Watching Live: Wrestlings Ultimate Magic

If you talk to any hardcore wrestling fan, whether they are young or old, boy or girl, they all say that you haven't experienced wrestling until you see it live for yourself.

I never use to believe that myself, but then i had two of the greatest experiences of my life. One was from a while ago, and the other just January, but for me, they were the biggest days of my life.

I was fortunate when i was 10. My dad entered a competition on the spur of the moment and won one of the greatest prizes imaginable. Wrestlemania 20 tickets, little bits of paper that allowed me to see one of the biggest land mark wrestling events in the world.

I shrieked for days.

That night, at the grandaddy of them all, something magical happened. I realised what it meant to be a true wrestling fan.

Every match, i would wave around my "Eddie Guerrero Stole My Bike" sign, scream like my life depended on it, just to try and be heard within this atmosphere. Waves of people would drag you forward to the barricade during the entrance's, deafening you with each moment. This scared my mum to hell, but for me, this was my greatest night.

Just the thrill of watching Guerrero and Benoit win their titles, their celebration in the ring at the end, made me cheer and cry with joy.

Cheesy, i know. But this was my ultimate dream. I still think about it now when i sleep sometimes, hearing the echoes of the screams and the fading of the lights.

This was my first taste of live, and it made me appreciate wrestling so much more. It made me realise that TV does not do it justice. You don't get the same atmosphere sitting in a chair at your home as you do when you're almost being punched by an over excited fan.

Five years later, i wanted to share this experience with the youngest members of my family.

It was only very recently i started to really get into TNA. I don't really care what people say about the shows, but this was my opportunity to make a dream come true for my cousins.

Both girls, they're only three and five years old. I was determined to make sure that they wouldn't get sucked into all this PG rated wrestling that dominates WWE now.

Every time they stay at mine, they don't ask to watch Hannah Montana, Dora the Explorer or Pepper Pig. They sit with me in my bedroom, watching old tapes of the Attitude Era, video clips of some of wrestling's greatest moments. They adore it.

Hell, i even managed to teach the youngest one how to string together her first sentence: "Jeff Hardy is Awesome!" She won't stop saying it now.

Well, with all this, i decided that they had to be given a night to remember, so in January, during the TNA tours, we bought tickets to see them in Manchester, and they came too.

The smiles on their faces told the whole story. Sitting in the front row, the look of wonderment and awe touched everyone. They might have been young, but they still stood up and waved their arms at the music, cheered when a good guy won and hissed when the bad guys cheated.

At one point, the oldest one reached out and grabbed Jeff Jarrett's arm as he walked past the rail. She got the shock of her life when he turned around and smiled, before giving her a playful pinch to the nose. She still talks about it now whenever she see's him in a video.

Most of the fans didn't approve of them being there, saying they were too young to be watching this sort of sport, but then why shouldn't they? It goes to show you that you don't have to be an older fan to feel the energy.

After the event, they insisted on dragging me around to find the wrestlers out the front. If they saw one, no matter who it was, they would run up screaming before hugging their legs like limpets. It was one of the greatest things i've seen.

At the end, before we all left, we were able to snag a picture of them with AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, a signed photo that still hangs on their bedroom wall proudly now.

Since that night, they have never stopped talking about wrestling. They became bigger fans of it than they were before (much to the chagrin of my aunt, who thinks it's way too violent for children).

That's what seeing it live does to you. The energy, the buzz of adrenaline, the hoarse throats and the battered signs enhance it so much more, to much more epic proportions than was ever imagined possible.

Ever since then, i have always watched wrestling with a smile on my face and the memories of a lifetime flooding through my veins. All because, i was there.

They say watching it at home is only have the experience, well they're wrong. It is less than one percent of the experience. But then i guess, that is the magic of live!