When I was six years old, I visited my grandmother in Florida. During the visit, she told me that she had a surprise for me. I was taken to the Florida Sun Dome in Tampa where we sat in two seats in the front row of the arena. In front of us was a 20-foot cube with three ropes above it. “What’s that grandma?” I asked. “That’s a wrestling ring,” she replied. Then, the lights went off, the bell rang, and I was introduced to the world of wrestling.

Say what you want about it, but professional wrestling is something that has been a part of my life for the last twenty years. From Dusty Rhodes and Bugsy McGraw to Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels, I can never get enough. For those who have asked me how I could watch something, as they put it, “so incredibly phony,” I would reply, “the same way people watch All My Children, which would immediately silence any of my critics.

From that day in the Sun Dome, I was hooked. Throughout my teenage years, I would spend every following Saturday morning in front of my television set at home and watch WWF Superstars on Channel 9. The show was hosted by a young man in a powder blue suit named Vince McMahon. As one of the commentators, Vince would spend each hour giving the play-by-play for each match. “What a legdrop!” he would yell. “Oh no, I can’t believe it!” he would say. His commentary did – and does – make wrestling more exciting.

The biggest supporter of my newfound “addiction” to wrestling was my mother. Throughout the 1980’s, she must have spent one half of her income on the World Wrestling Federation. If she had the money today from all of the dolls, T-Shirts and tickets to wrestling matches that she bought for me, my mother would no doubt be able to afford that house in Brentwood that is currently on the market, but, unselfishly, she bought me wrestling “stuff”. (Thanks, mom).

After watching wrestling for so many years, I can give you statistics like no other wrestling fan, which may seem nonsensical to most, but I had no choice but to absorb a knowledge of the sport after so many years of being entrenched in it. For example, I know that Wrestlemania 3 was at the Pontiac Silverdome on March 31, 1987 and had a world record crowd of 93,173. Having all of these statistics in my head made me start commentating the matches while watching them on TV. Then I had the crazy idea of wanting to be a wrestling commentator – and like every other dream in my life, this one came true.

I started commentating at local shows in the New York area in 1993. I got my “break” by getting to know the local wrestlers and helping them carry their stuff into the arena (a little trivia: the famous wrestling manager, “Captain” Lou Albano used to be a wrestler. When he would go to the arena, a young boy would carry his bags into the arena so he could see a show for free and meet all of the wrestlers, the boy’s name was Bruce Springsteen.) Commentating a wrestling match, which I do as a hobby, is one of my biggest thrills. But the biggest thrill is working with the wrestlers I have grown up watching my whole life. When I am in the dressing room preparing to interview names like Tito Santana, Jimmy Snuka, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Afa The Wild Samoan, I am like a kid in a candy store. I spent years watching Vince interviewing these men – and now it was my turn.

Last year, I was invited to Titan Towers, the offices of the World Wrestling Federation where I met Linda McMahon, CEO of Titan Sports, parent company of the WWF, and Shane McMahon, the next generation of the McMahon family and a major part of the company’s current success. For a wrestling fan like myself to be sitting with the owners of the company I have been a fan of my whole life, was one of the greatest days of my life.

To Vince McMahon, I want to say thank you. Thank you for giving a young boy something to do every Saturday morning. Thank you for providing larger than life superstars that became heroes to all who watched them. And thank you, on behalf of my grandmother.

By the way, if you ever need an extra commentator...