Have you ever felt

[Richie Freebird]

I realised the other day that I haven

[neil's bitch]

I got like this around the time of WM 18, (2002?) and didnt watch WWE or wrestling at all for about a year or so. I had been such a huge watcher for many years before, but by the mid-2001 mark i started dropping out, and not keeping up. By the mid-2003 mark i saw the shawn michaels had comes back and started watching again, and so far i havent missed a show since.

 

I think it happens to everybody.

[The Miz]

Several times yeah. You get burnt out or bored if storylines and such like get dull. But I think if you had watched the build up to Mania you would have watched the actual PPV. Unfortunatly it was a let down though.

[dopper]

I didn't watch any WWE from when Nexus debuted until Royal Rumble (with only the Old-School Raw inbetween).

 

I always enjoy the Rumble to WrestleMania season, but have now tuned out for the foreseeable future. I keep Raw on series link on my Sky+ just-in-case but after reading spoilers each Tuesday I usually just delete it without watching.

 

In these periods where I stop watching weekly WWE tv, I find myself watching more and more old dvds.

[Loki]

I haven't really watched WWE more than a couple of times a year since about 2007. It's just not aimed at me any more. I watch TNA when I can, but it's a fairly low priority at the moment.

 

I reckon it's just cyclical Richie. If you find yourself with a bunch of spare time you'll probably dig some out and watch it. But for most adults with busy lives, keeping up with everything is nigh on impossible.

[patiirc]

Im more interested in wrestling than I have been for ages. Catch TNA when I remember its on though the number of ad breaks is a killer especially for PPV's as well as seeing The Rumble, Mania and some other stuff inc Survivor Series.

 

Its not that its more interesting, its just that other people got caught up in the Nexus first time around and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Also been to a local show for the first time in like aeons as well.

 

However in saying that its not a massive undertaking and will dig out and watch the usual 1988-1992 stuff plus odd occasional others when I can be arsed

[Egg Shen]

yeh big time, i went from being a hardcore fan to completely losing interest over night, it was like burn out or something. I watched bits and pieces over the next few years but recently ive found myself getting back into it again...i'll never follow it as much as i did in my late teens as MMA has basically filled that void (and i dont think ill ever get tired of MMA), but wrestling is just something i enjoy now rather than something that i follow.

[The Reverend]

For sure! Spent around 10 years from 1989 - 1999 as a fully devoted follower, watching every programme, building a massive tape library etc etc, but then started work and, along with more money in my pocket, meant I had less free time as I was constantly socialising. To be fair that wasn't anything to do with the product but because of my circumstances.

But I haven't really watched the sport properly since then. If it's on then I'll sit and watch it or if I've seen on here, or any of my mates have said about a particular event or storyline etc. I'll dig it out to watch. I just find the product today so bland and full of stars I couldn't give a shit about. Don't get me wrong theres still some matches I really rate along with a number of stars it's just I think the excitement has gone. Other than throwing Sting into WWE, I can't really think of any dream matches. I even stopped buying the mags (and at one time I'm sure I'd spend at least

[Swift89]

I did at some point last year, basically took 3/4 months out from watching anything and just scanned through the spoilers quickly. Am back into it now though and my interest is as high as it ever has been. I believe the break really helped.

[Richie Freebird]

It's just not aimed at me any more.

 

Exactly how I feel mate. That

[LaGoosh]

Around the time JBL first came out I rapidly lost interest, the product as a whole was shite. Evolution sucked. John Cena sucked (and still does somewhat). There was nothing keeping me interested. It's only since the Royal Rumble where I have been pulled back in. I think a big part is the promising new guys getting the spotlight like Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, Cody Rhodes...and other guys like CM Punk generally bring the awesome. There's alot to like right now. If only they didn't keep cutting their own legs off they could have the best wrestling product since 2001.

[King Pitcos]

I missed a fair bit of wrestling from about 2001 to 2004. I'd be out at the weekends a lot and got a computer with Internet access in 2001, so I kept up with the results on Wrestleline, I think it was. I recall not watching King of the Ring 2001, but I can't think why, as I was interested in the Edge/Christian/Rhyno/Angle dissent. I had an A Level exam the next morning so it might have been that, or it might have just been the new novelty of reading results online was more fun than watching. I did watch InVasion, but I don't think I watched SummerSlam.

 

Then I went away to university and had no Sky. We got a dodgy ITV Digital pirate-card that worked now and again so I watched a few Raws and Smackdowns and I watched Survivor Series and Vengeance that year with Chinese Kevin while the rest of the flat were in bed. Over the next few years, I'd have spells where I'd watch for a bit and then stop watching, though because of circumstance more than quality of programming. I remember finding out the Backlash 2002 results in the Daily Star's wrestling column the following weekend, and then a few weeks later starting work at Blockbuster and not believing the lads there when they said the name had changed to WWE -- I'd no Internet access at this time. One of the Blockbuster lads (he's dead now) used to tape wrestling for me sometimes, that's how I saw No Mercy and Survivor Series 2002. During my homeless period, I remember reading Smackdown results on one of those Internet phone boxes, that was how I found out Rey Mysterio beat Matt Hardy for the Cruiserweight title in the main event.

 

Even after I got online again, my wrestling viewing was pretty sporadic. I followed it really avidly, but keeping studenty hours meant I'd be up at the time Raw was on. Rather than wait til morning and download it, I'd check the recaps as the show was going on. I didn't know about streams at the time. I don't know if anyone else remembers that little spell where they kept Raw going on wwe.com during ad breaks to fuck the network over because they weren't making money from the ads, but for about two weeks I watched all of those little ad break bits as they happened, without seeing any of the TV show itself. It was shit. That might have been why I started waiting til Tuesday and downloading it.

 

Anyway, I don't think I've missed many episodes of Raw since about 2006, and probably none since 2007. Sometime in 2008, I stopped reading Smackdown spoilers and started watching it on Fridays, and I haven't missed many of them either. Though I've certainly fast-forwarded through a few.

 

I don't think there's ever been a time that I've fully lost interest in it though, no.

 

our great sport

Wooo!

[PunkStep]

I got bored in 1996 and eventually gave up watching after Survivor Series. As a result, I missed the whole of 1997, 1998 & half of 1999. Probably equivalent to a Liverpool fan not following football between the late 70s and late 80s. What a fucking idiot. I'm bitter about it all.

 

I stopped watching again after Wrestlemania 20 in 2004. My interest in wrestling started to wane for a year or two prior, and after the awesome embrace between Benoit/Guerrero and Brock leaving, I felt there was nothing more to get out of wrestling for me at that point. I started to watch WWE again semi-regularly last year, and have watched it regularly this year- having seen all three PPVs and most episodes of Raw. I was really into it for the first couple of months, but Mania to me was a bit of a buzzkill- both before during and after the event. Getting a bit bored again and finding myself fast forwarding through a lot of Raw again.

[aaron]

Yup. Bret loses to Yoko and then shitty Hulk Hogan came waltzing back in. Bret was my man and Hogan was anything but.

 

In the following year or so Diesel came in and got pushed and he was fucking boring as. Shawn was a complete dick too. Greats like Perfect and Savage no longer appeared....

 

I gave up on wrestling in 1994. Could be because I left school though and felt too old to be a wrestling fan.

 

Lesnar destroying Gowen bought me firmly back into the fold.

[The Total Package]

The first time I fell out of love with wrestling was around 2004 or 05? whenever JBL went on his year run, I never watched any of that, I had been watching wrestling religiously since 1992 uptill then, but at that point, it was total blackout, I didtnt even read any news sites or visit any forums, nothing, wrestling was not even on my mind at all, instead I started to get back into moto sports, and started watching Moto GP and AMA MX.

 

I came back at WM21? where Cena beat JBL fot the title, but after that I never watched it like I did before, it was here and there kind of viewing, didnt take long for me to get fed up with Cena, after two years or so, staying up late to watch PPV's over here, and after two years you could call how a Cena match was going to go, Cant remember the name of the PPV but he was facing either Angle or Jericho and he did his usual SuperCena thing and that was it, my head snapped, I said to myself why the fuck do I stay up late to watch this shit anymore, and that was it again, that must of been around 07 or 08? I stopped watching again but unlike before I would sometimes read about it, in the hope something really big happened.

 

That something "Big" did happen 2 years later when I heard Bret Hart was coming back to WWE and TNA was going to Monday nights, I thought fuck wrestling must be on the up, and while that first Monday Night was special indeed, from both WWE and TNA, the following weeks both shows started reminding me of why I stopped watching in the first place, When TNA gave up and ran back to Thursday, I gave up too.

 

Then Nexus happened, and once again I cameback to see what the fuss was about, however being let down before, I knew WWE would fuck Nexus up and sure enough by Summer Slam they did, I literally laughed out loud because of the way Cena beat them, its the same thing that made me stop watching years ago, I just thought wow he still doing that shit.

 

Then The Rock cameback and thats where we are now really, its almost like WWE are teasing me every so often to stay around, however like most of you I have reached my breaking point, I think even if wrestling some how became good again I wouldnt watch it every week, the pattern usually goes like this when you're losing interest, you miss a couple of RAW's and realize you aint actually missing anything, you start watching only PPV's but realize you aint really missing anything(Is anyone really looking forward to ER? I doubt it), you start only watching the Big 4 PPV's and realize Summer Slam and SS are now almost standard PPV's, so then you watch The Rumble because well its The Rumble (my fav PPV btw) and then watch WM because well its WM and thats it.

 

I do miss the feeling I had when I used to watch wrestling I remember WM19, I just had to watch that PPV nothing on earth was going to stop me from watching that, I no longer feel that way, and its not nostalgia because I was old enough at WM19 to know better, but I was just hype to see it, like any top show, you want to see the big finale.

 

I agree about feeling its not aimed at me anymore too, sometimes I wonder if im too old for this stuff anymore, their are no big fights feeling in wrestling anymore either, Cena vs Miz vs JoMo, that is just a meh to me, not that I dislike these new guys in WWE, but I find it hard to give a real fuck about them tbh, some of that blame has to goto WWE imo.

 

So now I'm just back to reading news and podcast etc, I'm quite happy re-watching Nitro on friday's, and old PPV's from WWE, that fillls my void when I need to watch some wrestling, much better than this current stuff, for me anyway.

 

I think when Taker quits that well might be the nail in the coffin for me and wrestling (pun intended), I actually think him leaving WWE will be a bigger loss than Austin/Hogan/Rock leaving,WM without Taker would just feel wrong to me.

 

Besides all that you might find like I did when you go off wrestling you find something else that you enjoy, so its not all bad.