Why is it that professional wrestling always seems to be looked down upon? What's so different about it compared to other forms of entertainment? How is it any dumber than anything else on television? Don't get me wrong, I know there's been many stupid things to happen in wrestling. Mae Young gave birth to a hand, there was the Katie Vick incident, and countless other things. All these are questions I still ask to this day, yet I asked them even more when I was in High School. I don't know what it's like nowadays but for me, wrestling was not something to be proud of being a fan of in High School. At least if you partook in that hierarchical landscape!
I started High School in the fall of 1994. At that time, the WWF was in the "New Generation" period and WCW wasn't huge by any means. I have been a wrestling fan my entire life and I got made fun of in Middle School for being a fan. It sure didn't stop in High School! I couldn't talk about it and God forbid I wore a wrestling shirt to school! I'll be honest, growing up is tough and it was extremely tough for me. The education part was hard enough, but socially I had a terrible time. I never fit in, I wasn't popular.
Wrestling is an escape! It still is for me. It's nice to get away from the real world every once in a while and get lost in something. Wrestling was that thing for me in High School. There was definitely a stigma about being a wrestling fan at school. It was looked down upon. I tried my hardest not to talk about it too much, for fear of getting made fun of or possibly bullied. However, it was and still is a passion of mine.
During my years at High School, professional wrestling changed drastically and ushered in the "Attitude Era." I'm 38 years old and because of that, I was fortunate enough to have been a kid during the Hulkamania Era and a teenager during the "Attitude Era," the two most profitable and socially acceptable times for pro wrestling. Not only that, but we were also in the midst of the infamous Monday Night Wars. It was a good time to be a wrestling fan. But was it a good time to be a wrestling fan in High School? Is it ever?
Even at its peak, with it being all over the place and guys like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin being household names, it was still hard to be a wrestling fan in High School. I remember how proud I was to wear my Austin 3:16 shirt for the first time at school. I almost had a swagger to me as I walked down the halls. That all turned upside down in a matter of minutes with the looks and comments from passers by! I just couldn't win! Invariably, I'd get that question; "you know it's fake, right?" If I couldn't get through High School at one of the most popular times in wrestling, how have other generations since then fared?
In High School, I had a very limited amount of friends that liked wrestling. I had a limited amount of friends period, really! But that's neither here nor there! The two friends I did have that liked wrestling, along with myself, called ourselves the Wolfpack, appropriately named after our favorite faction at the time, the Red and Black of the nWo. We would always say Wolfpack 4 Life and do the "Too Sweet" hand gesture. Doing the gesture wasn't acceptable. After all, we were "Young Bucks!"
One of those friends is my fellow colleague at TagMeADate, Kat! For 20 years, the Wolfpack has been running wild! At the time, she helped run the school newspaper. I began writing wrestling articles in the paper, whether it was analyzing that month's Pay-Per-View or whatever topic I had in mind. Within the circle of the school paper, being a wrestling fan was somewhat okay. Of course, outside the confines of those walls, it was like Lord of the Flies!
For those of you reading, how were your experiences as a wrestling fan in High School? Those of you that are wrestling fans currently in High School, how is it going for you? I'd like to know! For most of my life, I had to hide being a wrestling fan. You know what I did as I became an adult? I stopped caring what people thought! I'm a wrestling fan and proud of it! Since the day TagMeADate started, I've had the privilege of meeting many wrestling personalities. You know how people say don't meet your heroes? That's nonsense! Meet them! Show them how much they meant to you or mean to you now!
If you have any comments on the situation, let me know. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST, brought to you by TagMeADate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport.
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