Wrestling - My History

I grew up watching professional wrestling with my Big Daddy (great-granddaddy). He loved wrestling, so I loved wrestling. Every Saturday night we’d sit in front of the television, turn on the Superstation (TBS), and watch the superstars of Georgia Championship Wrestling (“GCW”). Big Mama (great-grandma) would bring fresh biscuits with buttermilk and we’d settle in for an evening of fist pounding, leg-kicking action. “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and his 4-Horsemen would be styling and profiling; “The American Dream” Dusty Rhoades would be delivering his bionic elbow; the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, would be destroying everything that moved, and Ricky Steamboat and Larry Zbyszko were technical wizards.

Even after Big Daddy passed, I held those memories close to my heart and continued to love and watch wrestling. I cheered when the World Wrestling Federation (“WWF”) exploded and Hulkamania ran wild and introduced me to characters like the Ultimate Warrior, Coco B. Ware, Andre the Giant, Junkyard Dog, and King Kong Bundy.

In the mid to late 1990’s, when wrestling caught its second wind, I was in paradise during the “Monday Night Wars” when WWF Raw went head-to-head with World Championship Wrestling (“WCW”) Nitro. For a wrestling fan, you couldn’t beat four hours of combined wrestling program. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the Rock, Mankind, Bret “Hitman” Hart, “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, Sting, Lex Luger, and Diamond Dallas Page definitely entertained me during this time.

I probably saw all the big matches during this era – Undertaker throwing Mick Foley off the Hell in a Cell; the birth of “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan and the NWO, the first tables, ladders, and chairs match; Owen Hart falling to his death; Undertaker versus Kane inferno match, the unmasking of Ray Mysterio, the Bret Hart screw job; and Goldberg jack-hammering Hulk Hogan. I’d seen “house shows”, went to Raw and Nitro live, read Tom Zinc’s blog, but the only thing I hadn’t done was go to Wrestlemania. On Sunday, April 3, 2011, I finally got to go to Wrestlemania XXVII.

The show lived up to its billing as the “granddaddy” of all wrestling events. It was “sports entertainment” at its apex – a perfect mix of athleticism, music concert, and fan interaction. Atlanta proved once again that if you put on a great product, fans will come out, support, and spend money. Just ask the 71,000 plus fans in attendance (a Georgia Dome record).