I love wrestling tournaments.
When I was a kid, I would walk to our local video rental joint (R.I.P. Movie Zoo) and rent wrestling tapes from their cardboard display every weekend. They were 88 cents a pop, and I’d almost always grab WrestleMania 4, unless the one other person in my small town (@TapeMachines) who rented old wrestling had grabbed it.
The trick to WrestleMania 4 was it was a two tape set, so double the tapes for the same price. And it was a tournament.
I loved the journey of the tournament no matter how many times I saw it.
In high school, I actually started hanging out with the people who would become my closest friends because we all loved wrestling and I had ordered Survivor Series: Deadly Game.
Both of those shows are ... well, they’re not good in retrospect. There were a lot of bad matches and not much good in-ring stuff. But they were central moments in my wrestling fandom.
Similarly, in 2004, I went with some of those same guys to the Ted Petty Invitational, which is still one of the greatest independent wrestling events ever. The field featured Samoa Joe, Roderick Strong, Nigel McGuinness, Cesaro, Chris Sabin, A.J. Styles, Matt Sydal, Super Dragon, Petey Williams, Chris Hero, Mike Quackenbush, Nate Webb, CM Punk, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and Bryan Danielson ... and that’s leaving out a ton of other talent.
It’s the greatest wrestling event I’ve ever attended live.
While great tournaments are more of a staple in wrestling now, the very idea of one taking place still gets me excited.
As I’m writing this, I’m watching the first episode of the 2018 Mae Young Classic for the second time — even though there were some rough spots in the first set of matches.
But my daughter is also attending her first few days of kindergarten and I’m feeling very old. It’s making me look at this show and think how awesome it is to see a well produced tournament full of incredibly talented women.
I’ll share these episodes of the MYC with my daughter. She loves watching wrestling with me and I want to bring her the joy of a tournament featuring the kinds of strong women she gets most excited about.
Wrestling is good.
- Here is the recap and reactions post for episode one of the Mae Young Classic.
- We’ve also got your NXT needs covered with a recap and reactions post.
- Need a preview before tonight’s episode of Impact? Make sure to join us for tonight’s live blog.
- The NWA had another great episode of “Ten Pounds of Gold,” make sure to check it out.
- Here’s some stuff about Joey Ryan and his penis.
- The Super Show-Down booking is a little uninspired right now.
- Marty Scurll says the rumors of heat for going over time at ALL IN are false.
- Raw’s ratings weren’t too bad considering the holiday.
Now...back to what I was doing.
HIT IT. pic.twitter.com/ato8V6Fj6V
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) September 6, 2018