Pro wrestling column: Nearly 25 years later, it's finally time to get back in the game

Dec. 5—Sometimes you get an itch. And sometimes, it takes a while to scratch that itch.

Not long after I started at The Register-Herald in 1996, at the age of 22 (with no end in sight, if it be God's will), I stumbled into one of my favorite parts of a nearly three-decade career. I don't even remember how it got started, but I had the opportunity to write about one of my true loves.

Pro wrestling.

I started watching when I was 7 and was hooked after listening to legendary announcer Gordon Solie call the matches of stars such as Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, Buzz Sawyer, the Armstrongs and "Hacksaw" Butch Reed on Superstation WTBS. Channel 17. Every Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. Now here I was, fresh out of college, getting paid to write about something I loved when I probably would have done it for free.

But, after a couple of years, my responsibilities began to increase and I could no longer find the time to write my weekly (mostly) columns. As much as I didn't want to, I had to move on.

It was a good thing, though. Not long after I stopped writing, World Wrestling Federation owner/chairman/CEO/whatever Vince McMahon bought World Championship Wrestling, stomping on so many of our childhood memories.

Suddenly, I didn't care if I watched wrestling ever again. Sure, I enjoyed the gimmick era of the WWF, but WCW represented an extension of and appreciation of the tradition that defined Jim Crockett Promotions and the National Wrestling Alliance.

I continued watching, just not nearly as loyally as I once did. But after Kevin Owens won the WWE (the WWF had long since rebranded itself) Universal championship in 2015, I stopped watching altogether.

(It had nothing to do with that match. I just remember that being the last time I watched.)

I just didn't care anymore.

Somewhere along the way, however, it started to slowly come back. And I do mean slowly. I was listening to podcasts. I was admiring the belt collections that fans from all over the country were posting on social media (a hobby I will never get into, although if someone wanted to throw a Classic IC my way, I wouldn't turn it down).

In 2019, All Elite Wrestling was founded, adding a little more bounce to the wrestling reemergence within me. A long way to go, but there was at least a little nod to the late 1990s and the Monday Night Wars between WCW and the WWF.

By the second half of 2020, thoughts of bringing back my pro wrestling column started entering my head. I just wasn't anywhere near knowledgable enough to seriously consider it.

That started picking up when my son Patrick, now 13, became as much a fan of WWE as I was a fan of Georgia Championship Wrestling. His favorite wrestler is Roman Reigns, which is OK because, as we all know, nobody is perfect.

Patrick's intense love for WWE finally got me going (again, not to the degree of my younger days), and it didn't take long before I was getting acquainted with the wrestlers' names and (for the most part) entrance songs.

Now we don't miss a WWE pay-per-view (sorry, I meant "premium live event") thanks to the low, low price of a Peacock TV subscription.

Eventually, I started getting back the ability to make accurate predictions (my friend and colleague Blaine can attest — I called Brock Lesnar turning on Cody Rhodes).

And Patrick now has the gift — he predicted Iyo Sky cashing in her Money in the Bank contract at SummerSlam.

I am still trying to get into AEW, and that has been a slow process. The roster is too big, there are 800 factions and a heel turn seemingly every week. Ironically, my biggest criticism of the WWF back in the day was its questionable programming, and I wasn't a Christian back then. I am now, which is why I have a similar problem with AEW (namely, the language and the fact that most of the wrestlers are free with the use of the middle finger).

A big plus for me concerning AEW has been Sting. The Crow version of Sting will forever be my favorite wrestler for a number of reasons.

The Sting vs. New World Order storyline of 1997 will forever be the greatest of all time and that isn't up for debate. When a wrestler can go over a year without wrestling or even speaking and keep you glued to your TV every Monday night, that's how it's done.

More so — and this will sound strange — I can somewhat relate to that version of Sting. Once the wild and colorful surfer Sting who emerged in the late 1980s and became the face of the NWA/WCW, he felt betrayed and abandoned as people began to fall in line with the NWO. I've been there, feeling abandoned professionally by people I always thought would be by my side. And I have definitely felt that I'm fighting the fight alone. I think we all have felt that way before at some point.

I had to remember that as betrayed as I might have felt, I was never alone because God is with me. I was eventually able to let go of that bitterness, and that's another way I can connect not with Sting, but with Steve Borden, the man behind the face paint. He, too, was born again and is led by his faith in Jesus Christ.

And so now, here I am, three years after getting the itch, finally making the move. Pro wrestling has a strong mainstream presence, and locally there are so many opportunities for local fans to enjoy some wrestling, so I believe now is the time for me to jump back in.

How often will this column run? I can't say. But I plan to enjoy the ride.

Sure, I will write about WWE and AEW. And I'll be honest, there are so many organizations getting significant play (Impact, NXT, New Japan, MLW, etc.) that it makes my head spin — I'm not 22 anymore, so bear with me.

(One group I wish to avoid is the IWC — the Internet Wrestling Community. Yikes. I think this is what Gorilla Monsoon prophetically had in mind when he coined the phrase "fountain of misinformation." And it also falls into the category of "miscarriage of justice.")

But I largely will be writing about all of the opportunities here in our own backyards. And I will write about all of them, without bias.

When I was doing this in my younger days, I was literally asked not to write about this organization or that wrestler. Embarrassingly, I gave in. And while, yes, I stopped writing because I was busier than I had been, a big reason I stopped writing was the distrust that existed between certain organizations. It was weighing on me and I was no longer willing to put up with it.

I can assure you none of that will happen now. I will write about them all. Whatever behind-the-scenes jealousies and envies exist will have to be worked out between those parties.

I plan on attending as many cards as I can, with my son, no matter the organization, as often as my schedule will allow. And I'm looking forward to it.

Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5