A show of hands. How many of you have gotten news or spoilers from a wrestling site" Okay, hands down. For all of you old timers who feel the internet ruined wrestling, allow me to tell you that the first time I got spoilers was NOT due to the internet. In fact before the internet was even around (for my younger readers yes there was life without the internet), when I was in 4th grade I went to a house show and was able to get the results of the taped matches months before they were televised. Then they hyped the matches for the following week on WWF Superstars. I figured I would tell everyone at school my "predictions". I even put money on some matches and made some cash (hey 75 cents is 75 cents). I don't know if it was the thrill of knowing results before anyone else or if it was the feeling of my sudden popularity but I liked it!

Many years passed and in 1997 I had a friend who got "dirt sheets" and it was like being in 4th grade again. Unfortunately it started to ruin my wrestling viewing. Then when I bought myself a webTV months later, I came across a few sites that gave spoilers. At first I just got PPV results and before you could say "gobblydigooker" I became a spoiler addict and once again my wrestling viewing experience was affected. It was like watching a hockey game but knowing an overtime goal is going to be the game winner. It's hard to get excited when you know the outcome of the match. It was then that I decided to quit cold turkey. After attempting this I realized I couldn't quit, so I figured I would only get WWF spoilers since RAW was taped (and also was garbage at the time) plus I was also a WCW fan then. This proved to be somewhat beneficial since it prevented any friends from switching to RAW due to me giving out spoilers prior to the show. Then Eric Bischoff started giving spoilers at the start of Nitro which in my mind officially made internet news sites mainstream.

Strangely enough as weeks passed with me going "cold turkey" it was like being a kid again and "marking out". Such as the time Rick Martel sprayed Jake "The Snake" Roberts in the eyes with his "arrogance" perfume. Or when I thought the Brian Pillman vs. Kevin Sullivan feud in WCW was real. On a side note if any of you younger fans never had a chance to see Pillman I highly recommend getting some old tapes (especially his match at Superbrawl II vs. Jushin Liger).

My challenge to you is to go two weeks without getting a single spoiler or rumor on what might happen. Just enjoy watching RAW or TNA for what it's worth. Now before I get tons of hate mail from fans (or journalists) of wrestling sites let me state there is nothing wrong with getting news. It keeps the promoters (and wrestlers) honest. I'll expand more upon this in my next column.

When Johnny LaRue is not watching old wrestling tapes he can be reached at [email protected]..