Steve Beaudry’s pro wrestling collection is an impressive haul of memorabilia

Real men don’t watch soap operas. They watch pro wrestling because the stories pack more punch.

“I think it’s the drama,” said Moanalua Valley resident Steve Beaudry. “It’s a combination of extreme athleticism and acting.”

That’s the attraction, of course: The outcomes are predetermined, some of the fights are choreographed and the wrestlers portray over-the-top characters created to engage fans.

Beaudry, 53, grew up in Kailua and graduated from Saint Louis School in 1981. He remembers being in elementary school and watching pro wrestlers on television, such as local favorite Ed Francis and superstar Billy Graham. Beaudry’s father wasn’t really into pro wrestling, but he still took his son to see matches at the Honolulu International Center, now known as Blaisdell Arena.

“The very first match I ever went to was on March 27, 1974,” Beaudry said. “That would make me 11 years old. I remember going with my dad. He hated it. He’d go outside and watch the ducks.”

Although wrestlers and promotions have changed over the years, Beaudry has remained fascinated with the action in the squared circle. But the emotional center of his love for the sport is a scrapbook he started when he was a boy.

In order to keep track of the matches, which are called house shows, a young Beaudry got his hands on a scrapbook and cut out the newspaper advertisements for each show. The scrapbook also reminds Beaudry of the time he spent with his father because it contains the ticket stubs for the ringside seats his father bought for them.

For more than a decade, Beaudry used his scrapbook to faithfully keep track of every house show that came to Oahu. He didn’t get to go to as many events during his time at Saint Louis — “I didn’t have any friends who wanted to go,” he said — but Beaudry still watched wrestling on television. In college, he began to attend live matches again once he found a friend who shared his passion for the sport.

“There’s nothing like being there in person,” he said. “It was a lot more in-your-face back then. They’d fall into your lap at ringside.”

By the mid-1980s, however, the popularity of pro wrestling in Honolulu waned. Flipping to the last page of his scrapbook, Beaudry pointed out the last show he went to at Aloha Stadium in August 1985. That period was “the death of wrestling in Hawaii,” he said.

As the 1990s approached, the industry transitioned from a network of multiple smaller regional organizations into just a handful of promotions that controlled larger territories throughout the country, including the hugely popular World Wrestling Entertainment.

“Wrestling struggled to change with the times, which eventually led to it dying out in Hawaii and a lot of other smaller territories,” he said.

As he grew older, Beaudry continued to follow the WWE brand on television and watched wrestlers who had performed in Hawaii before they showed up on national TV: Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. Instead of going to house shows, he began to attend what is considered the Super Bowl of that sport — Wrestlemania.

Beaudry, who married former local television newscaster Tina Shelton in 1994, has traveled with his wife to three Wrestlemanias over the past 20 years. He buys ticket packages that not only include seats at the show, but also various meet-and-greet and autograph opportunities with WWE superstars in the days leading up to the event.

“They have a breakfast one morning where you can ask the wrestlers questions, and then a meet-and-greet,” he said. “And then you get to go to ‘Monday Night Raw’ the night after Wrestlemania.

“I like to talk to them. I only get into conversations when they want to. You don’t want to invade their space too much.”

Beaudry said he’s been able to meet a number of WWE superstars over the years, with some of his favorite interactions taking place with former Hawaii resident Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and 15-time WWE heavyweight champion Jon Cena.

These days, he keeps up with the latest storylines via his cable subscription to the WWE Network. After spending the last decade taking care of an ailing family member, the former federal investigator gets inspired to book another trip to Wrestlemania whenever he turns on the channel.

“I have the network on all the time. It’s only $9.99 a month,” he said. “They have enough new programming between ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’ that I probably watch it daily.”

“Possessed” is an occasional series featuring Hawaii residents and their unique or facinating collections. Tell us about your collection by calling 529-4778 or emailing features@staradvertiser.com.