The American Dream

One of the most popular wrestlers ever was Dusty Rhodes, who symbolized the American Dream.  The American Dream was his nickname as well.  

Most people equate the American Dream with owning a home, but it can pretty much be anything.  My dad was quite impoverished growing up, and when his mom said she didn't have any money to buy him a Coca-Cola Classic, he said when he grew up he was going to get a refrigerator stocked with plenty of Coca-Colas so he could have one whenever he wanted.  With this determined mindset, he went to college in Louisiana where he struggled to pass calculus, taking it three or four times before he finally got the credit he needed, and ultimately became a civil engineer.  Today he has a refrigerator and I've never seen that refrigerator without a Coca-Cola inside.  The man lived his dream.

When my wife was growing up she always wanted a super-fluffy cat.  But this proved a greater challenge than she thought initially.  She wasn't able to get one right away, and then had a sweet cat she dearly loved that lived to be at least 20 years old.  This cat wasn't fluffy, but he was her best friend and kept her very happy.  When he passed away, it broke her heart.  Then she finally decided it was time.  She ended up getting the super-fluffy cat she always dreamed of, even though it took a few decades.  She still misses the cat that was her best friend, but she loves her super-fluffy cat too.  

And when I was in high school, I loved wrestling even more than I do now.  I watched old stuff from the video store, and watched either WCW or WWF every week for a good four years or so.  Always looked forward to the Monday night Nitro or RAW that followed the monthly Sunday pay per view in particular to find out what happened at the big show.  I did purchase a few pay per views, but they were at least $60 a show, so I probably bought fewer than I could count on one hand.  I bought a few VHS tapes as well, but they were $30 each, and that's a lot of money to a kid with no job.  Couldn't buy very many of them.

I said one day I'd watch all those pay per views I couldn't watch growing up.  Then I found out about the WWE network, I guess not too long after it came out.  Every pay per view I ever wanted to watch was on that network, for a reasonable monthly fee.  But even though I had a degree and a job at that time, I was married and still didn't have quite enough money to buy the subscription.  Or the time to watch it for that matter.  I said when I finish grad school I'll get the WWE network.

Well, eventually the network was acquired by Peacock.  So I said I'd get Peacock when I finished grad school, and I didn't have but a few classes left at that point.  But then my wife tells me she's getting Xfinity for our TV service, just because it came with our internet.  And Peacock was included for free.  So just a few months before finishing grad school, I finally got to watch all the pay per views I wanted to watch.  In particular I wanted to see the Shawn Michaels and Undertaker cell match from Bad Blood 1997.  And I finally got to see it after 23 years of waiting.  I got to live my dream.

Now a lot of those matches are on the WWE Vault and WCW YouTube channels for free, and Netflix has the WWE pay per view library also.  But the main thing is I got to live my dream.  Just like my dad got to live his, and my wife got to live hers.  Even though it took each of us a while to get what we had our hearts set on.  We lived the American Dream.