AstroBoy Posted December 28, 2018 Report Share Posted December 28, 2018 As a new year rolls around, it brings to mind renewed efforts to try to follow the wrestling world at large. My viewing habits over the past year have personally been pretty spotty and I'm finding myself kind of overwhelmed/curious at how others manage even keeping track of what's going on in different promotions all over the world. I know that there is no way to watch everything and I'm not really trying to, but just out of curiosity, how do different people follow stuff in a way that works for them? I guess I subscribe to some YouTube channels and that helps, following certain promotions and wrestlers on Twitter is a help. Any other good resources? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted December 29, 2018 Report Share Posted December 29, 2018 Twitter and Facebook are particularly useful, especially Facebook wrestling groups because you can have many members posting articles covering indy promotions that you haven't discovered yet. Obviously, I also use YouTube, Dailymotion and all other video services, in addition to my Powerbomb.tv subscription as well. To tell you the truth, with so many different promotions around the world, it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything, so you gotta try to keep up as best as you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted January 5, 2019 Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 I think the best thing at this point is to give some focus to what's really working for you (in the last year for me, mostly New Japan, ROH and MLW) and let that flow out into other things. There's so much intermixing in the wrestling world now that you can get a really good sampling just by checking out other work from the people you enjoy (Penta on MLW led me to see some PCW Ultra, which led me to see some weirdly good late period RVD matches...). And don't let missing some stuff get you down - everyone at this point is bound to have blind spots, and it'll always be easy enough to correct them when the time comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingFan Posted January 5, 2019 Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 You just can't watch everything. Don't try. Watch first what you're the most interested in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superkix Posted January 5, 2019 Report Share Posted January 5, 2019 I go in and out of wrestling. I'll have periods of 3-4 years where I don't watch a minute of pro-wrestling, and then I'll be fully invested for a year before burning out again. I think I've burnt out again. I used to watch quite a bit for Burning Spirits, to keep track of what was at least going on in Japan. But that soon became tiresome (hence the end of Burning Spirits) and now the thought of sitting down to watch Wrestle Kingdom is overwhelming. I think I went from watching/following 5-6 promotions to maybe 1-2. Big Japan is still my favorite promotion at this point but yeah, if you try and watch everything, you will burn yourself out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rovert Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 The grind is real. Looking forward to NXT UK going to one episode a week as soon it catches to up to more current and IMPACT moving to Fridays. As midweek on the 2018 schedule was like Mount Everest. Largely I don't know why I beat myself up over watching modern TV Wrestling ASAP as much as I do as no one else really seems to do it besides giffers, internet reviewers and a handful of fans. A lot of my peers just watch WWE PPVs in full and watch hyped Raw and Smackdown segments on Youtube and that's it. They are probably the most sensible ones of us all. WWE's main roster in-ring product is so formula that a deft gif account Twitter that points out all the interesting pre and post-match stuff is all you need in order to watch the product as everything else is how you'd expect it be move for move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNLister Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 For 2019 I'm continuing my goal of watching/following a wider range of stuff, but with the addition of a new 'no backlog' rule, which means I have one week to watch a match/show from the point it becomes available (through whichever service/method). If I don't watch it by then, it can't have been important/hyped enough and I let it go. It's an intentionally arbitrary rule designed to remove the guilt/pressure of getting through backlogs and the whole process starting to feel like work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Enthusiast Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 If watching a promotion starts to feel like work, I stop watching it. I burned out quite badly this past fall because of all the awfulness surrounding the Saudi deal along with the TV shows being so bad. I noticed that my enjoyment of wrestling as a whole had gotten too tied up with WWE. Canceled all my streaming service subs and have only watched a few things here and there until recently. Prior to that, I was watching various stuff daily. It also coincided with football season started, where a lot of my time gets consumed by fantasy football and DFS prep/research and grinding. Now that fantasy football is over for me, I have been catching up on Beyond, PWG, and other indies that I missed lately. Watched WrestleKingdom. Starting to get warmed back up and will likely check out the Rumble to see if I want to bother getting back on board for Mania season. I usually get back in on NJPW every January and stay there til I get bored with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 9 minutes ago, Zoo Enthusiast said: If watching a promotion starts to feel like work, I stop watching it. This, a billion times. There's no "all" to handle. Just watch whatever floats your boat. With iMPACT, MLW, the big NJPW shows and maybe LU if it (hopefully) comes back, that'll probably make my full schedule. I'd be tempted to watch some WWE big shows in 2019 for a few women alone (although Daniel Bryan vs Aj Styles would be fun), but the terrible taste of the Saudi shows still tempers with that idea a whole lot (not to mention the regular awfullness of the product in general, which would make it a "watch a great match if it happens and nothing more" kinda deal, and that's not what I'm after these days, I'd like to follow week to week). When AEW becomes a thing, that'll be on my schedule as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Something like independentwrestling.tv is good, because you can follow a bunch of different promotions. You get Beyond and Chikara, but a lot of other awesome companies too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted January 8, 2019 Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 Ultimately, I think for your health and sanity, it's good to step back and try to figure out what you're trying to handle and why you're trying to handle it. What do you want out of watching current pro wrestling in 2019? Do you just want one or two promotions that you can really bite your teeth into and follow to get that episodic/ongoing story buzz with matches you enjoy? Do you want to keep up with the discussion for the social element so that you can be on the cutting edge and sort of live in that moment? Do you want to be able to create a credible best-of list at the end of the year (and if so, figure out WHY you want to do that)? This is a hobby. It shouldn't feel like work or a chore or an obligation. The only exception is if you really want to be part of the current conversation and that specific social element of it overpowers other elements of your enjoyment. That's no more or less valid than anything else (though it's almost a different sort of hobby, just like following the business side of things is a different sort of hobby), but come into it with open eyes at least as it'll affect how you follow things. Maybe you just want to make sure you don't miss any matches that you'd love. If that's the case, I'd suggest leveraging the resources at your disposal, namely this board and twitter and whatever else. I'm pretty confident that if there's a match that happens that I'd really, thoroughly enjoy, and I don't catch wind of it through normal channels, someone I know will flag it to me. If you want to be part of the social elements of it all, then reap the benefits of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroBoy Posted January 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2019 Thanks all for the kind comments, just to be clear I don't want to watch everything or even try. I was just looking for easier ways to be aware of what all is going on in what promotions so I can pick and choose with less blind spots. It's really just about expanding my tastes, trying to watch some new things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G. Badger Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 On 1/8/2019 at 1:40 PM, AstroBoy said: Thanks all for the kind comments, just to be clear I don't want to watch everything or even try. I was just looking for easier ways to be aware of what all is going on in what promotions so I can pick and choose with less blind spots. It's really just about expanding my tastes, trying to watch some new things. I still use PWO I'm on YouTube but not much else so, if I see people on the board talking or maybe some hubbub on the match discussion archives, I'll watch a video or two. For instance, I wouldn't have checked out MLW if it wasn't for the topic here. I think with the availability of stuff, one really does have to stick to preexisting preferences. Or at least use that as a guide. I have no qualms about skipping around a MLW show to see how it feels 2/3rds of the way in for instance. Or just checking out highlight videos. I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm for WK13 but watched a few extended highlights and feel like I had fun and got the gist Same with WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingPower Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 It can take a while, years even, to adjust your expectations of what reality looks like, what you honestly have time for and interest in. Eventually you become so disconnected from stuff you don't have time for that it's easy to not even have that stuff on your radar screen to make you lose that feeling of obligation. Then you can truly watch stuff for fun when you have the time. I've long since given up on following anything current as far as watching stuff and I'm usually disinterested in following much current news outside daily Observer recaps. I've long since given up on following results & show reviews. Really the main thing I take time for is podcasts. I'm lucky that I can listen at work and my podcast backlog is really the only thing that I semi-stress over trying to catch up on. It took a while but really the first step on this journey for me was realizing I had enough backlogged, unwatched footage in my collection already that it was really kind of silly to continue to "pile on" with adding more to the hoard so I kind of drew a line in the sand and accepted that I had to put a stop to adding to the backlog. Sorry if this is a downer, all that to say, just be realistic in setting your priorities & what you reasonably have time for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBadMick Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 I think it's important to ask yourself point blank 'what do I feel like I'd enjoy watching right now?', and make a decision within a minute. Any time I spend enjoying watching what I'm watching is all you can ask for, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 As the pressure is starting to build, I will say that the most frustrating time to be a wrestling fan for me as a guy in his late 30s with multiple kids (some very young), no local support structure, and a full time job is Wrestlemania weekend. Obviously travel is completely out of the picture. MAYBE In a few years when the kids get older, but right now I'd be putting way too much pressure on my wife (and over what? Wrestling?). But it's ballooned to this massive, overwhelming thing. I feel like you get, in one weekend, what you'd get in six months twenty years ago, just for the amount of stuff to watch and keep track of. And yeah, to "be a part of." On top of that, so much of it isn't really to my taste anyway, so then you're sort of feeling left out for weeks if not months (I get that I'm trying to say it's both ways but it sort of is). The SCI is a little like that too, on a smaller level. It's not a huge deal or anything, but I kind of which I could just avoid the internet for a few weeks and pop back up to livegripe Wrestlemania with you guys, which is, ironically, one of my favorite wrestling things of the year.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB8 Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 Outside of a few WWE PPVs and a handful of matches from elsewhere I don't even keep up with current wrestling, and I've still got way too much stuff to watch. There are several hundred discs in boxes that I'll never ever manage to get through. I can also never stick with the one thing long enough to finish anything, either. On 1/5/2019 at 11:20 PM, superkix said: I go in and out of wrestling. I'll have periods of 3-4 years where I don't watch a minute of pro-wrestling, and then I'll be fully invested for a year before burning out again. I think I've burnt out again. I used to watch quite a bit for Burning Spirits, to keep track of what was at least going on in Japan. But that soon became tiresome (hence the end of Burning Spirits) and now the thought of sitting down to watch Wrestle Kingdom is overwhelming. I think I went from watching/following 5-6 promotions to maybe 1-2. Big Japan is still my favorite promotion at this point but yeah, if you try and watch everything, you will burn yourself out. I'm pretty similar, only with me it's monthly cycles as opposed to yearly. It's the same with most of my hobbies. I'll go a few months consuming a bunch of wrestling, then I won't watch a thing for a couple months after that. I really don't follow any promotion at this point, but when I'm on a wrestling kick I'll check out the weekly WWE threads and I always pay attention to the match discussion archive, so that way I guess I'm at least getting a sense of who's prominent at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted January 30, 2019 Report Share Posted January 30, 2019 We just had a baby this month and while I've somehow caught more wrestling than I expected (Wrestle Kingdom, Takeover/Rumble and most Raws/Smackdowns), its definitely happening at odd times whenever I can squeeze it in and a lot of things I may have watched in prior years is getting left aside. I'm trying to keep an eye out for highly recommended matches from companies like BJW, DDT, Dragon Gate and others domestically and in Japan that I followed but didn't quite watch regularly, but it is TOUGH. All worth it, but my 2019 list of rated matches will definitely be a lot shorter than in prior years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted January 31, 2019 Report Share Posted January 31, 2019 On 1/30/2019 at 12:42 PM, WingedEagle said: We just had a baby this month and while I've somehow caught more wrestling than I expected (Wrestle Kingdom, Takeover/Rumble and most Raws/Smackdowns), its definitely happening at odd times whenever I can squeeze it in and a lot of things I may have watched in prior years is getting left aside. I'm trying to keep an eye out for highly recommended matches from companies like BJW, DDT, Dragon Gate and others domestically and in Japan that I followed but didn't quite watch regularly, but it is TOUGH. All worth it, but my 2019 list of rated matches will definitely be a lot shorter than in prior years. I found having a baby to be great for wrestling watching. You're up at all hours and need something to watch that's not as explicitly narrative driven as other TV shows. If you need to turn the sound down because it's late at night and you're feeding your baby, you can get by. If you need to get up to change her, you can skip a couple of minutes and it's not a big deal. Getting up early pushed me to watch much of the G1 Climax live. Worked out well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingedEagle Posted February 1, 2019 Report Share Posted February 1, 2019 15 hours ago, Migs said: I found having a baby to be great for wrestling watching. You're up at all hours and need something to watch that's not as explicitly narrative driven as other TV shows. If you need to turn the sound down because it's late at night and you're feeding your baby, you can get by. If you need to get up to change her, you can skip a couple of minutes and it's not a big deal. Getting up early pushed me to watch much of the G1 Climax live. Worked out well! Ha will have to give that a shot. Haven't gone to the TV yet for late nights but its bound to happen sooner or later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 1, 2019 Report Share Posted February 1, 2019 To slightly amend, I'll say that with the first baby, I was able to watch a bunch of stuff. She took forever to get to bed so I'd lay next to the crib with my tablet and watch cubsfan's youtube channel and that's how I ended up really getting into lucha. With a 6 year old and a 1 year old, however, forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenese Sarwieh Posted February 7, 2019 Report Share Posted February 7, 2019 For me made it a goal of mine's this year to keep up with the companies that interest me the most. Every chance I get I hop over to cagematch to keep me on track. If I have some down time at work I get on my phone and watch a recommended match when I can, so far it's working out great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 After spending the first two months of the year watching everything I could and had interest in, I finally got to the point of being burned out and where catcthing up felt like "work". So there. iMPACT remains my favorite promotion week-to-week CMLL at Arena Mexico on Wednesday night is always super easy and fun to watch NJPW, the big shows and cards with big matches only AAA, from time to time, the Total Giras shows tend to get samey, not in a good way. Depending on the card MLW, I'm getting kinda bored with, the last streak of shows have not held my interest very much ROH couldn't hold my interest at all WWE, only some matches on the PPV's. Haven't been bothered with Takeovers At this point, waiting for AEW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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