Wrestling anyone?
Published 12:01 am Thursday, October 3, 2013
That’s it.
I can’t take this anymore.
I have a confession to make: I’m a fan of pro wrestling.
Let that sink in a bit because it’s something that I never thought I’d say, especially as a 30-year-old.
My interest in pro wrestling started a while back when I sat with my younger brother as he watched these athletes take high jumps off the top rope and make some amazing speeches to hungry crowds around the country.
This was a long time ago when I was in middle and high school, when I didn’t really think wrestling was a fun thing to watch or study.
When I’d get off of work from my part time job in high school, I’d find myself watching TV. Every now and then, I’d be flipping the channels and there would be a wrestling show on any given night of the week.
I’d snicker and quickly turn it back to “Seinfeld.”
But, when I did catch a wrestling show with my brother as a middle schooler, I always remember Stone Cold Steve Austin and his feud with WWE owner Vince McMahon.
That was fun to watch, and was the spark for me.
However, that spark dimmed a little as I went off to Troy University to start my college education.
A little more than three years later and with a new college major (I only changed it once), I met my soon-to-be best friend, Greg Phillips, who is a die-hard wrestling fan.
When I say “die-hard,” it really doesn’t put into words how much Greg likes wrestling.
Admittedly, I turned up my nose when I heard that he liked pro wrestling, but respected it because hey, I was and still am a big fan of Harry Potter.
What can be more geeky/nerdy than that?
After college, I went on to start my first job here and embraced the world of Harry Potter fully by enjoying the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Additionally, I went to fan conferences and that was fun, too.
Wrestling didn’t really become an interest again for me until not that long ago.
I would watch “Raw,” WWE’s Monday night program every now and then, and would get disappointed by how long matches would take and how they’d end.
“This is ridiculous,” I remember saying.
All of that changed when I got into one of the current story lines of Randy Orton, who is now Heel Orton, and Daniel Bryan, with Triple H (WWE’s Chief Operating Officer) and wife, Stephanie, the daughter of McMahon. “Heel” is a wrestling term that’s used to describe a wrestler who has turned bad, from “Face,” meaning good. There’s a no-matter-what-it-takes style approach Heel wrestlers take in the ring.
And I’d be remissed if I didn’t mention CM Punk and his now former agent, Paul Heyman. Now, that’s a story line I like and still do.
This Sunday, all of this is going to come to a head when Bryan faces Orton and Punk battles new Heyman understudy, Ryback at Battleground, a WWE Pay-Per-View event.
What most people don’t realize when watching wrestling is the amount of strength it takes for these wrestlers to get through a match.
It’s staggering to think about.
But, the longer the match, I’ve learned the better it is, sometimes.
I’m glad that I got this out in the open because I’d never thought I’d become a wrestling fan to this day.
Welp!