Gone off the wrestling

[ButchReedMark]

Has anyone gone through a phase where they can't be arsed talking or watching wrestling? I'm 28 now, I started watching wrestling when I was 5 watching the Von Erich's old tapes and USWA on Satellite in the UK. And I've been almost Aspergers about the whole thing, but has anyone else here reached a point when it's too much? How can I get the enjoyment back? Have I ODed on it over the years?

[Mad Dog]

It took me until last year to really get the passion back for watching wrestling after the Benoit murders.

[MikeCampbell]

From shortly after WrestleMania 25 until Summerslam 2010. I just didn't care about anything. I checked out the 1/4/10 RAW and Impact, since they were both heavily promoted, and neither did much for me.

[flyonthewall2983]

I have no passion at all for the current product, more a morbid curiosity of how things are being done. I missed apparently what was a hell of a match between C.M. Punk and Brock Lesnar so I could watch one of the final episodes of Breaking Bad and don't really regret it.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I took a big break starting slowly in Summer 1987, watched some in 88, and then nothing in 89. Starting 91 it was a slow build back with spurts here and there until 94ish when I got totally sucked back in. And have been since then.

[Karl]

I went from 2000 til just the past few months without showing any real interest in wrestling. I dropped in every now and then, but never to any significant degree. I would still buy books on wrestling and subscribe to the observer for some bio's or whatever, but never watch even half a full show of WWE TV and have never watched a single episode of TNA.

 

I suspect I suffered from burnout and various other factors for falling away. I was one of those guys who would consume everything which came my way, buying tapes of wrestling all around the world and spending more spare time than was probably healthy watching matches. I can still remember the days that hundreds upon hundreds of VHS tapes from any promotion you care to mention went in a skip. I just didnt care any more. I was done.

 

I guess that like music I have reached a point now where I tend to focus on what came before and appreciating that rather than looking for anything new. It was a casual stumbling across this forum and the apparent focus on historical wrestling rather than what is current that actually re-ignited my passion for wrestling, along with finding out what Meltzers raving over current NJPW (my only concession to modern wrestling) was all about. I probably will never get back to being the obsessive I once was, but perhaps some (old) wrestling is better than none at all.

[Dylan Waco]

Closest thing for me was a strange nine month period from the beginning of 2001 to September of the same year. My now wife, then girlfriend moved down here, and we were living with my friends in a house that was half Electric Koolaid Acid Test, half Suburbia the movie. We had no cable, because everyone preferred to spend their money on drugs/booze, or in my case books/music/wildly unnecessary trips on no notice often times for reasons best left unsaid. I was still watching some at friends houses, and caught almost every ppv during the period, but it was the one period in my life where I was not a week-to-week viewer.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Electric Koolaid Acid Test,girlfriend, drugs/booze

That pretty much sums up my break. Pussy, weed, and the Grateful Dead pretty much trumped wrestling for me when I was 17- 23.

[cheapshot]

Like you said to me Butch, take a few months off and get back on it at the Rumble. Don't leave forever though, as you're one of the good guys!

[Sidebottom]

Don't leave forever though, as you're one of the good guys!

[Mando]

I've pretty much been watching consistently since I was 5 (I recently wrote a piece on one of my earliest overall memories being wrestling-related). As far as mainstream (WWE, WCW, TNA) weekly TV and PPVs go I've probably only missed a small handful total. I've never given serious thought to stopping. I remember in '99 I was a junior in high school and was watching WCW Thunder one night and there was an MVP (ridiculous baseball gimmick) match followed by a Maestro (ludicrous orchestra gimmick) match and I stopped and asked myself: "What am I doing with my life?" Actually in the past year a lifelong friend and the only person I've known personally as passionate as wrestling as me stopped watching almost cold turkey. I was accustomed to swapping e-mails almost daily discussing DVDs or TV we'd watched and I kind of reassessed like: should I keep watching? But I came to the conclusion that the passion was still there. Real life gets in the way, it's hard to stay on top of current stuff, let alone find time to watch DVDs, but I squeeze in as much as I can. I was a proficient reader at an early age thanks in part to Apter mags! I don't think it's uncommon too to suffer burnout. You've just got to find your enjoyment in it again. Years ago I was much more critical and picked stuff apart but now I try to focus on the positive and just enjoy it all.

[El-P]

I remember in '99 I was a junior in high school and was watching WCW Thunder one night and there was an MVP (ridiculous baseball gimmick) match followed by a Maestro (ludicrous orchestra gimmick) match and I stopped and asked myself: "What am I doing with my life?"

Hey ! What should *I* say ?!!

[Mando]

I remember in '99 I was a junior in high school and was watching WCW Thunder one night and there was an MVP (ridiculous baseball gimmick) match followed by a Maestro (ludicrous orchestra gimmick) match and I stopped and asked myself: "What am I doing with my life?"

Hey ! What should *I* say ?!!

 

You were a wresting anthropologist doing an ethnography on WCW -- or something similarly academic, so you get a free pass!

[Log]

I stopped from probably 91 to right before the NWO formation. Happened to be watching that Nitro when Hall came out and got hooked again.

 

That was the summer before I left for college. I got into tape trading, found online wrestling forums (hadn't really been on the internet before college), and got in reeeeeally deep. I would go to any show within a days drive it seemed like. Hit PPV's, Nitros, Raws, anywhere from Nashville to Chicago to St. Louis to Louisville. Wrestling friends graduated, moved away, booze, girls, etc (though I did go to some fun wrestling shows drunk and with chicks!).

 

Stopped regularly watching around the Invasion and stayed away until Benoit's title push. Been back ever since.

 

Oddly, what really brought me back in that time was WWE's dvd productions. I could have a three-dvd set of Flair matches in great quality? A whole dvd devoted to Benoit? Eddie Guerrero? Late 90's smark dream!

[Busterira]

My timeline of watching wrestling

 

81-88 I watched religiously whatever was on in Chicago and that was a ton of wrestling. There was stuff literally on everyday if you watched the WCCW shows on ESPN which I would watch after school.

 

89-95 I literally didn't watch anything. I was about 17 and just had other things going on. I started working full time and just had other interests. Another factor was just the general direction wrestling had gone in, especially the WWF.

 

96-99 I watched ECW and the Monday night wars. After McMahon purchased WCW I was kind of done.

 

2000-to present I watch very little of the current product. I order Wrestemania every year and keep up what's going by reading here. I will turn on Raw once in awhile but haven't since this new power thing going on with HHH. Plus I think the 3 hour format has really hurt the show.

 

When I have the time in my off season from work, I watch about 20 hours a week of wrestling. All old school stuff of 70s-90s.

[Strummer]

brief periods in 1989 and 1990. Second half of 89 I didn't watch hardly at all (except Summerslam)I don't think I watched much at all between WM 6 and Survivor Series 90(although again we did order Summerslam) I've basically been watching full time since then.

[bradhindsight]

DVDs and video games brought me back in late 2004 after I stopped for a good two years. I wanted to recapture the fun I had with the THQ/AKI N64 games (failed but Day of Reckoning was an ok series) and then I found Shawn Michaels: From the Vault. I collected a little and watched thoroughly for a while but stopped for another two years (fall 2006-fall 2008) before coming back for good.

[Loss]

Really young in 1983-1984, so I don't remember specifics, but I liked wrestling then. Definitely a week-to-week viewer from 1987 to about 2007, when the Benoit murders caused me to check out for a while. It probably became a lower priority in my early teens for a couple of years. Still was a huge fan of old stuff, but could go months without watching without feeling like I was missing anything. I couldn't watch current WWE at all and by the time I could, I didn't enjoy the presentation anymore. The yearbooks lured me back in, the first one being released in late 2010.

[El-P]

WWF week to week watcher from late 89 to 96 in French, then switched to English as I was getting WCW in French, so I could get heavily into the MNW stuff. Also got older ECW stuff on some satellite English TV and WCW in English too at that point.

 

Got into tape buying in 1999 when I got sick of US wrestling thanks to you-know-who, stopped watching week-to-week pro-wrestling during the first WCW Russo stint, never ever got back.

 

Watched lot of puroresu, older (any style) and current (joshi mostly) from 1999 to 2003, then I think my pro-wrestling watch went nosedive for a few years, as I stopped buying and downloading stuff wasn't as easy as it is now.

 

I did watch quite a batch of matches for the Smarkchoice GOAT poll, and slowly got back on watching old stuff exclusively (although I did watch some current puro in the late 00's and got back to watch WM every year probably at the same time).

 

Never watched more wrestling than during the last three or four years I guess, for various reasons, one being that it's never been easier to get stuff. I do think that in the next year or so I'll be watching a lot less once again eventually.

[Joel Martin]

1991-1995 did absolutely nothing for me in WWF and WCW.

[The Chief]

I might be a rare example in that I've never had a complete tune out phase, I love it too much. I started watching around 1990-1991 as a WWF fan. There are a few times where I really felt like tuning out, but I never did completely.

 

The Benoit murders for obvious reasons.

 

2003 was a truly horrid year. I was seriously considering dropping completely but the build to WrestleMania XX brought me back.

 

When they tried to position Randy Orton as the companies top babyface after SummerSlam 2004 and JBL was the champ on the other show I almost quit.

 

The end of 1996 into 1997 I wasn't paying as much attention but that was just due to my age and other things going on in my life.

[artDDP]

2003 was a truly horrid year. I was seriously considering dropping completely but the build to WrestleMania XX brought me back.

 

When they tried to position Randy Orton as the companies top babyface after SummerSlam 2004 and JBL was the champ on the other show I almost quit.

This is exactly my timeline. I was obsessed with everything wrestling since about 1987 (I was four) to the point my dad was taping whatever promotions came on ESPN late at night to watch with me after school.

 

Around 2003 I started losing interest in most of the characters and the angles and I can't really figure out why. I used to be a big fan of Triple H but his dominating the top of the card and working slow, plodding matches with everyone was getting boring. When they started going with Randy Orton and JBL I just gave up.

 

I still tune in now and then whenever I have absolutely nothing else to do. I did watch the Rumble, WrestleMania, and SummerSlam in their entirety this year. Once I saw that the Daniel Bryan storyline was going to turn into another Triple H vs Shawn Michaels angle I threw in the towel altogether on the current product.

[anarchistxx]

I went off it about six or seven years ago and never fully got the bug back. Oversaturated myself with DVDs and footage to the point that none of it got watched; going travelling and moving to university etc interrupted any regular viewing habits. I really get nothing out of almost all wrestling now, which makes me wonder why I even tune into WWE occasionally. Probably because we got cable again and I have a decent amount of time on my hands right now. Even so, the only thing I ever watch is Raw if I happen to be up and the PPVs if the card looks alright.

 

I also don't really like the product now, yet that doesn't excuse the fact that I pay no attention to other, possibly better products like NJPW. I came in at the Attitude Era, so I'm probably different to people here in that wrestling was most enjoyable to me between 2001 and 2006. WWE, ROH, NOAH, CZW, IWA, Dragon Gate and others consistently put out stuff I dug in that era.

 

There will never be a time I'll be into it like I was. Too many other interests like music and film and books and socialising.

 

Ironically even when I wasn't watching I sporadically browsed wrestling forums. I prefer reading and contributing to discussions about it than actually watching it.

[Migs]

I stopped completely somewhere in '03 (although at that point I was mostly just watching indies and old ECW). College was leading me in different directions and I was probably burnt from years of tape trading.

 

I didn't watch at all until the TV writers' strike in 2008 led me back to Smackdown. Quite literally my Tivo picked up an episode randomly and it got me back into the WWE for about a year or so. I now watch very little of the current product (just bits of Raw and PPVs when the angles sound like they'd be of interest to me). But places like this make it easy to live in the past, and enjoy footage from 25 years ago like its now.

 

I also admit that I watch Total Divas with my girlfriend (who was a fan during the Attitude era).

[Sidebottom]

1991-1995 did absolutely nothing for me in WWF and WCW.

Dungeon of Doom getting into the swing of things in early 96 must have brought you back then.