10 Wrestlers You Were Too Embarrassed To Admit You Loved
It's all about the shame, and how you play it...
The world's a different place for most wrestling fans now.
In generations gone by, there were so many things about professional wrestling that made it such an acidic artform to enjoy publically for anyone from school playgrounds to corporate workplaces. Rarely did the industry acknowledge the obvious - it would have been mad to alienate those that already felt outside the rigidity of having a "normal" interest - but there were times when mainstream acceptance was bestowed upon the product, and times when it most definitely was not.
Adults would incessantly tell children it wasn't real, as if that remotely mattered. Colleagues would cast wry eyes on monitors visiting websites just like this one on lunch breaks. Tacit and suppressed homophobia snuck out from those that deemed it "gay", when such a slur still masqueraded as a common-or-garden insult.
2018 is - despite occasional evidence to the contrary - a better time to be alive. A "Universe" once confined to basements and safe spaces has exploded like every other supposedly nerdy endeavor. Kids grow up already knowing it's not real. Colleagues visit this website on their lunch breaks to indulge in fine content on all their unique interests. Homophobes are lambasted for chatting absolute sh*t. Love who and whatever you want about professional wrestling - you've never ever been freer to.
The world was a different place for most wrestling fans back then...
10. Adam Bomb
Adam Bomb was a big tall man with great hair and a passable gimmick, in a time where there was unfortunately already one in a substantially more powerful position. Right around the time Bryan Clark was debuting on television as a Three Mile Island meltdown survivor, a slightly taller man with slightly better hair and a slightly better gimmick was getting rocket-strapped thanks to an on-screen relationship with Shawn Michaels.
The looming shadow of Kevin Nash wasn't the only reason Adam bombed, but it always felt as though minds had been made up within the organisation and the nascent New Generation wasn't big enough for the both of them.
More's the pity, because Bomb was at times way more than just a silly gimmick. He left his feet often considering his size, particularly when he turned babyface on slimy manager Harvey Wippleman in 1994. Though his work improved as a result (and his gear amendments were sharper than the end of Vince McMahon's booking pencil), his character suffered from immense creative neglect.
The mushroom cloud pyro and line of toy bombs didn't reflect an otherwise non-committal attitude from the company, even when big Bryan went and had an old tattoo adjusted to put over the gimmick.