Most who know me know that I’m a lifelong, die-hard professional wrestling fan. Say what you will, but I’ve always loved this form of entertainment thanks to my grandparents getting me hooked when I was young. My grandfather used to take me out for donut holes from Dunkin Donuts on Saturday mornings for me and my brother to enjoy while he sipped on his coffee and we watched what was then the WWF after my Saturday morning cartoons were over, cheering on the “good guys” and booing the “bad guys.” After my Grandpap passed away when I was only 6 years old, my Grandma continued fueling the rasslin’ fire by renting my brother and I wrestling pay-per-views on VHS, buying us wrestling action figures and toys, and sewing us our own wrestling costumes while she refereed our matches, ensuring we didn’t get too out of control. The one year she failed to do so was the year that I suplexed my brother into her Christmas tree, breaking about 15 ornaments in the process. What can I say… when the referee’s back is turned, the foreign objects come out and things get vicious.
At any rate, my brother and I would wrestle each other what seemed like every day. On our beds, in the yard, on trampolines, in the swimming pool, pretty much everywhere. I was convinced one day we would be pro wrestlers, and be tag team champions… I even brought that up when I was the best man in his wedding, during my best man’s toast. Even though we didn’t ever become champions together, we certainly bonded over this larger than life form of sports entertainment. We played with our wrestling toys, we played our wrestling video games, and we dressed like our favorite Superstars, whether it was wearing a Hulkamania bandana around the house, carrying around a sack with a plastic snake in it like Jake the Snake did, giving each other tattoos with markers to match the tattoos of our favorite wrestlers, or painting our faces like the Road Warriors while wearing matching tag team championship belts and spiked shoulder pads, it was a bond that my brother and I had much like the bond I had with my grandparents.
As the years went on, friends who loved wrestling as much as we did joined us as we played our video games, had pay-pew-view parties where everyone chipped in to buy the events to watch every month and my parents bought the pizza and chips, the summer Monday Night RAW and Monday Nitro parties where we swam before and after the shows, and every time a live event came to Pittsburgh we’d figure out a way to get there to see it live. Eventually, friends even joined in on our wrestling matches, where we eventually formed our own wrestling promotion (AWA, before we ever realized there was a legitimate wrestling promotion in the 80s called the AWA), facing each other for championship under stage names and performing modified versions of the moves we saw on television in my parents’ basement, lovingly referred to as the Fields Dungeon.
Years later, as I started my leadership career at Best Buy, I was able to enjoy wrestling the same was I did as a teenager… with other friends and co-workers, where we’d go in on purchasing pay-per-view events, buying food and beer, get drunk, wrestle around, and enjoy random shenanigans better not revealed here. When the events came into town, we’d all go together and have a great time. I was actually supposed to go to my first Wrestlemania with that group of friends, but I unfortunately moved away before I had the opportunity to go the “show of shows” with that particular group of friends. However, when I’m in touch with that group of friends, wrestling is always part of the conversations as much as family, work, and other life updates.
All these years later, even though I’m sure my grandmother has long forgotten the impact that these simple memories from my childhood has had on my life, and my brother has moved on to being a fan of much more legitimate competitive (aka, non-theatrical or pre-determined) sports, and most of the friends during my childhood and teenage years have moved on… I’m still a huge fan. Now, not only do I get to bond with a few of my best friends over this “soap opera for men,” but I get to share the love of this unique form of entertainment with my own son, the way that my grandparents shared it with me. To see Indiana watch in awe as wrestlers put their bodies on the line as they perform incredible and larger than life moves on each other, and to see him dance and talk to the TV as his favorite wrestlers’ entrance music hits the speakers, and to wrestle around with him while we enjoy the spectacle as father and son… it’s a simple joy in life that I cherish multiple times every week. And as much as I know that my wife, Katie, “hates” it… she loves to watch with us to see the two most important men in her life bonding over something that I’ve bonded with my family over the past 30 years. And whether she’ll ever admit it or not, she knows more than most do, and secretly enjoys the drama of it all.
In addition to the family tradition of enjoying pro wrestling, two of my best friends have become an incredibly important layer of what this wacky sport means to me. In college where I met two of my best friends, wrestling became a foundational staple in our relationship… and we jointly became known as “The Nation” as a group, or as individual tag teams “The Partners in Excellence” with Scott “The Mellon” Kormick and “The Charismatic & Crippled Connection” with “The Hardcore Handicap” Lucas King. Wrestling wasn’t just something we were into, it’s a point of reference on how we grew our friendships, and a foundational point for the way that we as friends had a particular outlook on life. Say what you will, but all friends have something weird or unique or crazy about their relationships, and this is what has and will always work for us. Now that we all live in separate cities, we plan vacations to see each other based on where some of the biggest wrestling pay-per-view events are each year. It doesn’t get bigger than Wrestlemania… and I’ll be seeing my friends this weekend to take in everything from the biggest event of the year, to the emotionally meaningful Hall of Fame ceremony, to the WWE Fan Axxess events. It doesn’t get much better than great friends enjoying some great entertainment all weekend long!
With all that being said… the “Road to Wrestlemania” is winding down and the “Super Bowl of Sports Entertainment” is happening this coming weekend in my new hometown of Atlanta, Georgia! This is the second time I’ll be attending Wrestlemania, the first time was with the same friends a few years back in my former hometown of Orlando, Florida.
Something that always makes Wrestlemania weekend especially special for me, as a lifelong fan who idolized these larger than life characters, it to see them immortalized in the WWE’s Hall of Fame. It’s always awesome to see the Hall of Fame on television or as special features on the event DVDs, but it’s extremely awesome and very touching for me to be there in person to see some of my childhood heroes recognized by their industry, their peers, and their fans as legends in the business that I’ve always loved thanks to my grandparents, my brother, my friends, and now my son.
A few years ago during Wrestlemania XXIV weekend, I attended the Hall of Fame induction and saw one of my top favorite wrestlers and arguably one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time, Ric Flair, inducted. I’m not embarrassed to say that I had tears in my eyes listening to him tell stories of his 30-year career, the blood, sweat, and tears of traveling the world and doing what he loved. I never thought anything would top that, being there to see “The Nature Boy” inducted into the Hall of Fame, then being there the following night at Wrestlemania to watch him wrestle his final match against “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels… but this year, I’m confident that I’ll be proven wrong.
Why? Because this year, I’ll be there to see my personal all-time favorite wrestler, Shawn Michaels, get inducted as he heads up the Hall of Fame class of 2011! I can only imagine the rush of emotions that I’ll feel being there live and watching this icon of sports entertainment, someone who I absolutely loved and thought was the coolest guy in the world as a kid, be immortalized in this way. It sounds kind of cheesy, but the memories that I have and the people that I’ve shared this silly pro wrestling thing with for my entire life makes it truly fun, entertaining and meaningful on many levels, for me.
So, as we count down the days until Wrestlemania XXVII in Atlanta and all of this weekend’s festivities, I’ll be posting a new video each day in celebration of some of my favorites who are being inducted this year! Stay tuned!
