Where will wrestling be 10 years from now?

[Loki]

You should watch some competetive Tae Kwon Do. That really sorts the men from the boys.

 

Oho!

[boshealecta]

I think by the time its Wrestlemania 38 Cena will have finally turned heel........Just kidding

 

I think the problem was that WWF/E tried to grow up with its audience. I know its putting it in simple terms, but a kids TV show wouldnt try and get more edgy and older as its boom audience grows up, its just always there for the target audience. The problem WWE had was after the cartoon era of it being for families and us growing up with it as kids, they then tried to keep us as audience members and make the programme more adult as we grew up, which they had to do to compete with WCW, however the problem is no new fans were really coming into wrestling, nobody was coming to it as a young kid like we did then growing up with it and having these fond memories, which is why I think they have gone PG

[King Pitcos]

That's not true though, loads of kids became fans in the attitude era.

[NEWM]

That's not true though, loads of kids became fans in the attitude era.

 

Yeah, and more than you'd think. I'm always surprised when I hear that people's first full year was 2000-2002, but they crop up a lot on threads around that subject. I don't know if I just think it's strange because in my head we all got into wrestling at exactly the same time, but it does strike me as a bit odd. 2000 on Channel 4 seems to have caught some people's eye though, so I suppose there's that. 2002 still leaves me dumfounded though. Wasn't that around the time those curling birds were doing well? I'm amazed people didn't jump at that instead.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Just thinking of this reading the Sky discussion in the other thread, I wonder if wrestling wasnt so easy to watch in the 90s, if I'd have continued to watch it. If it was on at 2 in the morning and you have to pay for it when there was a PPV on. If Sky was off, I'd watch WCW or WWF on the German channel. There was an ungodly amount of wrestling on. WWF, WCW, ECW, Smokey Mountain, New Japan, even the UWA turned up on that channel that had the topless darts. There was zero effort to watch wrestling, because you didnt need to. It was just there.

 

Mind you, that 94-95 period was like a boom period for me. I was such an innocent at the time, I didnt even realise WWF was only selling out in towns who were desperate for live entertainment. I used to believe what ever they told me. If WCW was on I'd be like "well, this is where the big boys play. You cant argue that" and then when WWF was on I'd be thinking "this is the New Generation. What a manuvour that time!" What ever these promotions fed me, I'd eat, so I might have devalued my own point in the first paragraph there.

 

That's not true though, loads of kids became fans in the attitude era.

Survivor Series 98 got a lot of my mates into it. No exaggeration, there was a load of wrestling fans who cropped up, all would say Survivor Series was the night they got into it. It was the perfect PPV as well. It had everything that made the WWF great at the time.

[Up Chuck]

I started watching in about June 2000 at age 11, but didn't seriously get into it for a while. First PPV I ever watched was Unforgiven. My much-more-pronounced-at-the-time Aspergers meant I got proper obsessed pretty quickly after that, though. My mates who introduced me were frequently getting out-argued and out-fact-dropped by me by the time WM17 rolled around.

[NEWM]

There's a good old v new debate in there though, because taking say, 93 or 94 as an example, the PPVs weren't live and we had Todd and Mania to give us the best of Raw. I was buzzed off my tits when Sky started showing actual Raw, if you told me then we'd get it LIVE like those glamourous Americans, I'd have gone spastic. And everything else on demand with Youtube and FOR KEEPS on naughty sites? Jesus wept.

 

That said, all the PPVs on Sports were great. I remember when the UK-Only PPVS were on Box Office and my Dad stonewalled any fucking chance of taking up Saturday night telly AND being down a tenner just so I could watch some shitty extended Raw with Union Jack ring aprons. Never had to worry about that with the shows that mattered. I didn't half feel like a big man when Raw went to 10pm on a Friday too. Fucking grown-ups telly time that was, and my folks never knew about the five minute titty surprise when it was finished either. Golden memories.

[PowerButchi]

There was an ungodly amount of wrestling on. WWF, WCW, ECW, Smokey Mountain, New Japan, even the UWA turned up on that channel that had the topless darts. There was zero effort to watch wrestling, because you didnt need to. It was just there.

 

Wasn't it brilliant? There was even Lucha on Galavision as well which was a bit mental for a 9 year old Butch in 1994, along with Reslo on S4C for us sheepshaggers.

 

And even before that when I was 5 or 6, Satellite had NWA, WCCW, AWA, Global and lord knows what else I'm forgetting. We really were spoiled for choice as regards wrestling, and that's wrestling in all kinds of styles from all over the world, until about the time of Sky Digital being turned on.

 

It's pretty shit and sad now when I think about it. I don't think anyone will be as spoiled for wrestling on TV as we were when we were kids.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

There's probably more access now what with downloading and streaming, but nothing worth watching. There really is only one game in town now. TNA's is on as I type and I'm not watching it. ROH is just a quick download away, but bugger that. Independent wrestlings boom period is dead. Its all samey these days. I said it in the ROH thread, apart from WWE, everyone else has either lost the trust of their audience or are trying to stay alive. Mexico, Japan, Europe, the US indies, ROH and TNA are such cold products at the minute. By contrast, WWE has Rock, Cena, Triple H and Undertaker exciting live audiences at the minute.

 

Triple H said it best. He's part of a dying breed. Makes you wonder how wrestling will be in 10 years.

[PowerButchi]

I suppose even the European wrestling scene seemed sexy when I was younger, what with having a promotion on Eurosport with some bloke called Flesh Gordon in it who'd blatantly never seen the film of the same name in front of crowds that didn't seem to shoddy to my innocent eyes.

[King Pitcos]

Yeah, and more than you'd think. I'm always surprised when I hear that people's first full year was 2000-2002, but they crop up a lot on threads around that subject. I don't know if I just think it's strange because in my head we all got into wrestling at exactly the same time, but it does strike me as a bit odd. 2000 on Channel 4 seems to have caught some people's eye though, so I suppose there's that.

Yeah, we had a discussion in chat touching on this the other week. In my head, we all got into wrestling watching Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior. I can comprehend people who started watching in 1998-99 as well, but everything in between and after, I can't get my head around as far as people becoming fans during the time. Channel 4 definitely did get new viewers, a nerdy lad in our school (he had glasses and a 9PM bedtime and his mum was an RE teacher and everything) started watching Heat. He borrowed and lost my WWF The Music Volume 4 CD as well, no explanation other than he lost it. He bought me a new copy of it, so it's not like he just nicked it for himself. I reckon his mother caught him listening to Undertaker's music on it and snapped it in half.

 

Mind you, that 94-95 period was like a boom period for me. I was such an innocent at the time, I didnt even realise WWF was only selling out in towns who were desperate for live entertainment. I used to believe what ever they told me. If WCW was on I'd be like "well, this is where the big boys play. You cant argue that" and then when WWF was on I'd be thinking "this is the New Generation. What a manuvour that time!" What ever these promotions fed me, I'd eat, so I might have devalued my own point in the first paragraph there.

I remember hoping that the fake Legion of Doom would turn in the local paper so I could write into Gorilla Monsoon and grass them up, like he'd asked in the UK insert in the WWF magazine.

 

Survivor Series 98 got a lot of my mates into it. No exaggeration, there was a load of wrestling fans who cropped up, all would say Survivor Series was the night they got into it. It was the perfect PPV as well. It had everything that made the WWF great at the time.

Survivor Series '98 was the start of my own attitude era. It was definitely what got me back into watching wrestling big-time when I borrowed the tape off a lad at school. For ages I'd only been watching the highlights shows and not even very often. I borrowed WrestleMania 14 on tape when that was on and never even made it to the end. I point-blank refused to accept my mate telling me that X-Pac had different music to DX, which shows how little I'd seen of him. I even didn't bother buying the WWF Magazine with Val Venis on the front, first issue I'd missed since the first one I got in August '91 (with Bulldog on the front, and an advert for SummerSlam on the back). But from Survivor Series on, I was as big a fan as I'd ever been. I ordered my first Euroshop item (the blue bull Rock t-shirt) by that Christmas.

[tiger_rick]

I'll always be convinced that the core audience from the attitude era was the kids who'd grown up watching Hogan & Warrior. All those kids from the attitude era were at the same stage a couple of year ago but there was nothing to draw them in.

 

I honestly just think the problem with wrestling is that we've seen everything. You only have to be a fan for a couple of years and you've seen every decent wrestler, every possible match, every gimmick, every angle and every interview, some many times. Only sad diehards like us want to stick around to see it all over again.

 

They've done everything. The nWo invasion and the Boss vs. Babyface angles were the last truly fresh ideas. You'll never recapture that feeling.

[King Pitcos]

I'll always be convinced that the core audience from the attitude era was the kids who'd grown up watching Hogan & Warrior. All those kids from the attitude era were at the same stage a couple of year ago but there was nothing to draw them in.

It wasn't just old fans returning in the attitude era. My nephew who was born in 1997 loved Scotty Too Hotty. There were loads of younger kids who got into it because they had older brothers and sisters watching it, or just heard about it at school or from friends. It was a craze among kids in the attitude era just like it had been in the Hogan days.

 

I honestly just think the problem with wrestling is that we've seen everything. You only have to be a fan for a couple of years and you've seen every decent wrestler, every possible match, every gimmick, every angle and every interview, some many times. Only sad diehards like us want to stick around to see it all over again.

 

They've done everything. The nWo invasion and the Boss vs. Babyface angles were the last truly fresh ideas. You'll never recapture that feeling.

I agree completely with this. The storylines and wrestlers aren't really any worse today (as the Cena/Rock feud has shown), it's just it's all been done. I might change my mind tomorrow though.

[tiger_rick]

I'll always be convinced that the core audience from the attitude era was the kids who'd grown up watching Hogan & Warrior. All those kids from the attitude era were at the same stage a couple of year ago but there was nothing to draw them in.

It wasn't just old fans returning in the attitude era. My nephew who was born in 1997 loved Scotty Too Hotty. There were loads of younger kids who got into it because they had older brothers and sisters watching it, or just heard about it at school or from friends. It was a craze among kids in the attitude era just like it had been in the Hogan days.

Agreed, which is why I said the core. I think they were the kids creating the buzz around Universitys, the ones having Nitro parties and such.

 

Can't imagine a group of 20 years olds having a Smackdown party somehow.

[boshealecta]

Someone mentioning Scotty Too Hotty reminded me that back in the attitude era when I couldnt miss wrestling, I loved more or less every wrestler, there was a face for me to root for. Whether I wanted the Rock to win the title or just see the Godfather in town. It didnt matter if it was for belts or how far up the card they were, I liked every storyline and wanted to see all me faves on TV. Now it seems like the only ones that matter are the top draws going for the title and as soon as someone new starts getting some attention they thrust them to the top, give them the title too soon, leaving them with nothing to strive for. Look how well Brodus Clay went down when WWE just put some effort into a wrestler who had nothing to do with the main tier.