Before I begin trying to explain my love for pro wrestling, I have to confess that I rarely watch it anymore. Over the last few years, other interests such as travel have completely replaced my time in front of television screens and shockingly, that includes WWE. I used to watch every single minute of wrestling on TV: Saturday Nights Main Event, Prime Time Wrestling, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown, etc. I still keep up with the main storylines by reading the results online but I don’t really make time to catch the weekly shows.

This weekend I attended the WWE Royal Rumble and while I was there, I felt like I was entering a new phase in my love for pro wrestling. Since I don’t watch it much anymore, I debated to myself why my love for WWE is still so strong and why I was still attending their live events? By the end of the weekend, I knew my answer.

It all started innocently enough, at around the age of 5 and waking up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Once the cartoons were over, WWE Superstars would come on and I was hooked right away! It was like the cartoons and superheroes had come to life!

I definitely grew up watching WWE but I also feel like WWE has grown up with me at the same time. My childhood love for pro wrestling began in the mid-’80s and I was a full-fledged Hulkamaniac! In my teenage years, my friends and I started a backyard wrestling group while watching the profanity-laden “Attitude Era” of the WWE. This sexually explicit time in WWE is when I first realized that I was gay. Sable and her “puppies” just weren’t cutting it, give me “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels instead! Now in my late 30’s, it feels like WWE has grown into an adult also. They are rated PG and focusing more on the actual in-ring action. The larger-than-life cartoon feel of the show is what caught my attention initially and the over-the-top soap opera-like storylines kept me coming back for more but I really like that it feels more of an athletic competition now.

My interest in wrestling has definitely led to many of my most favorite friendships, especially during my school days and growing up in a small town. My best friend of the last 15 years is also a lifelong WWE fan. Nowadays, I like going to the local indie wrestling shows and making friends with the performers or fellow fans with me in the crowd.

10 years ago I started traveling to WrestleMania and was immediately hooked on the atmosphere and sense of community within the very passionate wrestling fan community. WrestleMania was in a different city each year and helped me first experience my love for traveling so much. Each year at WrestleMania, I usually bond with a new person or group of people over our fantastic wrestling weekend. They would also fall in love with the whole event and we would make plans to sync up again the following year. This pattern has repeated over the last decade and I have made so many friends through wrestling that I absolutely adore the reunion I get to have with them every time.

I’m still a die-hard WWE fan today because of the amazing friendships I have made along the way!