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What keeps you watching?


Michael_3165

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If AEW didn't exist right now, I don't know if I would be, but I seem to fall right in the middle of their Venn diagram in that I was always more invested in early 90's WCW, dying days ECW, early 2000's Indies and latter day New Japan than I ever really was WWE.

Some of that was circumstance, like not having SKY as a kid and some of it was being a pretentious scene kid in my late teens/early 20's.

Somehow AEW seems to wrap enough of those ingredients together in a weird overstuffed, threatening to burst burrito that it's kept my attention whilst everything else feels like it's gone to shit.

With WWE basically torpedoing the British Independent scene and #SpeakingOut exposing loads of my favourite wrestlers as scum bags as well, I've really needed AEW this last couple of years.

I'm considering DDT's subscription service to scratch my niche wrestling itch, but yeah right now this is quite a long post that could/should have been three letters.

Edited by BrodyGraham
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I'm really not trying to turn this into AEW vs WWE, but here's something that really sums up 'keeping me watching' vs 'driving me away'.

AEW does some feel-good things. The Best Friends stuff has consistently been really good for that. I remember @Chilidescribing the wedding angle as 'as long as Orange Cassidy pops out of a cake, I'm happy'. It didn't work great, but it paid off what they set up. The return of Trent in Sue's car, with the thumbs up, the hugging, the pointing to Sue, and the massive feel-good part of the story was something that paid off a (long and underwhelming at times) build-up in a way that had me grinning for half an hour or so. Same with Stadium Stampede. Same with a bunch of their stuff - they've got the really simple idea that, sometimes, we want a big, silly feel-good moment that we've all been building up to. 

Meanwhile, (going off what I've read and assuming this is true), WWE had their first big audience back for Wrestlemania, and used it to have a majority heel-victory show. And coming out of it, almost all of their champions are heels across all of their brands. That just sounds exhausting. And it doesn't sound like the catharsis that something like a Wrestlemania used to be, let alone a catharsis that your first big crowd kind of deserves. I'm not saying it wasn't a good show, because reports were that it was generally good - but I can totally understand why, by the end of it, people aren't feeling enthused to watch more.

Because I'm not watching, I'm more than willing to be corrected on my summation above, especially if there was more feel-good stuff than I'm talking about. It was just a point I saw made recently and found fascinating - and doesn't sound much like a 'keep people watching' thing.

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I would never say I've loved wrestling but I respect the fuck out of how passionate some people talk about the sport on here because some talk about wrestling the way I talk about Liverpool. And I know some people get invested in wrestling matches the way I get engrossed in a good close cricket or snooker match. And yet despite all that, I can still get emotionally involved from time to time. And I think that's what keeps me watching is that somewhere along the line, I'll get another Lesnar beats the Streak moment or The Outsiders turn up on Nitro. 

And Sting turning up on Dynamite was very much one of those moments, which is why I watch AEW and not WWE nowadays. I don't feel as if WWE could "wow" me at this current stage whereas AEW has the potential to. 

The fact it's more accessable now really helps as well. We can watch it now whenever we want to. Growing up as a kid in the 90s, if I didn't watch RAW at 9pm on a Friday night then I'd missed that week's show. Even in the early-to-mid 2000s, I didn't realise I could find re-runs of the shows on the internet and, as I said, I was never into wrestling enough to concern myself with buying/swapping tapes with other people. 

But now, there's no pressure on watching the show when it airs. I don't follow any wrestling material on social media (except Trish because a lad has to keep in touch with his number one childhood crush) so I don't get any spoilers either. I can find any show I want on the internet, I've got the WWE network so I can watch anything I want there though I'm only using it to watch old RAW/SmackDowns at the minute - currently on the SmackDown before WrestleMania X8. But again because it's on the network, there's no pressure on when I choose to watch it. 

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On 4/22/2021 at 7:23 PM, DavidB6937 said:

Honestly? I still bloody love it really. Might not be the cool answer but I genuinely do enjoy it a lot. I still have that emotional attachment to a lot of WWE while AEW has been a real joy that I wasn't expecting to hit the heights that it has sometimes. Throw in the different companies like NJPW that I'll watch more just for my fix of wanky workrate stuff and yeah there's still plenty of good quality content out there. And I'll watch the older shows for a nostalgia kick too from time to time.

I think it'll always be one of my favourite things simply because it's always evolving yet stays the same at the heart of it all. I'd be very surprised if every company out there managed to put me off completely.

Genuine question here... 

How do you find the stupid stuff like mysterio losing an eye or the fiend returning after being burnt alive? I can't look past that. 

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2 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

Genuine question here... 

How do you find the stupid stuff like mysterio losing an eye or the fiend returning after being burnt alive? I can't look past that. 

Neither can Rey.

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31 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

Genuine question here... 

How do you find the stupid stuff like mysterio losing an eye or the fiend returning after being burnt alive? I can't look past that. 

Mysterio losing an eye was fucking daft. Anything Fiend related doesn't bother me too much as that's always been quite weird anyway. Not my sort of thing really but not anything that would cause me to turn off. I was more bored by the never ending soap opera Rey/Seth stuff.

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58 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

Genuine question here... 

How do you find the stupid stuff like mysterio losing an eye or the fiend returning after being burnt alive? I can't look past that. 

Wrestling was better when it was more realistic. It's too silly these days.

Like when The Undertaker ascended to heaven.

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And then came back for a realistic match with another Undertaker.

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I much prefer when it's presented as an athletic endeavour, and it's not silly. Like Goldust vs the Ultimate Warrior, when Warrior pretended to be his friend and pulled faces behind his back.

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You know, realistic stuff and classic wrestlers like Dr Isaac Yankem DDS. Not fake dentists like they have these days.

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Or when the same guy electrocuted another guy's testicles realistically. Not silly stuff today.

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Characters that, y'know, people can really believe and don't think is immediately fake. Like the Boogeyman.

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You wouldn't get Hulk Hogan fighting someone unrealistic. He had real opponents like The Yeti. Proper, classic feuds with characters you could believe in.

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You had hard hitting characters like Rick Steiner, who were believable and wouldn't put up with silly things like they have in today's wrestling. He concentrated on real, tangible things like his feud with Chucky. 

 

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You've got to wonder what Sting makes of it all when he hangs around silly characters in today's wrestling or looks at the opposition for ridiculous stuff like The Fiend. Totally unlike the realistic time he was saved by Robocop.

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The problem is that wrestling isn't realistic these days.

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I think the main thing to watch and follow for right now is when, if ever, they stage some type of intervention with Vince. Here he is having a completely normal one to advertise the upcoming Roddy Piper documentary.

 

Utter, utter nutter.

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14 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Hows a bunch of stuff 15 years old or more relevant to his point?

Because it's always been dumb. There have always been silly, unrealistic aspects to wrestling. Always. 

It's the attitude that it's somehow a new or recent thing that I'm responding to. The idea that, somehow, it's not wrestling anymore because it's got too silly.

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If you can look past an Irishwhip you can look past anything. 
 

What keeps me watching lately is watching very little. Gave up on wwe the December before the first taker reigns mania, got deep into going to UK shows instead of watching, few years of new Japan and now only watch aew. I can’t say I even look too deep at a show, it’s on on a Saturday morning and if something hooks me I pay it proper attention. In my late 30s I’m finding it easier to break habits of doing or watching things I don’t enjoy just cause I always have done 

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Its a childhood and growing up nostagia thing for me. I dont watch anything now outside of the odd clips on twitter and very rarely an actual show, but the hooks of the business are just in me, ill always be interested in the behind the scenes kind of aspect. 

We are in the day and age though where everything i loved as a kid/teeneager is being re-analysed and talked about again and its so easily accessible to view that I dont think it'll ever leave me. Same applies to music, it feels like everything i used to love and was seemingly forgotten has a spotlight on it and again and has a second lease of life. Amazing for an infomation nerd like myself🤓

If we lived in a world where kayfabe existed, podcasts werent a thing and you were only able to watch modern wrestling though id have sacked it off years ago. 

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@ChrisB

Whilst I agree that there has always been an element of nonsense in wrestling I feel that it has massively overwhelmed the current product to the point of ridiculousness. 

I'll take your points in turn: 

This is one of the few where you have a point. I hated it then and I hate it now. That said, Undertaker took 8 MONTHS off from the angle, rather than a month or so. Also he generally kept up the gimmick in and outside the ring.

Undertaker versus Undertaker wasn't ridiculous though the match was fuckin horrible. An imposter trying to make money and take the stardom from the Undertaker was a reasonable storyline if not a little far fetched. They never said they were both the Undertaker, that one was an imposter and the match was there to prove which was the genuine one. 

Not sure your point re: Goldust and Warrior - I didn't like it particularly but it was treated as a feud and not "wink wink, nudge nudge". Though homophobic Warrior was the shits in it. 

You could JUST about suspend disbelief with Shane and Kane, it wasn't cinematic or nonsensical, even though a tad goofy.

You cite WCW, a company that went out of business is hardly a model to hold up of what is successful in wrestling. 

 

My point is not that things weren't half as hokey back in the day and that there was a certain conviction that the company and the wrestlers had in doing it. Barring the WCW nonsense (hey, they folded for many reasons) and the Undertaker's resurrection, most other moments were at least treated seriously and/or with a degree of realism if not totally do-able in real life . I also don't even mind goofy gimmicks, as long as they are trying to be and look like actual wrestlers and taking it seriously. All of Wyatt's nonsense relies on a whole team of people backstage to get it off the ground (stunt suits for fire angles, audio/visual for that bloody projector thing one WM etc). Orton pinned by Bliss? WTF was that? One of the times I can really cite as being demonstrably ridiculous was Kane in 1997, with the whole fireworks exploding from his hands etc. 

The viewership tends to give credence to the fact wrestling is at its lowest point in history. I am well aware that my nostalgia clouds my judgment and I probably would have felt the same in 1994 if I were my age then. Thing is, I don't believe in the characters anymore. Bret Hart looked like a serious wrestler. Austin looked like a badass and acted the part even up until today where he still has an aura of believability. Vader looked like a fuckin beast. The only person I would feel remotely intimidated by in 2021 is Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe and maybe Reigns. Even Strowman (who is a fuckin giant and should be intimidating) doesn't hold much in that sense. Thankfully NJPW still have people who look badass and take things seriously - I wouldn't fuck with Suzuki, the history is generally respected and they don't do anything outright nonsensical. 

You may have a point that wrestling has always been goofy and had stupid shit happen in it and my becoming an adult has exposed it to me in a more "in your face" kind of way. All I want is wrestling to be serious, a struggle and a contest by good guys and bad guys who hate each other's guts. I want the bad guy to get the advantage and the good guy to eventually win out and there be a feel good moment (even if it takes a year). I don't see why that is so difficult for companies to grasp and book. And I also acknowledge that my nostalgia demands are unlikely to be the norm or draw what they would have done 30 years ago. 

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50 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

 Thankfully NJPW still have people who look badass and take things seriously - I wouldn't fuck with Suzuki, 

Suzuki has done more outright comedy and silliness than anyone mentioned in this thread.

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