Reported by Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 7:02 PM EST

The Spike Piledriver
April 2, 2008
Reported By: Phil Chroniger of WrestleView.com

Everyone has their reasons for watching professional wrestling. Some just grew up with it, but never grew out of it. Some enjoy the action, whether its a "Pier 6 Brawl" or a technical masterpiece. Others like the over-the-top soap opera storylines. Some like simulated violence and blood. A few simply tune in for the female wrestlers. Then...you have those that just have an infatuation with muscular men in tights pretending to kick each other's asses.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I digress...

Whatever your reasoning may be, you tune in and you watch, just like me. While many of you may have your stories, allow me to share mine, and maybe we can all find a level to connect on as fans.

I grew up a pretty smart, middle-class kid. I don't remember the very first wrestling program I ever watched, but I remember it was about 1988...I was 5 at the time. Being on the East Coast and north of the Potomac River (barely), the WWF was ruling things on my TV. Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan were whoopin' up on bad guys as the Mega Powers. This insane, musclebound man known as The Ultimate Warrior would shake ropes and destroy folks. Andre The Giant was looming large and cracking skulls as he always did. Ted DiBiase was being evil and cunning as ever...and my mother found him to be incredibly handsome. In fact, in my household, my mother would instantly scoop DiBiase's heat with those kinds of statements. My mother = HEEL.

The characters, guys beating each other up, the spectacle of it all was too much to resist for a kid with a great imagination and a thirst for entertainment. I got the action figures, the ring to wrestle with them in, and I even got a couple of the "Wrestling Buddies" (remember those, my fellow 80's marks?). WWF Superstars would come on every Saturday at noon on Channel 5 in Washington, D.C., and I would be watching every week like it was a religion.

Later, when I moved to Pennsylvania in the early 90's, I discovered WCW on a pretty faint UHF channel, and I spent many Saturday nights staying up until midnight watching guys like Sting, Ron Simmons, and Vader on WCW WorldWide. I also starting getting magazines like PWI and The Wrestler (back when kayfabe was still going strong) Now, I had twice as much wrestling to watch and read about...much to the chagrin of my parents, I'm sure. I was just as into things like football and baseball, but wrestling was always right up there with them.

In January of 1993, I experienced two firsts. Early in the month, for my 10th birthday, I attended my first live event. A WWF house show at Knott Arena in Emmittsburg, Maryland. The event starred High Energy (Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware) facing off against The Headshrinkers. The main event was Bret Hart, who was my favorite wrestler and still is, defending his WWF title against Bam Bam Bigelow. Later that month, I saw my first Pay-Per-View at my uncle's house with my cousins, it was that year's Royal Rumble, headlined with Yokozuna winning the Rumble match and Bret Hart retaining his WWF Title over Razor Ramon.

Between the awkward stages of being a pre-teen and some family troubles, the ages of 10-12 were not the greatest of times for me. How did I find a way to escape and forget the world for a while? Well, it was simple...I turned on some wrestling, and tuned out the world for a while. My parents would take me to the local video rental store and I'd spend my allowance on two things...Sega Genesis games and wrestling tapes. Since I didn't get to watch the Pay-Per-Views live, I'd simply rent the tape when it came out and watch it then.

In mid-1997, right before high school, I moved to my current town of residence, which is nestled deep within the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I met a guy who is still one of my best friends, and he was a wrestling fan as well. I met a few other fans along the way, and we would gather for Pay-Per-View parties for each of the then-WWF's "Big 4". This was at the peak of "Attitude", so we had quite a few people that would come to these parties.

Let's go back to the summer of '99. I was having a really bad day, just one of those days where nothing goes right, and much of it had to do with a crappy summer job I was working. Nothing could cheer me up that day. My best friend invited me over to watch RAW is WAR. The episode was ok, standard "Attitude" stuff, entertaining as always. Suddenly, The Rock comes out and cuts a promo about Billy Gunn (whom he was facing at SummerSlam that year). The Rock spits out the following phrase:

"Now, Bad Ass, you run your mouth about SummerSlam. Well, here's the situation. The Rock says this: if the Rock hits you, he'll kill you. If he misses, the wind behind the punch will give you pneumonia and you'll die anyway, so the choice is yours, jabroni!"

I had not laughed all day until that very moment. That, my friends, is the power of professional wrestling for fans like you and me. It allows us to get away from the crappy things in our lives for a while.

To this day, no matter what trials, tribulations, and triumphs I go through in life, I can always turn on wrestling and forget the world. Monday Night RAW has been a long-running ritual for me, I rarely miss an episode. I also watch other shows on DVR (thank goodness for modern technology), and I will normally catch the Big 4 of the WWE live in some form.

Being as big of a fan as I am, I took it upon myself to learn many of the tricks of the trade, not to be a "know-it-all" but to get an even greater appreciation for the art of a good wrestling match. This led to a friend of mine convincing me to work a few matches for a small indy fed in Richmond, Virginia. I worked a tryout match, the guys running the show (who were also wrestlers) liked my knowledge and the fact that I could make things look believeable without hurting myself or others.

Those handful of matches I worked were an experience I will remember for many decades to come, even though we only had crowds of 50 people or so. I had finally wrestled in front of an audience, and it was an incredible rush.

I have met 2 professional wrestlers in my lifetime. My friend and I got an autograph and a short conversation with Steve Austin along with his then-wife Debra on an airplane, and I once had an hour-long conversation with Batista (which I referenced in my last column). All of them were as nice as can be.

I've already noted my pleasant experience with Batista. However, I especially remember meeting Austin, who looked like he was really worn out and in need of a good night's rest. Nonetheless, he still took the time to sign some autographs and generally be nice to a couple of fans. I can truly say that all of my experiences with professional wrestling, save for the Montreal Screwjob (which I've forgiven all parties involved since then), have been positive experiences.

I imagine many of you have stories about the positive effect that wrestling has had on your lives. Despite the fact that we may agree or disagree on who we want to see pushed, or we all might have conflicting opinions on various angles and storylines. However, sometimes we have to step back and remember the common bonds that unite us as fans.

May pro wrestling be as good to all of you as it has been to me.