A few words from Chris Slater

My name is Chris Slater. No, I’m not THE Wrestling Dweeb, but I guess you could say I am A wrestling dweeb. I am a life-long fan of professional wrestling. I’ve been a multi-year fan of blogging, and the ability to combine the two here at the Wrestling Dweeb’s blog is an opportunity I’m very excited about.

I've been a fan of professional wrestling for most of my life. I would say I became "obsessed" around the age of 10 - 1996 - when the nWo and "Monday Night War" was heating up. I was always aware of professional wrestling, and always paid attention when it was on. However, it wasn't until 1996 that I started going out of my way to watch wrestling, buy magazines, rent pay per views, etc...

My first memory of wrestling comes from when I was 4 years old. I remember standing in my grandpa's living room and being completely scared. The Undertaker had attacked the Ultimate Warrior and stuffed him in a casket. I thought the Warrior was going to die. Luckily, the Ultimate Warrior lived to fight another day. Wait, on second thought....

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, my first wrestling memory is here for everybody to share:





To shed some light on who I am as a wrestling fan, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss my favorite wrestlers and type of wrestlers. I'm not one of the hardcore "wrestler's wrestler" people. I don't hate John Cena because he can't mat wrestle. I do like mat wrestling, but I also like to be entertained.

Pretty much standard for anybody's list of favorites is Ric Flair. I wasn't a huge fan of his until his WWE run starting in 2001, when I had a chance to go back and re-live his career and understand what he had contributed to the wrestling business.

It's not a popular thing to say, but Chris Benoit was definitely one of my favorite wrestlers when I was a kid watching WCW. I may explore that subject more in the future.. For some reason, Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid, Syxx, X-Pac) has always been one of my favorite wrestlers. He could go in the ring and he had a charisma that hooked me. Over the years, I've been attracted to the work and characters of Dean Malenko, Stevie Richards, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, The Rock, etc... It's a varied list. I like a little bit of everybody.

I don't put a lot of stock into what "era" we are currently in in professional wrestling. There are different styles of wrestling, which can be broken down into eras: early 1980's WWE was different than late '80s WWE, which was different than early '90s WWE, which was different than late '90s WWE... are you sensing a pattern?

My favorite would tend to be the only era with an actual name to it - the "Attitude Era," spanning from 1997-ish until early 2001. It wasn't just WWE. I was a huge WCW fan at the time. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, but I kept up with ECW back then.

WCW and WWE were both putting out a great product during those years. WCW was rolling ahead with the drama surrounding the nWo and Sting, while WWE was strapped to the shoulders of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and later The Rock.

One of the reasons I think there aren't a lot of definable "eras" in wrestling is because there are no definitive dates attached. Some say the "Attitude Era" began after WrestleMania 13. Others say it began after the 1997 Survivor Series. But, most generally agree that the "Attitude Era" ended on April 1, 2001 - WrestleMania X-7.

WCW had been purchased by WWE only 6 days earlier, and ECW was out of the game. The wrestling world was in a transition period, and the wrestling produced was a different product than what was on the air before WrestleMania X-7, which was headlined by the 2nd of 3 'Mania matches between Steve Austin and The Rock.



What can you expect from me in future posts? I don't expect you to come here for breaking news or general show information. You can do that at several different sites. With me, you'll likely get a lot of random bits you won't find featured anywhere else. I may post a random YouTube clip and talk about it. I'm a huge fan of wrestling trivia and may throw some out there or have a contest of some sort.

I will give you a preview of a couple blogs - I recently read Hulk Hogan's and Rey Mysterio's autobiographies and will review those. I have the book "Chris and Nancy," a look at the 2007 Benoit double-murder suicide by Irv Muchnick. I haven't read it yet, but will soon and hopefully get a few words posted about it. Also, since this decade is over, I want to look at five wrestlers who were poised to be huge stars this decade (based on their performaces in 2000-2001), but wound up not making as huge an impact as they'd like.

That's it for now. Hopefully this is the start of something fun. Comments, feedback, criticism, whatever, is encouraged.

Shameless Plug - check me out at http://twitter.com/chris_slater