Your earliest pro-wrestling memories

[Lensen]

brother & I rented rumble 94, gets s**t on by the internet but to 9 year old me was amazing:

• tatanka "hulking up" only to cop a massive kick in the head from bigelow
• owen "kicking your leg outta your leg" promo that had us rolling on the floor laughing
• the 15-on-1 undertaker casket match and angle which whilst hokey was amazing at 9yo
• diesel kicking ass in the rumble

video store had pretty much every coliseum video between wrestlemania IV and rumble 94 and over the next year we rented the lot, then got pay TV and initially WWF superstars until dad found Nitro when channel flicking one night, saw a bunch of WWF guys i recognised dressed in black beating up lex luger in a rainy car park and was a wcw convert pretty much immediately

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Did anyone used to get tapes from Sharpshooter Cards in the Tivoli Arcade in Bourke St Mall? When I was a teenager I used to go through and order all my ppvs through them and theyd dub pretty poor copies they'd got from satellite for about $20 a tape usually with a Raw episode chucked on the end. I used to go there from late 95-late 97, got some Raw tapes off them too from early 1997 including Hart turning heel and the first ECW invasion with Sabu and RVD. Was great at the time as the only other way to keep up was reading Slobberknocker Central and the Scoops Wrestling Monday night recaps.

 

[Greatness23]

First thing I remember was watching Superstars late at night at my friends house in 1998. I remember Stone Cold, Vince, Taker and Kane being in the ring, I think a bunch of security too. Eventually Austin attacked Vince and ended up getting double chokeslammed.

I was instantly hooked.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Flair beating race in the cage.

 

[chunkylover]

1. 1st wwf magazine with macho man on the cover after he beat steamboat to win the intercontinental title
2. Getting Dad to record rock n roll wrestling every tuesday night and loving koko b ware and the killer bees and being scared of the ugandan head hunter bloke
3. Crying when randy savage nailed ricky the dragon steamboat with the bell on the throat from the top rope and being carried out on a stretcher setting up their match at wrestlemania 3 ( I think )

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

 

[Cyclone Larry]

I don't know the year (possibly around '85) but I still have the memory of Hogan getting beat down in the ring and Hillbilly Jim coming down for the save.

 

[TheGreatBambino]

Faking being sick so I could stay home & watch No mercy 2002 on the old foxtel 'gold card'. My first ever ppv.

 

[Mitho]

WCW when Nitro was on TNT on a Saturday night back in the 90's. I remember I was so ******* pissed when the outsiders showed up and started "ruining" Nitro. I had no idea who they were, I'd never watched WWF.

I watched that whole era of the NWO and ended up so ******* pissed when the outsiders and Hogan refused to * off near the end. I was so sick of them.

I just remember thinking DDP and Sting were gods for not getting involved with the NWO.

 

[Wizard]

Faking being sick so I could stay home & watch No mercy 2002 on the old foxtel 'gold card'. My first ever ppv.

Ohhh how i loved the gold card.

Where can i get another one?

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

I use to have the dodgy Foxtel and was able to get all the ppv's for free haha.

At the time Foxtel had WWE and Optus Vision had WCW. my mate would tape Nitro and i would tape Raw,and we'll then swap tapes. Ahhh the good old days before you tube and torrents existed.

 

[Fade to Gray]

One of my early memories is seeing Hercules Hernandez vs Hulk Hogan.

There was a ref bump and Hercules got Hogan in the Torture Rack, Hulk was tapping out, but the ref was out of it. Hercules thinks he won the title lets Hulk out, later Hulk "Hulks up". Big Boot, Leg Drop and it's match over.

I was a very disappointed young lad, I hated the cheats and believed in fair play (it was real to me dammit). Hercules was the rightful champion. It was on this night that my long-term hatred for the Hulkster. It was only reinforced when I saw him using heel tactics like back rakes etc.

 

[Splash Brother]

Saturday mornings early 80's.....Big John Studd, Andre, Don Muroco, George "The Animal" Steele, The Missing Link, The Moondogs - Spot & Rex.

Then pre-wrestlemania 1 Thursday nights 11.30pm - rock'n'wrestling with Vince McMahon and Bruce Sammartino commentating, with Gorilla Moonsoon, Lord Alfred Hayes and Gene Oakerland doing special events and interviews. Only probably was the TV show "Carson's Law" kept going overtime and delaying the start of the wrestling every week without fail.

Ahhhh.....the good old days, when a heel or fan favourite turned, people were actually shocked.

 

[Damon_3388]

Hiring this tape from the video store in August 1998:

 

[Upgrayedd]

Preforming a textbook Suplex on my younger brother, Only to have match interference from Mum and it be ended in a no contest


King of he Ring which the Rock Won/

 

[Cleavy]

Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling cartoon. good stuff when I was a youngster

 

[raymond35]

Harley Race touring Australia as NWA world champion for a series of matches with Ron Miller in the mid 70s was amazing to a young me.
They would show the highlights from Festival hall on the ch9 show each weekend and i used to wish i could go. Eventually i did attend some big WWF shows in the mid 80s.

 

[WireHawk]

This goes back a lot further than most on here would probably remember. I saw The Spoiler(Don Jardine)
and Waldo Von Erich, managed by 'Playboy' Gary Hart, annihilate some unfortunate local jobbers on TV
in the early seventies. These heels were my absolute favourites. I'd watched wrestling before this,and loved
it, but this incident sealed my obsession with this strange world forever.

On TV a bit later there was a match with The Spoiler & 'Killer' Karl Kox, managed of course by Gary Hart,
versus Mario Milano and Antonio Pugliese, the local heroes. Towards the end of the bout Mario walked
out on Pugliese and left him to be pummeled by the evil trio. Kox, Hart and The Spoiler applauded Milano
as he abandoned his compatriot, much to the outrage of the small studio audience and subsequently
fandom at large.

The following week Mario Milano had gone full heel and was being managed by 'Playboy' Gary Hart.
The story was that Hart had hypnotised Milano, and to show that this version of Mario was bad he had
grown a pencil thin moustache and long sideburns! My favourite angle ever!

A few weeks later I went to Festival Hall to see my heroes. I got there early and stood by the door at
front of the building on Dudley St. North Melbourne. Much to my excitement 'Playboy' Gary Hart sauntered
up the street to the doorway just a few centimetres from where I was standing.

The doorman took a while to answer Hart's knocking on the door so I had about 30 seconds standing next
to my favourite wrestling personality of all time. Hart then looked at me right in the eyes for a few seconds.
I was both rapt and a little scared! I though he was trying to hypnotise me! I was so pleased that I had that
experience.

I was obsessed with wrestling in those days and I will always have a soft spot for the world of pro wrestling.

P.S. The Tv match I refer to is on Youtube somewhere. It's World Championship Wrestling, The Spoiler and 'Killer'
Karl Kox vs Mario Miliano and Antonio Pugliese.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

I'm sure I used to watch it every Saturday afternoon in the mid to late 80s on wide world of sports but I may have made this up in my head

Nah, you're spot on. I think I mentioned this in another thread but the first match I can remember watching was Tony Atlas, Rocky Johnson and SD Jones vs the Wild Samoans on WWOS. I would have watched World Championship Wrestling (my grandmother used to insist I used to pop watching it) but I have no distinct recollection although I watched this clip not long ago and the music they played at the end triggered some deep memory.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

This goes back a lot further than most on here would probably remember. I saw The Spoiler(Don Jardine)
and Waldo Von Erich, managed by 'Playboy' Gary Hart, annihilate some unfortunate local jobbers on TV
in the early seventies. These heels were my absolute favourites. I'd watched wrestling before this,and loved
it, but this incident sealed my obsession with this strange world forever.

I can't remember if I've asked this before WireHawk but did you used to write for Piledriver Magazine? I'm sure I read a very similar story in an early issue and by memory there were often Hawthorn references in the writing.

 

[Nugett]

My first recollections would have been 85/86. Think it wwf superstars back then. Where you mainly had the Moondogs, the Funks, JYD, Ricky Steamboat, Hillbilly Jim, Paul Orndoff, Don Murroco, George the Animal Steele.
With Vince, Bruno Sammatino and Jesse the Body on commentary. With appearances by MR. T. Being a huge A-Team fan that was so cool seeing B.A. on a wrestling show as a kid.
About the only memorable match was when Hogan appeared on the show, tag teaming with Orndoff, which led to the Orndoff heel turn. The show was about 12 months behind the states. Remember at one stage the tv station decided to put on the wrestle manias up to the present one. So the first week, watched wrestlemania 1 which was 12 months behind to what I was watching, wrestle mania 2 which was the current one as to where the show was, followed by wrestle mania 3 which was about 12 months in front. Was disappointed 12 months later after watching wrestle mania 3 to find out that the Can-am Connection had disbanded shortly afterwards.

 

[Cleavy]

Was disappointed 12 months later after watching wrestle mania 3 to find out that the Can-am Connection had disbanded shortly afterwards.

at least we got Strike Force (and a tag title change)

 

[Rusty Brookes]

. With appearances by MR. T. Being a huge A-Team fan that was so cool seeing B.A. on a wrestling show as a kid.

People probably downplay how big Mr T's involvement in WrestleMania 1 was in terms of getting the WWF over in Australia. Andre the Giant would have been the only wrestler on the card the public would have been familiar with from Australian WCW (hilariously, the Iron Sheik was the other guy some fans might have recognised from wrestling in Australia WCW. However, he had a full head of hair here and was a major face - I''m not sure many people would have made the connection between Ali Vizari and the Iron Sheik). No-one really knew Hulk Hogan other than his cameo in Rocky 2.

The A-Team was huge and Mr T was the hook for many people to watch the original WrestleMania, which was shown in Prime Time on Channel 10. I doubt the WWF would have caught on as well without Mr T there in the first place. My memory is WrestleMania was the first time WWF was shown on TV (other than the one off bouts on Wide World of Sport) and Championship Wrestling/All American Wrestling was picked up after WrestleMania was such a rating success.

 

[Nugett]

People probably downplay how big Mr T's involvement in WrestleMania 1 was in terms of getting the WWF over in Australia. Andre the Giant would have been the only wrestler on the card the public would have been familiar with from Australian WCW (hilariously, the Iron Sheik was the other guy some fans might have recognised from wrestling in Australia WCW. However, he had a full head of hair here and was a major face - I''m not sure many people would have made the connection between Ali Vizari and the Iron Sheik). No-one really knew Hulk Hogan other than his cameo in Rocky 2.

The A-Team was huge and Mr T was the hook for many people to watch the original WrestleMania, which was shown in Prime Time on Channel 10. I doubt the WWF would have caught on as well without Mr T there in the first place. My memory is WrestleMania was the first time WWF was shown on TV (other than the one off bouts on Wide World of Sport) and Championship Wrestling/All American Wrestling was picked up after WrestleMania was such a rating success.

I think his involvement did help a lot to promote Wrestlemania 1. After that, Hulk Hogan, started to become more mainstream, did a cameo on the A-Team. which helped wrestling become cool. I also think that Cyndi Lauper was another mainstream performer that helped in promoting the rock’n’roll wrestling scene back then too. Muhammad Ali made wrestling back then feel more legitimate as well, with his involvement in the main event. It’s so easy to critercise wrestlemania now, but it’s undervalued in its importance in setting up wrestling to what it became and is.

 

[WireHawk]

I can't remember if I've asked this before WireHawk but did you used to write for Piledriver Magazine? I'm sure I read a very similar story in an early issue and by memory there were often Hawthorn references in the writing.

Yes Rusty, I did write for 'Piledriver' in the late 80's and early 90's.
I wrote under the name 'Precious" Pete, which was assigned to me
by 'Leaping' Larry, a Richmond fanatic, who wrote extensively for the mag.

I was named after 'Precious' Paul Ellering, manager of the Road Warriors
and not 'Precious' who was Jimmy Garvin's valet! At least I hope I was!