Fantastic Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I have a question to pose to everybody still watching WWE.... What's the one thing they could do, be it a PR debacle or booking decision, that would stop you watching, or warrant an extended break from viewing WWE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Despite the booking of Bryan and Punk and those guys, the wrestling has been pretty good overall with a big downturn the last 4-5 months of 2014. The shows can be boring but they aren't doing Katie Vick or Kiss My Ass skits or Chuck & Billy level BS right now. I tuned out from 2003 through 2007, focusing my time on old footage and watching only the hyped WWE "must see" matches. When Benoit flipped,I stopped watching again until 2009. So, I am not married to the product except for PPV reaction shows. If DB and Lesnar leave again, it may be time to take another break. The product is pretty bad without them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted February 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Despite the booking of Bryan and Punk and those guys, the wrestling has been pretty good overall with a big downturn the last 4-5 months of 2014. The shows can be oring but they aren't doing Katie Vick or Kiss My Ass skits or Chuck & Billy level BS right now. I tuned out from 2003 through 2007, focusing my time on old footage and watching only the hyped WWE "must see" matches. When Benoit flipped,I stopped watching again until 2009. So, I am not married to the product except for PPV reaction shows. If DB and Lesnar leave again, it may be time to take another break. The product is pretty bad without them. Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. The Katie Vick thing was just poor taste and someone's shitty idea of an angle that would get over, it didn't offend me. The Benoit tragedy however, turned me off (I rated, and guess I still do - crimes aside - Benoit as one of the top ten US workers of all time), I guess I grew disenchanted with wrestling, bought into the media hysteria that it was all steroids and risks of the game and that it could have been anybody. It made me feel like being a fan supported the kind of madness that Benoit fell into and that I shouldn't be supporting this kind of entertainment. These thoughts didn't last long though, Benoit was an exceptional case, and everybody in wrestling knows the risks, they make the choice to do what they do, and being a fan isn't supporting the bad stuff, it's supporting the positive entertainment they bring to the table... Anyway: I'm not really all that disenchanted with the Bryan glass ceiling situation and the forceful Reigns mega push. It's not going to stop me watching WWE, really, I'm interested mainly in how it's going to work out for Reigns, whether he'll adapt and even survive the enormous fuckery from the booking department. There isn't really anything WWE could realistically do that would stop me watching or being a fan of their product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I moved the topic. It deserves its own thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamthedoctor Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I have a question to pose to everybody still watching WWE.... What's the one thing they could do, be it a PR debacle or booking decision, that would stop you watching, or warrant an extended break from viewing WWE? I really dont know. All of my favourites from the past are gone. I think what kept my interest over the past few years was when I would hear a Legend coming back for a appearance. I was never a fan of Punk or Bryan at all, dunno why I just never seemed interested in those two. I suppose once Cena goes and maybe Show, Kane or someone I enjoyed watching wrestling back in the 90s once they are all gone id probably stop watching and just be 100 percent on classic matches but I dont think anything would really stop me watching. When wrestlings in your blood its hard to stop watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I watch it on my terms. I'll speed through a Raw on 2x speed and stop for matches that I want to see on youtube the next day. I catch something if I want to. For a long time, I watched the int'l feed of Smackdown on Friday morning on my terms. As long as they're putting on good matches, I'll watch it how I choose and probably enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantastic Posted February 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I watch it on my terms. I'll speed through a Raw on 2x speed and stop for matches that I want to see on youtube the next day. I catch something if I want to. For a long time, I watched the int'l feed of Smackdown on Friday morning on my terms. As long as they're putting on good matches, I'll watch it how I choose and probably enjoy it. I typically don't watch Raw unless it's "must see". I pick and choose the PPV's I watch as well. Usually Mania and the Rumble are required viewing, although I skipped last year's Wrestlemania as I had work commitments (gutted, because witnessing the Streak end on live PPV would have been awesome). Honestly, just going on the WWE site and watching the match highlight videos is usually enough. I do watch NXT however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memphis Mark Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I watch the WWE during the Moinday Night Wars , mainly because all of the territories had been driven out of buisness. I stopped watching on a regular basic in 2001. The invasion storyline drove me away . I came back in 2005 for the ECw relaunch , only to release I had played for a fool after I watched the first episode of the new ECW TV show. I have not watched in WWE TV for 10 years. I have plenty of other wrestling choices , I don't need to watch wrestle crap every week. I just stick with ROH , NJPW , NOAH and classic footage. Plus I have a intense dislike for Vince and his business tactics. . I have disliked that man every since Black Saturday . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I'll go months without watching a single episode of RAW, SD, or anything else now and I consider myself a pretty big fan. Prior to the Network, I would buy maybe 1 PPV a year (2 at most) since at least 2005. Prior to that, I hadn't watched RAW, SD, or any other PPVs since 2001. The Network has allowed me to watch even LESS of today's product and still get my fix through watching old content and restricting my watching of the current product to the special events (PPVs). Thanks to the internet and podcasts, I also feel like it is easier than ever to not "watch" TV, but still keep up to date with all the goings on, results, events, etc. So maybe the question really is - what would cause you to stop following the current WWE entirely? The answer, to me, is probably not any one specific thing. When I was 18 it was easy to turn it off and not follow one bit because my friends didn't care any more and I got more interested in other things...but now that I'm 31, I find it to be a fairly simple hobby. Maybe when my work life, family life, etc. gets busier, I won't have time for it, but I think I'll probably be at least a casual fan for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkdoc Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 it's funny that this thread already mentioned the exact two angles i most often see cited by attitude era fans as the reason they quit watching: the invasion & katie vick you know, figuring out moments like that for every era of every notable promotion could make a neat thread in itself. papa shango would be the hulkamania equivalent, i imagine... anyway, i haven't given WWE my money or TV viewership since katie vick and it will remain that way. in the spirit of Pro Wrestling Only i will just say that i very strongly disagree with fantastic's rationale re: benoit and leave it at that. i'll watch a stream when they're doing something my friends are talking about, as with the bryan stuff over the past year+, but that's about it. it's hard to imagine this changing since WWE is already awfully low on my list of priorities - i mostly hang out here for the broader discussions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Define stop watching. I can't handle the tv only the specials. If the specials are shit I will skip those too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiva Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Define stop watching. I can't handle the tv only the specials. If the specials are shit I will skip those too. Yeah, I tuned out of watching Raw as soon as Bryan was injured last year, really. I tend to catch highly-rated matches and I'll sometimes watch Smackdown since that tends to be less of a slog than Raw. For me, as much as I complain about the booking, there's still a group of guys that I enjoy watching but all it would take is Cesaro getting released, Lesnar leaving for good and Bryan getting another long injury/leaving himself for me to tune out of it because I imagine matches up and down the card would get a lot worse and you'd lose these special attraction Lesnar main events that are awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I quit watching in 2012. I still watch old stuff and even found a local indy to go to. I do have the Network though (for old footage). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcmmnx Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 IDK there's so many guys I enjoy watching on the main roster who are getting the chance to put on good matches on a weekly basis. Then you factor in the 10-15 people I really like in NXT, and the roster is just loaded with talent. It's too bad the writing and booking are no where near the level of the in ring talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strand Peanut Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I don't have to follow the WWE, it's omnipresent if you read about wrestling online. It's always there. I will say this, I only find myself online when WWE is ever so slightly generating interest. I tend to keep an eye on it for a bit.. but I usually fade out. I'm actually surprised how long I've stuck around the last three years. I don't even concentrate on WWE when I do come back, there's always so many other promotions and matches and history to catch up on. I only find myself focusing on it right before I step away. Diehard casual fan. ha! Only real long break I took was after watching the movie, The Wrestler. It seemed to cap the horrific run of deaths up to that point, and the desire to be involved just cold turkey stopped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sporadic Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 After the Invasion botch I tuned in and out up until 2005. Guerrero's death kept me out for a year. Benoit's death followed by Misawa's death kept me out until around 2012. Bryan and Lesnar keep me around. Honestly I'm much more invested in NXT, ROH, NJPW and older footage stuff than I am with the current WWE. I keep hoping that one day I'll wake up and find Trips running the show completely maybe is a reason why I hang around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I barely watch anymore. I watch NXT, Chikara, NJPW, DDT, Lucha Underground and AAA and that's more than enough to keep me busy. I just don't trust them. Everytime I find something to latch onto it's like they make a point of ruining it. The 3 hour Raws also keep me away. It's just tedious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I would also watch CMLL if I had access to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Cena or Bryan going on a concussion-driven killing spree might do it actually. That's the most reasonable scenario I can figure. Maybe some authoritarian regime coming into power that prevented fan-posted streaming video on the internet so that there was no longer anything like youtube to watch things on. Even a Vince Russo like scenario where you had his very worst of WCW still had some fun stuff on the tertiary shows. I actually think a better question would be "What could they do get me to watch Raw for 3 hours on Monday night?" and the answer is basically nothing. I'm not revolving my life around them and so long as I don't have to in order to follow the product, there's almost nothing that can get me to turn away from it fully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Katie Vick was an issue of time period more than content. WWE was already cooling off and people were sick of HHH, and that just made it worse. As an angle, I don't see how it's demonstrably worse than just about everything the Undertaker did post Summerslam '98 through 1999, or Mae Young giving birth to a hand. The difference is that those things happened when they were popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 I don't know, HHH accusing Kane of being obsessed with a friend, and raping her after dying in a car crash, then having HHH himself playing the role of Kane and doing a simulation of that, seems worse than your typical Undertaker stuff from 98-99 or the Mae Young deal. Probably worse than the date rape angle that launched HHH as a main eventer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Katie Vick and the Kiss My Ass club were also main event angles. Mae Young's hand wasn't. The Taker sacrifice stuff was stupid but he didn't screw a corpse or shove a man's face in his ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkdoc Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 the thing with katie vick, for many, was that for all the talk about wrestling being a "male soap opera"...it didn't really tell the same types of stories that soap operas did. katie vick was the first main-event angle of our generation that felt like it belonged in a soap opera. we could deal with the mark henry bullshit when it was just midcard comic relief, and love triangles had been a part of wrestling long before HHH/angle/stephanie, but this was different. the whole thing just felt so out of character for both HHH & kane, and i think many longtime fans just couldn't buy into the whole premise from the start. for the more hardcore fans like me at the time, this also seemed obviously connected to stephanie joining creative. we thought that this woman who didn't know wrestling was the one behind it all, and that katie vick represented the future of the company. untrue and sexist in hindsight, yes, but that perception was definitely there for a segment of the core fanbase. add it all together and you have a bona fide "jump the shark" moment not even a year after their last one! EDIT: i see will made the exact same point while i was writing this post, haha. and yeah, undertaker's various supernatural angles were probably just as dumb...but they were a uniquely pro wrestling brand of dumb, and that gave them some charm with fans. pushing "soap opera dumb" with wrestling fans was the big mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Kidnapping Stephanie and leaving her tied up in a boiler room, the brawl with Austin in the funeral home where they attempted to embalm him alive, Dennis Knight being sacrificed ... the same stuff happening in 2002 would have been panned like crazy, but no one seemed to care enough to bash it too much in 1998-1999. The reason? Because when a wrestling company is hot, they can do no wrong. And when they're cold, they can do no right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 The Taker sacrifice stuff was stupid but he didn't screw a corpse or shove a man's face in his ass. Well... Taker did shove J.R.'s face in Vince's ass to turn heel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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