What type of viewer / fan are you?

[quote the raven]

I used to be a rumble to Mains subscriber on the network. Totally switched off from wrestling for a good while.

Found Lucha underground late and it rekindled my love for it. 
 

Not long after AEW came along I now consume both shows and ppvs. 
 

 

[Merzbow]

I stopped watching WWE on a weekly basis back in 2014 and around the same time moved to watching New Japan thanks to AJ Styles. Oh and Lucha Underground, I miss that more than anything.

I'm a casual fan with niche interests these days, AEW is my main watch and how I fell for wrestling again even if it's currently in a poor spot it's still my baby, and that's why the bad stuff annoys me so much. If you can't criticize what you love then what can you criticize?

I dip my toe into modern Japanese shoot stuff, deathmatch feds and the odd bit of Joshi but I'm no mega fan, I've zero interest in NJPW these days, it's been dreadful with the worst booking over the past couple years.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Merzbow

[simonworden]

With a kid and full time job it's AEW every few weeks when I feel like it and the odd stint of watching something on the network (reminds me I need to cancel this stint). 

 

Not having any time means very few long matches draw me in. I'm still a sucker for a good storyline but honestly I'd rather watch meaty men squash jobbers for 30 minutes than 2 or 3 hours of 10 plus minute equality fest's with false finishes. 

[SuperBacon]

Will still watch the big 4 WWE PPVs (not live though anymore) and the odd Dynamite and AEW PPV.

The thing is, I still enjoy keeping up to date with everything and knowing what's happening and what people think from threads on here, but I'm not actually arsed to see most of it.

Bit like football though to be honest. I used to watch anything and everything, now I just don't have time, and if I have time, I'd rather do something else. Maybe we're just all getting older.

I do still love wrestling though. Silly old bollocks.

[Matthew]

12 hours ago, RedRooster said:

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by ‘accept it for what it is’, do people typically consume any form of entertainment in that way? Like, when Dexter got bad, or people crapped all over the Game of Thrones finale, was the attitude ever ‘just accept it for what it is’?

It’s a slightly nebulous phrase that’s pretty much only ever applied to wrestling.

Perhaps “accept it for what it is” isn’t entirely accurate with what I meant.

It’s more, if I’m not interested, if it becomes a chore to watch, if I find I’m just picking holes, and feeling less incentivised into watching something, I’ll just not. And maybe sometime down the road I’ll give it another go and see if those negative feelings I had, have changed.

I know that’s a mind blowing concept to some, to turn off if not enjoying something, but yeah, it’s pretty easy to do.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Matthew

[Tommy!]

I'm completely lapsed for anything new, getting nuggets from here and a select Twitter group is about it. Still watch old tapes though 

The end of my fandom is a bit like only fools and horses, I'd been just PPV for a while, than just the big ones up to mania 30. It was a perfect end point for me to give in and check out completely on a high following a general downward slide, yet I kept coming back for a few more years after to ever decreased enjoyment.

[69MeDon]

From about 1995/6 up to WrestleMania XX, I was a huge wrestling fan (this included WCW, when that was still a thing). I also used to go to lots of British shows (FWA). But, as I got older, I found that the product WWE was putting out just wasn't keeping me engaged, I fell out of going to live shows here in the UK and I really just dipped in and out between 2003/4 - 2011. In 2011, I was pulled in by the Summer of Punk, which was great up to and including Money in the Bank 2011, but they ruined it about a week later. So I was done again. Then I got a bit into watching NJPW between 2016 - 2018, and when AEW launched I had finally found a product I was excited to watch every week.

Now, recently, AEW has been spotty. So we will see if I'm about to fall out of love with wrestling again. But, at this point, I'm not that far off being 40 years old, so I imagine pro-wrestling will always be something I have an interest in for the rest of my life. Even when I wasn't watching basically any of the shows, I still enjoyed watching old shoot interviews or documentaries or listening to podcasts about the 1990s in US pro-wrestling.

[RedRooster]

57 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Perhaps “accept it for what it is” isn’t entirely accurate with what I meant.

It’s more, if I’m not interested, if it becomes a chore to watch, if I find I’m just picking holes, and feeling less incentivised into watching something, I’ll just not. And maybe sometime down the road I’ll give it another go and see if those negative feelings I had, have changed.

I know that’s a mind blowing concept to some, to turn off if not enjoying something, but yeah, it’s pretty easy to do.

I know this might be a ‘mind-blowing concept’, but just because someone criticises something doesn’t mean that they don’t want to support it, or even that they don’t like it, or aspects of it. 

Of course there are people who will criticise AEW (and WWE, for that matter) for the sake of it, even when they do something well. Some people do ‘pick holes’ as you say, but I genuinely don’t think that happens here.

On the other hand, there are also people, who get personally offended at legitimate points-of-view that don’t align with their’s.

That kind of, almost sycophantic, tribalism isn’t helpful. If people switch off, as you suggest, there’s every chance there won’t be a show to turn off in the first place. No one on this forum wants that, I imagine. And heck, just because people are down on a show doesn’t mean they want to switch off. 
 

If you disagree with a point someone makes, explain why, rather than getting upset at the fact the point has been made in the first place. Someone else not liking elements of a show shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of it.

Edited June 11, 2022 by RedRooster

[Rule One]

I gave up on wrestling a few years back, I don't know what happened but I just don't have the patience to watch anymore. I mostly know about things through Twitter and the good posters of here these days.

I've even lost the love of title belts too, something that I never thought I'd give up on. When Reggie Parks died, I wanted to do a thread on him about his everlasting contribution to the industry but just couldn't muster any sort of enthusiasm.

I don't find joy in it anymore and nothings pulling me back at the moment.

[Arch Stanton]

3 hours ago, Rule One said:

I've even lost the love of title belts too, something that I never thought I'd give up on. When Reggie Parks died, I wanted to do a thread on him about his everlasting contribution to the industry but just couldn't muster any sort of enthusiasm.

This is a shame, always used to enjoy reading your posts whenever you'd share your knowledge of title belts. 

[TildeGuy~!]

Check the results and watch anything I might like the sound of really in regards to WWE

I don’t work Mondays so I usually stay up for the PPV’s if the card looks decent.

Religiously watched New Japan and was subbed to the streaming service and then the company went down hill during Covid and not allowing fans to say a word(the fan interaction makes a match over there so much better with their emotions) Plus the lack of stars on the roster nowadays is extremely low and they seem to do Okada/Naito for every big show.

I’ll jump back in for the G1 if I like the looks of the line up. 

I watch AEW Dynamite as it goes by so quickly though and obviously the PPVs. 

I watch all Stardom shows as they’re easily the best womens wrestling on the planet plus Kairi Sane came back recently and she’s great.

[Keith Houchen]

6 hours ago, RedRooster said:

That kind of, almost sycophantic, tribalism isn’t helpful. If people switch off, as you suggest, there’s every chance there won’t be a show to turn off in the first place. No one on this forum wants that, I imagine. And heck, just because people are down on a show doesn’t mean they want to switch off. 

But there’s the rub. You’d still be a wrestling fan just not a fan of a company and their style of wrestling. A shit product isn’t entitled to your viewership if you think it’s shit. If the demand is there, a better show will replace it. If the demand isn’t, then it goes. Even if there was no wrestling on the telly, there would still be wrestling fans. 
 

Hate watching the only show in town is detrimental to the industry because they know they don’t need to improve their product. 

[Tommy!]

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

 

Hate watching the only show in town is detrimental to the industry because they know they don’t need to improve their product

Makes for a great raw mega-thread in on topic though I bet.

[Ultimate Hitman]

21 hours ago, Uncle Zeb said:

Swore off WWE after the White House photo with Trump

AEW arrived, and despite its stupid name and annoying clique of figureheads, I gave it a chance and liked the Cody/Dustin match. Then it being financed by a Trump donor soured me before it could reel me in, and any thoughts that I was perhaps being unfair have been routinely pissed on by its spoilt brat owner beclowning himself on social media.

What a bizarre reason to stop watching something you enjoy.

Trump derangement syndrome.

I wish you well in 2024 when DJT finally returns to the White House & sorts out the absolute mess made by Biden & Obama & Clinton who are pulling that puppet of a president’s strings.

I watch bits on the network, AEW when I catch it, BritWres on YouTube & work a few shows for varying promotions every month where I’ll usually try to catch a couple of matches on the event, British wrestling probably has the best untapped talent pool in the world right now.

 

[wordsfromlee]