I was in elementary school when I started watching wrestling. We lived in WWF country (unfortunately) although it wasn't as bad when I started watching it as it would get a few years later. The first card I went to had a main event of Pat Patterson defending The IC Championship against Ken Patera. I also went to a card that had Andre The Giant vs. Hulk Hogan and after maybe 10 minutes of wrestling, Hogan was getting beaten pretty badly and after about 10 minutes or so he just ran from the ring and got counted out.
One of the matches I best remember was Don Muraco in a one hour time limit draw vs. the champion, Bob Backlund. That was when WWF was still fairly good. Eventually I stopped watching pro wrestling from around 1983 to 1988. The WWF was getting really goofy and cartoonish and the friend from junior high who went to matches with me (one of our dads would take us to the WWF matches at The Capital Center) also stopped watching it. It was 9th grade and nobody we knew watched wrestling anymore either. The only people in our high school who ever talked about WWF were total losers. I know that much later, during the Monday Night Wars, wrestling was considered somewhat cool to watch but for a while at least, watching pro wrestling was considered far from "cool." I'm describing how it was in The Washington D.C. area when only WWF ran shows here. I don't know how it was if you lived in "Flair country" or if you lived in Dallas, or in the area where Mid-South Wrestling was. I wen to college in Tampa, Florida and they had a little promotion called PWF with Dusty Rhodes. Gordon Solie was the play by play announcer and Diamond Dallas Page was doing color commentary. My roommate watched it and I started watching it too. I even went to one of the shows where Terry Funk beat up Dustin Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes won the PWF Title and that's what got me started watching wrestling again.
One of the matches I best remember was Don Muraco in a one hour time limit draw vs. the champion, Bob Backlund. That was when WWF was still fairly good. Eventually I stopped watching pro wrestling from around 1983 to 1988. The WWF was getting really goofy and cartoonish and the friend from junior high who went to matches with me (one of our dads would take us to the WWF matches at The Capital Center) also stopped watching it. It was 9th grade and nobody we knew watched wrestling anymore either. The only people in our high school who ever talked about WWF were total losers. I know that much later, during the Monday Night Wars, wrestling was considered somewhat cool to watch but for a while at least, watching pro wrestling was considered far from "cool." I'm describing how it was in The Washington D.C. area when only WWF ran shows here. I don't know how it was if you lived in "Flair country" or if you lived in Dallas, or in the area where Mid-South Wrestling was. I wen to college in Tampa, Florida and they had a little promotion called PWF with Dusty Rhodes. Gordon Solie was the play by play announcer and Diamond Dallas Page was doing color commentary. My roommate watched it and I started watching it too. I even went to one of the shows where Terry Funk beat up Dustin Rhodes and Dusty Rhodes won the PWF Title and that's what got me started watching wrestling again.