The first match I ever watched

Let me take you all on a little stroll down memory lane and talk about the first match I ever watched. I'll also explain how it felt to re-watch it now after all these years. 

No matter what fandom you are a part of, there was always a starting point for it. That moment when you were first introduced to the fandom. That moment that ignited it all inside you!

Maybe it was the moment Whitewalkers were introduced or when Brandon Stark was thrown off the tower by Jaime Lannister. Perhaps it was when Hagrid informs Harry Potter that he was a Wizard. Possibly, it was when Luke Skywalker learnt that he was the hope for an entire galaxy to overthrow the imperial rule of a Sith lord. It could be the moment when Kal-El was sent on a spacecraft to Earth by his parents or maybe it was when Tony Stark boldly proclaimed before national media that he was Ironman.

I'm talking about moments like those! The time it all began!

For me, such a moment happened in 2007, when I was barely 11 years old. I watched my first ever ProWrestling match and was instantly hooked into it. 

I was first introduced to wrestling sometime before that in the form of WWE RAW game which I played in an internet centre with my brother. But, at that time, it was just a game to me. I've never been a passionate gamer and hence, it had little influence over me. I played using the characters of The Rock, Rikishi and so on. 

An year or two later, I was introduced to this channel called 'Jetix'. Every time I came home from school, I watched Jetix. From 'Timon and Pumba' to 'Spiderman Animated Series' to 'Power Rangers', I watched them all. 

That's when this channel telecasted a show called 'WWE 24/7'. It was basically a show hosted by the legendary 'Mean' Gene Okerlund (although, back then, I had no idea who that 'bald grandpa' was) that telecasted wonderful matches from the past. 

When I decided to watch the show, I got to watch a ProWrestling match for the first time. 

Little did I know I was watching one of the most celebrated matches in the history of WWE.

The Rock vs Hulk Hogan from Wrestlemania 18 in 2002!

At that time, I was just fascinated to see "that guy from that fighting game" fight another guy on TV. I had no idea why the crowd was going nuts nor did I know who the bad guy or good guy was. I barely knew their names. For me, it was just a muscular old guy with a cloth on his head fighting against that guy from the fighting game. I watched the entire match with my jaw open. I thought to myself, "Man, those two must really hate each other to fight this way". 

Plus, I was really awe-struck to see The Rock move the same way he moved in that game. The way he slapped Hogan, the way he hit Rock Bottom, the way he posed for the fans, it was all just like the game. At that age, it was just magic to me.

Fast-forward 13 years later, I'm a much wiser ProWrestling fan who loves it several times more now than I loved it back then. And recently, I subscribed to WWE Network.

Now what would be the right thing to do? Yes, re-watch the first match I ever saw. I did exactly that.

This time, it was a whole different experience for me. Because, this time, I knew a lot of things about The Rock, Hulk Hogan and ProWrestling matches in general that I didn't know back then. So, revisiting that match now was a jaw opening experience for me, for a variety of reasons.

Hulk Hogan was the guy who put WWE on the map back in the 80s and early 90s. His popularity was just sky-high. On the other hand, The Rock was one of the guys who helped WWE survive after Hogan left for rival company, WCW. Well, in fact, The Rock was one of the guys who helped the company win the famous 'Monday Night Wars'. His popularity during the late 90s and early 2000s was equally remarkable. And this was a dream match between these two legends.  Like the commentators mentioned during the match-up, this was like a fight between two lions. The older, experienced lion Hulk Hogan was being challenged by the new, younger lion The Rock to establish dominance over the pride that was WWE and its fans. The match was billed as 'Icon vs Icon', a clash of generations.

Now, the most interesting aspect about this match wasn't that it was a dream face-off. No! It was the audience. Unlike many other forms of entertainment, the involvement of the fans is crucial to ProWrestling. This match was an embodiment of that very fact.

Hell, the pace of this match was entirely dictated by the fans. I'll tell you how. 

The Rock was walking into this match as a face, the good guy. Hollywoood Hulk Hogan, part of the notorious New World Order, was a heel, the bad guy. But the fans in Skydome at Toronto, Canada where this match took place didn't seem to care about that. Most of them were Hulk Hogan fanatics, also dubbed as "Hulkamaniacs". There were a lot of fans for The Rock too but the Hulkamaniacs took the centre stage and they were so raucous that most of The Rock's fans were silenced during the duration of the match.

The end result was that... The Rock was booed badly in spite of being the hero and Hogan enormously cheered in spite of being the villain of this story!

The electric atmosphere in the crowd was simply extraordinary and the wrestlers themselves were confused. The Rock realised that he was being hated by these fans for facing their hero, the iconic Hulk Hogan. You could see it in his eyes in the image below.

Then, the two wrestlers, being the experts at what they do, decided to shake things up!

As The Rock recently said on his Instagram to commemorate the 18th Anniversary of this match, at this time, he decided to act like the bad guy. When Hogan threw him off after their first lock-up, The Rock didn't take the fall like a face and come back to try again. Instead, he acted furious, like a villain would do. He decided to satisfy the fans and become a subtle villain, someone they could boo with all their hearts. At one point in the match, he was even ready to bring a steel chair into the match, an illegal move that only villains do. But the referee pulled it away from him.

Meanwhile, Hogan turned hero. The crowd cheered for everything he did. Every little clothesline, every comeback, had the audience exploding in cheers. There was even a moment when Hulk Hogan was biting The Rock which made his fans scream in support.

Ultimately, The Rock won the match and Hogan shook his hand in good sportsmanship. After the match, New World Order members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash attacked Hulk Hogan, probably for embarrassing them by losing. In response to that, The Rock rushes back into the ring and saves the crowd favourite Hogan from their attack. Following that, The Rock asked Hogan to pose for his fans in the crowd. That way, even the Hulk Hogan fans who booed The Rock earlier, began to cheer him.

Thus, at the end, The Rock won both the match and the heart of the fans. The torch was successfully passed from The Hulkster to The Great One, without fan backlash, just like WWE probably wanted.

Now, this wasn't a memorable match in terms of pure wrestling as it mostly involved the men throwing punches and hitting each other with their best moves. It was a noteworthy match because it showcases how the fans are a major integral part of ProWrestling. It was a great match because of the star power that only Hulk Hogan and The Rock could bring to the table. Mostly, it was a legendary match because of the way these two fabled performers acknowledged the fans and told a wonderful "passing of the torch" story with their performance.

This is a match I'll always remember.

Like Good ol' Jim Ross said, "It is a match for the ages"!