My Love Affair with Pro Wrestling (Part 2)

The love affair lasted for ten years. Here’s how it evolved … and why it ended.

Andre the Giant (photo, therampageonline.com)

I wasn’t of driving age yet, but my photographer friend was, so off we went to my first wrestling show. They weren’t the cheap seats, either. We were right up front.

While my friend clicked away with his camera, I sat there in awe of these massive individuals. If you think Andre the Giant looked big on TV, you can imagine what he looked like up close.

I continued going to the shows whenever my friend had an extra ticket, but most were local shows. I never bothered any of the wrestlers for autographs because I didn’t want to embarrass my friend. Then, one day, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to an upcoming show at Madison Square Garden. “Wayne had some extra tickets, and he asked me if I wanted them,” he said. “Who’s Wayne, I asked?” “Superstar Billy Graham, he said,”

I thought he was pulling my leg, but he wasn’t.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in the front row at the Garden watching Graham wrestle Ivan Putski. Graham was declared the winner when Putski got disqualified for disobeying the referee’s commands.

Then came the match I couldn’t wait to see. It was Bruno Sammartino vs. Ken Patera. I had a particular interest in Patera because he had been an Olympic weightlifter before his wrestling career. He had placed second in the 1971 World Weightlifting Championships, was a member of the 1972 Olympic team, and was the first USA lifter to clean & jerk 500 lbs.

It was a great match, but Bruno retained his championship belt. Graham won the belt from Bruno a few months later (by cheating, of course).

By this time, I had finally accepted that matches were pre-determined. But I observed something else while sitting so close to the action. It wasn’t all fake.

You can’t fake a bodyslam. Getting slammed like that night after night had to take a toll on your body. Okay, all the punches aren’t landing, and they aren’t deliberately trying to hurt each other. And yes, they practice together, and wrestlers usually know what their opponent’s next move will be.

I eventually lost touch with my wrestling photographer friend and stopped going to the shows. But I continued watching wrestling on television. I thought the WWWF got a little dull when they made Bob Backlund the champion. Backlund had been a great amateur wrestler at North Dakota State and was a good role model for children. Still, his bland personality and schoolboy looks didn’t make for much excitement on the professional level. Without Bruno Sammartino, who had retired, the WWWF had become stale.

I started watching NWA wrestling from Florida on Tuesday nights and from Georgia on Saturdays. They had the ‘American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, Nature Boy Ric Flair, and Don ‘the Magnificent’ Muraco. They also had a relative newcomer stirring up a lot of excitement by the name of ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper.

Another significant change came that year when long-time WWF promoter Vince McMahon Sr. died. His death left his son Vince Jr. entirely in charge. Vince Jr. had a lot of ideas on how to make pro wrestling more entertaining and more popular. Unlike his father, Vince Jr. was willing to spend big money. He hired the likes of Mr. T and singer Cyndy Lauper. He brought in many of the top young wrestlers and signed them to big fat contracts.

On March 31, 1985, the first Wrestlemania took place at Madison Square Garden. Muhammad Ali was on hand as a special guest referee, and NY Yankees’ manager Billy Martin was the guest ring announcer. Performer Liberace was the guest timekeeper. The attendance for the event was 19,121. Over one million viewers also watched it through closed-circuit television.

I was not one of those viewers. I had just turned 23 years old, and I’d had my fill of pro wrestling. I read all about it in the newspaper the next day, and that was enough for me. I never watched it again.

But for those ten years … well … that was a different story. I had a love affair with pro wrestling.