Well, now that I'm fully rested, I can talk about my other love; professional wrestling. Time to go back to my childhood, again.
I've been a pro wrestling fan as long as I remember, more so a WWF/E fan as long as I remember. I don't really remember too much from the golden age of wrestling, but I definitely remember the Attitude Era. Stone Cold, Rock, and Triple H were some of the wrestlers that I remember watching every week. Good times. I remember only being able to watch the 1st hour of Raw but always missing the main event. That stopped sometime in the 2000s. Anyway, I never really appreciated the wrestling and backstage aspects of it until I became older. The first big match I really remember was Austin/HBK from Wrestlemania 14. I remember that being the first PPV that my mother allowed me to watch all the way through. I even own the PPV on VHS, remember VHS? Anyway, I never knew how monumental that match would be.
I stopped watching wrestling sometime after Judgment Day 2000, right around the time Undertaker made his return to the WWF. I don't know what made me stop watching wrestling and I really don't remember that part of my childhood. From May 2000 to March 2002 is all a blur, wrestling and life wise. My brother was the one who got me back into it. It was for the match of a lifetime, Rock VS Hogan. After that, I knew I wasn't getting back out of it again. So I guess I'm more of a new generation wrestling fan than an old one. I've been watching it nonstop ever since.
Since watching wrestling, I've witnessed a lot of great wrestling moments. This is going to be the meat of the wrestling post today so get ready.
When Brock Lesnar first came in, I knew this guy was going to be a star. He just had that look about him. Anyway, when he won King of the Ring, I was on-board for a Lesnar title reign and that happened when he beat that villain The Rock. Summerslam 2002 in general was a great PPV memory for me. Angle/Mysterio, HBK/HHH, and of course the main event. Lesnar winning the title was the one of the first mark out moments I had. It was followed by my first reverse mark out (probably not the term) when Lesnar got screwed at Survivor Series 2002. I hated Big Show for it and I couldn't wait until he got his revenge. Anyway, Brock Lesnar can be considered my first favorite wrestler since I came back to watching wrestling.
Triple H was a wrestler I loved back in the Attitude Era and I loved seeing him absolutely dominate Raw in 2003. It sucked for other wrestlers, but Triple H having that 9 month reign as World Champion was the first long World Title reign I experienced and it prepared me for the others to come, like Cena's reign of doom. Anyway, it was a sight to behold in 2003.
Wrestlemania XIX and Vengeance were two really stand out PPVs that year. WM XIX is the closest to perfection at Mania as WWE will ever come. HBK/Jericho, Hogan/McMahon, Rock/Austin III, and Lesnar/Angle were all disgustingly awesome matches. It's hard to pick a match of the night with all those contenders. Vengeance 2003 was a total shocker. Guerrero/Benoit, WWE Tag Title match, Taker/Cena, Vince/Gowen, and the Triple Threat main event were all pretty good matches and it was super awesome compared to the abysmal performance Raw put on at Bad Blood. Those are two events from 2003 that I can watch over and over again.
Jump to 2004, No Way Out. Eddie Guerrero was receiving a title shot against my favorite, soon to be gone from WWE, Brock Lesnar. I just knew we were going to get Lesnar/Angle IV at WM XX, but it didn't make sense wrestling wise now that I think about it. I wasn't an Eddie Guerrero fan, so I flipped out when he beat Lesnar for the title. I just kept thinking, Smackdown's main event is going to suck but I was looking forward to the big Lesnar/Goldberg match. And by now, we know that those matches were reversed and by that I mean, Goldberg/Lesnar sucked while Guerrero/Angle basically stole the show. I didn't like Guerrero's reign as champion but I darn sure respect it.
The summer is usually referred to a drought for entertainment like TV and video games but the summer of 2004 was one of the best for WWE in my opinion. Why was that you ask? Randy Orton rose to super stardom during this period. Not to mention that Vengeance 2004 had two of the best one-on-one matches that year. Orton/Edge and Benoit/Triple H both told good stories and were fantastic back and forth contests. They both ended in suggestive ways, but the matches were good regardless. When Orton lose the IC Title to Edge, I just knew he was going to finally get that push to the main event afterward and I'll never forget when he won that #1 contendership battle royal. Then, he went on to beat Benoit at SummerSlam. Talk about a mark out moment. I never had a feeling like that while watching wrestling. To see someone who genuinely deserved a World Title match get into the title match and actually win on his first try was so satisfying. I wouldn't have a feeling like that again until 2006. Of course, he had a 28 day reign but he did win it. And it he won 7 more after this one.
2005 featured a couple of dream matches that lived up to the hype. Angle/HBK and then HBK/Hogan. Both matches were fantastic and stole the shows that they were apart of. Batista/Triple H had a really good feud that culminated to a fantastic Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. John Cena started what would be his rise to mega stardom and begin a 9 month reign as WWE Champion, beating Angle, Jericho, JBL, and others in his first reign of doom. There weren't any real mark out moments for me this year as Orton was thwarted by Undertaker at Wrestlemania, Triple H lost to Batista three times this year, Cena beat EVERYONE, and Smackdown beat Raw at Survivor Series! Where were the mark out moments in 2005? I'll tell you, there were none. 2005 was a very boring year, mark out wise.
2006 started off with A BANG. In the same week, the two unstoppable World Champions lost their titles! Batista was legitimately injured and had to give his title up and Kurt Angle came over from Raw to win a battle royal and became World Champion, which was due to him for a while. On Raw though, Edge, who won MITB in 2005, FINALLY cashed in and won his first WWE Title. Edge's cash in was fantastic because I know everyone was sick to death of Cena and his winning ways, so WWE was right on point with the timing.
There are a lot of other great mark out moments from 2006-2011, like Cena getting injured and the start of the Age of Orton, Edge's dominance in the main event, the youth movement, and The Miz becoming one of the top stars in WWE. I don't feel like typing up the rest because I'm starting to ramble a bit. Well, one more post until you'll know me fully! Prepare to iCarly talk. I'm dead serious.
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