture this artificially. Now it is no easy feat and it fails often. However, when the stars align, it can be pure magic. I'll never forget Daniel Bryan's Wrestlemania 30 title win, the culmination of 2 years of outcry from fans for him to be pushed, only for the onscreen authority figures to proclaim him not good enough. Or the Austin/Hart double turn. Through the story they told in the match, both men switched roles coming out of it, with Austin passing out in a pool of his own blood refusing to tap out, cementing him as a star.
What I mean in this long winded ramble, is that I like wrestling and appreciate both the stories they can tell and the athletic nature of the contests.