A Wrestling Nerd

It doesn't seem like that long ago, but I started watching wrestling in 2013 when I came across a promotional video on YouTube for the 2014 Royal Rumble. What has become my favorite WWE PPV, wrestling stipulation, and all around thrilling adventure, the Royal Rumble match is what got me into wrestling at the start. The concept of the match blew my mind as I binge watched every single match, 27 in total with each going for about an hour or so, soaking up all the knowledge I could about this amazing event. Understanding how the match worked in it's entirety, from the rule book to the promotional value of the phrase, "It's all about the numbers", fascinated me so I dug deeper.

Branching out further from the rumble I began searching the WWE Network archives looking to soak up as much material as I could. Becoming a wrestling nerd wasn't what my goal was, however, but just getting the chance to see the evolution of wrestling and the characters within this crazy universe. Knowledge is key because the WWE is so proud of it's history and mentions it constantly so already knowing who a Hall of Fame inductee is or knowing the importance of which number you enter in a certain match is to a superstar just makes the experience easier to take in/enjoy.

One negative to all this positive is that I am the only person in my family, in my graduating class, or even in my friend group who enjoyed wrestling to the level that I did. So all this knowledge I obtained was never appreciated by the people around me so I couldn't share it with anyone. Understanding how a match works or who the wrestlers in the ring are and why their fighting is always good to know as a viewer, and a fan, but how is one supposed to enjoy the experience by themselves?

Around senior year I had already watched every pay per view on the WWE network, every match, every promo, read all there was to know about every wrestler past or present. I ran out of stuff, so to speak. Losing the one thing that was keeping my mind from checking out really put a damper on my life since I couldn't really do anything with the information I had already consumed. None of my friends cared and no one in my family was interested to hear how good the CM Punk match from 2011 was at Christmas dinner so it just kind of sat there in my head, rotting away like an old math formula. I had nothing else to learn.

Right around this time things started to change in wrestling. Independent and over seas promotions started producing better wrestling then the WWE and started to become it's own beast, per say. This boom in popularity really opened the doors to a whole new world of wrestling I hadn't even explored yet which really got me excited again about wrestling as a whole. It's been seven years since I first started watching wrestling and I still haven't learned everything, yet. Even if I spend the next seven years 'studying' I still won't know everything, which is why I look forward to being a 'wrestling geek' for the rest of my life.