Describe how big professional wrestling was in 1998

I would have been 17 going on 18 at the time and the big boom was starting to trickle down. At least here in the midwest, cities/states that had stagnant or small independent scenes began picking up serious steam. New promotions began popping up out of the woodwork and it didn't really matter who was wrestling or even if they were any good for the most part. People just wanted to see wrestling.

A show with locals, maybe a car of guys from a neighboring state and the occasional former WCW/WWF guy was almost a lock to draw at least 200 people. By 1999 we had at least one show every weekend here where I live and there would be another 6, 7, 8+ within a two hour drive.

Regional and even local "promotion wars" began firing off where companies would run against one another on the same night. Some promotions even had fans who would basically do a lot of their dirty work for them in terms of trying to fuck with rivals. My buddies and I did all kinds of shit we could (and probably should) have gotten our asses kicked for and still paid to get in.

Looking back, the majority of the wrestling would be what we would consider "pretty bad" these days but it was still incredibly exciting. Everybody was watching on Monday nights and it felt really cool to be a part of that on a local level.

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