Anyone else finally getting tired of wrestling?

[berlinbrawler]

(Warning: This thread is a needlessly wordy rant. Might as well skip to the very last sentence. That being said, if you've got time to waste, please read on.)

To answer my own question: Yes, of course. All it takes is a look at the ratings and PPV buy rates to know the answer.

I felt compelled to post this thread because I just watched the latest episode of the JBL and Cole Show in which there is a midget bull loose in a donut shop and Tensai doing his best Miley-Cyrus-naked-on-a-swing-impression.

What?? What happened to the wrestling show I used to love as a kid? Let me get this straight: We've gone from Shawn Michaels kicking his partner in the face and throwing him through a freakin' window to Tensai naked on a swing? What happened??

Watching that, I couldn't help but feel that the WWE was thumbing their nose at all the fans still dumb enough to watch this crap.

To be fair, ridiculous segements like that have always been part of the WWE's programming. It's just finally reached the point where I don't think I can put up with it much longer.

Which made me wonder: Why do I still bother?

Truth is I haven't watched RAW in 4 weeks, Smackdown! in several months and the only reason I still watch the PPVs is because in Europe you can watch them on SKY without coughing up 35 bucks per view. The idea of actually paying for almost any of the PPVs seems laughable. I could barely make myself watch the last 2 PPVs for free. I just... can't... get myself to care enough anymore.

The last time I let my "habit" slide like this was in the mid-90s, shortly before the attitude era, but that was because at the time I was in my teens and at that age being an expert in all things wrestling was pretty much an equivalent to a chastity belt. ........ Unlike at a higher age?? Well, eventually the ladies become more forgiving of quirks like that, so long as you don't hit on them wearing your vintage WWF Tatanka shirt. (Which I have seen happening.) But I digress.

I'm actually spending more time reading wrestling news on the Internet or in this forum than I do watching the product. And the only reason I do that is because currently I got a loooooot of time to kill at work.

Long story short: After almost 25 years of consistently watching I all but lost interest and am barely watching anymore.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: If a lifer like myself is wavering in his loyalty to the WWE, the company must be in trouble. Big trouble. You'd think that if someone watches for 25 years, he'd stay forever no matter what.

It's almost as if wrestling has simply run its course and doesn't really fit into todays world any more.

Oh well. Or maybe it's just me and I have just finally outgrown this stuff. Or maybe I need a prolonged hiatus like in the mid-90s. As long as I got time to kill at work, I'll at least devote some online attention to it.

Am I the only one who feels so disillusioned about the WWE right now?

 

[Alastor]

I think it is more of a chastity belt to be an expert of wrestling when you are 30 than when you are in your teens.

It isn't as important to keep up with the shows when you are grown up as compared to when you were younger. Priorities change. It happens to all form of entertainment product. Remember how you used to need to be the first to own that new album or watch that movie or to buy that video game? Then it becomes ehh.. so what?

I say it is the 7 year itch of wrestling if you are losing interest. Take a break and be entertained all over again when the Royal Rumble starts again for Wrestlemania season.

 

[Miko]

Daniel Bryan! Apart from that wrestling can go fuck itself these days. CM Punk!?! Fuck off! I have to put up with greasy, know it all douchebags like that every day.

 

[Shocky]

Just watch from the beginning of the year until the PPV after Mania. Tune out then tune in again after the June PPV, watch until Summerslam. It's not that hard to figure out when the WWE actually attempts to put out decent programming.

 

[Dirk]

Switch to TNA.

 

[Miko]

For every Brutus Magnus or Rob Terry there is a crushing disappointment.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I watched a match from Japan on YouTube that featured women in a barbed wire land mine match. Try that. Warning, you may feel slightly ill and disturbed afterwards....

Actually, don't bother.

 

[Miko]

For every Brutus Magnus or Rob Terry there is a crushing disappointment.

Usually the latest failed attempt at making AJ Styles interesting out of the ring.

 

[Dirk]

You mean Magnus is NOT a crushing disappointment?

 

[Miko]

Brutus Magnus is epic, he is what Wade Barrett wishes he was

 

[Dirk]

Don't you live in the States, bro?

 

[Miko]

Nope, I am an Englander

 

[Dirk]

Ah... Now it makes sense. More power to you, man.

 

[BaconBits]

Just watch from the beginning of the year until the PPV after Mania. Tune out then tune in again after the June PPV, watch until Summerslam. It's not that hard to figure out when the WWE actually attempts to put out decent programming.

Yep. Tis' what I do too.

 

[Alex]

Brutus Magnus is epic, he is what Wade Barrett wishes he was

This is so true. Comparing the amount of exposure each has had and the interest they each hold on an audience Magnus has done more than Barrett

 

[klunderbunker]

Let's see.

1987: Outback Jack is trained by Aboriginal medicine men to make him unbeatable in the ring.

1990: The Gobbledygooker, a dancing turkey thing debuts.

1993: Giant Gonzalez is a caveman.....I think.

1995: Mantaur. Enough said.

1999: Rape, kidnappings, forced weddings, demon worship, transvestites, beer baths, vehicular homicide

2002: Katie Vick

And of course:

1990: Ted DiBiase debuts a ZOMBIE.

Acting like this is something new in wrestling and this company in particular is ridiculous.

 

[berlinbrawler]

Acting like this is something new in wrestling and this company in particular is ridiculous.

well, I did write the following:

To be fair, ridiculous segements like that have always been part of the WWE's programming. It's just finally reached the point where I don't think I can put up with it much longer.

All I meant is I think I have reached my breaking point. Anyway, I was just ranting. After all, no one is forcing me to watch this nonsense... And I shall continue to exercise my freedom by choosing to not watch it. Peace out.

 

[King Patrick Star]

No. You are not alone. I’m also finding the “product” not as interesting as before. I’m not talking about just WWE, but TNA as well. I feel there is something missing, but I can’t figure it out.

For me, it started about a year and a half ago, after I bought the Ultra Deluxe replica of the Undisputed WWE World Championship Title Belt. I had that “I’ve done it all” feeling. I already had the WWE Title (Spinner), World Title (Big Gold), and the ECW Title (WWECW), not to mention all the other Toy Belts I already had, and the Undisputed Title was the crown jewel / “final piece” to my collection. I felt complete. I felt that my collection was more exciting than what I was seeing on WWE TV.

Usually, from April to January, WWE kinda slows down and gets a little boring for me. Then from January to April, I usually feel like it’s WWE’s post season. The Royal Rumble is like the “Divisional” round, if you will, of the playoffs, Elimination Chamber being the “Conference final” round, and of course, WrestleMania being the Championship. As soon as the Road To WrestleMania started last year, I didn’t get that “post season” vibe that I would usually get around January. When WrestleMania 29 came around, it felt like SuperBowl XLII and XLVI, one of five teams I hate the most, Philadelphia Eagles Division rival, the New York Giants vs. another one of five teams I hate the most, the team that beat the Birds in SuperBowl XXIX, the New England Patriots. I was basically just going through the motions of hosting the annual WM party at my Palace.

This year, it got to the point, where after WrestleMania XXIX, I was looking for something, anything, to fill in the void missing in my fandom. What I ended up doing was purchasing 5 more Belts (Million Dollar, Intercontinental, United States, Divas, and finally the Big W, the current WWE Championship Title Belt, and 2 display cases, to bring it all together. I recently went as far as getting the Shop.WWE.com / WWE Live Events exclusive Toy version of the Big W this weekend, even though I already had Mattel’s version since summer.

I think now, I’m just more of a fan of the history, than the current show. I’m more of a fan of Belts with nameplates than without, and just by looking at the current WWE and Intercontinental Championship Title Belts vs. the previous set, it’s kind of like a personal sign to me where all this is going. If the WWE unifies the WWE Title and the World Title together, and unifies the Intercontinental Title and the United States Title together, there is an 88% chance that the WWE and Intercontinental Titles will remain active and the World and United States Titles will be the ones retired, similar to what happened in 2001 – 2002. That would then leave the Divas Belt as the only active Belt in the WWE with a nameplate. See where I’m going here??

Two weeks ago, I even removed Main Event from my DVR to make room for all these new sitcoms. Whatever the case, I’ll still DVR Raw, Smackdown, and Impact. I might not watch them weekly anymore, but at the very least I’m still keeping the option open.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

You are FAR from alone on this and I tend to agree.

I mean yeah WWE always had shit every year its been around (see KB's post) but for the most part they at least has something to compensate for it. Take '87 for example, we had Outback Jack doing lame shit but then we also had Hogan vs. Andre, the face turn of Randy Savage, Wrestlemania 3, the 1st Survivor Series, Harts vs. Bulldogs, the debut of the Million Dollar Man and Jake Roberts vs. Rick Rude, I would call that a pretty damn good year considering. I'm not gonna count years like '93 and '95 as that stuff was hard to watch even as a 7 and 9 year old kid (and most of the time I wasn't watching because it sucked so hard).

In today's wrestling for all the garbage the fans gotta put up with when there is something really good on you can usually forgive the crap, that's why the Attitude Era is looked upon so fondly. We may have had 70% of crap on RAW every week but the other 30% was so awesome it really didn't matter, you were still enthralled and you still wanted to watch and besides, you could always fast forward through the crap (I know I did). Today you get a lot of brutal but the one huge difference is their best stuff really isn't that good in comparison to yesteryear and it certainly isn't good enough to make people wanna stick around for the end. 2 months ago I was pumped for the D-Bry storyline, now I don't even care how it ends. Punk vs. Heyman is good but there's not much left in the tank for that feud and it still isn't good enough to sit through 3 hours Raws to watch it.

It pains me to say it but John Cena is IT for the WWE, he's the only one who currently has the ability to draw and even with Cena it's extremely hard to watch (and don't give me any "what about CM Punk and Triple H?" bullshit, they can't draw and they never could without a ton of help). They could have had something with Bryan, Punk, and Ryback but they fucked it all up in EVERY SINGLE CASE, they somehow fucked up Lesnar too and that guy 3 years ago that guy was getting PPV buys WWE could only dream of. The truth about wrestling is the talent is only as good as the company behind them and although WWE has created a profit machine their product sucks, plain and simple. It's not rose color glasses for the past its a clear dip in quality over the years.

You can get away with putting as much garbage on TV as you want, as long as you have something else that people want to watch, WWE doesn't have that and I hope WWE finds it. I understand they don't have to since they are still profitable, I get they are in a position to "half ass" it when it comes to creative but personally I got better things to do than to watch a "half assed" product and that's why I've not ordered the last few PPV's, that's why I'm not watching Raw and that's why I won't watch until things get better.

 

[smizzy]

I rekindled my love for the wrestling (mainly WWE) around January of 2012 and promptly bought every PPV through Extreme Rules 2013, didn't miss a single Raw (sometimes had to DVR). Also in this time, I went to quite a few live events.

But I'd say around August, I seriously just quit caring about the programming. It's really lost its luster to me even with the Shield's presence and Daniel Bryan's run. I have only caught a couple Raws on TV the past two months, and even with that, probably forwarded through the majority of it.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

RVD! RVD! RVD!

Edit: DVR! DVR! DVR!

 

[The Brain]

I felt compelled to post this thread because I just watched the latest episode of the JBL and Cole Show in which there is a midget bull loose in a donut shop and Tensai doing his best Miley-Cyrus-naked-on-a-swing-impression.

What?? What happened to the wrestling show I used to love as a kid? Let me get this straight: We've gone from Shawn Michaels kicking his partner in the face and throwing him through a freakin' window to Tensai naked on a swing? What happened??

Watching that, I couldn't help but feel that the WWE was thumbing their nose at all the fans still dumb enough to watch this crap.

To be fair, ridiculous segements like that have always been part of the WWE's programming. It's just finally reached the point where I don't think I can put up with it much longer.

Like KB pointed out (and you acknowledged) ridiculous segments have always been a part of WWE. The example you're providing here is just an internet show. It didn't even take place on WWE tv. Think of it like those old Coliseum Videos where The Berzerker would show you how to plan a party or Kamala would learn to bowl. If you don't want to quit WWE all together I suggest recording Raw and Smackdown and have the fast forward button handy if you see yourself getting bored. Don't bother with those online shows that don't mean anything anyway.

But I'd say around August, I seriously just quit caring about the programming. It's really lost its luster to me even with the Shield's presence and Daniel Bryan's run. I have only caught a couple Raws on TV the past two months, and even with that, probably forwarded through the majority of it.

Don't worry, John Cena is coming back.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I've found RAW much better the past few months as a whole. I still can't shake the thought that I have every time I watch RAW which is: Too long, it's too long, you don't have enough material to support three hours.

You should come away from a wrestling show, or any show for that matter, wanting to see more. After three slid hours where they now have multiple, and I mean like 3 segments per show filled up with Punk and Heyman, Bryan and Orton and HHH, you feel like you've seen too much and you're trawling through it like it's a marathon. Crop it to two hours again and interest is going to instantly go up. Making the show 3 hours is one of those things which is only good in theory.