I was a lifelong wrestling fan, 47 years, untill recently. The straw that finally broke my back was the boogyman character. Once he started eating lives worms, thats when I knew I had enough. Add to that the constant belt changes, the tough enough reality show, and the death of many of my favorite wrestlers, well, time to move on, although I do tune in from time to time. One of my early memories was spiros arion turning on the chief and feeding him his war bonnet. That scarred me forever. Greatest match I ever saw was steamboat/savage. I will say the hell in the cell match with taker and foley was the greatest , to paraphrase joey styles, "Oh My GOD!!" match I ever saw.
Wrestling back in the day was totally different. When they had territories, a wrestler would come, get a push, then a championship match, then disappear to another territory. It kept things fresh. I am so sick of seeing the same moves week after week. 619 being a prime example. George the animal steele was fantastic. He would only work during summer break, so he was always a draw when he came around your area. Same with Andre. Seeing the giant once a year was a treat. What I liked about bob backlund was he was liable to lose the belt any week. Hogan I hated. Same stupid finish week after week, hulk up, punch to the face, punch to the face, boot to the face, leg drop. You tell me a leg drop is going to keep king kong bundy down or one man gang. 5 freaking years, same match, same moves.
I was around for the whole wcw/wwf wars. It was fantastic, although wcw really blew it. Everybody was in the nwo, it made no sense. Plus they had guys like brett hart they had no idea what to do with. Goldberg was a good idea, untill nash was booker and decided he got the "honor" of beating him to end the streak.
Don't get me wrong, wrestling today is much faster and the athletes are bigger. If you go back and watch matches during the lou thesz era, too many headlocks while they caught there breath. But the wrestlers back then knew ring psychology much better. Mr. Fuji could whip the crowd into a frenzy with a handfull of salt behind his back. Today, you get a guy saying "woo woo woo". ECW was the best wrestling promotion I ever saw. The fans, the characters, the matches, lightning in a bottle. There will never be anything like it. I have met most of the wrestlers I grew up watching at autograph shows. Seeing them really brings back great memories. I've read almost everyones biography and the stories are fantastic.
