Last night, I did something I have done so many countless times for the past fifteen years, I went to Madison Square Garden to see the World Wrestling Federation live. From that first time when I sat in the world’s most famous arena and saw my favorite WWF superstars in person, the excitement level was insurmountable – and even fifteen years later – it is still just as exciting to be in the audience during a wrestling card. But while the happiness I get from seeing a live WWF event has remained the same after all these years – the wrestling business, the arena itself – and my life have changed dramatically since my first live wrestling show at MSG.

In 1986, when I started coming to the Garden to see live wrestling, the main events featured names like Tito Santana, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Jimmy Snuka and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Ringside tickets were $15, T-shirts were $12 – and the pepper steak “chow chow cup” I ate at Chinatown Express was $2.77. In 2001, the main events feature names like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker – and now – even stars from the WCW – something I never thought I would see in MSG or anywhere else for that matter. Ringside tickets are $50, T-shirts are $28 – but the pepper steak “chow chow cup” is still $2.77.

More then just the changes in it’s top stars and ticket prices, the wrestling business is completely different then it was when I was a fan at fourteen years old. Back then, wrestling was on Channel 9 for an hour on Saturday afternoons and Channel 5 for an hour on Sunday afternoons, there was no such thing as pay-per-view – and wrestling websites were over a decade away. These days, Monday Night RAW, a two hour live program on The National Network, costs close to $750,000 a week to produce – and is the most popular and highest rated show on cable television. There is at least one wrestling pay-per-view every month – and if you do a Google.com search for “wrestling” on the Internet – you will find over 2,800,000 wrestling websites. So the wrestling I grew up with has evolved into something a lot more accessible, grandiose – and popular.

Madison Square Garden itself, which is commonly referred to as, “The Mecca Of Professional Wrestling”, has – like the sport it frequently hosts – also undergone many changes since I was a fourteen year old wrestling fan. The entire interior has been altered and now has less seats, but more skyboxes and better seating arrangements. The audio/video system is more state-of-the-art and the lighting has been redone as well – giving the legendary arena a more modern appearance and more advanced production capabilities. But while I am happy with all the changes they made to the Garden – the one thing that I miss is that microphone that WWF Ring Announcer Howard Finkel used to have to gesture down from the arena ceiling that had an “MSG” logo on it. To me – that is one of the true artifacts of wrestling’s early days.

But despite all of the changes to the wrestling industry and the Garden itself that have occurred over the last fourteen years – it is my evolution in the world of wrestling that has amazed me the most – simply because it is exactly what I dreamed for – but never thought would actually happen.

From the first time I watched wrestling, I knew that I wanted to be more then just a fan of professional wrestling – I wanted to be a part of it in some way – in any way. Whether I was the guy behind the camera – or the guy behind the microphone – I knew that I wanted to be more then one of the thousands of fans in the arena seats. Fourteen years later – I am the host of a wrestling TV show that has featured almost all of the stars that I watched as a young fan sitting in Madison Square Garden – and almost all of the stars of today. In fact, I actually got to interview many of them in the backstage area of the Garden. So while the thousands of fans of today were in the arena doing exactly what I did back then – watching the wrestlers wrestle – I was in the back standing in front of the camera with a microphone in my hand doing exactly what I hoped I would do when I was the one sitting out in the arena – being an integral part of the wrestling business.

And if that is not evolution enough – the most amazing example of “dreams coming true” actually happened last night when I went to meet some friends at Madison Square Garden’s Employee Entrance. That entrance serves as the entry point for the wrestlers on the card, so many wrestling fans spend the day of the wrestling show standing there for hours hoping for a chance meeting with their heroes. I can remember many days standing at that entrance just like they were doing yesterday. Be it freezing cold or sweltering hot – the temperature was insignificant to me compared to the opportunity to meet my favorite wrestlers – and meet them I did. From Bam Bigelow, to The Undertaker and Paul Bearer – to The Ultimate Warrior – I met them all. In fact, just last night as I was standing there for only a few minutes – I met Harvey Whippleman, Savio Vega – and Bubba Ray Dudley. But what amazed me the most was when I approached my friends at the entrance – people came up to me and asked for my autograph. I can’t tell you the feeling it gave me to have people approach me for my autograph at a place where I used to wait for autographs myself. If that is not proof that you can be anything you want to be – I don’t know what is.

So while the wrestling business as a whole, the arena that helped build it – and one of it’s biggest fans have come a long way since I was a fourteen year old Hulkamaniac – watching wrestling live at Madison Square Garden is just as much fun as it was back then…

…and the “chow chow cups” are still just as good.