You Always Remember Your First

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, we reminisce on our first favorites in our wrestling fandom.

Who was your first favorite wrestler?

Juan Bautista: Jeff Hardy. He stood out doing whisper in the wind and other crazy shit. The feud with Umaga still holds up.

Steven Jackson: Goldberg. He just came through the screen and got me so pumped up. I don’t look at Goldberg today as I don’t want to. I look at WCW Goldberg who was able to take on the world!

Chad Gelfand: Jeff Hardy. Jeff just embodied cool. From his in-ring style to how he carried himself, he seemed like the coolest wrestler on the planet.

John Corrigan: Scotty 2 Hotty. The Worm captivated 7-year-old me.

Jack Goodwillie: Eddie Guerrero, but that’s only because his segment came before John Cena’s, who became my second favorite wrestler on that same night thanks to a forgotten match where he took The Undertaker to the limit on the Great American Bash go-home show in 2004. I believe the date was June 24, 2004 if anybody wants to look it up.

Who was the first wrestler you hated?

Jackson: Good question. Bizarrely it was probably Bobby Lashley. I never hated any wrestlers growing up. I enjoyed everyone in their own way. But Lashley really angered me.

Gelfand: Triple H. J.R.’s visceral hatred of Triple H rubbed off on me when I was younger and he also always cheated to beat my favorite wrestlers.

Corrigan: Mr. McMahon. I couldn’t believe he screwed The Rock at WrestleMania 2000.

Goodwillie: Keeping with the theme of 2004 WWE, it either had to be Triple H or JBL. My only exposure to Triple H at this time, since I wasn’t yet watching Raw, was during the Raw Rebound segments they would run during SmackDown, recapping the headlining segment from the other show. It didn’t take seeing Triple H on screen for more than five seconds to know what a terrible man he portrayed himself to be, particularly with the Eugene story happening at the time. Then again, JBL had an incredible heel aura to him, so this is a “what came first” type of situation. Either way, it was one of these two.

What was the first pro wrestling event you went to?

Bautista: A SmackDown taping in 2009.

Jackson: I was lucky to attend WCW when it came to the U.K. in 2000. It wasn’t the WCW people remember, but I had so much fun.

Gelfand: A WWE house show on Super Bowl Sunday 2011 that opened with CM Punk vs. John Cena and closed with Edge vs. Dolph Ziggler. I will always remember Cena’s music hitting to open the show and people rushing to their seats like the running of the bulls. That’s what it’s like to be over.

Corrigan: Gorgeous Ladies of Outrageous Wrestling (GLOOW) presents Hovember to Remember in November of 2002. It was a crazy, mostly women’s indie event at the National Guard Armory in Philly that featured Moolah and Mae Young in a street fight against Julius Smokes and somebody else in the main event. My dad bought us tickets and he still cracks up at this lady named Psycho Bitch.

Goodwillie: We went to a SmackDown house show at the Sovereign Center (now Santander Arena) right around the time of WrestleMania 22, maybe shortly before, because I can recall Kurt Angle being the World Heavyweight Champion in the program I still have at my mom’s house. I do recall Randy Orton being in the main event, probably against Angle because they would always have all the titles on the line at these types of shows to make the crowd feel special. It worked on my gullible 12/13-year-old brain.

What was the first wrestling pay-per-view you watched?

Bautista: WrestleMania 21. This is still one of my favorite shows. The first Money in the Bank took place and Eddie vs. Rey was good.

Jackson: Royal Rumble 1990. It was on a VHS tape which was lent to my grandma (oddly) from one of her friends. I remember my cousin and I watching Hulk Hogan winning the main event. Although I wasn’t hooked at that point, it was a step in getting there.

Gelfand: Invasion 2001. I have probably seen that PPV 100 times because it was also the first wrestling tape I had.

Corrigan: WrestleMania 2000. Because I had to go to bed at 10 p.m., I taped it and watched the rest the next day before school. It’s funny that the event is universally shit on these days, because at the time, I thought it was awesome. The triangle ladder match, Chyna shooting a bazooka, Pete Rose and the San Diego Chicken, a McMahon in every corner, etc.

Goodwillie: Great American Bash 2004, but we actually got back from Hershey Park that night and missed the first match or two, and came in right as John Cena defended the United States Championship against Booker T, RVD and Dupree. So, with that said, the first full wrestling pay-per-view I watched was SummerSlam of that same year. The main event? Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton. Of course, my Dad would poke his head in to watch some of it as well, and he happened to catch the Triple H-Eugene match which may or may not have helped shape his opinion of wrestling for the foreseeable future.

Who was your first wrestling crush?

Bautista: Melina. She was one of the more unique women on the roster at that time that could have a good match, cut promos and even today is still great to see work.

Jackson: Stacy Keibler. Even now as a grown man, I think Stacy is stunning. As Miss Hancock in WCW, that’s what I watched her for. Not terrible WWE matches I’d rather forget existed.

Gelfand: 2000 Trish Stratus.

Corrigan: Stacy Keibler. I had her poster on my wall. Ah, what a childhood.

Goodwillie: I didn’t really steer too hard into this as a kid because I knew no matter what kind of success I might see in life, that me and Torrie Wilson? Dawn Marie? Miss Jackie? It could never happen. That being said, when Mickie James debuted on Raw, suddenly, everything changed.

What was your first wrestling shirt?

Bautista: It was an Undertaker shirt. He was on the front of a black T-shirt.

Jackson: It was an awesome ROH Kings of Wrestling T-shirt. Simple blue background with bold white lettering displaying “Kings Reign Supreme.” You wouldn’t know it was a wrestling T-shirt unless you looked at the back, and that’s what I liked the most.

Gelfand: The Rock’s “Layeth the SmackDown” T-shirt.

Corrigan: My Gram bought me a Stone Cold University shirt. She also bought me Trish Stratus’ DVD, so yes, she was the best.

Goodwillie: This might surprise, but it was a heel’s shirt. MISTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA KENNEDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. It was actually a cool shirt. The front ohad Kennedy hitting his signature pose where he would summon down the microphone with blue and white splatter behind him, and the back of the shirt said something like, “Nice guys finish last.” I felt so cool.