Something Scott Hudson and Steven Prazak said on my "Jerkin' The Curtain" radio show got me thinking about fans of professional wrestling. Hudson and Prazak told the story of the first time they met, it was at a wrestling show in Georgia, and they both noticed the other had all their teeth and a double digit IQ, and as result of that decided to hang out together.
Anyone that has ever attended a wrestling show knows what I'm talking about. You drive trying to find a building, sometimes in a blight-like state, and you maybe see a homemade sign saying "wrestling" on it, but for me the real indicator is when you see 'em lined up. Yep, that's them, no other group looks quite like them, you have stumbled upon the not so rare, but oh so rank, Rasslin' fans! You know it by the dirty clothes, the obviously questionable hygiene, the missing teeth, just the group of misfits that have decided to attend a wrestling show, and here you are among them. What does that say about you I've often asked myself. I've often wondered about their case histories, their family histories, some have obviously been mental patients at some point in their lives, it's a Jeff Foxworthy redneck buffet. Many of them clearly aren't "wrapped too tight". What draws them, and myself to pro wrestling is another question I ask myself. Back in the early 1970's the New York Times did an unflattering article on pro wrestling, and called it "ballet for the retarded". I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The paper there did an article on pro wrestling in the early 1980's, I remember laughing when it said "Many of the fans sitting on the front row looked like they couldn't afford to sit on the front row". So the dregs of society migrating to wrestling events is hardly anything new.
Sitting among them during a show is another "treat". I've sat beside creepy old men who kept hitting my leg to tell me something I didn't care to hear. I've sat besides really weird women, and gay guys hoping some wrestler might notice them, and brag about the time Billy Joe Travis actually waved at them. I've sat close to a nearly homeless looking couple who would bang on pots and pans they brought to the show as a way to rally a babyface, and "yell" at a heel. There is a very famous fan in the Nashville area known as "Chicken Hat Charles", Charles is famous for spazzing out at heels, to the point he grabs chairs, and whatever else he can get his hands on, and starts swinging. "Security" takes him down, and tries to calm him down, is he ejected? Hell no, this is not unusual behavior at all, in fact it's considered normal, and everyone laughs. Once during one of these fits of anger at a show, I was too close to him and he hit me on top of the head. What was funny was he then looked me and in a soft, meek little voice said "sorry", then went right back to his uncontrollable angry fit again.
Since I mentioned "security" as it is at some of these shows, that's another issue. Some shows have kids, or really scary looking people themselves doing "security". One show had a guy who was kicked out of another show for pulling a knife on someone doing "security".
Some of their conversations about wrestling are so funny because they are so wrong, but in many cases the best plan is to say nothing. I've heard fans swear Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan are brothers, and I've heard fans claim they're somehow related themselves to some wrestler, and in the fantasy in their mind they probably are. I like to look at the area in the crowd that has a few attractive girls sitting in it, they are clearly different then the garden variety wrestling fans. These are wives and girlfriends of the wrestlers, or maybe just rats. I also like to look at another group of young girls, these are clearly wrestling fans, they have the look, but they are trying to "doll up" hoping for an "encounter"(ahem) with a pro wrestler. Wanna be rats in training I suppose, but I strongly suspect given the morals, or lack there of, of some pro wrestlers even the trashiest looking wanna be doesn't remain a wanna be for long, age be damned.
Back when I had a girlfriend, yeah believe it or not I did used to have one, she was at least accepting of pro wrestling, and went to a few shows with me. She became horrified at one show when she saw a trashy looking young girl holding an infant on her lap on the front row and cussing a blue streak, dropping F and MF bombs with alarming regularity. To me it was "normal", because I had seen it done so many times before at a show, but to my then girlfriend, it was beyond disgusting. I think she was actually ready to call child protective services. She told my mother about it, who is a life long pro wrestling hater, and you can imagine the comments I received them about watching, covering and going to "stupid" wrestling.
Now there have been a few times I have spoken up to the vaunted Rasslin' fans. I remember once at a show Tony Falk was so very clearly booking. They had the announcer say like literally 30 times during the course of the night that Tony Falk was suspended from the building tonight. Well, after the 2nd or third time they said it I knew something was up and he was there, I mean they totally tipped it off. I was sitting next to some scary looking folks that night, even scary by wrestling fans standards. They had annoyed me by blowing smoke in my face, so at one point I said, you guys do know that Tony Falk is here tonight don't you? Well, they didn't agree with me at all. The main event came, and out comes Tony Falk doing his "rapper" Tu Falk For Sure gimmick. The Rasslin' fans then looked at me with a look of both disgust and admiration. They said how did you know? Gee, I said, Lucky guess!
Another time at a Bert Prentice show in Lebanon, Tn, there was a match for the North American title between Mike "Colorado Kid" Rapada and Chris Harris. I knew Harris was going to win the title from Rapada because Rapada was going to Florida a few days after that to win the NWA title. The fan sitting next to me that night did nothing at all to annoy me, but for some reason I told him "Harris is wining the title tonight". He strongly disagreed with me. I offered him a 100 dollar bet on it, and I think he was actually considering it, but he did decline, I would have been shocked if he would have had 100 bucks on him. Well, Harris did indeed win the title, the match had no heat at all, and that was the end of the show. When the finish hit, I winked at the guy and said "I told ya so" and I walked out the building, as he sat there looking at me with a shocked look.
A few other "honorable mentions" go to the fan "Chip" at the OVW tapings in Louisville. This wacko had an obsession with womens feet, looking that them in a way that would make even the most decdadent pervert uncomfortable. His mother yelling at him as he was frothing at the mouth while staring at the girls' feet only added to the festivities...
More recently at a show in Millersville, TN a fight broke out in the crowd in a different section that I was sitting in. The guy kicked out after the fight was actually wearing an Adolf Hitler T-shirt, and had scary Nazi tattoos on him. Where in the Hell would a person even find a Hitler T-shirt, let alone wearing it out in public. That same guy then got into another fight in the parking lot.
The worst one I've ever seen though was in Cookeville, TN. This was a Fair show. But the show itself wasn't fair it all, much of it was terrible. I watched it with the current voice of SAW Jack Johnson. This thing lasted like 4 hours, and maybe even a bit longer. During the main event, a strong style match with some weapons used, a long nail or a spike flew into what was left of a thin crowd anyhow, and hit a pregnant girl in the stomach. Was this cause for alarm? Well, it kinda was, they took her away for medical attention, and I can see her now, being real pregnant, and still smoking a cigarette as they took her away, I mean she's pregnant and smoking anyhow, which is horrific in itself nowadays, but she can't even be bothered to put the damned cigarette down after being hit with a flying long nail in her preggo belly. That my friends is Rasslin' fans! Actually, what's funny about that is I found out later she was the sister of one of the wrestlers on the show.
Rasslin' fans.....You don't gotta love 'em...Trent Van Drisse
