When I was growing up wrestling was EVERYTHING!! I grew up in the 80′s with superstars like Roddy Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant, The Junkyard Dog, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and Macho Man Randy Savage. I loved, and sometimes hated, these men with every ounce of passion a child could. However, I looked up to nobody more than Hulk Hogan! Hulk Hogan was bigger than Jesus Christ in my eyes. I had all the Hulkster merchandise you could imagine. I had the action figures, the t-shirts, bandanas, lunchbox (back when having the official lunchbox meant serious business), and the official Wrestling Buddy. Remember those? It was essentially a pillow that looked like the wrestler intended for you to wrestle with and pound the shit out of. In other words it kept you from putting your little brother in a sleeper hold and pissing off your mom. I didn’t have siblings I could wrestle with until I was in my teens, and by then it was more like street fighting instead of wrestling. I actually once Pedigree’d (The finisher made famous by Triple H aka Hunter Hurst Helmsley in the 90′s) my younger step brother. This move essentially meant you put the victim’s head between your legs and then dropped to your knees, and by result, driving their head into the floor. Bad idea to do on hard wood flooring. Just an FYI. In my defense this was revenge for him Shawn Michael’s Superkicking me off my dad’s king size bed and onto my head on the floor below. Ah, the 90′s. Who needed video games!?!?!
I’m sitting here watching a 3 part, 9 hour long Anthology of Hulk Hogan on Netflix (God Bless you Netflix!) and they just showed the classic “War to Settle the Score”. This match was a star studded event. Cyndi Lauper??? Danny Devito??? The rematch was even better! Mr. T steps in as Hogan’s tag team partner, and Muhameed Ali was a guest referee. Yeap, that was the 80′s. I remember watching Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant. I used to watch all Hulk’s matches with excitement. I would jump around and cheer him along. I would be so happy when he won, and I would cry when he lost. Wrestlemania V is probably the one I remember the most. Macho Man and Hogan had been tag teaming ever since Wrestlemania IV and steamrolling through the WWF (Sorry, but I will NEVER call it the WWE…NEVER!) During a match Mrs. Elizabeth was “knocked out” and Hogan walked out of the match to find her medical attention. This of course betrayed Macho Man and this lead to them becoming enemies. Wrestlemania V was historic because Macho Man in every sense beat Hogan. He hit him with the Flying Elbow yet Hogan somehow kicks out, and hits Savage with the Boot and the Leg Drop. 1,2,3 Hogan becomes champion! Classic!! Here’s the highlights, apologies for the song:
In the 90′s I was still a wrestling kid. I started following WCW more. I took a liking to Sting, Ric Flair, The 4 Horseman, The Steiners, Harlem Heat, and eventually the N.W.O. when Hogan turned Heel as “Hollywood” Hogan. I actually met Kevin Nash once in the Atlanta airport. Johnny B. Badd broke my watch once too. It was a Sting watch too. 
To me wrestling was part of my childhood, and I still enjoy watching the classics today. I’ve tried to watch wrestling now and I just can’t get into it. It’s all drama and no matches. I actually watched raw once about 6 months ago and they seriously were on for an hour and had zero matches. All backstage drama and lead up to Pay-Par-View shows. I’m hearing tale that The Rock is returning to wrestling at Wrestlemania this year. Eh, it’s only to promote G.I. Joe 2. I may still watch him though.
