Bask in the presence of greatness... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Pro Wrestling has always been part of my life. Growing up in the early '70s, I remember staying up late on Saturday nights to sneak in some grappling. It wasn't as trivial a task as it may sound... I was eight or nine years old, and I had a strict curfew of 8PM-- my parents believed in 10-12 hours of sleep for a growing boy (ironic, considering that I usually only sleep four hours a night now). So, after going off to bed at 8:00PM, I would wake up at midnight, being careful not to make any noise. Then I'd sneak to my old black and white TV, adjust the rabbit ears and try to tune in Ch. 47 on the UHF-- in New York, that was the Spanish-language station. But at midnight, they ran the old WWF.

Running the ear-piece from TV to my ear, so as not to have any of that great audio leak out of my room, I eagerly awaited the night's events. Would Bruno Sammartino make any appearance? 'Quick Draw' Rick McGraw? Tony Garea? The Wild Samoans? What about my favorite wrestler, Superstar Billy Graham? To me, it was the best hour of television.

It may be difficult for some to fathom in today's world-- cable, satellite and the internet abound-- but in 1973, wrestling fans were only aware of the action in their territory. No NWA or AWA existed in New York City, so while I was captivated by the Superstar and his battles with Bruno and Pedro Morales, I was unaware of the exploits of the great Harley Race, Verne Gagne or this young kid out of Minnesota: 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair. Talk about a deprived childhood!

Wrestling stayed with me through high school, where I went out for the team, and into college. There I ran into a bunch of fellow wrestling die-hards, one of whom was a collector of The Wrestling Eye and Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Cable was in its infancy in New York in the mid-80s, so these magazines were my main source of information about the Von Ehrics and the Freebirds (out of the World Class organization), the Road Warriors (AWA in Minnesota), Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes (NWA), Kevin Sullivan and the Fallen Angel (Florida).

It was in college that I fell into my first business venture. Hanging out in the student lounge, I took some of the tenets of the Dungeons and Dragons games that my friends were involved with, combined them with my knowledge of wrestling, and created (to my knowledge) the first role-playing wrestling game: Matwars. Matwars was the centerpiece of our newly-formed gaming company, which was in business for the next couple of years. We even managed to snag a high-profile endorser for Matwars: the incomparable Sgt. Slaughter! I even got to serve as the Sarge's "manager" on one occassion, but that's another story for another time.

So wrestling has always been a part of what I enjoy. As we try to build out the new Pro Wrestling section of Sports Grumblings-- filled with breaking news, wrestler profiles and user-driven rankings-- I'll be blogging my thoughts on the industry both past and present, as well as conducting 'Dream Matches' using the old Matwars gaming engine I developed waaaaay back in 1983.

If you're interested in writing for our new Pro Wrestling section, have any questions, commenst or suggestions for 'Dream Matchups',  send 'em to me at johng@sportsgrumblings.com.