I remember being 11 years old when the WWE (F back then) came to my hometown (about 1990) A member of my parents church owned a gym where many of them would workout before a show, and he invited me and a friend to come hang out on the day they were in town.

The big “good guy” at the time, Hulk Hogan, and at the time my personal favorite, was there. We waited for him to finish his set of reps when we approached him for his autograph, but before I could even finish a sentence he looked at my friends dad and pointed at his face, and said “buddy, you need to keep your snot-nosed fucking kids away from me.”

i was crushed, here was my idol telling me to say my prayers and eat my vitamins basically telling me to beat it. Oddly enough, a bad guy at the time and a guy I loved to hate before this day overheard, and he was taking a break from his reps, Mr. Perfect came to me and my friend and initiated conversation. “Hey, kid, show me how much you can bench press.” He even spotted me as I lifted maybe the bar and two 5–10lb weights.

We met other legends that day, and what impressed me the most as a kid was how much nicer the “bad guys” were to me than the good guys. Sgt. Slaughter joined me on the excercise bike next to me. The Ultimate Warrior (the exception to the “good guys are assholes”) was probably the nicest guy I’d ever met. Jimmy Hart took us to get hot dogs at orange Julius. The British Bulldog didn’t know where the event was so he asked if he could follow us in his rental car to the arena.

Since being 11 I’ve worked with WWE on occasion with mostly positive stories. Matt Hardy gave me and my daughter Pearl Jam tickets. The Miz carried my daughter through the hallways backstage. I went to an event in uniform once - Roman reigns ignored other people asking for his autograph to approach me and thank me for my service and shook my hand.

But out of all of them, I remember how shitty Hogan was the most. And how nice Mr. perfect, Sgt slaughter and jimmy hart who played “villains” were to me afterwards.