Table of contents

My champion obsession

One of my greatest passions ever to this day is that art form known as “professional wrestling”.

My earlier days as a mere fan

My days as a “mark”

I began following the sport in September 1992, when our public TV station began broadcasting WWF (now WWE) programming. Thereafter, I became a true WWF fanatic, religiously watching every weekly episode on Saturdays at lunchtime, buying every piece of merchandise I could find (and my parents could afford), and, as expected, engaging in “backyard wrestling” with my fellow neighbors and schoolmates during breaks. Furthermore, the dream of one day becoming a professional wrestler began growing inside me, which made my family and friends believe I was becoming totally nuts!…

My days as a “smark”

In the Summer of ’99, one year after “going cable” (and therefore starting to follow WCW as well at last), I finally gained access to the glorious – and still novel – Internet, which introduced me to a new myriad of opportunities as far as my pro wrestling fix was concerned: I got to meet plenty new fans, visit dozens of wrestling information websites, and started ordering piles of VHS tapes from a “tape trading” community (later changing to purely TV and online viewing). This is how I got truly exposed to pro wrestling beyond WWE and WCW, like the Japanese (puroresu) and Mexican (lucha libre) scenes, thus increasing my already vast knowledge in such a way I even began being recognized among the national fan community as some sort of a “Walking Wrestling Encyclopedia” (no pun intended), a reputation I’ve been glad to maintain to this day.

My days in the wrestling business

My training to become a wrestler

Soon I realized some sort of a “Portuguese wrestling scene” was starting to pop up. Through those connections, I began training in the Summer of 2003 at the wrestling school of the most popular Portuguese wrestling legend ever (and WWF play-by-play commentator on national TV) Tarzan Taborda. Two years later, he would unfortunately pass away, and I ended up graduating at an intensive week-long training camp in Portsmouth, UK, between late 2005 and early 2006.

My pro wrestling career

I made my wrestling debut in June 2006 as “Ultra Psycho” – a nickname that, even before becoming my ring name, was already my online alias almost since the beginning – at the late age of 25 but retired too early, at the tender age of 32 as “Gino Glamour”, a more flamboyant experimental gimmick I was then testing. My early retirement was due to health concerns and also due to my disenchantment with the direction I saw the business was taking. The countless great memories will stay forever, though! For more information about my (short) wrestling career, visit my wrestler page on CAGEMATCH.

My days as a wrestling historian

I may have left wrestling, but wrestling never left me! I’m still a dedicated fan, however, my motivations to watch pro wrestling have since changed: nowadays, I watch wrestling from the standpoint of a historian and a researcher, as I despise modern pro wrestling for several reasons.

Why do I love (classic) pro wrestling?

Nevertheless, I’m still passionate about the “old-school stuff”. Why? I’m not sure, but perhaps because of the eternal conflict inside the “squared circle” between Good and Evil, the multidimensional and intriguing characters and personalities, the over-the-top elements, and all the necessary in-ring psychology the performers engage in to tell us a compelling story with their own bodies via their normally out-of-the-ordinary athletic capabilities. Pro wrestling mixes all forms of entertainment in one, and, when it’s well performed, does it like nothing else can!

Interested in knowing more?

This page contains just a summary of how this hobby is a part of my life. If you’re curious to read more about my life journey (where this hobby and a few others get covered in more detail when appropriate, always UNCENSORED and UNFILTERED, unlike in some other platforms), you should consider subscribing to my 100% FREE weekly newsletter! 👇