Yeah. Then I go back to Shinsuke v Zayn in NXT and think.... wtf?

What I gather from this thread is that Raw went to 3 hours in 2012.

I thought that was what stopped me from watching. However I feel like it hasn’t been 9 years since I stopped watching...

I think it was just not being impressed with the new talent. They were all so green, and clearly needed more time.

It is really jarring to watch a WWE show again. Even with crowds it was so quiet, sterile and choppy.

Slow burn process...

-Around 2003, things seem to be slowing down a lot and went from "must see" to "I'll catch it if I'm in tonight"

-I spent the last 12 years working jobs that had me needing to be asleep before 7PM, so anything primetime was mostly ignored.

-Like others were saying, no real build up of new stars... or NXT building them up, and then getting the 'special' washed off of them till you couldn't give a shit anymore.

-I had still kept up through youtube and dirt sheets (well rumor sites like TPWW), but think the last 3-4 years I really don't remember anything that happen, so think that's were I really gave up.

Yeah, we're in an abusive relationship with WWE. We slog through weeks/months/years of shit to get the next Shinsuke v Zayn or Walter vs Dragonov matches we crave, or someone getting signed that we don't expect like Nakamura or AJ Styles or the entirety of UE because we think "hey, maybe they're turning a corner... they'll change!"

And then we get punched in the eye with more commercial breaks. More backstage segments. More camera zooms that enduce motion sickness. More camera cuts to "create" action where there already is action. More soulless pre-scripted promos. More dead-end pushes. More bullshit.

The worst part is, WWE is consistently made aware of what makes them bullshit, and at times, they even ADDRESS it. They hit the audience with "I won't hit you anymore, baby, I'll change!"... but it never goes anywhere.

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We'll change, baby, we swear

Similar for me. I have like an photographic memory of almost every WWE event before WM 17. But after the Invasion I was disappointed, went to school. Lost interest for a year or so... And now I really can't remember anything WWE does. I remember a few select Mania's like when Daniel Bryan won the title and when Seth cashed in. But everything else is a total blur especially from the last 10 years or so.

The last time was the best!

We got Raw Underground for a few weeks before it disappeared and was never mentioned again and...

Retribution, who are still around every week solely to burn time and be lame.

Vince totally pleased with himself :rofl:

Immediately thought of this

That's mainly what I was referring to when I posted it, but they've addressed shit before, either through commentary or directly.

Ironically, in spite of being the prime example the above feels a bit unfair.

I speculatively think the plan was for Vince to be preoccupied with the XFL and Hunter to basically get the keys to the kingdom.

The people who complained "recently" (relative - I'm talking months ago) about being "lied to" were probably actually not... the plan was to call up the NXT crop like UE and feature them and some of the lesser used main roster talent heavily in spite of not being Vinnie's cup of tea. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, since they'd be over and prob'ly moving merch by the time he'd look.

But then, full on pandemic mode happened, and live sports gatherings went away. Vince abandoned the XFL with that horrendously handled shitshow and derailed any tenative WWE plans that didn't have his consent because his attention was solely back on his baby. Back to physiques and overscripting and headset micromanagement.

Yeah yeah, she's prego in real life. Still dumb AF to take up time with this stupid shit.



Started off alright, but has def gone way too far at this point. Wonder what Bray's 3rd failed incarnation will be before he's future endeavored.



Why tho. Can we never see Shane wrestle again please?



Fucking YAWN already

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">wait seriously how does <a href="https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@davemeltzerWON</a> still have a juno email address juno has been dead longer than me</p>&mdash; Katie Vick (@WWEKatieVick) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWEKatieVick/status/866488082933178368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I was going to say comedic horror guy but that's what his Firefly Fun House persona has mostly been.

He's already done the creepy backwoods cult leader, the creepy backwoods cult leader with supernatural powers, the comedic horror guy, and the horror film supervillain with supernatural powers.

Only thing really left is an Undertaker face-style persona with supernatural powers.

09 November 1997

He should be tugboat next

according to the timeline just posted by slik in the 100k thread, i would have dropped out briefly during the botched invasion, enjoyed the early/mid 00s otherwise quite well, then eddie died, wwecw was supposed to be awesome and sucked ass, then benoit happened, by then the ruthless aggression era ended and i stopped really giving a shit. only been really interested in some of the stuff punk did and the rise of daniel bryan, the latter being the end of "really interested"

2003. I figured my age was the reason why I lost interest.

Yes pretty much this . I’ll read the results and watch the PPV’s because I have the Network but I rarely ever watch the shows anymore . It’s just the same shit over and over and over without really any substance . The backstage segments I see now are awful. And it seems like half the show is centered around wrestlers and announcers trying to be funny and it’s cringe worthy . I probably stopped watching religiously around 2019. There’s still some cool shit like I do enjoy Roman Reigns’ heel run (or what I’ve seen of it ) but I can’t sit through 2-3 hours of the shows anymore

I have the Network and listen to a ton of podcasts and watch stuff like dark side of the ring to get my fix . Actually someone said something on a podcast the other day that resonated with me . He said the WWE doesn’t even try to create stars anymore because they want a company where everyone is replaceable . They don’t want people getting over and then leaving to make money elsewhere . They want wrestlers they can recycle as needed . 100% true

Only time I watch is after I read it first and something piqued my interest. That maybe happens 5x a year, MAYBE. Rumble I usually try to watch. Mostly NXT stuff I guess.

It’s so fucking bad though. Like forever.

Woops

:y::shifty::love:

Cancelled the Network in 2017 when they made Jinder champ.

WWE won me back though, based almost solely on how much of a disappointment AEW is. I flip back and forth on Wednesdays, I don't care to watch the little box during commercials. I see enough of AEW to know it's not what they promised it was going to be. I didn't expect them to look be up to the promises and hype, but I didn't expect it to fall as flat as it has either.

It is TNA 2.0. TNA had good things from time to time too, but mostly it was just a place former WWE guys could go to in order to squeeze more money out of the business and complain about WWE at.

That is the business model, and nothing proves that more than bringing in 50 year old Big Show who was not happy with his new WWE contract offer. It's WWE rejects, guys who would rather WWE treated them better so they could still be in WWE.

They don't even hide it, Jericho was mad his Mania match wasn't Huber up in the card.
Cody was not happy being Stardust, he wanted to be Cody.
Goldust didn't want to just be an agent.
Matt Hardy wanted to do more broken stuff and other gimmicks.
Ambrose was mad he didn't get a more serious run after he was a transitional champ.
The Revival were upset they didn't just get to outwrestle every team each week.
Sting was not happy WWE wouldn't let him keep wrestling until he was paralyzed.
Rusev, Dillinger, Neville, Swagger, they all thought they were giant stars, and they are all basically in the exact same position in AEW as they were in WWE.

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Funny how a promo can remind you of a more entertaining character, even if it was for one night only.

You're a weird guy. You work your hatred for AEW into every post even when the thread is completely unrelated to it.

WWE lost me me and hundreds of thousands of other viewers when they lost the biggest star of the last 30 years The Giant Big Show Paul Wight to AEW, which is a far and above better product than the WWE product. WWE is trash and losing the Big Giant Show is proof that nobody wants to watch that dumpster fire or even work there in front of the prerecorded fan base that they use because they can't even get a legion of fans who want to tune into every show and not troll the screen with pics of Chris Benoit and Kobe Bryant.

Nah, I completely agree. Way more appreciative of the WWE now that I’ve seen what a bad parody is like.

I won’t say that the WWE is good, but it’s a lot more professional and, dare I say, sensible. They’ve been proven right on a lot of talent. No one looks better in AEW than they did in the WWE, so don’t give me that “they use talent better” or “things mean more” crap.

The WWE lost me, but if Peacock becomes an international thing, they’ll probably get me using their services again.

Peacock is one of the best services for your $$$ if it ever does come that way and y'all get the same servings.


I've cancelled 2 other services because they had incomplete catalogs and was basically the only reason I paid for them.


Sans WWE, still easily worth it.

I stopped watching all together in early April of past year. I believe it was the Raw where the Viking experience or whatever they are called were rapping in the car.

Oooooh whatever happened to them? I forgot they existed!

Exactly. Shameful.

I think one of them is out long term with an injury

Ivar (the bigger bearded one and who women found to look cute in the Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders sports sketches) suffered a bad neck injury late last year.

Erik (the less cute one) became mostly irrelevant afterwards because of Vince's usual views towards tag wrestlers once one of them gets seriously hurt.

Although you have answers like Nerf's "when they made Jinder champ", that was essentially a last straw moment. WWE has slowly moved into the direction of "can't miss TV" to "can't watch TV" over a long, long period.

Don't worry: it's been a slow erosion for most of us. They'll ruin you, too. Give it time.

I slowly lost interest over many years, but the nail in the coffin for me was Wrestlemania 34.

AJ and Nak was disappointing and didn't have enough time. I saw what they did in Japan, I know what they're capable of.

An 8 year old winning the tag team belts with Braun, completely burying Sheamus and Cesaro in the process. How can anyone take them seriously ever again?

Being completely tone deaf on Roman Reigns. No one wanted Brock vs Roman yet again, but if they were oging to do it, just have Roman win and move the fuck on. But no, they got cold feet at the 11th hour again and had Roman kick out of 5 F-5's for absolutely no reason. Kicking out 5 times to then still lose the match completely weakened the F-5 for absolutely no reason.

So yeah. After that, I haven't watched Raw or Smackdown since, I just read up on things and move on with my life.

That was the singular moment where I said "I'm done", but the big things leading up to that were everyone being 50/50 booked into irrelevance and doing absolutely nothing with NXT callups.

Tough to really say:

I became a hardcore fan slightly before Wrestlemania 13 when the Austin-Bret feud started to gain traction. I remained a hardcore fan up until around Summerslam 2005 which I believe was the infamous HBK-Hogan match. I became a part-time fan after that, not because of anything specific, but because I was becoming busy with life. I remained a part-time fan for about another ten years. I can’t remember the exact moment in which the WWE “lost me,” but I seem to recall me thinking the following: What is there left for me to see? Bret came back, The Rock came back and fought Cena, Lesnar came back, Undertaker lost at mania, HBK and Flair retired, Hunter is gone, Kane is done, most of the guys from the Attitude era are gone. What’s really.......left?

I think a part of me also hung around as a fan longer than I should have because I was waiting for one more Wrestling boom......no matter how brief. “Show me one last time why I fell in love with this product” was my prevailing thought. I feel like I was able to experience this briefly from 2011-2014. The Rock returned, had his feud with Cena, and we also saw the emergence of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, The Shield, The Wyatt Family, and Cesaro (who I think the WWE really missed the boat on since he was getting way over organically), and Ryback (another guy that the WWE screwed the pooch on by making him job to Mark Henry at mania and then turning him heel). The last PPV I watched was the Wrestlemania where Rollins cashed in during the Lesnar/Reigns main-event.

Again, the WWE didn’t really “lose” me with anything specific, but I just feel like I had seen everything that had been needed to see. Today, I only follow the WWE via YouTube clips and shoot interviews online. Bray Wyatt’s “Fiend” character, Matt Riddle, and R-Truth are the only characters that entertain me these days. Broken Matt Hardy was good a few years back but the WWE screwed that up it seems.

Although I transitioned to part-time fan after Summerslam 2005 as mentioned earlier, the WWE started to lose me a little from 2002-2004 when they botched all of their face turns for their top guys. I feel like the WWE didn’t really know how to convert their top heels into top babyfaces because they kept altering their characters too much. One thing that made guys like Austin, The Rock, Undertaker, and Jericho successful babyfaces is that their personna’s during their initial turns remained VERY similar to their heel personna’s. Only in time, after some time had passed after the initial turns, did their characters evolve into something slightly more fan friendly.

With guys like Triple H, Angle, Orton, Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, and John Cena, I feel like the WWE tried to switch their characters and personalities WAY too fast upon turning. Especially in the case of Orton, the guy flat out flopped after Summerslam 2004 because either Orton or creative had no idea how to transition him into a top baby. Same with Lesnar in 2002. Just because a guy is getting some cheers, doesn’t mean you convert him right away so that you can sell merch. Let the heel character simmer until fans are literally creaming their pants’ for a face turn......like Rocky from Survivor Series 1998 to Backlash 1999.

The WWE’s over commitment to Triple H in 2003 also started to ruin things for me.