Mr. Sage: Monday Night Rituals

Mr. Sage, High School Teacher
January 2021

I started watching the WWE when it was still called the WWF in about 1985...which was a little while ago. I remember at the time there were only two ways to watch it: there was a WWF show on Saturday morning on channel 9 and there was a TBS show out of Atlanta that was on Saturday nights at 7pm (NWA). When I was a young man I planned my Saturdays around pro wrestling- in the morning and night. Once a month WWF was on prime time TV on channel 4 at 11pm. This was a two-hour prime time show. The matches were a lot of fun to watch and my parents used to let me stay up and watch it. Although, I usually didn’t make it to the end. There was no pay-per-view. You had to watch it when it was on and that was it.

My favorite wrestler from when I was young was “Macho Man” Randy Savage. I liked his energy and charisma. I liked the fact that he could do great interviews and was a good actor, which is what it takes to be a good wrestler. I remember in 1986 a family friend took me and his sons to CPI in Southampton to watch Wrestle Mania 2 on the big screen. That was the biggest deal of my life up until this point.

In my high school years there was a little hiatus from wrestling but when I went to college I met some friends who had similar wrestling experiences as kids and we all rekindled the love for wrestling together. In about 1996 I got back into wrestling and we used to congregate on Monday nights. There were two competing promotions, which aired simultaneously: WWF Raw and WCW Nitro. In terms of the story-telling and story-lines you would float back and forth between the two programs depending on who had the most gripping story line. In the late 1990s I only paid attention to WCW during their famous NWO angle. What brought me back to my WWF roots was the emergence of The Attitude Era in the late 90s, which introduced “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson, and The Undertaker. I then started to get back into wrestling.

Since the late 90’s I have been more of a casual fan and still enjoy it very much. I have been to live shows, Wrestle-Mania at MetLife Stadium, Summer Slam at the Barclays, and I even was able to go backstage at a Monday Night Raw several years ago through a friend of a friend. Backstage I was able to meet and take pictures with many of the Superstars. They were all very welcoming and polite in person, even normal - something that was not reflected in many of their characters. For me, it is comforting to know that Monday night wrestling is on. Although I don’t watch every broadcast I always know that Monday night is there if I need it.