This is the Fatman’s original article denoting our one year anniversary of The Wrestling Show unedited in it its original format. Enjoy!
WOW!! One full year of this podcast!! However, the story starts LONG before last year. Yes, this is one of those articles.
My brothers would watch wrestling every Saturday morning. WWF Superstars. They are six and seven years older than me and I can remember my brother Adam holding me while he watched wrestling. I was hooked from that point forward. They “grew out” of watching but I (obviously) didn’t. I channel surfed for more wrestling. I was fortunate enough to have cable in the late 1980′s, early 1990′s and I found this station called TBS and on Saturday nights this other wrestling promotion called the NWA was on. I found it more entertaining than the WWF. I never really bought into Hulk Hogan. Ric Flair was my guy! He was (and probably still is) better than Hogan in every way. Yes, I stilled watched the WWF because it was wrestling. My brother Jason still makes fun of me for watching it but I know he is still interested in it. That is the start of my story. In all honestly, I really didn’t have anyone to watch it with. It was just me seating right in front of the TV every Saturday morning and night. That was until the sixth grade.
I was late of science class and the only seat available was next to this chubby kid. But I noticed he was wearing an Undertaker T-Shirt. I leaned in and whispered to him “You like wrestling”? He gave me a weird look. A look that would come to be his normal facial expression and said “Um, yes.” I screamed “Me too”. The teacher and everyone gave me a weird look. Must of been a day for weird looks. Anyways, we had the same lunch period together and got to know each other. His name was Mike Nowak. You would come to know him as Sleazy.
The funny thing was that we actually didn’t start watching wrestling together until junior year of high school but we both watched it. We were fortunate enough to love wrestling when wrestling was in it’s boom period. The “Monday Night Wars”. WCW v. WWF. It was an extremely fun time to be a fan and not just a casual fan who stopped watching it after it became less popular. We loved it. I was a WWF guy and Sleazy loved ECW but his parents would only let him watch WCW due to the WWF being in the “Attitude Era”.
We would talk on the phone for a few hours and just talk wrestling. Then the internet exploded and we would AIM chat about it. We would get drive licenses and go over to each other houses and play wrestling games on the Nintendo 64 and talk wrestling. We both have been to wrestling events but never together. I went to a few houses show and a couple SmackDown! tapings with my Dad and a couple other friends but they weren’t really into like Sleazy and myself. We got jobs and were like, lets go to some events! The first event was a Pay-Per-View. The 2005 Great American Bash in Buffalo. We are both card players so we went to Canada for a few hours and played at Seneca-Niagara Casino and got raped by the rake and we were pissed but the PPV was coming up and it was both our first one ever!! The event wasn’t very good but we had fun time. Sleazy, remember the burning of the Quebec flag?!?!?!? We went to a Raw taping in Rochester in 2006 where DX reunited! That was fun!! We then went to SummerSlam in Boston. Weird trip but a good time. I went to WrestleMania 23 in Detroit while Sleazy was smart enough to stay at home while I got a gun pointed to my head because I had to pee!! The next event we went to together was the 2008 Armageddon in Buffalo. I had a herniated disc in my back but still went. That event was pretty awesome!! I went to the 2009 Night Of Champions in Philadelphia. Great time with Swarley and Russ but Sleazy is my wrestling buddy. Something was just off on that trip. Nothing against Swarley or Russ, but it was a wrestling trip and it didn’t feel right without Sleazy being there. The next trip we would take would change everything!!
Have I bored you guys yet?? Yes?? Well suck it up!! The best part is coming!! I would randomly show up at Sleazy’s house and we would talk wrestling for hours. I had Swarley with me one day and Sleazy and I went on our wrestling rant and Swarley said something that would change history!! (Too dramatic??) He said “Why don’t you guys do a podcast about wrestling?? You talk about enough.” Sleazy and I locked eyes and we had one of our classic telepathic conversions (this was the first and only time we have ever had one). Both our minds said “That’s an amazing idea!” It took us some time to get everything together but in November 2012, we started The Wrestling Show. I know, the back story probably went on for too long but it’s important to know.
We decided to go to WrestleMania XXIX. My second Mania and Sleazy’s first. Added bonus was that it was in Sleazy’s favorite city of New York City!! I have never been to New York City and I had a great time sightseeing even though we didn’t see half the shit we wanted it. We went to the ROH Pay-Per-View at Hammerstein Ballroom and we got there early. We were handing out these cheaply made little flyers about our show when we got to talking to two Canadians. They were from Newfoundland and they were passion about wrestling like us and were assholes…JUST LIKE US. Their names were Ryan Williams and Travis Canning. I had a pleasure of sharing a few beers with these guys and that was the start of it man. Just talking wrestling and hockey while at an ROH event. It was a blast. We exchanged Facebook info and after the event we went on our separated ways (at least for the time being). Sleazy and I went to the ROH TV tapings the next day and we met Michael Elgin and Jay Briscoe. That was very cool! However, watching our seventh hour of live wrestling in less than 24 hours burnt us both out. We both regret not going to WrestleCon or the Hall Of Fame but it’s all good.
We did the same thing we did at WrestleMania that we did at ROH. Got there early and started to hand out flyers and tape a show. My voice was gone at this point so I was the camera man while Sleazy was asking the random people in the parking lot of MetLife Stadium questions. We parked next to his big guy from Maryland named Brandon Dietz. We got to talking and became quick friends. WrestleMania wasn’t the best show. To me, it didn’t feel like what a WrestleMania should have felt like. It felt like just another Pay-Per-View to me.
As for this VERY long story, it isn’t over. We will be going to Pittsburgh in January for the Royal Rumble (Brandon and I will be, Sleazy is still up in the air) and we will continue to give you (the fans) the best that we have. Every podcast, every article, every post. That is only fair to you guys.
As for Sleazy. That day is sixth grade really was life changing for me. If I had never met you, I would probably be dead right now and that’s the truth. I’m glad that you are my partner in crime on this crazy adventure that we are on. I hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon. I love you bro!!
