Nearly 30 years ago, on the floor of my Auntie Queeda’s house I had what I consider a “Rite of Passage” moment. Now, I know what you might be thinking, and I have to say… Shame on you, this ain’t that kind of story. No, for nearly 90 minutes, the TV at the end of the living room floor held a handful of my cousins and myself captive.

Flying elbows, body slams, suplexes and plenty of trash talk. The combinations of both celebrity and athlete in epic battles took my young imagination by force. WrestleMania … the very first WrestleMania had arrived. 

WrestleMania I: Mr. T, Hulk Hogan and Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka stare down Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Source: wwe.com

As the weeks progressed from that defining moment, I would discover, much to my delight, that this was this was much more than just a passing interest or fad in my Native community. It was more like a whole other religion on my Rez. The names Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Junkyard Dog all meant something. Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, The Road Warriors were said in reverence and awe. And just like devoted disciples; we would quote these men in word and deed more times than I can remember.

WrestleMania I: Mr. T, Hulk Hogan and Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka stare down Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Source: wwe.com

You see, this religion had its services late Saturday nights and Wednesday evenings. Its book was any wrestling magazines we could get our hands on; any living room, bedroom, lot or yard became our church. Wherever there was more than a couple of us boys congregating, we would talk wrestling, choose who we were going to be and then grapple like our TV heroes. This was always fun until one of us would get hurt and the battle would turn into a real fight. This was almost always guaranteed to happen.

Years went by and although we felt too old to tussle we all would still chat and root for our favorites. We would see younger generations fall under the same spell as we had when we were young. Vince McMahon kept selling more and more young hearts and minds on the magic and mythos of professional wrestling.

Because wrestling has been a staple so long on my Rez, and I am sure yours as well, I bet you have your own stories that make you smile. I have many. There was the time my cousin Jeromy, who was then a toddler, was getting his diaper changed when his older brother Corey jumped off the top of the couch and delivered a full Jimmy “Superfly” Snooka splash. It scared the crap out of their babysitter Randy. (Don’t worry, Jeromy was unhurt; years later he served as the best man in my wedding).

Ric Flair, a certified bad influence.

Another great memory was seeing my younger cousins, the Sullivan boys, take what we use to do to a whole new level. They wouldn’t just wrestle, they would have contracts written up and publicly signed at our Youth Center, naming the place and time of the event. You could always tell who won, as they would walk around the Rez rocking their WWE toy belt as indictor who was the champion at that time.

Even my own house has tales. My two boys have loved the WWE since they were real young. The problem was my youngest son Presley was a little too young to understand that it wasn’t always real and hid behind a door one day to deliver a patented Ric Flair low blow to his unsuspecting dad. It is safe to say that the Missus and I turned off wrestling for a while until he knew not to do that sort of thing.

Whether scripted or real, pro wrestling it has brought countless hours of entertainment to my family and reservation. It gave us heroes and villains and even taught us the value of friendship and loyalty. I even imagine as I am writing this that somewhere, on some Rez, boys are grappling and tossing each other around pretending to be John Cena, Brock Lesnar or Seth Rollins. Having the same fun we had when we were kids—that is, until one of them gets hurt and the real fight breaks out. Ah, how I miss the good ol’ days.

Wrestlemania 31 happens Sunday, March 29, at 7 PM Eastern, 4 PM Pacific.

NDN Geek is Jeffrey Veregge, Port Gamble S’Klallam, a graphic designer and comic book artist. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffreyveregge.