When did you start moaning about wrestling?

[tiger_rick]

I'm with air_raid. The ending to WrestleMania 9 was probably the first time I started thinking about what should have happened instead of just hating the heel or whoever who shattered my dreams.

 

The McMahon's started me moaning. I read PowerSlam from 1998 and some websites from the very late 90's but I was never particularly cynical. I had favourites I wished would win more but I didn't really complain about it.

 

The build for WrestleMania 16 was probably the first time I got sick of seeing anyone on the TV. McMahon's overshadowing the build for WM was shit.

 

From then on, I've been a "deep thinker" (i.e. moaner) about wrestling. The invasion abortion put me into over-drive.

[Your Fight Site]

I

[Devon Malcolm]

Probably around the Invasion and how they buggered that up. Also, briefly, when I started watching TWC and started thinking things like, "Fuck, it would be awesome if WWE signed the SATs! And why don't they have angles on Smackdown where somebody pours drain cleaner down someone's throat?!"

 

That lasted about 3 months though.

[Sphinx]

Probably around the Invasion and how they buggered that up. Also, briefly, when I started watching TWC and started thinking things like, "Fuck, it would be awesome if WWE signed the SATs! And why don't they have angles on Smackdown where somebody pours drain cleaner down someone's throat?!"

 

That lasted about 3 months though.

 

When HarmonicGenerator said about TWC, it reminded me that it had given me more alternative views and I was going to cite thinking SATs should be in WWE as an example. I also watched Bottom Line like he did so never hated Triple H. In fact, he was one of my favourites and still is. Despite this, I used to always tell my mate that he was missing out not watching Smackdown in '02 as he only watched Raw. Smackdown seemed so superior, and that wasn't out of any kind of smarkdom.

[Chris B]

Probably around 2000/2001 with the deaths of WCW and ECW. I think it partially comes from not just dissatisfaction but protectiveness over something that you love, added with the now rather genuine fear that it all might go away.

 

Seeing how the Sting/Hogan match was fucked up was frustrating and seeing how they screwed up Bret Hart in WCW (although his own disinterest played a part) was frustrating, but seeing the company go into freefall meant that it went from being 'well, they fucked that up' to 'oh shit, the company is actually going to go out of business'. The main opinions at the time was that it was Hogan, Nash, etc holding people down that caused WCW's downfall, along with the failure to create new stars (which I went with before realising how utterly shite Scott fucking Keith actually was), so when WWE seemed to start off the Invasion by systematically destroying the worth of as many WCW guys as possible, it sent alarm bells ringing. It seemed like HHH and Undertaker were doing the same thing that Hogan and Nash were doing - at which point, you only had to look at the recent past to see why that was a bad idea.

 

Throw in the broadband thing as mentioned above, and I think you got a lot of people who were talking about it all more as the business was diving a bit.

 

On a separate note, the 'poopy' thing above is even weirder when, if memory serves, it ended in an absolute bloodbath of a match. Such a weird mix of kid-based entertainment and violence.

[AshC]

I know I wrote Vince a letter during the Invasion, haha!

[King Pitcos]

On a separate note, the 'poopy' thing above is even weirder when, if memory serves, it ended in an absolute bloodbath of a match.

It didn't. You're thinking of the JBL vs Cena "I Quit" match from 2005, I think. The poopy car feud was 2008 and I'm half sure the PPV match ended without blood. I think Michaels vs Jericho on the same show was the last time WWE did blood for a while, though, as that was the last PPV before Raw went PG. This was half a decade after herbie stopped watching.

 

The "stopped watching" thing is always a funny one on wrestling forums, because it's always a lie to some degree -- it's kind of the ultimate moan. It's almost Staniforthy; "I don't watch WWE anymore, but my mates in the pub told me about what Cena did on Raw." I know a fair few people who actually did stop watching wrestling about ten years ago, and none of them would be posting about wrestling on the Internet (outside of commenting on Facebook posts when someone dies etc) and they definitely wouldn't have a clue what Cena was writing on JBL's limo years after they "stopped watching." Even when we pretend we're not into it anymore, we still follow it for years and years on forums and Youtube clips etc, even if it's just to find glimpses of things to moan about. TNA's great for that at the moment. I watch about one Impact a year and I don't think of myself as a TNA viewer, but I probably spend twenty minutes a month altogether watching TNA bits on Youtube.

[Chris B]

On a separate note, the 'poopy' thing above is even weirder when, if memory serves, it ended in an absolute bloodbath of a match.

It didn't. You're thinking of the JBL vs Cena "I Quit" match from 2005, I think. The poopy car feud was 2008 and I'm half sure the PPV match ended without blood. I think Michaels vs Jericho on the same show was the last time WWE did blood for a while, though, as that was the last PPV before Raw went PG. This was half a decade after herbie stopped watching.

 

Yes, I am thinking of the 2005 match. Good call.

[garynysmon]

My biggest gripes were probably in late 1993-94, when all the stars began to leave in earnest and the show lost its 'big time' feel. Men on a Mission and the Quebecers felt small time compared to Money Inc etc. Didn't stop me watching though (unlike what felt like everyone else at school)

 

But these days, I don't watch anywhere near enough Wrestling to be worked up about it really. I tune in when I know there's something that will perk my interest, a Hulk Hogan appearance, Old school Raw etc, but otherwise I just glance through the results. The last time I properly got into a character in recent years was Batista's awesome cocky heel run before he left.

 

I went to the TNA shows in Manchester and really enjoyed it, even though I haven't watched any of it since. There are just too many TV programmes as it is,, not to mention hours watching the shit football teams I follow, to spend hours on end on a product if i'm not going to really enjoy it anyway.

[niff]

Agreeing with the earlier comments. After Hulk Hogan interfered during Wrestlemania 9 as it was so random and unexpected, in a bad way. Realised that is was far more about star power and egos than a decent storyline for fans to enjoy. Following that I'd say my gripes have been more about the bizarre story lines such as Rey/Eddie/Dominic and Katie Vick to Snitsky not doing it.

[Loki]

The first thing I remember not liking in wrestling really was when Austin was just all over telly, I think during the Sheriff era, not wrestling but just stunning various guys who it seemed the company should be pushing. I was actually sick of Austin, which shows you the incredible depth the roster had at the time.

 

I think I was lucky in some respects because I started watching wrestling as an adult, so I more or less skipped the fascination with flippy floppy wrestling; for me the real mystery was WCW guys, who I read about online but never saw. I do remember being bitterly disappointed by the Invasion storyline because the big stars I wanted to see, weren't a part of it. In retrospect, those cards look pretty amazing now.

 

I have to thank Herbie as well - when I first joined on here I read a lot about Jody Fleisch and Jonny Storm and how they were the future of wrestling. Then TWC broadcast a match of theirs from IWW, and it was the most terrible travesty of wrestling I'd ever seen. So that got my "indylol" phase straight out of the way.

[The Cum Doctor]

In 1995, rather than moan, I just blatantly stopped watching it, as I couldn't put up with endless shit. Turns out the product wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was at the time, watching a lot of it back, but by god, at the time I just was NOT amused.

 

2002 was when I got really pissy about wrestling though. So I went to some wrestling show in my town and it completely changed my perspective as 1) it made me realise I could go see live wrestling and enjoy it and 2) I bought a load of ROH videos from SiMania and realised that there was other good shit going down.

 

And so from that point on, I've always taken this position. If it gets to a point where I'm moaning constantly, just go and find something else. It's not like there's a limited supply of wrestling out there. I don't think I've ever been so positive with wrestling and that attitude is just growing and growing.