Happy Anniversary to Me

I just realized that this summer marks(*) the 20 year anniversary of my pro-wrestling fandom.

That's longer than all but two of my closest friendships and almost ten times longer than every committed romantic relationship I've ever been in COMBINED(**).

As Ron Simmons would say..."DAMN!"

I don't know how I will celebrate this. Definitely tonight ring-announcing at the OSCW show at the Hazeldean Dome. Maybe I'll treat myself to this DVD from Jim Cornette's website.

I've been watching the PPV from 1989 that started it all for me, SummerSlam 89 and trying to notice little things I didn't see the first time such as when the Red Rooster injured his knee in the match against Mr. Perfect, forcing them to improvise the rest of it on the fly (***) or trying to figure out where Michaels and Santana were during the 6 man tag that left them unable to break up the pin on Marty Jannetty (****)

Weird seeing a guy in a wrestling match laid out by a basic punch, but that's the Rockers for you. Glass-jawed and stupid. Hard to believe they were my favorite tag team at the time.

What was I talking about?

A mark of my fandom is there are certain matches, events, or storylines that bring me back to certain periods of my life, the same way hearing "Stairway to Heaven" reminds most people of my generation of their first grope at the end of a high school dance. I won't say wrestling is my music--music is my music, and always will be--but it's interesting.

The Wrestlemania X ladder match reminds me of working at Pizza Hut, because I was told about it before I saw it by a morbidly obese co-worker. I even remember exactly where I was standing (In front of a counter, with a knife in my hand).

My relationship with Cat in the Hat girl was inextricably tied to wrestling. One of our first dates was at an MPW show headlined by Heavy Metal and Nite where she sewed a button onto my coat--a coat that was later stolen at an Ace Frehley concert that I went to with Heavy Metal, Slammer, and Ace Davidson. Shortly before we broke up, I remember reading about a one hour match between Shawn Michaels and John Cena on her laptop after she left for work while the back of my mind was thinking, 'this isn't working the way I thought it would.'

There are others. Some involve close friends. Some involve my brother. Happiness, heartache, and everything in between...Four-sevenths of my life has taken place in front of a backdrop of bodyslams and spandex.

Weird.

Hope to see you at the show tonight.

You know, I'll be there.

Upcoming Comedy
Sunday, August 30 - The Comic Strip - Edmonton
Tuesday, August 4 - New City - Edmonton

Upcoming Wrestling Appearances
Saturday, August 22 - OSCW August Action, Hazeldean Community Hall - Edmonton

Dan Brodribb's Geek Love appears every two weeks at www.suicidegirls.com. Current article is here.

More of Dan's musings on dating and relationships can be found on his Hot Chicks & Strangers blog.



(*) Pun intended. For those who know such things.

(**)Depending on your math and what you count as a commited romantic relationship

(***) It's earlier than I thought--when he scoops Perfect for a bodyslam (I think). He actually tries to hobble through quite a bit, before they decide to go home. Too bad about that injury. It was shaping up to be a nice little match.

(****) Here we go (Deep breath) Shawn is brawling with Raymond. Santana is originally chasing Martel, but gets caught arguing with the ref (idiot) allowing Martel to slip away and nail Jannetty, who is originally fighting Jacques but has his attention caught by manager Jimmy Hart allowing Jacques to roll him up from behind. Jannetty reverses, and that's when Martel makes his move. Shawn is caught up by Raymond and Santana is too far away (though it doesn't help that he drops to the floor to come help instead of rolling into the ring) to get there in time. You're welcome.