So I have always been a big fan of professional wrestling, especially WWE, having fallen in love during a segment of #RawIsWar back in the late 90s, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appearing as well, as Shawn Michaels and Triple H.
This was my way to escape the reality of life that I had back then, fast forward Summerslam 2002, seeing the build up to The Rock vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship was an amazing experience. I watched the WWE programming on and off during this time, since my cousins were hooked to it, and whenever I used to try to switch on to it, there would be some scantily-clad women (it was the era of the bra and panties matches) in the ring, and used to feel embarrassed since my Mom/Dad would happen to pass-by every now and then.
A few more years would pass, and my friends in school were really rooting for 2 up and coming WWE superstars, who were due to main event, Wrestlemania 21; and many of you might have guessed it right, these were, John Cena and Batista!
John Cena was due to challenge then WWE Champion John 'Bradshaw' Layfield aka JBL and Batista was challenging the World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H. I remember watching a couple of weeks of build up to that event, an even which was being built up as "Wrestlemania Goes Hollywood!" and I was hooked!
Wrestlemania 21 was the first ever WWE show that I watched in its entirety and the events that followed; ECW One Night Stand, Vengeance as well as the 2005 WWE Draft in the meanwhile made me fall in love with the WWE. I liked both the good guys and bad guys in this time, having a sweet spot for John Cena and Batista (the good guys aka Babyfaces) and absolutely admired the veterans - Triple H and JBL (the bad guys aka Heels).
Side note: If you were to ask me as to who I would call my most favourite WWE Superstar of all time, it has got to be #TheGame Triple H ofcourse, have cheered for him even when he was the biggest heel/villain.
I followed WWE through 2005, 06 and 07, until around Wrestlemania 23 when I started losing interest, I am not sure why, but maybe it had something to do with me being occupied with the higher secondary school and the college admissions. I could appreciate the drama unfolding on my TV Screen week after week and would occasionally follow up on the news on the web (Indian TV was 2 weeks behind the live telecast in the US at the time), which happened even after I got occupied and did not get any time.
I kept reading about the WWE and how professional wrestling, in general, worked. This transitioned me from merely being a fan of professional wrestling to more of a fan of the industry and the art-form which was professional wrestling. I checked out and read whatever I could get my hands on, reading everything about everyone (this was the time when a couple of my favourites, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit died, for real) to check whether something was happening for real or was it just kayfabe drama for TV (Mr McMahon was alive in real life, and was portrayed to be dead for TV, so you could see the little kid being so confused about WWE deaths)!
When I started getting to know about WWE past and present, as well as the independent scenes and some other major promotions worldwide, like WCW, ECW, AWA, TNA, NJPW, AJPW as well as ROH. I started reading about their top stars and could eventually relate to how the current superstars (in 2019) made their way through these promotions into the WWE. The journey of majority of the current-crop of the WWE is similar, having started in smaller promotions, wrestling in front of few 100s or 1000s to main eventing Wrestlemania with attendance records of upto a 100,000+ people (set during Wrestlemania 32, in Texas in 2016).
After changing perspectives, I got to hear from one of my friends (who knew I still had the love for professional wrestling and was just maybe looking for a reason to switch back) that my childhood hero, the Rock has returned to WWE Raw! I could not believe him for one second, since I still remember watching some video on the web where he asked the interviewer to refer to him as Dwayne Johnson the actor, and not the Rock, which was a wrestler, which had broken my heart and deep-inside I just lost respect for him as my hero that I had grew up watching.
This was reason enough, and it was February 2011, and WWE had started their build up for Wrestlemania 27 (popularly known as the Road to Wrestlemania) that year, and after 4 long years, I got hooked right back watching the Rock's promo as he was announced to be the host of that year's Wrestlemania!
Time went on and the Rock went right back to Hollywood after the event but not before setting up the next year's Wrestlemania's main event, and it was John Cena vs The Rock!
2011 could be summarised as the starting point of the modern day era aka the Reality Era of the WWE, with CM Punk blurring the lines between reality and kayfabe on live TV with the pipebomb promo in the build up to that year's Money in The Bank (MITB) Pay-Per-View (PPV), which coincidentally had debuted on Wrestlemania 21 as a one-time match where the winner could challenge his choice of the WWE/World Champion at any time of choosing in the next 1 year's time, even after a match got over, or insert himself in the middle of it as well!
I had heard all about CM Punk but had barely seen him perform during 2006-07 when he started appearing on the WWE. He too was one of the guys who had made it through the independent scenes, ROH and TNA and risen up to the main roster. His contract was due that year, and he wished to challenge then WWE Champion, John Cena (ofcourse!) for the title at the MITB event after which his contract was supposed to be expiring. This made for amazing TV with a shoot (worked?) pipebomb Vince, the Chairman of the WWE firing CM Punk and John Cena begging for him to be back on the MITB card. (Shoot is a segment where the performer does something which was not originally scripted for the said performer.)
It was the night of the MITB and CM Punk delivered as promised having won the WWE Title and disappeared in the crowd on the final night of his contracted tenure with the WWE, along with the top title of the company.
The new era of the WWE had arrived, it took me a while to recognise who is who as I had updates about all the superstars - both male and female, but could only put names to faces as the stories progressed and just like that, I was back as a fan - only this time, I could see everything from a business perspective too, or as the insiders of the industry term people like me, I was a SMARK (a smart Mark - you'll need to google to know what this means!)
I had fallen in love with the WWE all over again and this time I had a reason to be so. I had seen the women evolve over the years, from the bra and panties matches to being the Divas to now being given equal opportunities on TV.
2011 to date (its 5 days before Wrestlemania 35, 4th April 2019) and I have always followed up on whatever is happening in the world of professional wrestling. From the 100s of times Chris Jericho has returned to the WWE, the first one being in 2007 to his most recent comeback in 2015-16, which is most definitely the best version of Y2J (a nickname for Chris Jericho) i.e. the List Of Jericho era to seeing the debut of the Shield and The New Day, 2 of my most favourite stables in the history of pro-wrestling!
I still get goosebumps as I recall the events leading upto this year's Wrestlemania, especially the Kofi Kingston push to the main event, oops, I think I should keep these for individual year blogs.
Thank you for reading.
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