Tag Archives: WWF

Do You Remember Your First Live Show?

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On Saturday, Sloan got to enjoy a pretty cool experience. “Disney on Ice” came to Spokane and she attended one of the several shows that took place in the Spokane Arena. Sidney accompanied Sloan and they met up with my sister and her two kids. I drove my wife and daughter to the Arena and watched as children decked out in Disney princess dresses and other costumes emerged from every vantage point of my periphery.

Sloan (dressed as Mouana) with her cousins outside the Spokane Arena before they entered the facility to watch “Disney on Ice.”

During the show, Sidney sent a couple different videos of Sloan and Mikayla (her cousin) having the time of their lives. They were pointing with excitement and singing at the top of their lungs. As I watched the videos, I thought, this is something that Sloan will probably remember.

With small children, you always do wonder if they will remember certain events and experiences decades in the future. Although I can’t say with absolute certainty that Sloan will in fact remember “Disney on Ice,” I have a hunch that she will. Why? Well, my first live event that I remember came when I was a 4-year-old.

I have mentioned before that I was a big WWE (back then WWF) fan as a kid. Sure, I know, kind of embarrassing. But I can’t escape that part of my childhood that manifested very early on in my life. By the time I was 4 it was evidently such a big interest of mine that my dad took me to the WWF “Superstars of Wrestling” show when it rolled into the old Spokane Coliseum in 1991.

I was such a pro wrestling fanatic that I had a WWF bedspread and sheets.

The memories are still clear in my mind. I remember sitting in our seats and my dad pointing over to the section right next to us and seeing my next door neighbor and best friend, John, with his dad. I remember a street clothes-clad Andre the Giant hanging out ringside and banging one of his crutches inside the squared circle. I remember Jake Roberts grabbing his infamous snake and chasing Earthquake around the ring with it.

I still have our tickets from the WWF Superstars of Wrestling show we attended in 1991.

But what I remember most of all was the main event when the Undertaker made his entrance. When the lights in the arena go off and that chilling music is played while a shadowy figure makes his way to the ring, the impression is not lost on a 4-year-old. I was lucky to have my dad right next to me!

Undertaker would wrestle my favorite WWF superstar at the time, the Ultimate Warrior, in a body bag match. Undertaker managed to get most of Ultimate Warrior into the body bag except for one hand. That lifeline was all the Warrior needed to dig deep and escape from what looked like a certain defeat. As you can probably guess, Ultimate Warrior ended up winning the match.

For as many events from my childhood that I don’t remember, it is kind of neat that I remember my first arena live show. Perhaps Sloan will too. I hope so. Don’t Blink.

Cheers to Monday Night Raw

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No matter how you feel about professional wrestling, a pretty significant pop culture milestone will occur this evening. Monday Night Raw, the most well-known television program within the WWE brand, will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Tonight’s show is receiving attention from all the major media outlets in the country.

I would be remiss if I said the WWE did not play a major part in my childhood and early adolescence. How couldn’t it? One of the first live events my dad ever took me to was a WWF match in the old Spokane Coliseum. In the final bout of the evening, the Ultimate Warrior defeated the Undertaker by stuffing him in his own body bag! 

I am dating myself here, but as a 4-year-old I went to a WWF match and immediately became a fan.

From that moment on, I was captivated by professional wrestling. I had a WWF bedspread, countless wrestling figures, wrestling buddies, a miniature wrestling ring, and much more. Because Raw came on way past my bedtime, I would watch the Saturday morning WWF highlights show, my personal alternative to the cartoon programming everyone else my age watched.

My love for professional wrestling rubbed off on my brother. As he got old enough to understand the magic of WWF, the two of us consumed it together. On summer days, my mom would take us to Blockbuster and we would rent VHS tapes of past WWF Pay-Per-View events such as Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, and Summer Slam. We would hurry home, run down to the basement, and push the tape into the VCR. From there we would excitedly watch the matches while simultaneously wrestling each other. We would develop our own wrestling characters, choose our own entrance music, and conduct our own interviews. It was wild.

I was such a pro wrestling fanatic that I had a WWF bedspread and sheets.

Probably around the age of 11, my interest in professional wrestling started to wane a bit. I had sold a lot of my WWF toys in the yard sale and I was not as captivated by the matches I could now tell were fake. But it didn’t take long for professional wrestling to win me back.

The golden age of professional wrestling – the WWF vs. WCW wars, the Attitude Era, the introduction of adult themes – had quite the impression on a 12-year-old boy like myself. Pretty soon, Monday night went from my least favorite evening of the week to my favorite. Switching back and forth between Monday Night Raw and Monday Night Nitro, I could not get enough of the salacious storylines, the out of control ringside interviews, the escalating violence, the bad language, and…well…the divas.

The envelope was pushed on a weekly basis. It was the era of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind, The Rock, Sable, Kane, and Vince McMahon – and that was just from the WWF side. Although I did enjoy the WCW and proudly sported an NWO shirt during those influential years, because of my early roots, I always favored what would become the WWE.

I eventually grew out of my professional wrestling obsession. It became too much of a gimmick for me. I don’t think anyone was happier than my parents. During those raunchy WWF years, they tried to censor my time watching wrestling as much as they could. For the past 15 years, besides the reality show “Tough Enough,” I don’t think I have watched more than an hour of WWE programming. I have read autobiographies on my favorite childhood wrestlers and I keep up with the business ventures of Vince McMahon, but I have no interest watching professional wrestling matches or keeping up with the insane “soap opera” storylines. Watching Monday Night Raw has not been on my schedule for a very long time.

Tonight might be different. I recognize the major influence professional wrestling had on me during my early years, especially Raw. As the WWE marks tonight’s anniversary, I might have to check in just to pay homage to a phenomenon that once gripped me. At the same time, I will also say a prayer of thanks for my fandom not extending past middle school. Don’t Blink.