Question for fans of professional wrestling

I watched wrestling some when I was a kid, at the height of Hulk-a-mania. I mean, at that point, who didn't? I had Hulk toys and t-shirts. I even wore a Hulk Hogan t-shirt to my paw-paw's funeral, at which I was a pall-bearer. I don't know when I stopped being interested, but I did. Since getting into Giant Bomb back in early-mid 2013 and hearing how much Jeff, Alex and now Dan are into wrestling, I've been thinking I should look at it again. When they talk about it, it sounds really cool but every time I think about actually watching it I'm like... meh...

I don't have cable. I was thinking of getting the WWF subscription thing I've heard them talking about. For $10/month I can get a month or two and see if I can get into it or not. My question is, with so much back catalog, what should I watch? I'm sure, like everything, there is good and bad mixed in there. If I want the best of the best for someone who knows NOTHING about professional wrestling, and I'm only going to give it a quick shot to hook me, what should I check out on the WWF subscription thing?

As a side question, I heard about some kind of crazy wrestling thing where everyone is supposed to have weird Marvel hero like personas or something. I want to say Patrick did an interview with a guy who was making a brawler based on this wrestling organization, but I can't remember what it was called. It sounded pretty cool, though. Any clue?

@r3beld0gg:

I've been meaning to put together this exact list for a while on the Giant Bomb Wrestling thread since the same question pops up many times. If you were to try out the Network (which is free for the rest of November, mind you), I would probably point you first towards their documentary section. WWE does a very good job of putting together these documentaries of their history and it deserves a look if your just curious. As far as matches go, there's a section called "Video Vault" that has a decent selection of matches. If I were to through a few WWE matches at you to watch that I would consider great it would be this:

• CM Punk vs. John Cena - Money in the Bank 2011
• The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family - Elimination Chamber 2014
• TLC (Dudleyz vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Edge & Christian) - SummerSlam 2000
• Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin - WrestleMania 1997
• Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero - Halloween Havoc 1997

The promotion that's in your second question is called Chikara.

As someone who only relatively recently got into watching wrestling (and is quickly losing interest, get your shit together WWE), I feel like the biggest key to enjoying a match beyond simple appreciation of technical ability is finding a character to like (or hate). Going back to watch older PPVs for the Powerbombcast "homework", it struck me how little impact the twists, turns, and reveals of major characters had on me without context or knowledge of backstories. Some of what were supposed to be huge moments were just "oh look, it's that Sting guy, I guess" or "so why is that Duggan guy carrying around a big wooden board?"

@bbalpert: I would agree that finding a character to like is a big part of getting into wrestling, at least initially. I got into wrestling pretty much cold in the beginning-middle of the Attitude Era. My husband, then my boyfriend, said that I should pick someone to root for after watching an episode or two of RAW. I ended up picking Chyna and Mankind. Chyna was in a feud with Chris Jericho at the time, and I think Mankind was teamed with the Rock and feuding with DX, or maybe that was later on. I just know that I really was drawn to Mick Foley at the time.

I am a bit shaky on the details, but it was a pretty great time to get into wrestling since the heroes were pretty great and the villains were pretty easy to hate, especially Jericho at that point! Oh I hated Jericho so much!!! I like him now, but he was a great heal during that time.

I recommend, if you get the network for a month or two, watching the documentary stuff. Monday Night Wars, Rivals, stuff like that. Also, if you want a pure wrestling show, there's nothing better at the moment than NXT, which is also on the network. It is considered the "minor leagues" of WWE, but it has some of the best matches and new and interesting stars. I enjoy it much more than RAW or Smackdown, and it's also much more condensed than the big shows, only an hour for each episode, so the wrestling to bullcrap ratio is much more tolerable. Oh and they let the wrestlers have actual gimmicks, which I enjoy a lot. :D

Thanks for the replies. @turboman, good to know about the November thing. Wish I'd have known sooner, though. I'm going to sign up for that soon.

I get the feeling I'll be watching a lot of stuff from the 80s and 90s. I'm not sure I can get into the super serious guys of today. I want Rick Flaire, Hulk, Macho Man, etc... We'll see. I've been curious to listen to the Powerbombcast, but never did as I figure I wouldn't know what they were talking about. The recent interview Jeff did with... not Undertaker guy... was actually interesting. I could use a new hobby.

@r3beld0gg: Check out NXT. Every episode is on the Network and almost all the wrestlers have fantastic characters and are great in the ring. It's technically WWE's developmental but they consistently put on a better show than RAW.

Also you should watch Lucha Underground, it's basically the best.

Glad I found this thread. I too am interested in checking out some wrasseling (thanks, Dan). I was thinking of checking out the WWE Network while it's free. Can anyone recommend a must-see thing with the Undertaker? He's basically the only wrestler I remember from my childhood (aside from Sting).

@drbeardface: Watch his King of the Ring match from 1998 with Mick Foley. For something more recent watch the Wrestlemania saga matches with Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

@drbeardface: The Undertaker was never that great technically. His two best matches were probably the ones he had against Shawn Micheals at Wrestlemanias 25 and 26. His match against Brock Lesnar at WM30 is kinda bad (Undertaker suffered a concussion early in the match and Brock sucks) but the ending is definitely worth it.

@xanadu: On the list now. Thanks, duder!

Kinda feel like I should make the most of the trial period. Is there an essential Sting match I should make sure to hit? I vaguely remember him fighting Rick Flair and the fight just kept going, but that was 20 years ago, I'm probably not remembering it correctly at all.