Living the childhood wrestling fan’s dream

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/11/2021 (1667 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I loved ’80s and ’90s wrestling.

I grew up on the stuff — Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Miss Elizabeth, Andre the Giant, Jake the Snake, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, the Honky Tonk Man, the Hart Foundation… I used to beg my mom to buy me the WWF (now WWE) magazine when we went grocery shopping. She seldom did, but I always looked through them while she shopped.

When I was a kid, the highlight of my weekend was watching Saturday morning wrestling. My sisters and I would watch with our dad, cheering on the babyfaces and booing the heels. I thought it was real and took the storylines to heart. There was no internet back then, so finding out about wrestlers’ lives and identities by slipping down a Google rabbit hole wasn’t a thing. As far as I was concerned it was all real inside of the TV screen.

I fell out of wrestling for a few years but started watching again in the late ’90s. I was a still just a kid — well, I was barely a young adult with a job, which meant I could go to shows when the WWE came through Winnipeg. My favourite wrestler was, and probably still is, Bret “the Hitman” Hart. He is, after all, the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.

Hart’s entrance was a production. This high note on the electric guitar would sound — the intro to his theme song, and he would emerge from behind the curtain. Pink and black tights, a leather jacket and these signature Hart wrap-around mirrored shades. When he got to the ring, he would find a kid sitting ringside, and he’d take off his shades and put them on the kid. It was his before-match gimmick. A heart-warming moment of this wrestling hero connecting with a young fan. It was iconic. I always wanted to be that kid.

Funny enough, I did get to be that kid… when I grew up.

Social media memories have me reminiscing about a time that Hart came to Winnipeg, for comic con, I think. It was Nov. 2, 2012. Nine years ago. Hart was set to do a live interview with 103.1 Virgin Radio. It was an in-person, one-hour interview series where a host, in this case it was Big Marv (Timog), would interview someone in front of a small audience. I was invited to take part.

The folks at Virgin knew I was a big fan of Hart. I had interned at the station before graduating from college a year earlier. I got to know some of the folks who worked there, and somewhere along the line I made it known how big a fan I am of Hart. Honestly, if you’ve followed me on social media for long enough, you know too.

Anyway, they were so kind to invite me.

When I arrived that day, I found a seat near the back of the room, but Marv (bless his soul) called me to sit near the front. I don’t remember a lot of details, but I do remember feeling so excited, like a kid about to meet their hero, except I was like 30 years old.

Whatever. Life is short. This was a glorious moment.

At one point in the interview, Big Marv gives me a shout out and mentions I am a big fan. He pointed me out in the audience and then asked Hart if he would put the glasses on me, and the Hitman said “sure.”

HE SAID SURE!

Then it happened. Hart came up to me, and he did his whole routine, taking his mirrored shades off his eyes and placing them over my head onto my eyes, just like he had done so many times to kids in the audiences of the arenas he wrestled in. Except this time it was me. It was my time to shine.

I realize this is the silliest thing in the whole wide world, especially because I was a grown woman sitting in that audience, but the whole experience brings me so much joy. It was like a childhood wish coming true… just, super late.

I’ll never forget that.

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @ShelleyAcook