As wrestling fans, we’re often asked one question, by both non fans and fans alike too; and that question is simply – “Why are you a wrestling fan?. I’ve been asked that question repeatedly, never being able to come up with the right words to find an answer. I asked myself that same question recently and I thought long, hard and thoroughly about my answer.
See, like in anything in life, we’re all different. We all have different backgrounds, be that sexuality, gender, religion, ability or in my case, at least, disability – the one thing that unites us in this often judgmental world, is our love for our passions. It doesn’t matter whether you have a passion for football, art, music or wrestling – all of our stories differ but we all love that one thing that we’re passionate about. The biggest thing I’ve found with wrestling fans is that we all have a story to tell. I’ve never openly spoken about wrestling and what it means to me but, now, I have an opportunity to do so.
Back in June 1991, I was born. I was born in a very complicated manner and with a disability, a disability known as Spina Bifida; which basically means I’m paralyzed and will use a wheelchair for the rest of my life. Now, like most 80’s and 90’s kids, I had a very sport and superhero related upbringing. We all remember Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, we all remember sitting down with our families to watch Gladiators on television. We all recall fondly of watching the football each and every week, an event in which some of us partake in now.
Unfortunately, I could never enjoy the physicality of football or get involved in the rough and tumble that came with “being a lad” as it was affectionately known when I was younger. A result of this, meant I was very much the outcast; a target for bullies. My physical appearance made me a big target to be tipped from my wheelchair for fun and worse still, name called. As a child, a naive child at that, this all hurt. Friends were few and far between for me, that is until my very first exposure to wrestling. I found wrestling, wrestling found and saved me.
Like most 90’s kids, I grew up around the forever adored Attitude Era. I accidentally fell in love with it, with wrestling, too. I remember my first time seeing wrestling; one of my parents was flicking through the channels and on at the time was WWF No Mercy – the Terri Invitational Tag Team Ladder match between Matt & Jeff Hardy against Edge & Christian. My Mother tells me “Even as a kid, you went through an awful lot – that was the only time you were so engrossed in something, you forgot where you were and it took you away”.
I was addicted there then, I never thought four people would and could risk their bodies so much to just entertain me and, as I later realized, so many others in the world. Weeks, months and a couple of years passed and so too, did my love of wrestling. I’d gone from watching one match to watching wrestling as often as I could. Every Monday night, we had Raw and, on Channel 5, WCW Nitro, coupled with Sunday Night Heat and a monthly Pay Per View.
Wrestling for me, has many different avenues to be supported. You don’t have to watch all the time to be a fan. I did, but I gradually learned to expand my viewing into collections – toys, VHS tapes, DVD’s and the various sticker books, the annuals too. I’ll never forget wheeling into a toy store for the first time, seeing an aisle full of wrestling figures and those life-size standees situated at each end. Even now, collecting autographs gives me a childlike thrill. My watching experience grew and grew as I grew up, I developed a love for D-Generation X, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and even more so; The Hardy Boyz.
As I got older, hitting the early double digits; my personal life took a turn and became less about the bullying but more about hospitals. The very first surgical procedure (and every single one since) became all about the wrestling for me. My very first hospital visit entailed me taking WWE Smackdown 2 and, in the weeks after my operation, playing that with other patients.As well as that, and in other longer stays while recovering from countless procedures over the years, taking games and hving family print off the various weekly results so I didn’t miss a single thing.
In recent years, with the growth of social media, I have been very blessed as a wrestling fan. It’s no secret that I will never get to WrestleMania, nor will I get to have a Wrestlemania moment – I got something far, far greater out of wrestling.
I regularly use My Twitter and Instagram to follow the day to day lives of Wrestlers that I grew up idolizing; wrestlers such as Road Dogg and X-Pac. I’ve been blessed to have spoken to the likes of Matt Hardy, a personal hero of mine like Jeff is; I’ve spoken to many wrestling personalities; people I may never get to meet in person. By and large, we live in a very rapidly advancing technological world; a world that has a positive and negative effect on wrestling but I can honestly say, social media for wrestling changed everything for me. It’s allowed me to meet new wrestling fans, fans that are friends now and speak to various different wrestlers. How lucky am I?
I’ve had some special moments as a wrestling fan, none more so than getting the incredible opportunity to Face-Time with X-Pac, one of my aforementioned idols. The craziest part though, has been the moments where I’ve been able to converse with various fans across the world. Those very fans, they’ve become friends. Those friends, they don’t care about ability or disability. They don’t care who you like or who you dislike in wrestling, just that you’re passionate about it.
For me, when I asked myself “Brett, why do you like wrestling?” I never had an answer. I do now and it’s a meaningful one. “Why do you like wrestling?” they ask. “Moments” I reply. 7 year old Brett won’t forget the moment he saw Matt and Jeff Hardy scale a ladder and then jump off it. I won’t forget seeing Triple H betray X-Pac at WrestleMania 15, nor will I forget The Rock brutalise Mankind with a steel chair.
I won’t forget my first time at a wrestling event, back in 2010 in Manchester, seeing AJ Styles in action. I won’t forget my very first Raw show from Liverpool, seeing Seth Rollins, John Cena, Paige to name but a few wrestlers I like. I won’t forget shedding tears of sadness when we were told Eddie Guerrero had passed away, nor will I forget those tears of happiness seeing Jeff Hardy become WWE Champion for the first time; a wish I carried with me for years.
I can’t forget the amazing fans I meet, day in day out, that love wrestling just as much as I do. Those very fans, treat me as one of their own. Wrestling is a marvelous escape from reality, it takes your aches and pains; no matter how severe and just erases them in ways no medication never could.
Wrestling and all it’s moments, they mean everything to me. Wrestling, when the world wasn’t such a good place, became a second home. A place where nothing else mattered but the bright lights, the music, the fans, the wrestlers and the personalities – they all matter. We gain strength from strange places. The man writing this, me, gained his strength from all his heroes. The Rock, he gave me strength. Stone Cold, he did. X-Pac taught me to never quit, no matter what. The Hardyz taught me to be fearless; they taught me to be proud of the skin I’m in. Wrestling healed me more than anything else.
Wrestling is life changing. Wrestling is an always will bean escape from reality for so many people. It genuinely doesn’t matter who you like in any part of the wrestling world, we’ve all formed an unbreakable bond with so many different wrestlers and those bonds extend to the I credible fans too.
Wrestling is my life. Wrestling is everything.
Brett @BrettSG91
