I was very tempted to take the day off from writing since I did my first podcast this morning and felt like a break was needed after such a daunting task.  As the day has moved along I regained some of my normal fire and decided I has at least one story in me.   since my wife is already asleep for the night and I have nothing to watch on tivo I decided to search through Netflix for something to watch.  What I stumbled upon in my search for a cure to late night boredom is the subject of this piece.
If you aren’t familiar with Netflix, lets just say that there’s a lot of weird crap available to watch.  Tonight I was looking through the sports documentaries and a few old wrestling videos popped up.  Since I’m in between shows at the moment, I thought it would he fun to see some of the old WWF guys I grew up with.
I grew up with the World Wrestling Federation.  I remember watching it just about every weekend, back when there was a good guy and a bad guy.  I remember the promos, the managers and even the finishing moves.  I even have fond memories of Saturday Nights Main Event and how excited we always were to stay up late to watch such epic matches.  I remember the villains that made the good guys look like such hero’s.  Guys like Cowboy Bob Orton,  Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Kamala and Jake the Snake Roberts.  The all did such an amazing job as heals.  I had no choice as a kid but to despise these evil men with all the passion a ten year old could muster.
I also remember trying out the finishing moves of my favorite stars.  I got used to pretending that the corner of the couch was the top rope and dropping the big elbow on one of my brothers.  Wrestling was different back in those days and I loved every second of it.
Before I get to my favorite singles wrestlers I have to mention my favorite tag teams.  They were the high flyers and dare devils back in the day.  My favorites were the killer bees and the British Bulldogs.
B. Brian Blair and Jumping Jim Brunzel were awesome.  They always used the tag so well and were great athletes.  They really flew around the ring.  As a kid that was so exciting.  The bulldogs were a little different but maybe even more exciting.  The Dynamite Kid was the high flyer of the two and always did the flying head Butt.  To this day I don’t know how you can do that move without causing yourself damage.  Davey Boy Smith brought the brute strength.  I still remember his massive power slam and his opponents just bouncing of the mat.  It looked so vicious.  I thought those guys were just crazy but I lived every minute of it.
As for the singles wrestlers, there were plenty of guys I was a fan of and most for totally different reasons.

Here’s a list of my all-time favorites and why I enjoyed watching them so much.

Junk Yard Dog-  JYD had very few wrestling skills even for those days but he danced, shook the ropes and crawled around on the mat while barking like a dog.  What kid doesn’t love that.

The Ultimate Warrior-  Warrior was just a total nut case. We knew that even back then.  I think today they refer to it as roid rage but then they just thought he was really energized.  He wasn’t blessed with an abundance of skills but his press slam was devastating.

Tito Santana – Tito was unbelievably fun to watch.  He ran all over the ring and always hit that running forearm move.  He could also really sell a move.  Santana was one of the better pure wrestlers in those days but never seemed to make it into the top-level.

Hillbilly Jim- after seeing Hillbilly in action I never wanted to mess with a country boy.  Even though he wasn’t a ring general, Jim was big and powerful and got the job done more than not.

Superfly Jimmy Snuka- Jimmy was one of my favorites for two reasons.  His brutal knife-edge chops and his top rope splash.  The chops were so loud and violent and never failed to leave a massive print but the splash was even more impressive.  He got so high in the air that it looked like Snuka was flying for just a moment.

George the Animal Steele-  Steele was just the weirdest guy with the way he moved around the ring and chewing the turn buckles but i loved him none the less.

Ricky the Dragon Steamboat-  Steamboat was the best pure wrestler from the WWF in the 80s.  he was one of the guys who really changed the sport in my opinion.  he had such precision with all his moves and was great at selling a bump.  It was a sad day when he disappeared for the WWF.

The Bird Man Koko B. Ware-  Koko was so entertaining because he was always dancing around and flapping his arms like a bird.  it always made me laugh.

Macho Man Randy Savage-  I didn’t like savage when I was very little but I grew to love him as I got older.  he was one of the best guys on the mic and always nailed the big elbow from the top rope.  it didn’t hurt that he had the best ring escort of anyone during those days.

Hulk Hogan- what list would be complete without the wrestling king of the 80’s.  Watching Hogan’s old matches now is pretty funny because he was not a good wrestler and his finishing moves were really kind of lame. the reason why he was so cool was because he would also come within an inch of losing but somehow would “hulk ” up and find a way to win.

Vince McMahon really did an awesome job back in those days of making wrestlers you could follow and cheer for.  I will never forget those guys.  It was a huge part of my childhood.