The following is a bit of a marker. It is the signpost of an epiphany.

See, when I found out the sordid "truth" about Santa Claus, it was a slow process. One of my cousins had told me, as had a kid at church, but I don't think I believed. And eventually, my folks (after letting me go one last year, I think) finally told me what was going down. So it was a slow process spread over a period of more than a year. Not that I was agonizing over the fact, but it was still something that wasn't laid upon me all at once.

Do you know what the following is?

Saturday Night's Main Event XXII: July 18, 1989
* World Champion Hulk Hogan over The Honky Tonk Man.
* Jimmy Snuka over Greg Valentine.
* Brutus Beefcake over Randy Savage via DQ.
* The Brain Busters over WWE Tag Team Champions Demolition to capture the titles.

I picked this off Steve's World of Wrestling, out of the Saturday Night's Main Event chronology. It lists the cards shown on the Saturday night show run by the WWF in the 1980s.

Saturday Night's Main Event came on at 11:30 eastern, right after the news. Every six weeks or so, it would replace Saturday Night Live on NBC. My folks would let me stay up late to watch wrestling, just so long as I wasn't cranky when we went to church Sunday morning.

And there was one summer night, down in the TV room in the basement, I was by myself, watching the aforementioned card. It was leading up to the Summerslam card, where Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake would face off against Randy Savage and Zeus.

It went down like this: Hulk Hogan had just starred in No Holds Barred. The WWF storyline was that the actor playing Zeus (one Tiny Lister) had come into the WWF claiming that it was he, not Hogan, who was the star of the movie.

And Zeus screwed with Hogan.

And in the aforementioned card, Hogan had a World Title defense against the Honky Tonk Man. And Zeus blocked Hogan's entrance. He dared Hogan to move him out of the way. When the Hulkster tried, Zeus beat him down.

But Hogan still had a match with the Honky Tonk Man!

And Honky Tonk Man, thinking he had an easy trip to the World Title, pulled Hogan into the ring and continued the beat down. Honky Tonk Man was decked out like Elvis, complete with pompadour, guitar and jumpsuit. His finishing move was a swinging neckbreaker, which he called the "Shake, Rattle and Roll."

Well, Honky Tonk cinched in his finisher, and clobbered Hogan with it.

Then came the epiphany.

See, I'd been ignoring the argument that was going on amongst my peers at the time. About half the guys in my class said that pro wrestling was real. About half were saying that it was fake. I'd had most of the summer to think about it. Or not think about it, as the case was.

Well, back to the match. Honky Tonk had just knocked Hulkster out with his swinging neckbreaker.

As Honky Tonk Man went to cover Hogan for the 3 count, I said to myself about the Hulkster: "He's going to get up."

Here was Hulk Hogan's gimmick. He was All-American, with the prayers, the vitamins and all that. And he had a whole slew of Hulkamaniacs behind him. And no matter how badly he was beaten, if he had the Hulkamaniacs behind him, he could never lose.

It's kind of like Christianity, except the Hulkster doesn't do much for you in return.

Anywho....Hogan kicks out of the pin attempt, regains his energy through the power of all the Hulkamaniacs. With three punches, a big boot and a legdrop, Hogan pinned Honky Tonk Man.

And, thusly, my illusions were shattered.

July 18, 1989. The day that I stopped believing.

Some might say I've never quite recovered from that blow.