Spring Season

Most guys who are turned on by wrestling report that they first became aware of their attraction (and experienced arousal) when seeing it on TV at a remarkably early age — usually well before age 10. For example, here are some responses on the MeetFighters.com forum that asked the question: “How old were you when you had your first hard on while wrestling?“

* “WoS (World of Sport) matches on Saturday afternoons, about 6.”

* “I was definitely about seven or eight when I started watching wrestling alone in the basement. got me so horny…”

* “Four years old. Remember it to this day. Remember the wrestlers on tv. World of Sport Mike Marino vs Billy Robinson. No idea what was happening to my little self. But I loved it and still do to this day.”

Instead of describing their first hard-on while in the act of wrestling (which will occur around age 12 or 13 for most dudes — after sexual maturity), the above survey respondents chose to describe an earlier arousal at a much younger age while watching wrestling on TV — which seems to be the first trigger for most of us wrestling enthusiasts.

I’m certain I recall being excited by wrestling while still wearing pajamas with the feet attached to them, which are only worn by small children (and which reminded me of a wrestler’s tights with matching boots if I wore them without the shirt, so I loved them). I recall a baby-sitter asking what I had hidden in the front of those pajama pants (as I giggled and ran away.)

I don’t know and can’t recall if a climax was achieved at that early age (or would even be possible hormonally?), but I remember distinctly the surprising and intense hard-ons caused by watching classic pro wrestling on the floor in front of our big clunky tube TV.

To a youngster, pro wrestling seemed like Manly-Man adult stuff — brutal, violent, sadistic. It was testosterone soaked masculine energy that I wanted to immerse myself in. I didn’t fully understand the sexy violence-as-entertainment footage I was seeing (and perhaps shouldn’t have been allowed to watch it), but I was fully enthralled by it, instantly drawn to the rough-housing and desperate to see more.

I wanted to be like the Big Men fighting shirtless on TV and wanted to tangle with them, while also being afraid of them because I was small and weak. I didn’t know why, but I was instantly hooked on this, like a drug. And it did not take me months of watching wrestling to slowly realize how stimulating it was — I knew it in the first minutes.

I think every wrestling-lover who has ever described to me his experience viewing televised pro wrestling for the first time reacted with the same certainty and suddenness, a powerful lust at first sight.

Surveys have found that most people — straight people I suppose — do not begin having sexual fantasies or experiencing attraction to other people until puberty — around 12 or 13 years old. One study I found places this awakening a bit earlier, at age 10 when the adrenal glands begin to operate. But this is years after most wrestling-pervs (including this writer) began forming strong wrestling-related sexual fantasies and attraction to male archetypes in trunks and boots. Is it because we happened to be arousable at an earlier-than-average age that this exposure to wrestling/violence affected us so powerfully?

Scientists may not yet comprehend the mechanics of sexual development if they think it begins at age 10+. Or maybe there’s a unique and different process that impacts a person who, for whatever chemical reason, experiences an unusually early maturity that “causes” him to develop a fetish.

Anyway, I will refer to this early stage — the pre-pubescent period before age 12 — as the “Spring” season for a wrestling addict. We will get to the “Summer” puberty season in the next article.

In describing their childhood pro wrestling fascination, most guys who are into wrestling share certain reactions in common:

1. Awe over the strength of their attraction to the televised violence — the profound level of arousal, the rock-hard stiffness, a dizzying ecstasy which they remember for life and which causes them to crave seeing more of it all the time.
2. Confusion over what is going on in the ring (why the evil-doers get away with it, why they wear the unusual clothing, why they’re being so cruel) and confusion over what is happening to one’s own body — over why one is having this surprising physical response.
3. Isolation resulting from the fear that you are the only boy in the world with this strange fascination. You are aware that watching wrestling does not seem to impact your brothers or friends in the same manner, so what’s wrong with you?
4. Eagerness to also wrestle around. Many guys report having felt a compelling urge, while watching wrestling, to straddle, headlock, or scissor a playmate, a brother, even the poor dog if nobody else was around.
5. Shame in the knowledge that this is an odd and inappropriate perversion — a sickness that needs to be kept secret and experienced in privacy. We all seemed to know instinctively to go hide in our rooms and hug our pillows alone after watching a particularly stimulating match.

In my experience, the early attraction to pro wrestling was flavored with feelings of hero worship which, I suppose, every boy experiences. I was exposed to (and somewhat turned on by) the usual cast of spectacular, well-built male role models like Tarzan, Superman, and Spider-Man, especially when they started fighting. ESPECIALLY if they ever fought a fellow Good-Guy due to mind control or manipulation — that one always got me!

I wanted to see my heroes triumph and was outraged and agitated (to the point of arousal) when they were over-powered, especially by magic or trickery. These same feelings that made me want to watch Superhero shows or read comic books also turned me on to wrestling where my heroes (invariably the cute young Baby-Faces) were tricked, cheated, humiliated, and over-powered, to my utter delight.

Here are some other random experiences I had, and/or heard retold by other guys, while watching wrestling during these early formative years:

• Excitement over the violent imagery and content in general, with no specific attraction to a favorite wrestler yet. All wrestling is good wrestling in the young child’s uncritical eye. Most fans at this early age don’t care if the wrestlers are fat or swole, hairy or smooth, tan or pale — they are all Men, they are all fighting, so they are all exciting to watch.

• Still believing or wanting to believe that the suffering was REAL — despite my dad laughing and repeatedly assuring me of how fake it was. I didn’t want to believe my father, because wrestling would seem less exciting and enticing if it were all a big put-on, so I’d argue that some of it was real.

• Trying to predict who was going to win the match based on who was bigger and Manlier — more muscular, hairier chest, having short dark hair instead of long blond hair, etc. Fighting and wrestling are Manly pursuits, so of course the more Manlier type of Man ought to be victorious, reasoned my young brain.

I recall feeling outraged, agitated, yet titillated when the tables were turned and the weaker wimp would dominate the Manlier Man, if even for a few moments. I’m not sure what was going on in my brain, but these are distinct memories of how and why wrestling first got to me as a child, which other guys like me have also shared.

Series To Be Continued…