As a fan, will watching WWE ever be the same when your childhood favourite's retire?

[TWJC: The Beginning]

From my perspective, here's the cycle. You are super into it as a kid. You LOVE it. Then as things change, you wish they were like they used to be, then you get bitter, you hate anything that comes out. Then you realize you're being stupid and that you were letting nostalgia get the best of you. Finally, you can once again enjoy pro wrestling and you understand it more. You see what's going on. As a kid you don't see or understand what's going on, you just know it's cool. In the second stage you thought you knew how it worked, but you really didn't.

It's funny because you can see posters in different stages of this. Things will never be as cool as they were when you first came into wrestling. I'm sorry, they won't. You'll have guys you latch onto and they will make you feel that way again every once in a while. My advice is to go to a live show and let yourself get sucked in. My favorite experience as a wrestling fan was Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness in Chicago near Dragon's departure of ROH. He was leaving, so every ounce of wrestling knowledge told me that he was going to lose. Me and 1,500 people let ourselves get sucked into the story of the match, and falsie after falsie we were marking out and pulling for Dragon. It's the closest thing I have to watching sting in the mid 90s. I get it anytime I go to a live show and let go. If you are an overly critical grouch the whole time it's not fun for anyone.

 

[ringjobber1]

when the rock left, i did stop watching for awhile. but i think that even when your childhood favorite leaves, you realize that you still like the rest of the roster, and still want to watch them. not to mention, the rock coming back was the highlight of my month at that time. i was so damn excited and it made me feel like a kid again. i felt almost the same way when jericho came back. while those are still rare occassions, they are part of the reason that i still watch.
also, once you get older and join the notorious iwc, you look at it differently and gain new favorites. cody rhodes is the guy that keeps me watching smackdown, along with sheamus and barrett. new guys come in that you like and so they make the blow of your favorites leaving softer, because they fill that void.

I agree with this even though you will miss your favorite there are tons of other talent.
But personaly my favorite childhood wrestler was john cena now don't bash me for this but I was around 7 or something and he was in the first wrestling match I ever watched the 2 out 3 falls match between him and booker T. And when he won the U.S title I started to follow Cena. But as I got older I see his moveset and ways to finish matches aint change and I just became a regular fan. I was a die hard Cena fan and I still am a fan but its more of a respect type thing now, I respect what he's done in about 3 years that for some wrestler it would take a lifetime. And yes wwe won't be the same when cena Retires no matter what he never fails to get a reaction from the fans good or bad.

 

[wrestla122]

My childhood stars were The Rock and Stone Cold. Wrestling has already never been the same to me...

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

No, it will never be the same.

When you are a kid everything is bigger, better and more exciting.The wrestlers on TV are your heroes who can do no wrong. You genuinely want to believe that they are those characters and you feel an emotional attachment to them that you simply do not feel when you are older and wiser.

When I became a big wrestling fan, the main guys were The Rock, Undertaker, HHH, Austin and Mankind. Others like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Angle etc were just starting in the WWE or were soon-to-be-starting. There were also the tag teams like The Hardyz, Dudleyz and E&C

Now, when I watch wrestling and see the guys who are winning the belts, they arent as good to me. I know they are just as good an athlete as some of the wrestlers I have mentioned, but to me they never will be as big a star. JoMo, Rhodes, Sheamus etc are all good but they don't have the "IT" factor to me that my childhood heroes did. My room was covered in wrestling posters when I was a kid, they guys meant the world to me and Raw was a vital part of my week. Now it isnt.

With most of those top guys from the late 90s, early 2000s retiring (Rock, Austin, Foley, Michaels, Edge) and others reaching the end of their careers ( Undertaker, HHH, Angle), it does feel like the end of an era and I see very few wrestlers out there today that I can get as involved in as I could when I was a kid.

This is not a knock on the WWE, Vince is trying to make the next generation of stars and he is getting the young fans involved now, and they have their own heroes in Cena, Orton, Miz etc, but the older fans will always have theirs. The generation before me loved Hogan and Warrior and will argue to the death that those guys were the best of all time, because they were the right age to appreciate those wrestlers when they were on top.

For me, the feuds with Austin, Rock, Hunter, HBK and all those guys will always be my favourites, and I doubt that anything WWE put out in the future will make me feel the same way. I still really enjoy WWE now (I have just finished watching the WWE Experience on Sky 1) but give me matches with my Attitude Era heroes any day!

 

[Defekt]

My childhood favorite (Shawn Michaels) is retired, but I still watch.

Wrestling changes. I loved Nash and Sid back in the day, but I wouldn't wanna watch that match now. As time goes on you still love the old guys, but make new favorites as well.

 

[Psyclone]

The first wrestling match I remember watching/recording was the 1992 royal rumble where ric flair one (entering at number 3..)

Of the final 4 of that royal rumble Flair Hogan Sid Justice and Macho Man, all of them are gone from the WWE, or sadly dead in the case of Macho Man..

I really remember watching Shawn Michaels break up the Rockers and turn heel throwing Marty through The barbershop..... He's retired..

I remember the Lex Express tour, and the royal rumble that both bret hart and he won due to the tie... Both of them are essentially retired...

I remember Diesel's rise to prominence and he's basically retired.

I remember watching Hogan win the title at Wrestlemania 9 (sadly) and he's essentially retired (I don't watch TNA)

I remember watching Stone Cold during the rise of the Attitude Era... And he's retired..

I remember watching Mick Foley go from deranged Mankind, to Dude love, to Cactus jack and back and forth and he's again essentially retired (again I don't watch TNA)

The only person that I remember from my earliest PPV's watched that is still around is Taker.... I do still think that I will be a fan once he retires.

I've stopped watching WWE a few times over the years... Most notably once I was in college just after vince bought WCW (apparently I was lucky I missed the "invasion" angle...) but after college I met another wrestling fan at the job I worked and he got me back in...

I don't think i'd be able to effectively divorce myself from the WWE, especially since I live in Connecticut about 15 minutes from Stamford, so growing up there were numerous "superstar appearances" nearby me.... I got to meet Tatanka (first superstar I ever got to meet), Edge (in his brood days... got his autograph too), and even Terri Runnels (Love that picture+autograph)... As the "favorites" from my time have retired I've started liking some of the younger talent almost as much.... So I doubt I'll ever leave fully... and if I do even for a few years, I'm only a brief pull away from getting right back into it.