How I Became A Fan Of Wrestling By Karl Wardlaw
HOW I BECAME A FAN OF WRESTLING
By Karl Wardlaw
I don’t know if in any of my columns before I have ever explained how I became a wrestling fan so I really should explain. I date roughly the first time I saw wrestling to later 1989 on Sky television and it was not the WWF although that was what later solidified my fandom not long after. I only worked out which promotion this was and the rough date after randomly talking to a fellow wrestling fan in a thread in a group on Facebook on which topic I don’t even remember. In England at around that time, on Sky TV there was an early sports channel which is long defunct named Screensport and Sky at the time didn’t even have any sports channels or many channels, not many sports on their network at the time without even a dedicated sports channel. What I saw was after seeing other footage was the Sportatorium from Dallas. I’m sure it was after seeing other footage years later and anybody who has seen footage from there knows that it had a distinctive look because of the layout of the building. All I really remember was someone cutting a promo in what I later realised was a babyface turn then 3 heels jumping him and leaving him lying in the ring. After becoming a geeky fan that likes to discover all kinds of territory footage I believe that one of them was probably Terry Gordy which would lead me to think that the other 2 wrestlers were probably Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts so if this is true and it’s not my memory playing tricks on me then it seems that I may have been lucky enough to see the Fabulous Freebirds so early in my wrestling fandom. I don’t really remember much else about the promotion or any angles involved but I do remember what did grab my attention about wrestling.
What solidified the wrestling business’s hold on me was the World Wrestling Federation in particular Royal Rumble 1990. I remember we recorded it on video partway through the show. I’m not sure why it was recorded partway through, possibly we were enjoying it that much and then decided to record it to get it to watch later. Who knows? The reason is lost to the mists of time. I do remember what I saw though. It was an impassioned Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake with a promo vowing revenge against Mr Perfect for interfering in a match earlier against Perfect’s manager The Genius with the footage playing on the screen during the promo. Beefcake had his sleeperhold finisher on The Genius possibly cutting his hair and Perfect ran down to the ring, attacked Beefcake from behind then used a chair to attack him further. I don’t know what it was about the promo but thought that this looked really interesting and that I had to see more. That promo set the seed for the match that Mr Perfect and Brutus Beefcake had at Wrestlemania 6 which made me a massive fan of Perfect for the way he sold for Beefcake in that match. The other major highlight for me was the Royal Rumble match itself. There was something magical to me as a nearly 8 year old child watching someone run down to the ring every 2 minutes to join the action after the first 2 wrestlers had started the match. This particular year was one of the most memorable Rumble matches as the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase started at Number 1 in the match and lasted around 30-40 minutes before being eliminated. This seemed to set the standard for 1 wrestler in the match having a lengthy period in the match before being eliminated. Standout moments for me were when it took 6 men to eliminate Earthquake, the Million Dollar Man’s long stint in the match, the managers at ringside with particularly interesting bits being Virgil trying to stop Dibiase from being eliminated and Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan arguing with Mr Fuji. Also, Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior had a staredown which was part of a lead in that led to their match at Wrestlemania 6. The Royal Rumble has always been my favourite part of the now WWE calendar and I prefer it to Wrestlemania. The greatest Royal Rumble match ever for me was 1992 when Ric Flair entered at no3 and won the match also winning the WWF World Championship in the process with the colour commentary from Bobby Heenan being absolutely brilliant and is what I have cited often as the perfect example of how colour commentary should be done.
As a child I saw some really good stuff in the early 1990’s in the WWF. I saw Dibiase as no1 in the 1990 Royal Rumble as I mentioned earlier, saw Hulk Hogan v Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 6, Ric Flair winning the 1992 Royal Rumble and the WWF world title in what is widely regarded as the finest Rumble match ever and the tail end of Bobby Heenan as a manager plus his partnership with Gorilla Monsoon as an announcer. Jim Ross making his WWF debut in a toga was also an important moment upon reflection. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, Jim Ross cemented his place in my mind as the voice of the WWE for so many years and to me is the best play by play announcer in professional wrestling history. I’ve managed to attend lots of local wrestling shows this year in England which has further enhanced my love for the wrestling business. My only wish is that I could have been an active performer even though realistically with my build, height and lack of athletic ability it’s only going to be as a referee or a manager
Features: From Stockport, England. Wrestling fan since late 1989. Would always like to have been involved in the business in some way but in his own words “I look like an obese Jim Cornette and have not much in the way of athletic ability.” Regularly attends FutureShock Wrestling shows and is a huge fan of American territory wrestling which may explain his take on some aspects of modern wrestling.
