That moment you realised....

[ItsClobberingTime]

It's stupid but my gf went to me with to Raw last night because I didn't really have anyone else to go with, and she didn't want me to miss out bless her. So I think she loves me despite my wrestling addiction.

 

I used to go with my best mate every year but sadly he passed away from cancer just over a year ago, so I haven't been to WWE since. I didn't expect to win a Silvervision competition but I did, and I don't really have any other mates that are into wrestling.

 

I guess my point is that while there's a stigma, and I can't expect my mates or my girlfriend to understand or enjoy it, the true people in your life will support it if it means a lot to you. Fuck 'em otherwise.

[Oliver]

In 2008 I left a job on bad terms. I had a dozen or so DVD's to watch and was looking forward to Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim on the next TNA Impact.

 

But when I was browsing through a Game store I suddenly thought about buying a games console and eventually decided to pick up an Xbox 360 and get in to online gaming.

 

I felt very weird about it. I had this feeling that I was regressing as I had given up video games after the Dreamcast. I felt I couldn't do both wrestling and video games because it would take up too much of my time. I also had other aspirations to learn something new of substance every day and improve my confidence and social skills.

 

So yeah, I took a sabbatical for 2009 and went completely cold turkey. I think I was also trying to distance myself from my old self.

 

I got back in to it for 2010 and now just follow the 3 main promotions. I skip a lot of what happens. I follow it in some ways as an analyst. I'm curious as to why some people get popular and others flop and like assessing exactly why that is. But I do still occasionally get emotionally engaged with characters and drawn in to their matches.

[ColinBollocks]

Look, we've (not you and I but wrestling fans in general) had this argument many a time when it comes to watching wrestling. Of course, watching wrestling is nothing different to watching a movie (at least in my eyes). However, there's no denying that there is a stigma to watching wrestling.

There is and while I would never admit to my mates that I still like it and i don't mention it on FB or Twitter or anything (and I found buying PowerSlam utterly embarrassing), i don't think it applies to the person you want to share your life with. It's corny but they should accept you for what you are. My missus thinks I'm a bit odd but she knew that from the start. She's got no complaints. She got a full disclaimer. She knew I was a fat, ugly, clumsy, childish fuckwit.

It always killed me when I walked up to the hot girl at WHSmith and handed her the latest copy of PowerSlam every few weeks. I mention wrestling on twitter and that, I play up the "It's a cracking laugh this, lad. Remember when Stone Cold was in it" though. I'd rather die than admit to anybody (other than folk on here) I have a subscription to the Wrestling Observer.

[Jason Mayhem]

I noticed recently that wrestling just isn't what it was for me. I mean I haven't watch wrestling consistently for about ten years anyway so it's not like I just recently stopped watching. However it dawned on me during WrestleMania 28 that wrestling just isn't what it once was for me.

 

I was sat, watching the show and thinking "this is a habit" (buying WM I mean) and other than one match on the show, NOTHING else piqued my interest. I found myself being critical and picky about things on the show and realised that "damn, I have really fallen out of love with wrestling!"

 

I am wondering if anyone has had this happen? How? and if you went back to loving it, what was it that changed your mind again?

 

I personally can appreciate a good booked and worked match, but I feel that maybe I haven't changed with the times and as a result have been left behind. :|

 

Taken WM 28 for example. I come on here and Ive read "glittering" reviews for the show by some, and at least praise from others. I personally didn't "get" the hype and found that the build to and the outcome of Rock vs Cena (both the match and the ending) to be very underwhelming. Of course ten years ago I wouldn't have! I think this is a reflection of me as a fan opposed to wrestling "being shit".

 

I wanna get back to loving it! But struggle to find how!

 

I stopped watching regularly about 10 years ago, when i moved out and didn't have Sky and the programmes were not available as they are now. I still watched old school stuff on DVD and got involved in live brit wres events as well as the Universal Uproar, International Showdown, Ring of Honor and TNA shows that were put on over here. So i always enjoyed the wrestling business but didn't enjoy WWE as much as i did.

 

I would regularly get together with a mate of mine to watch the big events like mania, royal rumble, summer slam etc, but would invariably find myself slagging it off as I got bored with HHH and the same characters appearing on these big events. The thing that I realised however was that where I wasn't watching reguarly, the likes of HHH etc where the only ones I recognised and knew (and was bored of) and I didn't care about the other matches as I didn't know the wrestlers that were in them as I hadnt been watching the tv show. So really the show had nothing that I was going to enjoy anyway.

 

I think this is the problem with a lot of people that think they have grown out of wrestling is that they watch the big events without watching the tv show regularly and expect to enjoy it like they did when they watched religiously. if you don't know the guys on the show, you are not gonna care as much about them.

 

I got criticised before for comparing WWE to a soap opera previosuly, but I stand by my comparison in as much as if you don't know the characters, what their back story and their purpose on the show is, you are not going to enjoy it as much as you would if you knew the characters on the show. When you think about it, the actual in ring "movez" are about 10% of the appeal of pro wrestling.

 

I have watched raw pretty much every week for the last year and a bit, but don't watch smackdown (time restraints really). The last year WWE has been quality for me and i have really enjoyed it and I thought mania was excellent this year, i was really excited for the event.

 

My advise to you to try and enjoy it again would be to firstly watch Raw every week (90 minutes of your time and it is on Youtube each week so easy to watch on your phone or whatever) Raw at the moment carries all the main storylines etc, so really no reason to watch smackdown anyway.

 

Secondly avoid spoilers and try and avoid reading other peoples opinions of it on the internet. It is so easy to get negative about stuff when others are, just watch it without knowing what is going to happen, form your own opinion and enjoy it. Let others moan about it.

 

Thirdly try and focus on what is good about it rather than what you might want to criticise.

 

It has certainly worked for me!

[matbro1984]

When your partner/girlfriend/wife is looking for someone to provide for a family, watching pro wrestling unfortunately doesn't look good in a lot of women's eyes.

 

I wouldn't say it's the sole reason I've stopped, but it's certainly a large part.

 

While there are certainly plenty of women who may roll their eyes and call you a big kid for watching wrestling, any woman who'd dismiss you for this reason is not a woman worth having. MTFU

[Loki]

I went of wrestling in a big way after Benoit died, and have never really got back into WWE with any permanence since.

 

I practically stopped watching altogether a couple of years ago when I just felt it was taking up too much time. Now I enjoy it again, mainly because I've learned to skip through Impact and watch the people I'm interested in rather than feel I HAVE to watch the whole thing every week.

 

I think it's important to realise that wrestling is trash tv, on a par with Hollyoaks, TOWIE, the X Factor. On very rare occasions it transcends its limitations to be truly great (Rock/Cena for example) but generally is it what it is, oily men in pants grasping each other and acting really, really badly. Love it for its carny, trashy low-brow-ism and you can dip in and out and enjoy what you see. Once you start giving matches star ratings, stalking female wrestlers, watching hundreds of hours of headdrop indies and buying wrestling t-shirts, you're probably according it more of your life than it's really worth.

[Guest]

Women watch far worse shite than wrestling. I'd not sit through bgt or x factor or any of their "reality" nonsense, nor would I make someone watch wrestling. Where did all the men go? Every guy I know in a relationships too scared to man the fuck up. Equality isn't keeping your balls in her purse .

[HeavyT]

Some touching tales I pretty much knew it wouldnt be the same after WWF/E had buried WCW, then they wasted all the guys of any worth from WCW and ratings were dropping.

 

I dont care what anyone says, the ratings are always a good gauge of how exciting the times were.

[MinceMcMahon]

It hasn't felt the same since WCW went to shit. I still watch Raw every week but I doubt that would be the case if it weren't for Sky+ and Youtube. It's a lot better now than in the early 2000s where I'd read all the spoilers and sit through the whole show every Friday night...

[jonnybgoode82]

Whatever date Insurrextion 2002 at Wembley Arena was. A really poor show and all the guys who were pure gold between 1997 and 2001 were phoning it in with lousy booking and were just downright disinteresting.

 

It cost me a packet to travel down for the show and I left thinking I could have done loads with that money rather than waste it on a wrestling show. Wrestling has never been the same since.

[RJ Impact]

Still love wrestling, but I wouldnt stop watching for anyone 'to fit in' or get a gf, my wife likes bits of it and knows Ive been a fan since I was 5yrs old now Im nearly 28 so its part of who I am.

 

As said its not worse than soaps, reality tv and any other sport, movies that people enjoy.

[ukfan11]

I get that there is some what of a stigma attached to wrestling, but I don't get how you'd have to hide it from your mates that you watch it/like it.

[Big_Will]

Since the birth of kid & working evenings 3+ years ago I gave up watching, I still like to keep up on all the news etc but it lost its appeal

plus I hate to say but around the big I was also big into MMA which effected my viewing habits

[lambyUK]

Since the birth of kid & working evenings 3+ years ago I gave up watching, I still like to keep up on all the news etc but it lost its appeal

plus I hate to say but around the big I was also big into MMA which effected my viewing habits

 

Fundamentally this is my reason truth be told. I know I mentioned my Girlfriend leaving me if I continued watching, but it was more of a statement in jest. At no point has she threatened to leave if I watched wrestling. However, it's not completely untruthful considering it's her comments regarding it and the roll of eyes that perhaps made me feel that I should have grown out of it.

 

I'm 30 now, and we are now considering children and it was a mix of my tastes growing out of wrestling and thinking to myself, "am i now too old to be watching pro wrestling?"

 

I'm an avid follower of MMA now and I would say this has filled the void that wrestling left.

[Halitosis Romantic]

I've gone hot and cold on wrestling a lot of times - I realized that WCW was dead to me when Ric Flair was being slowly beaten up and buried in the desert, and I went off WWE big time around the Mr. America saga. A moderate fan right now, but it still goes on the DVR and then is deleted unwatched a lot. Live shows are something I want to get back into, though. Can't complain - met most of my best mates through shows and online, and my wife through a wrestling forum.