I figure being as this forum is new  this might be a good starter topic.    
 
I don't know the specific year or date when I started watching wrestling but I think it had to be around  93.   I've thought many times about why pro wreslting  is so popular and  at least for me as a kid the spectacle is what got me.   Pro wrestling with all the gimmicky characters and melodramatic storylines is as close as we have to real life superheroes.    When your a kid and you see the Undertaker raise his arms and the lights come on as he rolls his eyes back  your not thinking about  how theres a guy somewhere in a production truck playing with knobs and levers to make the magic happen you just get caught up in it. 
 
                  I remember  my dad taking me to see  Summerslam 95'  looking back it was a mostly shit card but  I remember aboslutely refusing to go to the bathroom  because I didn't want to miss  Shawn Micheals and Razor Ramon in the ladder match.    I remember being the biggest Razor Ramon fan ever.   Which now makes it even more goddamn heartbreaking to see  him in the condition he is today.    I  think I continue to watch because even though i am jaded as hell and a smark now   every once in awhile  WWE does something that still gets me as excited as I was when I was 12.      And goddamn  it  i don't think people realize how much of a damn performer  staged or not that these guys have to be.    Going out there LIVE in a match and having to improv a 15 minute match or a 5 minute promo  takes immense talent.

I never actually went to any events, but my dad always watched it, so I watched it with him (at least when my mom wasn't around to stop me). It was always so goofy and silly that I really liked it as a kid. Every week I couldn't wait to see whatever shenanigans would happen next week.

I watched mainly in the mid 90s to early 00s. Most of the things I remember are stuff like Steve Austin wrecking Vince's car each week, and The Rock calling people jabronis. Vince went through a lot of cars back then.

Sunday morning shows in the state chanels. I was hooked in it for a while, then I got tired of it. 
 
Still remember Yokosuna, Undertaker, Tarzan Taborda, Sean Michaels, Hulk Hogan, and other classic ones.

Mainly it was VHS tapes of old WCW shows that first introduced my young mind on how much fun it was to watch wrestling. Namely, the first wrestler I was really drawn to was Sting by those tapes. Probably because of the facepaint more than anything, Sting was usually the guy I would root for. As far as on a weekly viewing, I started being a big WCW fan before the WWF Attitude era. I was a member of the boy scouts (Edit: cub scouts) and I remember after every meeting, there was a tv in one of the rooms and about 10 of us would crowd around it every week at 8:00 every Monday...

Then Stone Cold Steve Austin came into play for the WWE and everything changed.

My dad had VHS tapes of Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan. I started watching around the time of The Rock, Mankind and Steve Austin and watched the old tapes. Haven't watched it in at least 7 years.

I used to watch WWF and WCW back in the late 80's up until the early-mid 90's. I remember having a few action figures of some wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I think wrestling back then was a lot more fun to watch since it was sorta aimed at kids at the time, and I was a kid. I watched a little bit of it again when The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Triple H came into prominence, but gave up on it soon after - it was kinda fun to watch I guess.

I watched it late 80's because I was a kid, grew out of it pretty fast when it started to turn into what it is today.

I have started to come around to some smaller scale wrestling lately however. After seeing this video I did some youtubing and some wrestling is still fun out there.

I started watching when my video store got all the PPV tapes and Colosseum video collections. Survivor Series 1993 was my first event (I SAW LUDVIG BORGA LIVE!) and I've also been to Survivor Series 2008 (I SAW KOZLOV IN A TITLE MATCH!) and this year's Summerslam

I stopped for a while in high school then in college I discovered how magical watching wrestling and drinking is. And now I have a terabyte harddrive with every WWF/WWE PPV ever on it.

i started watching becuase of my dad even when i was little in 1992 both wcw and wwe ive been to about 3 different live events all live wwe shows/tapings one raw one smackdown and one super show (doing both raw and smackdown on the same night)all have been them have been ones before or after wrestlemanias which was pretty cool and ive watched tna on and off just to see what it is like some points it has been ok but just too many people hogan has brought in and just watering it down of the potential could be dissapoints me greatly.

@Atramentous said:

I watched it late 80's because I was a kid, grew out of it pretty fast when it started to turn into what it is today.

I have started to come around to some smaller scale wrestling lately however. After seeing this video I did some youtubing and some wrestling is still fun out there.

I love that video.

i got into wrestling in 2 separate occasions. first being when i was around 10 my cousin was really into it and showed me a couple of matches with him. i started watching wcw thunder when it was shown on channel 5 much to my cousins dislike untill i got sky and started watching raw and smackdown untill the wcw ecw invasion i enjoyed that and when it finished things started to get a little bit boring and i drifted out no longer having my wcw to fall back on when wwf was dragging.

the second time was over a year ago i found out a mate of mine was into it i sat with him to watch raw and after that i was going round every week to watch it a little bit longer and i was watching TNA and smackdown on my own time in addition to looking up what happened to people i cared about when i was younger such as kurt angle and sting and here i am watching all 3 weekly and giving a dam about wrestlers who weren't around back then eg kofi kingston is awesome :P

Dad is a big Hulk Hogan fan and introduced me to WCW, never looked back. Went to a few live events in new york, highlight being Royal rumble at MSG. Also went to the WWE resturant(think hard rock cafe but wrestling, it was awesome) to watch PPV and what ever they had on.

When I  was a kid, one of the local stations aired Superstars on Sunday mornings. The rule was: First church, then go out to eat, then, if we remembered to set the VCR, a tape of Superstars would be waiting at home. 

I only had over the air TV for most of my childhood. I was in middle school, 7th grade when I saw a commercial for the first ever Smackdown. It was shown on UPN and it was the thursday after Backlash 2009. The Rock had just turned face, Austin was champion and you had the Corporate MInistry form. I knew a little about wrestling and the year before my cousins kept saying I was doing the people's eyebrow but didn't know what it meant. DX and suck it? What was that? Well that show changed my life. Luckily my family got cable shortly after that and well I fell in love.

I ended up loving the Rock. Hating Triple H. But as time went on, I became more familiar with the whole concept of pro wrestling. I watched old videos of Shawn MIchaels before his injury and just instantly knew, this guy was something else. When he came back, i was super thankful I got to watch the second half of his career and his farewell speech last year made me shed a tear. Austin was not a big deal for me, he was injured in the Survivor Series of that year and when I would see videos of him 1997 and 1998, when he would walk to the ring shirtless, I was like wow, he was so badass. But in 1999, he would walk to the ring with a hat on, not cool.

Anyway, I ended up going to school at MIT where they actually offered a pro wrestling class, studying everything from history to what the champion was to the company and the science of the entrance. I got to meet Mick Foley and JR who came in to speak to our class. So I know more than most people would like to admit. But people are videophiles and love movies, music lovers, book lovers, theatre, and like us, video game lovers. but I love wrestling. It is one of the purest forms of entertainment.

Well, all my friends watched it, as did my cousin, so I checked it out. The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, Masked Kane, The Headbangers, Goldust, the Hollys, Mankind, the Hardcore title; It was glorious. The Wrestlemania with the four-way match with a McMahon in each corner stands out, looking back. I think I started watching in the late 90s.

And then they got rid of all that, and it got bad for ages. For a few years I'd only watch occasionally and be bored by the lack of standout characters. Then this summer all the hype around CM Punk got me watching again.

WWF Superstars was what brought me to the squared circle. To this day I can't tell you what drew me to it but something did and that something had me hooked. I wasn't really into "scheduling" when I was young but that shits was written in stone on my weekly calendar. Noon, Saturday. 
 
These were the days of hour long shows consisting of a string of classic "name" versus "jobber" where we all knew who was going to win but we fooled ourselves into thinking "anything could happen". Chair shots, foreign objects and run-ins were so rare on these shows that they more shocking back then than a murder-suicide would be in today's storylines - not to mention that a single chair-shot back then was so devastating that would would hospitalize a wrestler for like a month. 
 
A couple times a year (on what appeared to be a totally random schedule) we would be blessed with a SATURDAY NIGHT'S MAIN EVENT. These things were usually on at 12:30am and required me and my brother sneaking out of bed for some late-night, low-volume wrestling action, but seeing as these were our only access to named vs. named matches it was the epitome of must-see TV for us. 
 
Over the next 20 years or so my appreciation of wrestling grew, waned, changed, evolved and then eventually and unfortunately died (shortly after the Austin/Angle days) but I'll never forget the endless hours of super-charged entertainment it gave me. 
 
BUT... if I ever had to credit my love of wrestling to one thing my answer is always easy, always the same. The most entertaining, the most skilled, the most ahead of his time, the best matches, the best feuds, the best reigns, the best robes and in my opinion THE most iconic and influential wrestler there ever was and ever will be: THE MADNESS, RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE. RIP.

Chris Benoit wrestled a match with Kurt Angle's Gold Medal in his tights. That seemed like the kind of dumb that I'd be cool with.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I started watching it because of my dad. I remember watching it with him a lot when I was younger, but in hindsight I can't recall if I watched it because of him, or if he watched it because of me. I also remember jumping off of furniture a lot while watching wrestling and getting in trouble for it. Riveting story, right?

I know I started off watching WWE, since I have a bunch of old WWE toys (not action figures either, the old rubber toys that were in fixed positions) and then I remember switching over to WCW at some point and watching a lot of that. Even through the attitude era of the WWE I almost only watched WCW (only catching WWE when WCW was on commercial break.) Looking back on it, I bet on the wrong company it seems, but, even though I missed a large chunk of the attitude era, I don't think I would change my decision of which to watch when I was younger. Jericho, Goldberg, Sting (I still have an old WCW comic of Sting vs Vader, it's pretty funny looking back on it), the cruiserweight division, Raven, Saturn, the...what at the time was amazing but now kind of sickens me on several levels, NWO.. worth it.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I started watching it because of my dad. I remember watching it with him a lot when I was younger, but in hindsight I can't recall if I watched it because of him, or if he watched it because of me. I also remember jumping off of furniture a lot while watching wrestling and getting in trouble for it. Riveting story, right?

I know I started off watching WWE, since I have a bunch of old WWE toys (not action figures either, the old rubber toys that were in fixed positions) and then I remember switching over to WCW at some point and watching a lot of that. Even through the attitude era of the WWE I almost only watched WCW (only catching WWE when WCW was on commercial break.) Looking back on it, I bet on the wrong company it seems, but, even though I missed a large chunk of the attitude era, I don't think I would change my decision of which to watch when I was younger. Jericho, Goldberg, Sting (I still have an old WCW comic of Sting vs Vader, it's pretty funny looking back on it), the cruiserweight division, Raven, Saturn, the...what at the time was amazing but now kind of sickens me on several levels, NWO.. worth it.

I just sorted always watched it.Raw was on Saturday afternoon so I use to watch it with my dad when I was young. Must of been around 96. I still remember only liking HBK because of his theme. Little did I know he become my favorite as I got older. I also went through a phase of going to the video store and renting wwf tapes its was older store but I got to watch sumerslams from the late 80's and stuff. I kind of wish I could do that now. I also like to watch wcw at night right around dinner I think it was Sundays?.

My dad was a fan way back when me and my older bro were still in diapers. We grew up watching WWF, and eventually became huge fans ourselves. I remember we were particularly big fans of The Rockers and, when Shawn Michaels turned heel and super-kicked Marty Janetty, we were pretty upset. My mom was so angry she wrote a letter to the WWF asking why they did that. I don't think she ever got a response, and looking back, it's one of the sweetest yet dumbest things she did.

Looks like I'm older than most of the people here...probably my earliest vivid memory is Orndorff turning on Hogan in Fall of '86, I would have been 7 at the time. I had been watching for several months prior to that, but that's the first major event that I can remember watching as it happened. After that I kept watching - Ricky Steamboat became a huge favorite shortly after when Macho Man "crushed his throat" with the bell, and then Wrestlemania 3 was announced for the Silverdome, which was only like a half hour from my house. My dad took me for my birthday, which was right around the same time as the event. Was right on the aisle about halfway back, Rick Martel ran down my side and slapped my hand before the opening match, and you can see me on the tape a few times, including me holding my hands over my ears when Piper walks down because it's so loud and I had never been to an arena like that, let alone in a crowd that insanely large.

I pretty much watched every week without fail until Wrestlemania 23, which I also attented. I was getting kind of sick of it and it felt like 20 years was a good stopping point. Not that I don't still watch it, but if I miss a show I don't really care. I've found that just reading results after the fact usually serve me just fine, and anything that I really want to see I'll just check on Youtube anyway.

It used to be something I'd watch before I go to bed every like.. three or four days it used to be in the 90s? At some point before the year 2000 I just stopped because I found "better" things to do at night. Never watched a PPV or attended any live events then, either. It was just something I did by myself. RAW was pretty much the only way I even knew what was happening during the PPVs and even then it was pretty brief.

Then like a couple years ago a friend of mine told me to watch the Royal Rumble with him and I did. Must've been like 2009. And I got hooked pretty hard, mostly for dudes like CM Punk (who my friend showed me clips of what he used to do in his old feds and that just fueled the fire).

It's been kind of middling interest over the last half of this year, mostly for storylines that kind of fall apart (yeah, I'm one of those girls) and matches that really shouldn't exist, and that Cole is still on the announce table, but I keep hoping things'll get better. My friend who got me back into it? Totally stopped watching now. :(

I played a lot of wrestling games before I watched it. I played a lot of WWF War Zone and really liked it so eventually I started watching it but not until like 2003.

Me and my brother have watched since we've been kids. Started in 1995 or so.

I used to watch with my family back in the day as a kid, they used to tape it on VHS and we used to get together and watch it.

Then the attitude era ended and my family stopped watching, so I had no way to watch, either.

Then when I grew older, I met someone who watched Smackdown obsessively, and I got back to watching it again. I watched it religiously for about 3 years before winding down, then I picked back up again around a year ago, and have been watching it on/off ever since.

My brothers were fans, I really enjoyed WWF No Mercy on the N64 and that's about it.
I watched the whole Stone Cold <> Kurt Angle thing but lost interest after.

I'm actually starting to get into Wrestling. I'm watching mostly Joshi Puroresu matches, really entertaining stuff...

I remember catching a few recap WWF shows when I was over at my grandparents place when I was young. No one in my family really watched it, but I always thought it was cool at the time (i think i was at least 7 at the time because I know RAW hadn't been on too long since it started back in 93 which is when I turned 7). I didn't watch much after that until I was 9 or 10 when I started watching WCW and really got into it. I actually watched it in secrecy cause my dad didn't care too much for it, but after awhile they found out and didn't really care. I did go back and forth between WCW and WWF during commercials and once I got used to the WWF i started watching it more and I've been watching it ever since. I also know why my dad does watch wrestling now and it's because every time he watches it he gets so into it that you can see him throwing fists like he's watching boxing. Kinda fun to watch.

HBK and Austin. Also strangely the videogames.

The Pro Wrestling discussion will now take place in the "latest ppv and weekly show" discussion thread which is now located in Off Topic. This forum is for the Wrestling Ring as it exists in video games.

http://www.giantbomb.com/wrestling-ring/95-2123/latest-ppv-and-weekly-show-discussion-thread/35-524133/?

Alternatively, the Wrestling YouTube sharing thread is still open:

http://www.giantbomb.com/wrestling-ring/95-2123/wrestling-related-youtube-sharing-and-discussion-thread/35-523487/