Wrestling

I've only been watching wrestling for about ten years, but wrestling is in my blood. Back in the day my great grandfather lost his farm to wrestling swindlers. The wrestler they were promoting was called the "Greek Demon". I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

The reasons why I watch wrestling are still the stuff of legend. I was a casual watcher in the early '80s when Piper and Hogan were feuding, and Mean Gene Okerlund was interviewing them, but they didn't make me want to watch full time.

Supposedly the real reason I watched wrestling in the first place was because my students talked about The Rock. However, during that time in earlly 2000, The Rock was feuding with some blonde guy named Chris Jericho, and damn. Jericho had it all, magic in the ring, he made me laugh and get angry, and he was easy on the eyes. :p It was Wrestlemania 16 when I became hoplessly hooked on committing to full time watching wrestling, due largely to Jeff Hardy's swanton off that ginormous ladder. So the legend is that I watch wrestling because of The Rock, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy. But I now conveniently say ...it's all Chris Jericho's fault.

Last time I talked about n00bs, so I'll mention now that I am definitely NOT a n00b Batista fan. I discovered him because GDYWWE you sent Sean O'Haire to OVW. So because I still needed my NBT fix I hunted the www and found that OVW had a website, and oh by the way they also offerred tapes for sale. In February 2002 I finally got my first OVW tape, and eagerly put it in to watch the O'Haire love. But a funny thing happened. First there was Shelton Benjamin, then some MAMMOTH MONSTER named Leviathan, and then good old wild-eyed O'Haire with some dude named the Prototype in tow.

Sure, I still loved me some O'Haire, but as I watched more of the tape it was that Leviathan character that really caught me. In May of that year he debuted with Smackdown, under the name "David Bautista"...eventually morphing into Deacon Batista, and then simply Batista (as his official site quipped, WWE got the "u" out). So while I got on Jericho's train late (it had already left the station 6 months before I was hooked on him...thus I was a n00b) I've been on Batista's train since before it even got to the station.

 

And that is why that (see above) still makes me happy.

First!

Sometimes I find the Twitter limit frustrating. Or is Twitter just really a worldwide messenger service that anyone anywhere can use? I prefer to think of it as a way to express myself, but the limit gets in my way. Because, I typically have a lot to say, at least from behind my anonymous computer screen.

Today's topic is n00bs.

The first (and only) time I saw Fozzy play live was in 2003. Because there was no Twitter back in those days I missed their first West Coast concert. Believe me I was upset about that. But, in 2003 afer the debacle that was Lita and Kane get married at a WWE event, that first Fozzy gig was the magical balm that made the whole night ok. Jericho came down into the crowd, and I touched his shoulder. Guh.

The next day I went on the message board at FozzyRock to gush with the others who attended the show about how great it was. Imagine my shock at being labled a "n00b"...Huh? Haven't I been a Fozzy fan from the day their first CD came out? Hadn't I been on that board since the early days? All of a sudden -now- I'm a n00b because this was the first time I'd seen them play live? What the froot?

So yeah...now there's a whole slew of n00b Fozzy fans, and us old-timers get to point fingers at them. But really...isn't it Fozzy's goal to have millions and millions of fans anyway?

My two cents.