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By: Bill Cullen
6/30/2005 7:26:45 AM

Have you ever heard someone say "back in the day" referring to a wrestling moment that happened in 1999?

I know I have and it truly makes me laugh. Somewhere, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away was the 1980's. In the 1980's there were several prominent and nationally televised wrestling programs. On any given weekend you could watch The WWF, The NWA, AWA, UWF, World Class or even G.L.O.W. Somehow, there was never enough wrestling for me.

I vividly remember watching my 9" black and white television and blasting WWF Wrestling Superstars so loud that my father would (almost as a ritual) walk in my room and ask me "if I was deaf" after so kindly waking him up after a long hard work week. Whether it was Wrestling Superstars or Wrestling Challenge, I watched an hour a week of predictable matches with WWF Superstars utterly destroying jobbers. No doubt I would have loved to see the "big boys" go at it, but rooting for S.D. Jones or Lanny Poffo with a glimmer of hope that they may beat Don Muroco or The One Man Gang, was enough to appease me.

After Hulkamania exploded, not long after was the birth of "Saturday Nights Main Event". Most of us didn't have a "real" local location to see the Closed Circuit broadcasts of the WWF's and NWA's "Super Cards" and Cable was an extreme luxury back in the mid-late 80's, so Saturday Nights Main event was no doubt a HUGE deal for us. I remember being a stupid kid eating a teaspoon full of coffee grinds just to be able to stay up and watch it. Needless to say I fell asleep. I woke up FURIOUS. But that is how important wrestling was to me and many others.

I vividly remember watching Ric Flair on NWA programming and nearly hitting the floor when he showed up in the WWF proclaiming to be the "real World's Champion". "How could this happen?" I thought to myself. I could just dream of seeing the biggest (bad guy) star from the NWA going against my hero....Hulk Hogan.

Needless to say the "proper" match never took place back then, but it only kept me wanting more.

Things were shocking and interesting back then, and regardless of whether or not you knew it was scripted, you needed to tune in each and every week to see what would happen next. The characters became THAT important to you.

Good guy, bad guy it didn't matter. There was no REAL Hulk Hogan or REAL Ultimate Warrior. All that existed in our minds was the men we saw on television. Just thinking of the first ever "Friday Nights Main Event" when Hogan dropped the World Title to Andre The Giant after having it for 4 years still brings chills to my spine.

Nowadays...you would have known about that months in advance.

You would know that Ric Flair was jumping ship to the WWF, how much he was making, how long his contract was for and who his first feud would be with. Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant would have seen too many stories containing the words "botched spot" and "politics". We would know far in advance that Savage and Elizabeth were married for years in real life and that Hulk Hogan sure as hell wasn't selling Vince's coveted WWF World Title to Ted Dibiase.

This is the day and age of the "mark" and "knowledgeable wrestling fan". No one can put one over on us. NO ONE!

Nine times out of ten, we know the outcome of any important match at least 2 weeks before it happens.

But who says knowledge is always power?

Can anyone out there in the IWC honestly tell me that they like knowing virtually everything before it happens? Does anyone not give in to the temptation of reading the Smack down! "Spoilers" two days in advance?

Perhaps our knowledge had worked against us.

The mid-90's saw the uprising of the Internet and (at the time) no one besides the porn industry has reaped the rewards more than the world of professional wrestling. I didn't have a computer at the time,but not a day went by without my cousin John calling me up and reading every rumor he could find to me. I believe we all got sucked up into it, I am as guilty as anyone. But without a doubt, I soon realized that my love for the "unknown" was gone. I couldn't go anywhere without someone saying.."Did you hear.....?" "Did you see........?". I wanted the madness to stop.

It didn't.

I am a part of this world of Internet wrestling and have been for over 4 years, but I am an opinions writer and not a news reporter. Somewhere along the way, I got lost in all of this and find myself missing the 1980's. Sure, you can turn on Raw or T.N.A now and most of the guys in the matches have an equal shot of winning, but what does that leave? It leaves pay-per-views to be nothing short of glorified Television programs without commercials. It leaves me wondering why I just spent 35 bucks to watch something that maybe impressed me for 5 minutes.

No doubt 10 years ago, the Internet may have helped save wrestling, but 10 years later I honestly believe it may have ruined it in a way. For the new breed of wrestling fan, the internet and news rumors are simply "the norm". To me, I vividly remember a time when I had no clue what was going to happen day to day in the world of professional wrestling and I liked it that way. A computer to me was nothing more than a 45 minute school class that I took to play "hangman" on. Now it dominates our world.

Progression is good, and computers are a wonderful tool that has became a necessity to each and every one of us. Now I believe that it may be a necessity to turn them off in between episodes of Raw and Smack down. Criticism will come for the statement I have made and more than likely I am looked at like nothing more than a hypocrite to many, but so many only know what they see now and could never truly understand what it was to be a wrestling fan before we became "marks".

I ask each and everyone of you this. Would you watch and enjoy every episode of the Soprano's if you knew the script to every episode and who was going to be killed off every season? Would you ever look into a crystal ball that gives you a future of "probably" and "maybe"? Would you ever want to be part of the downfall of something you love? I think not.

Enjoying our Internet world is fantastic. Many of us have reaped the rewards from it. It has brought many of us the means to express our views and communicate with others with whom we share the same loves and interests. I just think perhaps taking a step back could serve every one of us better.

Perhaps the greatest reward of all lies with the unknown.

Send all feedback to BillyC4w@yahoo.com

Be sure to check out http://billy_c2.tripod.com for more on Bill Cullen.

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