When did you STOP watching wrestling and how long did it last?

[Turkeyninja]

Of all my friends I have talked wrestling with, I have come to the realization that everyone gets bored with it and goes away for one reason or another for awhile but then eventually comes back. For me, I stopped watching around 2002-2003 and honestly the reason was because I was in high school then doing high schooler things and staying home to watch wrestling didnt sound as appealing as going to hang out with the boys or going on a date with a cute girl. I came back around in 2015ish maybe 2016 but the storyline then was John Cena vs AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose for the title.

 

Nearly everyone stopped watching at one point or another. Why did you stop and when did you pick back up?

[Self]

<p>I've had a few spells away. I like variety, and I can't watch the same show with the same guys in the same format for too long before needing to switch to something else. By 2002-03, with WCW & ECW gone and the invasions over, I got bored and moved on. I started back again in around 2007. Uni was ending, wrestling was hitting the news with the whole Benoit thing, and I stumbled upon these games. That gave me a few years... but by 2009 I was bored again. Luckily I stumbled upon a Dragon Gate show over here in the UK, and discovered whole new worlds of Japanese wrestling, UK wrestling, American indies. Sweet variety.</p><p> </p><p>

I stopped again in 2015. I was wrestling on the indies, and watching it felt too much like work. So I walked away and kind of think the whole thing has moved on to a point where I can't get into it. I tried AEW recently, but after 6 months I realised I didn't care about anything I was seeing, and was critiquing it like the angry RAW 'fan' I was back in 2008. Wrestling has evolved, and it's lost me... but it seems like I wasn't the most passionate fan to begin with.</p>

[Bestia Negra]

I started watching in the late 80s, first time I stopped watching was 05 or 06 because I realized that wrestling was beyond its peak and it'll only get worse from there. Took about 8 years off where I didn't watch any wrestling aside of some old PPVs.

 

Watched WM in 2014 I think and came back for like 3 months till I realized it's gotten way stupider than I expected and I'm just wasting my time. Another 5 years off. Then came back when AEW Dynamite started because for some reason I thought it might be good but stopped watching again around September/October 2020 because I just couldn't torture myself anymore.

 

I still watch old PPVs from the 80/90s once or twice a month, that I enjoy a lot. I just can't watch modern wrestling anymore, everytime I come back it seems like it somehow got even worse.

 

I know exactly what I hate about it: bad booking (even WCW in its last year was better than WWE and AEW these days), in-ring work got too unrealistic and choreographed with all the flips and what not, the fact that kayfabe is dead and even the workers treating wrestling like it's a clown show. If you don't take yourself seriously I won't either and that's why the vast majority of old school fans stopped bothering to tune in a looooong time ago. To quote Self from the post above: "Wrestling has evolved, and it's lost me". Yep, got nothing to add.

 

Next time I come back will probably be the post-Vince era and I'll be prepared to be disappointed again. I sure hope there'll be great pro wrestling at some point in the future. I just don't expect it to come close to what it was during its glory days ever again.

[BHK1978]

I started watching wrestling right after WrestleMania 2 when I was a kid and I honestly never stopped watching it. When I felt like the WWF was for little kids in the late 1980's, I began watching the NWA/WCW.

 

When WCW started going down in quality I found myself watching ECW, Smoky Mountain, and USWA. Though I was still watching both WCW and WWF at that time as well just not as much as I used to.

 

Then WWF and WCW got really hot and I started watching them. When WCW and ECW went out of business I tried watching WWF but it was painful but I still watched it.

 

Soon I got hooked on TNA even though that wasn't all that great. Then I picked up ROH as well. I stuck with TNA and ROH until they both got really bad and then I found MLW.

 

I still watch MLW every week. I try to watch NXT and AEW when I get a chance but AEW really is unwatchable. I also tend to catch the second hour of SmackDown every week because there is nothing else on.

 

So while there have been gaps in my viewing and I do not watch as much as I once did. I never truly stopped watching wrestling. Though I often find myself wondering why I have never stopped.

[Kijar]

Stopped as a kid when Eddie died, he was my favorite and it sucked the wind out of me to find out it was real that way. Luckily wasn't watching for Benoit at that time, as I liked him, RVD, and Rey as well..

 

Started again with a recap of TNA Wrestling I accidentally caught on Spike TV. It was a year in review, I believe for 2009. AJ Styles on the next episode was the one to help hook me back into wrestling. The X-Division as well. Had me diving back into what is now my favorite obsession, learning as much as I could from history and the indies. Started playing E-Feds and the like.

 

Now, I play TEW religiously. Didn't watch much between 15-17, and had a lull when I originally started hanging out with my current lady, who know watches much more wrestling than she ever intended.

[ShibataHeadbutt]

i fell out of love with wrestling around 2001, and it was the booking of DDP against the Undertaker, and to an extent Booker T losing to the Rock in a handicap match

 

sort of this hope and dreams of WCW vs WWE happened and it was so flat

 

actually thinking about it, the two man power trip was also a factor

 

still went to small shows in the UK, and checked out MLW and TNA

 

i remember the hype of Angle joining TNA and thinking it was something special

 

but finding EWR on Gamefaqs is what got me to start watching most wrestling again, someone had written a diary and Shelton Benjamin was the Royal Rumble winner and i thought wow, i want to play this and push people i love

[cappyboy]

Don't know that I'd say I've ever quit watching altogether although there have certainly been down points for me. Most notably right after WCW died. They were a ride or die promotion for me and I followed that company from the time my little dot on the roadmap birthplace got cable in 1989 until they went under. Which I refused to believe was even a possible event until it that final Nitro and Vince showed up.

 

If there was a time I was likely to give up altogether, that would have been it. I had drifted away from WWE because some of the Attitude Era stuff made it too hard to watch the show. I've always believed that if you're not building a story world the fans can be lost in while the show is on, you've done it wrong. And with crap like the valets raining through tables and some of the sexual content it was clear WWE was dead set on doing things wrong. That they didn't want people forgetting it was a show while the show was on and that honked me off to no end. So I missed the tail end of Attitude, the Invasion Era and that aftermath. All that kept me watching wrestling at that time was a local low power station that had indy promotions like Music City. Otherwise I would have been lost to wrestling.

 

Watched TNA/Impact for a while in the early part of last decade but fell away from them when guys like AJ Styles and the schizophrenically booked Samoa Joe started falling away from the company. The final straw for me with was a feud between Matt Hardy and I forget who the presumptive face was but they kept double turning on each other. And there was a stretch at that same period when Rockstar Spud turned twice in the space of like a month.

 

And before AEW started up Dynamite in October of 2019, that was the last time I'd watched a promotion with a national profile consistently. My current fed rotation is AEW, MLW and RoH who was become the ride or die for me ever since Sinclair took ownership of them and TVZ started running the show.

[Jaysin]

I don't think I've ever gone more than a month or two without watching some sort of wrestling. At least in the internet age.

 

I give WWE a shot every few months if something sounds interesting. Like tonight, Bobby Lashley has a shot for the WWE title and I'm intrigued. I doubt he'll win, but hell, stranger things have happened.

[misterioso]

I stopped watching regularly in 2008 until ROH had their Sinclair TV show, which I watched for ~8 months in 2012ish. After that, I stopped watching regularly until AEW in early 2020.

 

The funny thing is, I played TEW through a good chunk off that whole time (there are a couple of years that I didn't fire it up, but played quite a bit still).

[Kubikiri Asa]

When WCW was sold to the WWF.

Then I focused 100% on K-1 instead. So I only watch classic 80s and 90s wrestling.

[Fleisch]

I watched (then) WWF from 1992 until 2001, WCW until 1999, ECW until they went belly up. Stopped for a couple of years as didn't like WWE's product. Started watching wrestling again in 2003 when I found out there was a local company (FWA) running shows and expanded my knowledge on the Indies, Mexico & Japan until 2015 when I stopped watching wrestling altogether (I know its ironic as I still did the real world updates for TEW). Started watching AEW in 2019 but for the most part these days, I just watch old 80's and 90's wrestling.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Fleisch

[CQI13]

Haven't watched the weekly stuff in years, but still do the PPVs and PLEs. There was a time before the pandemic and probably through that WM that I didn't watch. Glad Peacock is good for other things (not much) to make it worth my money.

[Mecha Kaji]

The first part of my case is pretty familiar to many, peaked with the Attitude era, fell off in the early Ruthless Aggression, didn't come back until the early to mid 2010s with NXT Black & Gold nearly a decade later. I began to wane again after university but got into Japanese wrestling more after I got together with my lady friend, who herself is Japanese.

However currently I'm not watching any Western as it's in an odd flux for me, see what happens when the dust has settles, and not as much Japanese because they're still slowly opening up due to Covid. That an NJPW booking got weird. Joshi scene is on fire though!

[El Güro]

I didn't watch too much wrestling after the end of WCW and only really got back into it some years ago when I realized that CMLL and AAA are on YouTube. CMLL is the reason why I am still a wrestling fan (AAA sadly just tries to sell me on the idea that AEW is great). When I have some time I just watch random shows on +Lucha.

[Blackman]

I don't recall the exacy timeframes (though I guess I can see it on WWE Network), but it's been years. Mostly it was a big PPV like RR or Mania that reeled me back in. The WWE Network was a good deal, but I currently don't want to spend the time on watching it. 

[The Blonde Bomber]

On 10/23/2022 at 2:56 AM, Fleisch said:

I watched (then) WWF from 1992 until 2001, WCW until 1999, ECW until they went belly up. Stopped for a couple of years as didn't like WWE's product. Started watching wrestling again in 2003 when I found out there was a local company (FWA) running shows and expanded my knowledge on the Indies, Mexico & Japan until 2015 when I stopped watching wrestling altogether (I know its ironic as I still did the real world updates for TEW). Started watching AEW in 2019 but for the most part these days, I just watch old 80's and 90's wrestling.

Mood I watch clips from the 80’s 70’s and recently the 60’s. Will look at interesting stuff from AEW or WWE on youtube

[Jason_Storm84]

I watch the WWF starting in 1997 when the cable finally arrive where i live in Canada. Have watched religiously till 2020 when the pandemic hit... when they released Bray Wyatt , in 2021 i stopped watching the product completely. He along with Aleister Black were the main reason i kept watching as i always prefere Supernatural Wrestler like Kane and Undertaker. Have restarted watching with the return of Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules. Can't wait to see what's next put can't understand the WWE Keeping both World Title on a champion who never defends any of them. 

[Jaysin]

2 hours ago, Jason_Storm84 said:

I watch the WWF starting in 1997 when the cable finally arrive where i live in Canada. Have watched religiously till 2020 when the pandemic hit... when they released Bray Wyatt , in 2021 i stopped watching the product completely. He along with Aleister Black were the main reason i kept watching as i always prefere Supernatural Wrestler like Kane and Undertaker. Have restarted watching with the return of Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules. Can't wait to see what's next put can't understand the WWE Keeping both World Title on a champion who never defends any of them. 

Roman doesn't need to be there, but if you look at his match records he is defending the belt quite often. Certainly more so than Brock did. 

[jackharry]

Because of injuries, suspensions, and poor decisions, I stopped watching the WWE in 2007. But what really did it in for me was when Hornswoggle won the cruiserweight title and Vince's son, Vince, became the ECW champion, Great Khali won the world heavyweight title, which was a dark day for me, and the Chris Benoit tragedy.

[TigerClawTV]

Right around the time HHH took the championship from The Rock. Don't know why that turned me off so much. I didn't start watching again until 2020.

[Dawn]

2017ish when Raw and SmackDown both started sucking equally after a lot of promise the previous year. And no, it wasn't really ''Jinder Mahal'' it was a swift overall drop in quality and not being able to stand 3 hour Raws anymore either.

I started watching in 2009 but could only watch ECW/NXT until 2011, where I started following full-time at around Mania 27 which was terrible but holds a special place in my heart all the same

2011's second half was amazing but they screwed everything up with Punk and then 2012 and 2013 were both really not good, boring years. 2014 was cool, but 2015 was terrible again. After they dropped the ball with the good stuff they had going in 2016, I just couldn't do it anymore. Since then I've never really gone to the level of full-time watching I used to do again. I'll still watch WWE whenever I can but not as dedicated. AEW is not for me (please respect my opinion) and its main show is also in the one day I'm never home so I could never catch up either way. Maybe I'll try getting invested in joshi wrestling now thanks to Strech's marvelous STARDOM diary. 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Dawn

[BHK1978]

16 hours ago, Dawn said:

AEW is not for me (please respect my opinion) and its main show is also in the one day I'm never home so I could never catch up either way.

The fact that you have to make a point to say the part about respecting your opinion over saying a promotion is not for you, sucks.  You should be allowed to say you don't like something without expecting a backlash from the AEW fanboys/girls. For some reason AEW fans seem to take it as a personal insult if you do not like the promotion.  Which I don't get. I mean heck, people used to rag on TNA all of the time and even though I was a pretty big fan of it at the time, I never got offend.  To quote a classic 80s sitcom song, "Now, the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, may not be right for some."

On topic, I have stopped watching wrestling for the most part.  It really has lost its luster with me, which sucks because up until recently I had watched some form of wrestling nearly every week since right after WM II.  I really cannot place what killed my interest.  I have never been a huge WWF/E fan after say 1988 or so.  For various reasons. MLW has not been the same since it came back after the extended break due to Covid.  I did not like the turn towards becoming something like Lucha Underground it took.  AEW, well I have given it a try multiple times and there is some stuff that is okay (I can say the same with WWE and MLW), overall the product is just not good.  Part of it is because I dislike the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega (My first impression of Kenny when I first saw him in ROH was, "Why is this guy with the terrible hair, carrying a broom around with him?") and so naturally I would be less inclined to like anything that they are key factors in running. However, even beyond my dislike of  Omega and the Bucks, the product is just not good.

[Dawn]

5 hours ago, BHK1978 said:

The fact that you have to make a point to say the part about respecting your opinion over saying a promotion is not for you, sucks.  You should be allowed to say you don't like something without expecting a backlash from the AEW fanboys/girls. For some reason AEW fans seem to take it as a personal insult if you do not like the promotion.  Which I don't get. I mean heck, people used to rag on TNA all of the time and even though I was a pretty big fan of it at the time, I never got offend.  To quote a classic 80s sitcom song, "Now, the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, may not be right for some."

On topic, I have stopped watching wrestling for the most part.  It really has lost its luster with me, which sucks because up until recently I had watched some form of wrestling nearly every week since right after WM II.  I really cannot place what killed my interest.  I have never been a huge WWF/E fan after say 1988 or so.  For various reasons. MLW has not been the same since it came back after the extended break due to Covid.  I did not like the turn towards becoming something like Lucha Underground it took.  AEW, well I have given it a try multiple times and there is some stuff that is okay (I can say the same with WWE and MLW), overall the product is just not good.  Part of it is because I dislike the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega (My first impression of Kenny when I first saw him in ROH was, "Why is this guy with the terrible hair, carrying a broom around with him?") and so naturally I would be less inclined to like anything that they are key factors in running. However, even beyond my dislike of  Omega and the Bucks, the product is just not good.

I love Diff'rent Strokes! It used to be a lunchtime sitcom here in Brazil along with Drake & Josh, iCarly, Fresh Prince etc.

You couldn't have said it any better. I debated whether I should properly reply or not but here goes. My friend group when it was at its height of watching wrestling full-time had this one guy who was the biggest TNA fanboy and we joked with him a lot because he'd always defend whatever they put on no matter how shitty. It was all in good fun and at the end of the day we were happy for him having a good time with a promotion most of us couldn't anymore and moved on with our days. He also ragged on us for swallowing the same old WWE product for ages, but neither side ever stepped out of boundaries.

What I'm getting at is that in that case there's intimacy and an understanding of boundaries. In this internet wrestling war today WWE fanboys aren't saints themselves, but the flack I've caught for saying I didn't enjoy a show of AEW's when I was able to catch up...for saying I didn't like how they crammed so many debuts in quick succession making each less special in turn and muddling who deserves TV time to establish themselves/stopping the momentum from other folks who had been receiving a healthy amount of screentime before said debut and afterwards didn't again (again, not excusing WWE for doing the same with the rapid fire debuts but they do have A LOT MORE TV time than AEW does when you factor in the amount of talent)...for saying I didn't like how there was an obnoxious amount of Tombstone Piledrivers in about 3 consecutive matches...heck, for talking about where I read my news in. AEW folks en masse made it their mission to make me feel like shit over my opinions or preference. All people I don't know in person, people I have not given the intimacy to tell me what I should or should not do. About the only aspect they don't fly at me immediately whenever I provide negative feedback on is the women's division. Now, I don't hate everything AEW either. I do enjoy a lot of what they're doing or at least the idea of it.

I've never been the biggest fan of any of the Elite guys but I did like Kenny Omega's heel presentation a lot. Never been a Punk guy either but his 1 year honeymoon before shit hit the fan was legitimately a fun catch up on with the promos and the fanbase as a whole had something to rally behind and unite itself. Moxley is treated way better in there than he ever was by Vince. Their comedy characters are all good and fun to watch. I have no faith they will push her to the heights she deserves but Jamie Hayter is a gem. Their usage of Bryan Danielson is on point and his stable is probably the best one they have. MJF is their best character by far and I don't know if he'd fit as well in WWE so I am actively rooting for them to keep him if they have not done so already. But the combination of the dates not meshing with my schedule, the toxic fanbase and the fact I can't stand Tony Khan's tactics either just removed any investment I could have ever had on AEW.

Good on their fans for loving all of/most of the product and I hope it stays that way. I do understand some of these folks didn't enjoy wrestling for a long ass time because of WWE and the lack of alternatives. But all this bickering involving me or even just reading the arguments without me and how toxic the community has become with a lack of respect for differing opinions legitimately sapped away my goodwill for wrestling a little. If I wasn't invested in writing diaries I don't know if I'd be here anymore. Once I'm done with my project I'll likely take a long ass break from anything wrestling and see if this gets any better. I watch WWE mostly to stay sharp at writing it though I do feel the product has improved since HHH took over.

I'll refrain from discussing this further since it's not directly the topic at hand. But since the elaboration may eventually become my second answer to this, sooner rather than later, I guess it's fair

Edited November 11, 2022 by Dawn

[BHK1978]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:07 AM, Dawn said:

MJF is their best character by far and I don't know if he'd fit as well in WWE so I am actively rooting for them to keep him if they have not done so already.

Staying off topic for a little more.  Until I just read what you wrote, I never really thought what a possible MJF run in the WWE would be like.  I absolutely think you are correct, I am not sure it would work out well for him and he would probably be better off staying in AEW.  Also, yes he is hands down the best character they have.  His run in MLW was great, he's just so good on the microphone.

As far as fans go, I have always felt a little shame in being a wrestling fan.  Mainly because a lot of the negative stereotypes about wrestling fans are true for a portion of the audience.  I remember going to a show in New Hampshire back when Daniel Bryan or whatever name anyone chooses to call him was really getting over the Yes chant.  Anyway, I am in restaurant across the street from the arena.  The place is packed with wrestling fans.  The guys at the next table over think it is hilarious to Ric Flair woo the waitress every time she comes over to their table to check if they need anything.  This causes a bunch of other people to start yelling out woo randomly and then some jerk starts a Yes chant and the place erupts into a Yes chant.  The normies and the waitstaff have no clue what is going on because the Yes chant isn't mainstream, so they just see about a seventy or so morons yelling Yes over and over again.  I am just sitting there embarrassed by the fact that I have something in common with people who act like this in public.  Hell, my friends took part in it.

[kinnikuniverse]

I stopped watching  wrestling when Nakamura betrayed NJPW in 2016. I tried coming back many times, but the current landscape disgusts me so much that i permanently gave up on the business.

 

...well, to be honest, i gave up on everything i love...hell, to be honest, i've pretty much given up on life. i'm just plodding along the current. The only thing that gives me peace honestly is listening to silent hill ambience music and being with my GF. Other than that, its nothing but boredom and dullness. Every night, i wish i'd never wake up and see tomorrow.

Edited January 6, 2023 by kinnikuniverse