I've Been a Fan of Fantasy Sports For Longer Than I Realized

One of the things I often don't admit or acknowledge about my totally geeky youth is the love I had for professional wrestling. It took me a couple of years to completely accept that it was fake competition - and I think that's what pushed me into becoming the big sports fan I am today - but while I was in adolescent denial, I really enjoyed it.

And somehow, I got my dad into it, too, which is something my sister and I chuckle about to this day. He even shelled out to take the whole family to live wrestling events in Detroit, perhaps most famously Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome.

What got me reminiscing about the interest that I try to repress in my memory was The Film Geek's post (and Wabi-Sabi's Tweet) about Ric Flair, who retired after his match on Sunday night. And here's what really makes me feel old: Sunday night's match took place at Wrestlemania XXIV. Man, a lot of Roman numbers have been added since the last time I watched wrestling.

Anyway, I was in the stands at Joe Louis Arena in 1987, when Flair lost his championship to Ron Garvin. And, of course, there's video of the match available on YouTube. (I could actually relive my entire wrestling loving childhood in about one afternoon on YouTube.) It's a long clip, and might just bore the crap out of you if you're not into wrestling, but if you fast-forward to the 8:40 mark, that was a pretty cool moment, scripted entertainment or not.



Flair won his belt back two months later in Chicago, but I thought it was so cool to be in attendance when a title changed hands. (Even if it did happen to Flair quite a bit over what was a long, long career.) Now I'm kind of wishing I could've seen that last match on Sunday.