Wrestling in 2019

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

With the announcement made by New Japan it adds another astonishing level to what has already been a crazy year in the world of wrestling, something that was seen as unfathomable 20 years ago. This led me to thinking, if you could go back in time to 1999 would your younger self believe that the following would happen?

WWE would go from the hottest company in the business to one of the stalest

That Shawn Michaels’ bag boy would be running the hottest thing coming off said stale company and have a UK side division produced by HBK himself

That WCW and ECW would both be extinct within less than 2 years, the latter get revived for 4 years as a side brand of WWE and still be bastardised in 2019 by continued booking of 3 of it’s top stars

That many promotions tried to capitalise on said companies demises but only two had the longevity to stay around, and produce talent that are a major part of WWE and its side brands

That one of them would have a name with an acronym that a child would snigger at, be on the brink of extinction several times but still stay afloat

That the hottest company of the year would be run by Dusty Rhodes’ youngest son and a bunch of Indy guys with it’s top star being Chris Jericho (who had just debuted in WWE in 99)

That New Japan would run shows in the US, including at MSG and be over to the point that they are now launching their own US based side brand

That ITV tried to revive World of Sport as a wrestling brand and have it go disastrously wrong 

That film director Roberto Rodriguez produced a wrestling company that blended video game style cut scenes with Lucha Libre and Hardcore wrestling 

[BomberPat]

I'm pretty sure I've spent the last five years thinking wrestling news couldn't get any madder, only for the following year to top it. A lot of the past few years has just seen the received wisdom of how wrestling is "supposed" to work turned on its head, which is quite exciting.

 

I wasn't watching wrestling in 1999, but got back into it around mid-2000.

The thing that would amaze me most from back then, as someone who got into tape trading, into waiting hours for short, grainy clips of FMW matches to download, and followed Japanese and indie deathmatch wrestling vicariously through message boards and magazines, is just the sheer accessibility of wrestling these days. Being able to watch NJPW shows, from the Tokyo Dome, live in the UK would have been unthinkable. That even small and niche promotions can be watched online with relatively little effort is the most drastic change to how we consume wrestling in decades.

[mim731]

If you had told me that in 1999 as a kid who was heavily into wrestling, that in 2019 the NWA would be producing a studio wrestling show that would arguably be the hottest thing in wrestling, and the company would be owned by the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, I would have thought you were insane. Especially given the state of the NWA at the time.