When did you stop enjoying pro wrestling?

[wccwfan4life]

Assuming atleast some of you have.

Personally i miss the fantasy comic book side of wrestling.

I miss all of the great backstage interviews, i hate promos in the ring all the time. Plus everything is so realistic now, that was an NWA thing. WWF was known for being more cartoonish and i loved it. Not the bad mid 90s gimmicks, just the kayfabe and characters, everybody had some sort of character or persona, something! Everybody these days is so plain and boring, guys like Drew Mcityre. With characters and managers the wrestling world feels devoid of any emotion.

[Emerald Enthusiast]

Wrestling lost something around 2004. I don't think it was an intentional change in direction as much as a bad booking and a lacking class of main event stars.

While I think wrestling still has it's cartoonish guys (Cena, for instance) I agree that there isn't enough variation on guy's looks and characters. Take note of all the guys that have debuted in the last few years. They all wear junk-hugging tights and act rather plainly. There aren't any managers or character sketches to help get them over. In other words, it's mostly a packaging problem.

[NAЯDO]

After 2000

[Deleted]

true disinterest set in in late 2003......stopped watching regularly in 2005.

watched TNA more often since because there has been some thrilling matches there even though its mostly a mess.

[carly1988]

It started a HUGE decline with the closing of WCW. Once it went....My heart went

[pineappleexpress]

While I stopped watching for months at a time in 2005, I didn't totally lose interest until around late 2006. I'm starting to find back my passion for wrestling now, however..

[Johnny Lawrence - Cobra Kai]

I actually thought the Attitude Era was the worst offender for guys all dressing the same.

All of a sudden, everybody wore black, and half the guys were wrestling in baggy jeans with shirts on, like they just arrived from the skate park.

Anyway, I have yet to completely lose my interest in wrestling. But it took a big nose-dive around 2007, in terms of the current product. I am still amped for stuff like the Hall of Fame, or the old school DVDs. I still watch every Raw episode and about half of the Smackdown episodes, but I find myself fast-forwarding through the parts I don't care about.

[Grumpyoldman]

I stopped watching the WWF once the Gobbledygooker hatched. That pissed me off soooo bad!

[K5]

Jun 7, 2010 6:39:44 GMT -5 JokerFC said:

true disinterest set in in late 2003......stopped watching regularly in 2005.

watched TNA more often since because there has been some thrilling matches there even though its mostly a mess.

dead on for me too.

[Matt]

I really starting losing interests around 2002; I got interested again in 2004, but when 2005 hit it was all down hill. I can't even stay awake during Raw these days, and I haven't seen an edition of Smackdown in years.

[Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion]

I started losing interest in 2006 probably.

[twinn]

I stopped loving it when The Rock left for good... Was that 2003??? I stopped liking it after Batista and HHH's match at Wrestlemania (2005???).... I probably haven't watched Raw in it's entirety since 2005 and I don't know if I ever will again.... I try watching it every now and then and I have to turn the channel almost immediately because it's soooo bad...

[Deleted]

Around 2000, as I couldn't ignore the stuff about it (whether it was WCW, WWE and even ECW) that to some degree insulted my intelligence...

The stuff I'd enjoyed about wrestling was gone, as nothing made sense (booking-wise, and in-ring-wise) so I sought out other avenues within the realm of pro wrestling to 'challenge' me, so to speak, so I immersed myself in independent wrestling and Puroresu.

TNA in 2005 achieved this to some degree, as the WWE's corporate sports-entertainment machine provided nothing but sizzle and no steak. Make no mistake, the WWE-produced DVDs around that time due to the access of the video library was great and I liked a few of them, namely the 'Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen' and 'Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW' DVDs.

As time went on, TNA lost their identity and soon the crisp action and Scott D'more's booking disappeared, WWE went from strength to strength with their own business plan, but I wasn't interested.

...and now I'm here.

[PrideFcF]

I think the frustration immediately started to build up when ECW and WCW went under. I started to become more and more tired of the WWE formula when there was literally no televised alternatives. Around 2005-2006, I found myself mainly criticizing the product, instead of really watching. Then when I started watching MMA heavily in 2007, it was pretty much over for me. Every little thing, that at one time just annoyed me, suddenly angered me to the point where I couldn't bother to watch.

A lot of the things pointed out in here are also reasons why I have no desire to go back. WWE changed the way it does a ton of things in order to stay "modern" or whatever. It may help pull in new viewers, but it certainly pushed this one away. Especially when you'd hear reports that WWE had absolutely no interest in things that made wrestling so entertaining. Male managers were banished, girls that could have been strong valets were instead pushed to be mediocre wrestlers, and tag team wrestling became a dead art.

[Deleted]

I stopped enjoying wrestling when the wheels fell off WCW (before it closed down). I had never been a huge fan of WWF/E style cartoon wrestling. Even the beloved attitude era was just too over the top and silly to me, though it featured some great characters. There was a brief period when TNA featured great in ring wrestling, but that was a while ago. I tried to watch ROH when it started showing on HDNet, but it was a charisma vacuum -- it was like they wanted me not to care about their wrestlers.

I disagree that the current product is anything like the NWA. Back then, guys relied on compelling, down-to-earth charisma, and in-ring skills. They didn't need goofy gimmicks or occupational characters. The whole point was to package wrestling as a legit contest. Why the hell would a cop be fighting a millionaire, or a clown fighting a dead guy? But just because modern guys aren't wearing costumes doesn't mean they're like NWA guys. They're just goofy characters without costumes giving awful scripted promos. No real emotion, which is what drove old school wrestling. Even what is considered good in-ring work these days wouldn't have flown in the kayfabe era.

Honestly, though, I don't see how wrestling can be better these days. Without kayfabe, you can't really have the old style of mat wrestling with low-key characters. And our current culture is just too faux-cynical and snarky to have over-the-top gimmicks. Seriously, modern fans can't even root for a true babyface character -- they have to be anti-heroes, or the internet fans will boo them.

[steel]

GREAT question.

The end started for me once Hogan retired Flair in WCW and the whole Dungeon of Doom thing ran on for months. I've had nightmares of The Zodiac..YES..NO! YES...NO!

It just got worse with HBK "losing his smile" and fake Diesels and such.

I got back in a few years later and than was growing tired of the WWE not allowing heels to have ANY credible wins ala JBL. WWE started purposefully disgracing the ECW image and memory. When Chris Benoit died I stopped altogether as it really, really bothered me being such a huge Benoit fan.

I'm back now and loving it for the most part, thanks to Jericho, Punk, Miz, Regal & Evan.

[Nix Hex]

Jun 7, 2010 6:39:44 GMT -5 JokerFC said:

true disinterest set in in late 2003......stopped watching regularly in 2005.

watched TNA more often since because there has been some thrilling matches there even though its mostly a mess.

Same here..I really fell out of Wrestling in 2005....2007 Though is the one year since 94 I really didn't watch at all..I got back into it again in 2008 ..I don't think I could ever stop watching for good.

[ebilbryan™]

After Eddie died, my love for wrestling declined a bit, but I kept watching.

Then there was the Benoit fiasco, (I had also been watching TNA from 2005 and up to that point) so I made the switch to TNA full time.

TNA got really hard to follow with stuff happening all over the place, and now in 2010 it has it's high and low points. (mainly low)





So now I try to watch AAA, decent wrestling but there is of course the language barrier. I also try to catch ROH on HDNet, but it doesn't show how great ROH's product truly is, but luckily, their PPV's do.




I feel that wrestling is pretty dead now, and I don't see it picking up again until the current fan base becomes teenagers.

[gordon]

I still enjoy wrestling, just not as much as I used to.

I fell out of love with it in 2004, it got really boring. 2005 my interest picked up again, but after Eddie's death it declined. 2007 was an all-time low for me, but 2008 was decent. 2009 was pretty bad, but 2010 has been pretty good so far.

2001 was still my peak though.

[immortal]

I still don't really know why, but after the end of the Invasion angle some years ago...I just sorta stopped watching. I dabbled every so often, but all the new people made it so I couldn't get too into it.

Downloaded the Royal Rumble this year shortly after it happened, and it was a slow process, but I'm getting back into it like I used to be. It's still largely a worse product, though. I will admit that.