I miss Saturday morning wrestling on television. Throughout my childhood and up until the time I was in college, watching wrestling on the local NBC affiliate was a ritual with me. I didn't grow out of it, obviously; the programs themselves either disappeared or changed to something I no longer enjoyed.

I'm in my 50s, and, like I said, back in the late '60s and throughout the '70s I watched wrestling on a local channel. This was before the coming of cable TV, of the big promotions and, ultimately, the downfall of the wrestling I loved. The program came on at 11:00 every Saturday morning, not prime time. I remember how I could hardly wait for the cartoons to finish and the wrestling to begin. The matches were filmed in a regional television studio, not in a huge arena. Along one or two sides of the ring, a few benches of spectators watched; often they appeared to be a troop of Boy Scouts or a 4-H Club.

This wrestling--while filled with good guys and bad buys, faces and heels--had a certain innocence about it. In its small setting, described by the voices of familiar ringside announcers, the wrestling also had a certain intimacy about it. I sat on the edge of my seat, waiting for my favorite wrestlers and my favorite holds. Exciting stuff! When my favorite wrestler got somebody in my favorite hold--or when some wrestler got him in that hold--I pulled a pillow onto my lap and tried not to look all hot and bothered. Usually I was watching alone, so it didn't matter.

I can't stand today's TV wrestling. Even the local stuff that shows up on independent channels at 3:00 in the morning is just a cheap imitation of the big cable shows. I've discovered some of those old matches on YouTube, and it's to these that I turn on such a Saturday morning as this, when I'm more or less alone in the house and in need of some wrestling nostalgia.