What made you stop watching?

[MTL722]

With all the talk of lost viewership lately, I began thinking of the time I stopped watching WWE (and wrestling in general). Most of us have thought about stopping at some point or another. Not all of us have, but Im sure you've all gotten close. Admittedly, Im very close again

Around this time 9 years ago, a certain PPV aired for the first time as a WWE event. This event was so brutally unwatchable that I actually stopped watching wrestling ENTIRELY for a little over 4 years. That event was the infamous debacle known as December to Dismember. Need I say more?

Admittedly, I missed quite a few good things in that span. CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy. The entire S.E.S. angle. The Nexus debut. Jerichos last run as WHC. And most notably the Undertakers matches with Shawn Michaels. I read results of shows online every once in a while but never felt compelled to tune in. After all, the last thing I watched was a garbage PPV that left me completely fed up

What brought me back was hearing that The Rock was hosting Wrestlemania 27. His name alone was enough to get me to stream the PPV and watch a pretty underwhelming show. But that next night, I tuned in because I knew the foundation was laid for a Rock/Cena feud. The next few months were mediocre but what I didnt see coming was CM Punk. He got me completely hooked again and Ive been watching regularly ever since

Now with Sheamus (who I hate, and not the good kind of hate, the complete lack of interest hate) and the L.ON. (which I also hate) going against Reigns (making it 3 for 3 on the uninterested hate scale) I see myself just giving up.
The questions I pose are simple. Was there ever a time where you just couldnt watch anymore? What brought you back? Do you see yourself going down that road again?

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Pretty interesting topic. No offence but you stopped watching because of a C-show Ppv?? That's so stupid man. You missed out on so much. Pretty much every last great truly awesome feud and matches happened between 2007-2010. From hbk-jericho to hbk-taker to randy ortons best heel run. Besides Punk and Bryan, everything post-2010 stinks of unoriginal, drab, cliched and forced .They can call the rock-cena match 'once in a lifetime' till doomsday and to me it will still be cowshit.

Nevertheless, to answer your Qs, I felt like stopping/stopped watching regularly after WM 26 itself. It was so directionless and boring that I simply stopped caring altogether. Until CM punks pipebomb!

But once again, when they made him drop the title to fucking Rock, it left me bitter. They had practically already ruined WM 27 and 28...man those john cena matches were awful. And he won the rumble again?

I have been pretty much dispassionate since then, esp after Punk left. Cesaro and Seth Rollins made me want to reconnect. But as for today, the product stinks like hell. If something momentous doesnt happen by Royal Rumble, ill cease to watch until rollins returns.

 

[Logisticalbooker86]

To the OP:

My friend, I was at that December to Dismember debacle. It was every bit as bad as you remember and probably even worse. As to the matter at hand, I have never completely stopped watching, but I stopped ordering $54 PPV's from 2008 until the inception of the WWE Network and $9.99

Therein, I believe, lies a problem. 9.99 is such a good deal for all the content, that it almost evokes a "screw it, I'll watch it because it's 9.99" train of thought.

I'm about to stop watching RAW completely. The three hour format is too much. Every big moment is captured on YouTube or the network. Nothing about the current TV product evokes a "must see" feel. Everybody feels the same, and with the exception of the New Day which is completely amazing, no character is allowed to do anything to generate interest.

Ambrose should be trying to take down The Authority with Roman Reigns. Nope, he's fighting Kevin Owens for a title that means nothing.

If the E has either Brock Lesnar or John Cena win the title in January, all of creative needs to be shit canned. Roman Reigns isn't over because he is booked as the samoan Cena. WWE has got to build a star in a real big hurry. The outlook is bleak. To continue my point, if Sheamus drops the strap to Cena or Lesnar, it just makes the entire current roster look like puppets suspended in animation waiting for creative to have something for them.

What am I saying? The roster IS just puppets hampered by an inept creative team.

So, as long as the WWE Network is $9.99, I'll keep letting the subscription roll over. If the product is still this stale when the price inevitably goes up to $14.99? F that, I'll be finished for a while.

 

[Messiah]

I stopped watching in 2011 when CM Punk became a top star, got back into it a couple year's later when he finally left.. Also stopped watching around the Invason angle in 2001, can't remember my reason though.

 

[Mr.Maikeru_Sawyer]

this might not make much sense to others but I am trying to get my point across easily....

I honestly do not think as many people have stopped watching as the Rating have seemed to show, as others have pointed out things started getting bad ratings wise as soon as the Network started to gain subscribers. Many of you stated that you stopped watching because 50-55$ 13 times a year adds up fast but with the Network everything is $9.99 now including PPVs, Raw & Smackdown.
So if everyone who has the network stopped watching RAW & SD on TV yet still watch it on the network.

WWE is getting the almost the same number of viewers every week forever, only now more are watching on the Network than Cable TV

 

[Seritonin]

this might not make much sense to others but I am trying to get my point across easily....

I honestly do not think as many people have stopped watching as the Rating have seemed to show, as others have pointed out things started getting bad ratings wise as soon as the Network started to gain subscribers. Many of you stated that you stopped watching because 50-55$ 13 times a year adds up fast but with the Network everything is $9.99 now including PPVs, Raw & Smackdown.
So if everyone who has the network stopped watching RAW & SD on TV yet still watch it on the network.

WWE is getting the almost the same number of viewers every week forever, only now more are watching on the Network than Cable TV

The problem with your theory is, if just as many people were still watching the show, just in different ways, from the network, to hulu, youtube, etc. Then why are the arena's being tarped off and getting emptier every week? Why is the network stuck at 1 million subs when it's gone international? There's ways to figure out if the ratings are justified, and they are. Raw went from filling 10 to 12 thousand people a week to now averaging 6,500. Unless you're going to tell us people just quit going for different reasons..then obviously you want to believe what you want to believe.

 

[MTL722]

Pretty interesting topic. No offence but you stopped watching because of a C-show Ppv?? That's so stupid man. You missed out on so much. Pretty much every last great truly awesome feud and matches happened between 2007-2010. From hbk-jericho to hbk-taker to randy ortons best heel run. Besides Punk and Bryan, everything post-2010 stinks of unoriginal, drab, cliched and forced .They can call the rock-cena match 'once in a lifetime' till doomsday and to me it will still be cowshit.

I may have misrepresented myself. It wasnt just that show. That show was the tipping point. Also, id like to point out that this was around the time that I became invested in the MMA world which I covered until around 2010Ish

Either way, it looks like you were in my same boat, you just stuck it out. Good On you for that. And I've since seen all the good I missed thanks to the WWE Network, for which I pay $9.99 if anyone was wondering

 

[Azane]

When Brock wins the Title and isn't on TV, I stopped watching RAW for half a year or so

When I didnt have cable for a few years from 2004ish to ~2008, I didnt watch the product at all, but looking back, I probably wouldn't have been a weekly viewer for a lot of it. Besides gaining Cable back, I started watching again once Smackdown was made irrelevant because I could follow a story without a 30 minute Rewind every week, and just focus on 2 hours of action. I didn't order a single PPV from 2002 until the Network.

Most recently, the 3 hour raws have burned me out, to where I just watch the highlights or if I hear about a great match, I'll watch it in entirety. I'm watching most PPV content because 9.99 a month is a good way to spend a sunday.

 

[Paramecia_eater]

I guess from what i can recall I remember being really excited that Bryan Danielson was in nxt and still even though he lost every single episode i still stuck around, I mean i felt like this was wwe history you know? Like you had Skipp Layfield (Ryback) HUSKEY HARRIS who i am still surprise i didnt know that was bry wyatt in 2014 Then you would have a main event with bryan against y2j idk it was indeed a interesting time for wwe then something happened unexpectedly The nxt wrestlers destroyed the raw ring and beat the cupcakes outta john cena and what thhey did to justin roberts unspeakable!!!! yet i still stuck around even when they were really going no where with something so golden and should have went so fluidly then they dissolved it!!!!!!!! THATS WHEN I STOPPED WATCHING repetitiveness but i still love wwe and pro wrestlinnnn so what can you do

 

[Rocky84]

With all the talk of lost viewership lately, I began thinking of the time I stopped watching WWE (and wrestling in general). Most of us have thought about stopping at some point or another. Not all of us have, but Im sure you've all gotten close. Admittedly, Im very close again

Around this time 9 years ago, a certain PPV aired for the first time as a WWE event. This event was so brutally unwatchable that I actually stopped watching wrestling ENTIRELY for a little over 4 years. That event was the infamous debacle known as December to Dismember. Need I say more?

Admittedly, I missed quite a few good things in that span. CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy. The entire S.E.S. angle. The Nexus debut. Jerichos last run as WHC. And most notably the Undertakers matches with Shawn Michaels. I read results of shows online every once in a while but never felt compelled to tune in. After all, the last thing I watched was a garbage PPV that left me completely fed up

What brought me back was hearing that The Rock was hosting Wrestlemania 27. His name alone was enough to get me to stream the PPV and watch a pretty underwhelming show. But that next night, I tuned in because I knew the foundation was laid for a Rock/Cena feud. The next few months were mediocre but what I didnt see coming was CM Punk. He got me completely hooked again and Ive been watching regularly ever since

Now with Sheamus (who I hate, and not the good kind of hate, the complete lack of interest hate) and the L.ON. (which I also hate) going against Reigns (making it 3 for 3 on the uninterested hate scale) I see myself just giving up.
The questions I pose are simple. Was there ever a time where you just couldnt watch anymore? What brought you back? Do you see yourself going down that road again?

LOL I actually felt like I was reading one of my old posts. I've mentioned before how I stopped watching for about 8 years. What really did me in was how McMahon bought WCW and the true Invasion we all envisioned for years never came to fruition. It wasn't Vince's fault, I knew, but still me and my buddies were pretty down about it. We all wanted Goldberg vs Austin and all the other dream matches to come with it.

Combine this with WWF changing to WWE, and Jericho main eventing Wrestlemania (which I thought he had no business doing at that time) and I really did "get the F out".

Of course, once I left (right after Mania 18) I missed EVERYTHING, and boy do I mean EVERYTHING. I missed:

-The Rock finally beating Austin at Wrestlemania
-Goldberg's WWF run
-HBK's entire return
-Evolution's entire run
-Scott Steiners run
-Brock Lesnar's rise to the top
-Batista's rise
-Cena's rise
-Orton's rise
-Edge's rise
-King Booker's rise
-Eric Bischoff's WWF run
-The entire brand split
-All the great storylines and ppvs in that time
-Everything else I didn't list


I popped back in time to time on a limited basis and saw certain segments like King Booker who was hilarious, but for the most part I missed it all. Wrestlemania 19 I watched the day after when my friend told me all that happened and gave me the tape. I couldn't believe what he said...Rock wrestled Austin...I said "no that was two years ago" and he's like no they did it again, and I said "yea at Mania 15 & 17" and he's like no, they wrestled again last night...felt like the Twilight Zone. Like the moment I stopped it turned on me and became awesome. My mouth dropped when I heard HBK was back and Vince wrestled Hogan.

I felt cheated and turned my back even more out of resentment lol. Plus I was like 18 at the time and had a lot of other things happening that were more entertaining but now that I look at it...I could've found the time if I wanted. It's one of my biggest regrets.

I tried to give it another full time shot when Raw moved back to USA in 2006...when Hogan called out Austin I marked out like a little bitch so bad my ex chick looked at me like an idiot. When that didn't happen, I turned my back again lol.

I also came back in 2011 when I heard the Rock returned. I stayed and haven't left since...no matter how bad it gets. I'm not gunna miss anything else as long as wrestlers from that era are capable of coming back to perform.

Now that I wanna finally watch all the Raws and Smackdowns I missed on the WWE Network, I can't because they only provided episodes from that time here and there. Sucks.

Hope that wasn't too long a post haha.

 

[The Mattitude Era]

I quit watching for about a year and a half from mid-2009 to early 2011. Got tired of the guest hosts on Raw eating up so much time and just wasn't interested in the main event scene players at the time. Triple H was long-stale to me by that point, so was Big Show, I was cooling on Cena and Orton. Was growing bored with Edge and Jericho. It just wasn't worth it to pay for the pay-per-views by that point, and once I started missing ppv's Raw and Smackdown started seeming more pointless to watch, especially as I wasn't caring for the product that much anyway. The last program I recall caring for was the Punk/Hardy stuff over on Smackdown.

By the end of 2009 I had completely checked out of wrestling, occasionally checking back into it. I remember seeing Nexus debut. That's really about it. I also remember being bummed that I missed out on HBK's last match. Other than that though, wrestling was off my radar for the most part.

The first time I interest was perked again was when I heard that Alberto Del Rio had won the rumble. I was intrigued that a new guy had won the rumble, especially as that's what I always sorta felt was the point of the rumble. And then, a few weeks later, my friend texted me that The Rock had come back (this was in Feb 2011), and I have hardly missed a Raw or pay-per-view since. And I've enjoyed it for the most part, except I wasn't that into the last few months of 2013 (with Daniel Bryan just getting beat down by the Authority every week).

That's my story.

 

[DetectiveZelix]

I stopped around 2006 after watching Cena become the "man" of the show. Always found him boring and overrated and at the time he was up against most of my faves and beating them, just got so stupid for me so I stopped for a while. Returned around 2010 around the time of the Nexus. Then of course Cena takes them out so from around then I've never watched consistently. I just check online every now at the results or watch a review on YouTube. When I found out Rock came back I watched during his time and Brock then of course Cena went to beat them too so I clocked out again and now I check forums like these every now and then to see what's hot and watch wrestling from independent companies and local feds

 

[Aquaman6686]

The longest period of time I stopped watching was fall 2010 to early 2012, and the thing that made me stop watching was The Nexus. Seeing a bunch of absolute nobodies dominate top stars was absolutely ridiculous and made wrestling unbelievable to me. And Wade Barrett headlining Pay-Per-View after Pay-Per-View despite being greener than grass just made me sick. I started watching again when Chris Jericho came back in 2012.

At this point I'm ready to stop watching again, because WWE is all about the future and not the present. All the guys who should be top stars are jobbing or not on TV, and all the guys who aren't ready to be stars are getting the pushes.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Punk's leaving was the final reason even though i didn't watch it on a regular basis before then but the main thing that made me stop was the shows stopped making sense, even for wrestling. We had guys who the audience hated being pushed because management liked them, guys who the audience loved being buried and all the time wwe saying "we listen to our fans, they tell us what they want". They forgot to mention that they ignore what the fans want. We got the same matches over and over again. We got guys like Lesnar coming back and getting buried, then suddenly becoming huge threats. It just got to be too silly and for no reason so I quit watching it.

 

[FromGlasgow]

It amazes me at how fickle someone can be, Completely stopped watching a whole sport due to an agreeably one off bad event which happened 10 years ago? Which is insane but its your own choice so thats fair enough but you still come on to wrestling forums to bitch about a product you stopped watching over 10 years ago? Would it be too easy to find a new hobby or new sport to watch rather than all the negativity about everything wrestling.

 

[theuk savior]

I stopped watching from 2000 to 2004 as joined the army and didn't have that much time.

glad network came out as am more or less caught up

 

[MTL722]

Fromglasgow clearly doesn't know how forums work. Maybe try reading what people post before typing inane comments

 

[HollyWoodHale]

I watched it religiously until around 07/08. I was fed up of Cena being shoved in my face so ever since I've only watched the highlight shows and PPV's.

The product is terrible at the moment but I can see better days ahead when HHH gets handed the reigns. Love what he has done with NXT.