The Soap Opera with Huge Men in Small Pants...

Like the majority of young boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s, WWF (now WWE) wrestling was the biggest thing in my life. I had posters on my wall, a collection of action figures to be proud of, and a desire to one day become a WWF wrestler. 

In 1992 I was nine years old. I was luckily enough to go to SummerSlam at London’s Wembley Stadium, as part of an eighty thousand capacity crowd. My Dad took me. It was day I will never forget. I got to see my heroes perform live. Heroes like The Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, The British Bulldog, Bret Hitman Hart, The Undertaker, The Legion Of Doom and many more all appeared that day, which all added to my excitement. My dad mentioned that he remembers the look on my face that day, despite not remembering much else about the event. I think I found out that we are going to the event a couple of days before hand. I had wanted tickets so bad, but they were like gold dust. Luckily a relative worked for a national newspaper, and somehow three tickets were in our possession. 

When I was a kid, we only had four channels on our television. Therefore, I would beg my father every weekend to take me to our local video store, to rent the latest WWF video. We didn’t have satellite TV until I was in my teens, where I would be able to see the WWE events live on television. 

My mum often reminds me, that as a boy I would spend the majority of my day, laying on my belly in front of the television, watching my latest wrestling video, crashing my prized wrestling figures into one another, making up a full running commentary for the events I had created. The Royal Rumble was always my favourite event to play, I would select my favourite 30 figures, and would create the running order using the information cards on the back of the toy box packaging that I collected from each one. I would shuffle the cards to determine how the match would line up. 

The Ultimate Warrior usually won my events. He was my favourite wrestler on the videos I would watch, and was my favourite figure to play with. He was like a superhero. Sprinting to the ring, shaking the ropes, bright neon colours and awesome face paint, an infinite energy, huge muscles, and a theme tune that would make me so hyperactive. He was the total package for a 9year old boy to aspire to be.

I wouldn’t grow up and become a WWE wrestler. My passion for football had overtaken as I entered teenage years, and by thirteen, it wasn’t really cool to say to your school friends that you still watched wrestling. But secretly, I did still watch it, and I have done sporadically until this day. 

Two years ago, when clearing out my room at my parents’ house, I found my collection of wrestling figures. The one set of toys that I never discarded through my growing life. I had the ring, the soundbox, the accessories, the belts, and the wrestlers themselves were in great condition, despite hours and hours of play. 

My old wrestling figures appearing on TV with Rob Beckett

Despite a real reluctance, I convinced myself that now was the time to part with the collection. I ended up selling everything to an old friend from university, who wanted to use them as inspiration for fancy dress ideas for his brother’s stag party that he was arranging. I sold the collection for £40 + two tickets to my friend’s next comedy gig that was coming up. 

Years later, my friend was appearing on a UK comedy quiz show, where he took some of my former toys as his mascots. It put a huge smile on my face to think of all of the hours spent during my childhood playing with them, but in the time that I had sold them to him, and him appearing on TV, I have had a baby boy, who one day may have loved those toys as much as I did. 

The thing about wrestling, is that it is timeless. There are still guys competing in the WWE who I watched as a boy. (The Undertaker!). The 8year old son of a family friend is as mad about wrestling as I was at his age, and he is learning through TV and video games about the legends of the spot who I grew up watching. The enthusiasm with which he speaks for John Cena and the new generation of superstars, reminds me of my love for the superstars of my generation. Sure it is a soap opera with huge men in small pants, but the technical skill and risk these guys are taking can be awesome to watch, and can bring generations together. We tried in vain to get get tickets for the WWE coming to the UK in September, but we have been unlucky this time. Hopefully he will get to see his heroes next time they are in town.

Warrior accompanied by his daughters during the WWE HoF

As I mentioned earlier, I have only watched it sporadically over the years, but this weekend I watched a tribute programme to my hero The Ultimate Warrior, who had sadly passed away shortly after his induction into the Hall of Fame in 2014. What struck me was I now saw the man, opposed to my hero. During his acceptance speech, his words touched me as he addressed his daughters who had accompanied on stage:

“The most awesome thing I will ever do, is be your father”

Despite all the adulation, the money, the super star lifestyle and experiences in his life, the best thing for him was being a dad.

I think many of the young boys of the late 80s and early 90s, will have watched that documentary and probably identified in their own lives. We may not have become The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan or The British Bulldog, or whatever we said we wanted to be when we were older. But we have grown up, and some by now will have had families of our own. No matter what we have achieved, whether we have been hugely successful or have done as well as our means would allow, if you have become a father, then that is the best thing you will have ever done. 

As a father now, I cannot wait to see if my young son will be as passionate about WWE as I was myself. If he is, I will move heaven and earth to attend a show here in the UK, as I remember the joy and excitement that I felt as a young boy, watching the Ultimate Warrior wrestle, and the main event where The British Bulldog, (the late Davey Boy Smith) won the Intercontinental title from his brother in law Bret The Hitman Hart at SummerSlam 1992. WWE can bring fathers and sons together. It can allow grown men to revert to the boy they once were.

 For me, there is nothing I have achieved in life that comes remotely close to becoming a father. It is with mixed feelings that I am glad to see that Warrior managed to tell his kids how he felt, and that in turn they will be able to see him live on as a hero in all of those Ultimate Warrior fans who loved him & will teach their kids about him.. But also so sorry for his daughters that they won’t have the man himself.

RIP Warrior and all of the other wrestling superstars of my childhood who have passed too soon.