To be honest, I’ve rewritten this opening a number of times but it’s hard to contextualize just how big of a wrestling fan I was as a child. Wrestling was everything young Jacob’s life revolved around.
Mondays and Thursdays were not just reserved for wrestling, they were nights where simply nothing else existed. As I entered my preteen years, I would play basketball on Monday evenings before racing home to catch Raw. Awaiting me every time was the TV on USA/TNN/Spike and a blanket and pillow when I would inevitably fall asleep after the show went off air and often before then.
Christmas and birthday gifts? Forget about getting me anything but wrestling figures. In that sense, I was a very easy and very difficult child to buy gifts for as I only wanted wrestling figures, but I also owned all of them.
And when I saw all, I truly mean all. Recently, my parents unearthed the multiple totes of wrestling figures and collectibles from my childhood. I would ballpark the number of wrestling figures in there in the 400-500 range. If I were wiser, I would have never removed them from their package and I would now be a millionaire from selling them on eBay.
Alas, my obsession with wrestling faded drastically as sports and friends and…other interests because more captivating. In reality, wrestling did itself no favors by becoming far less captivating post-Attitude Era.
I would check in occasionally when something caught my eye. The Rock returning to host Wrestlemania made me watch for a couple of months. CM Punk really caught my eye with his pipe bomb promo. Bryan Danielson’s “Yes!” movement was hard to miss. Nothing kept me around, though.
Then, I started hearing about this new promotion popping up. It felt like the new TNA or Impact, a flash in the pan that would die out. Hearing Chris Jericho as one of the headliners gave me the vibes of a company reaching for washed-up stars to bring in audiences.
But the insistence of friends — even those that had never previously watched wrestling — was notable. It was some of the buzz from social media that caught my attention, including this thread specifically.
Ultimately, it was Punk’s return paired with the insistence of friends to tune in that tipped the scales. I tuned into Rampage on August 20, 2021 to AEW for the first time. While Punk certainly had a memorable promo, I had seen Punk do memorable promos on WWE before only for the other parts of the show to fall flat and for me to lose interest.
The difference in AEW is that they produced something that completely grabbed my attention. Five days after CM Punk returned, I watched my first Dynamite and saw Jurrasic Express meet the Lucha Bros in a match that completely blew my mind.
For all of the years I watched WWE, tag team wrestling was an afterthought. It often featured two singles acts slapped together out of convenience and the result was matches that looked like four singles acts rotating through without any chemistry.
What AEW produced was something so much different and it hooked me in. The two teams told a story that was typically reserved for PPVs in WWE. Luchasaurus boggled my mind with his size and athleticism. The Lucha style of Penta and Rey Fenix is hard not to be captivated by. The drama of it being a tournament final for a shot at the champions added all the drama. I was hooked
The main question I had leaving the match was if these guys weren’t the champions, who the heck was?
Enter The Elite.
At the behest of multiple friends, I began finding out everything I could about The Elite. I had a brief introduction from the tweet above, but I needed to know more. And I quickly fell in love with Kenny Omega. He was everything I loved in a wrestler: a detailed storyteller with incredible charisma and athleticism that blended it all so perfectly.
I was immediately directed to the long-term story he told — and continues to tell — with Kota Ibushi. This beautifully detailed and written article explained their decades-long story that is everything great about wrestling. Their story led to one of the most emotional moments I can recall in a wrestling ring.
That moment, that article, that first Dynamite show, it all sucked me back into the world I didn’t realize how much I missed. It made me feel like a kid again from the sense of getting lost in a world that captivated my imagination.
It’s the story that Kenny, the Bucks and Hangman told over the opening years of the beginning of AEW that led to a match I have watched at least a dozen times. To me, the tag match between the Young Bucks and Kenny and Hangman for the titles at Revolution in 2020.
It was as emotional as a match as I can ever remember. Mixing in with that was a story within the match with numerous callbacks and, what every great match needs, incredible high-level wrestling. At least once a month, I’ll fire that match up and watch it like it’s my first time all over again.
Maybe I'm not passing time playing with wrestling action figures this time around and maybe my life wasn’t entirely consumed by wrestling anymore, but wrestling has filled a hole I did not know I had. It’s taken me back to that place I so often inhabited as a child.
The weeks, months and year that followed me watching AEW for the first time has largely been me rekindling that love for wrestling. It’s been wonderful to have that time weekly to watch wrestling again, to find about all the great moments I missed in the years I disappeared from the world of wrestling.
Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and Adam Page have been at so much of the center of that experience. But so has Jon Moxley, MJF, CM Punk, FTR, Toni Storm, Orange Cassidy, Danhausen, Lucha Bros, Jurrasic Express, Jamie Hayter, Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Swerve In Our Glory, The Briscoes and so many more.
You never forget your first love and there’s never anything quite like it, even if it takes you decades to reunite.
What I’m watching
I just finished “Tokyo Vice,” a series on HBO Max based on a true story. It’s a short first season that has a complex story to it and was recently renewed for a second season that is set up to be a very interesting one.
What I’m reading
In lieu of a book recommendation, I’d instead direct you to Seth Wickersham’s article from last month on Andrew Luck and his post-retirement life, a great behind the scenes look at a fascinating story.
Quote of the Week
There is truly only one Don Callis, that wonderful carny piece of shit.
With that, I promise I will be back next week with my wrestling awards for 2022, a list I compiled for the entirety of last year. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!
Heads up. Since you started watching AEW, the stale old moron that was booking WWE retired & it has surpassed TK’s mess. Danhausen, bro?