When did you get "smartened up" ?

[HHJ]

Now, this might not be a valid question to younger folks, but when you were an 80's kid like me, sure everyone said wrestling was fake, but you werent sure how it was done.

In my case, I started to read Pro Wrestling Illustrated, in like '91 or so, and it exposed a bunch of shit, that clearly, you werent supposed to know.

Also I once ran into Damien Demento walking out from a Gold's Gym and he didnt dress like an bum version of Ming the Merciless in real life.

I asked him if he was Damien Demento and he said NO, and kept walking!


PWI would post house show results, and that's how you found out that this big Bret Hart vs Owen Hart feud that you thought was only happening at Summerslam, and hadnt happened yet, was a match happening all over the country, and Bret was winning. Stuff never mentioned on TV. Also alot of reveals of real names and past gimmicks.

So I sort of figured out for myself how they ran things. Then I got into going to ECW shows, and if you hung around early enough, they'd let you help put up the ring, and of course you saw all sorts of shit you werent supposed to see.

Finally, being at those shows, and purchasing RF video SHOOT interviews, which were a new thing in the 90s, blew the fuckin thing wide open lol

So, if you are an older guy, how did you get smartened up??

 

[Pittie Petey]

I'm surprised you said PWI exposed stuff since that was the most kayfabe magazine out there, I got a decent sized collection of Apter mags from the 80's and sometimes I thumb through one and laugh at myself for loving these magazines so much back then because they are so dang ridiculous

I do agree about the arena reports section, though, they definitely let the cat outta the bag a bit when you saw that Brutus Beefcake beat Steve Lombardi in a 7 minutes long match at 5 different arenas all over the country that month, that made me suspicious but I ignored it cause I didnt want it to be true


I still remember the exact moment I realized everyone was right and it was fake, it frickin' legit devastated me, I was watching a match between Tito Santana and Honky Tonk Man, it was probably on either Prime Time Wrestling or All American Wrestling, and Tito thought Honky Tonk was about to throw an overhand punch so Tito put his forearm up to black it but Honky didnt throw the punch, the action kinda froze for a second and then Honky realized what Tito did so then Honky threw the punch directly into Tito's forearm above his head

It made absolutely no sense at all, why would he do that, it looked so fake and it was at that moment that my fat little neckbeard heart was shattered and I had to accept that everyone was right, it really was fake


Man, that was a dark moment in my childhood because rasslin was everything to me LoL


Wasnt long after that, I joined a gang and started towards a life of crime


Thanks a lot, Vinnie

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

Honestly? I don't remember.

I'm 38 and I've been watching wrestling since I was four, putting in my older brothers line of VHS tapes, of the first ten Wreatlemanias, Summerslam 92, a few Survivor Series. Then there was the PPVs that would show on the early hours on Channel 4.

My first wrestling memories were those of the tapes and of Shawn Michaels V Sid and Shawn Michaels V Vader. I cared, but I took it for what it was. Legitimacy didn't come into my head at all.

 

[ChickenBrother]

My brother and I used to watch Saturday morning WWF back in the 80's but one weekend my dad had to get something at Sears and made us come along. We went to the electronics section to wait while he got his stuff and WWF was playing on the TVs.

Superfly Snuka was handling some jobber and hit a Superfly Splash off the top rope. We had heard the rumors of pro wrestling being "fake" but thought the stars were real and maybe the jobbers were animatronic dummies built to take abuse. So we got all excited and were like "That's fake! The bottom guy is fake! No way a real person can take that and still be alive!" Some Debbie Downer grown up in the aisle overheard us and was like, "They're both fake."

We looked at him like:

I didn't believe it and definitely didn't believe all pro wrestlers were animatronic dummies. Technology wasn't that advanced yet. But a few months later I was watching WWF and it dawned on me:



No way this dude could really be this dumb and still be allowed to walk to the cage and compete on his own, without a special needs helmet and probably crutches or some shit.

 

[Based God]

Always knew it was a work. I started watching in 1987 when I was 4, first show I ever watched was a Saturday Night's Main Event and all the adults went out of their way to tell us kids how fake it was, even fully explaining the work, like explaining one guy just standing there letting the other guy hit him without trying to block it or anything. My friend that was a couple years older was getting so mad, his uncle kept roasting him about it too being like "I bet you believe in Santa Clause too" and shit like that. I don't have a lot of memories of being 4, but I remember that night vividly lol. I didn't give a shit though, it was still the coolest thing I ever seen and never stopped watching.

When I started to learn the inner workings was in 1996 when I started reading all of the internet dirtsheets, started posting on forums, and got into tape trading. In hindsight the dirtsheets ruined the magic, but to a little wanna be smark teenager it felt cool as fuck to be in the know

 

[Pittie Petey]

My friend that was a couple years older was getting so mad, his uncle kept roasting him about it too being like "I bet you believe in Santa Clause too" and shit like that.

Geez Louise, what he do next, tell him his mom was a pass around and thats not really his dad?

 

[My Spot]

I'm glad I didn't even know what a dirtsheet or who Meltzer was back then.

 

[Based God]

Geez Louise, what he do next, tell him his mom was a pass around and thats not really his dad?

He wouldn't be lying

 

[HHJ]

I'm surprised you said PWI exposed stuff since that was the most kayfabe magazine out there, I got a decent sized collection of Apter mags from the 80's and sometimes I thumb through one and laugh at myself for loving these magazines so much back then because they are so dang ridiculous

I do agree about the arena reports section, though, they definitely let the cat outta the bag a bit when you saw that Brutus Beefcake beat Steve Lombardi in a 7 minutes long match at 5 different arenas all over the country that month, that made me suspicious but I ignored it cause I didnt want it to be true


I still remember the exact moment I realized everyone was right and it was fake, it frickin' legit devastated me, I was watching a match between Tito Santana and Honky Tonk Man, it was probably on either Prime Time Wrestling or All American Wrestling, and Tito thought Honky Tonk was about to throw an overhand punch so Tito put his forearm up to black it but Honky didnt throw the punch, the action kinda froze for a second and then Honky realized what Tito did so then Honky threw the punch directly into Tito's forearm above his head

It made absolutely no sense at all, why would he do that, it looked so fake and it was at that moment that my fat little neckbeard heart was shattered and I had to accept that everyone was right, it really was fake


Man, that was a dark moment in my childhood because rasslin was everything to me LoL


Wasnt long after that, I joined a gang and started towards a life of crime


Thanks a lot, Vinnie

I'm so glad I made this thread. For responses like this

 

[Thrawn33]

I remember it being scripted fairly early, some of the kayfabe injuries I thought were real though (dude "didn't fall right")

I saw it as a live action Saturday morning cartoon, which is not that far off since when I started watching, Superstars(? there were two syndicated shows) was on Sat mornings at 11, right after the cartoons. Sat nights main even was a rare treat and PPVs were 4x a year.

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Fake my ass

 

[HHJ]

A funny memory, my dad and i were watching the Royal Rumble where Hogan is at the end with Earthquake and Mr Perfect, and they are both beating Hogan's ass.

I'm like dude they are gonna kill him!

My dad was like, he's fine son, he's only playing with them, you watch.

I was completley unconvinced, He'd taken too much of a beating.

Then he hulked up and kicked their ass.

I looked at my dad like he's a fuckin GENIUS and was in awe of him lmao

 

[deezy]

Figured this out when I first saw it and seen an Irish whip and Macho Man holding a steel rod and not actually hitting Tito Santana to beat him for Intercontinental championship.

 

[Batjester]

Thursday at 1:11 AM.

 

[HHJ]

Thursday at 1:11 AM.

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

A funny memory, my dad and i were watching the Royal Rumble where Hogan is at the end with Earthquake and Mr Perfect, and they are both beating Hogan's ass.

I'm like dude they are gonna kill him!

My dad was like, he's fine son, he's only playing with them, you watch.

I was completley unconvinced, He'd taken too much of a beating.

Then he hulked up and kicked their ass.

I looked at my dad like he's a fuckin GENIUS and was in awe of him lmao

Too bad they banned Hulking Up from UFC 1 not allowing Hogan to compete...

 

[HHJ]

I was legit scared of Big Van Vader and his manager Harley Race. What a couple of GOONS.

Especially Harley had that deep ass gravelly voice, and because of that Vader would listen to what he said, cos that's the kind of voice ya listen to.

But @Pittie Petey PWI told me his name was Leon fuckin White and his age and im like oooohhh shit. WTF

 

[Batjester]

I was legit scared of Big Van Vader and his manager Harley Race. What a couple of GOONS.

Especially Harley had that deep ass gravelly voice, and because of that Vader would listen to what he said, cos that's the kind of voice ya listen to.

But @Pittie Petey PWI told me his name was Leon fuckin White and his age and im like oooohhh shit. WTF

He actually started his career as Baby Bull Leon White in AWA.

 

[HHJ]

He actually started his career as Baby Bull Leon White in AWA.

Yeah I know. PWI probably told me that shit too

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Fake my ass

Tbf that one isn't too bad. At least the other chick doesn't sell it. The worst ones are when they miss by a mile and everyone acts like it hit.