Wrestling Forum banner

Is it possible we've just outgrown wrestling?

7K views 82 replies 66 participants last post by  THE MIGHTY KRANG 
#1 ·
With all of this dislike of the product in recent times (for some it's years), a lot of us are laying blame at creative, higher-ups, politics, talent etc...

But is it just possible that we've outgrown our enjoyment of wrestling. I'd imagine that a lot of guys on here are in their 20's and 30's and started watching when we were kids or in our teens.

Now as a teen we don't have the best indicator of quality, our taste and critical eye evolves as we get older. So things which we thought of as awesome and our love of the attitude era, ruthless aggression era or even the golden age of wrestling may be through rose tinted glasses.

Is it possible that with all of our dislike that we ourselves have just outgrown wrestling?

I love wrestling but i've been getting the feeling the last year that maybe it's just time to move on.

What does everyone else think?
 
#13 · (Edited)
No, WWE's best performing demo is men over 50. They are the long time fans who love wrestling.They just want a good product. It's not a question of outgrowing it. . Rather Vince hasnt adapted with the times and wants to do what worked in the 80's and apply it to now. It just doesnt work now.There are still people who love pro wrestling. Right now, Vince's version seems off brand.WWE just needs to put on a better product. It's not too late, but they are alienating their base, looking to attract new fans. Lose the base,lose your lifeblood.
 
#15 ·
wants to do what worked in the 80's and apply it to now.
If this were the 80's, Reigns would have been built up properly, and people wouldn't constantly be trading wins for no reason. They knew how to build up stars in the 80's.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Last year, I was super excited for WrestleMania, and I got to sit down with all my buddies and eat shitty food while we watched some great wrestling. I saw a 5 star match over in New Japan at the beginning of the year. Just over a month later, I saw a match thrown together at the last moment, in the same promotion, that was so close to being perfect as well. I haven't outgrown a damn thing. The WWE just sucks right now.
 
#11 ·
I don't think so.. Obviously most of us fell in love with the product when we were younger, and the irony is that it was a more adult-oriented product then.. So I guess the combination of us fans growing older, while the product is taking steps backwards in maturity kind of screws with perceptions.

But at the end of the day, we love good wrestling matches, and entertaining characters. The WWE is still capable of providing that, but then they also frustrate the hell out of us with their decision making, and the apparent inability to give the fans what they are dying to see.

We have all had moments of pure joy and happiness as a result of wrestling, which is why we put up with so much crap, because we are just waiting for those magical moments.. But lately WWE is fucking that all up, and it is starting to take a noticeable toll on the audience. It really is an abusive relationship
 
#36 ·
Outgrow it? Fuck no.. I still enjoy watching NXT,Lucha Underground,NJPW,Chikara etc..

We just have a problem with the main roster programming
 
#19 ·
Nah, it's just a very lazily thrown together product. Doesn't seem to be much adventure or direction in story and character development.
I still enjoy ROH, NJPW and NXT, and WWE when there's something good happening.. I just think there's such a necessity to cater to certain rules/sponsors/viewers now that the whole thing is gone to shit.
 
#20 ·
I havent outgrown wrestling but ive def outgrown this version of the wwe. I still enjoy nxt and new japan. Those two programs are whats keeping me as a fan. My first stint of wrestling was 02-05 smackdown. I was 8 when I started watching and was hooked from the getgo. Didnt have raw and when smackdown went off air in 2005 here in Sweden I found wwe.com and youtube. Yeah internet was new to me at 11 years old. Youtube had just started and the only thing I knew of internet was msn. Anyways I started torrenting wrestling bout a year later in 06 since a friend showed me and I got into roh and other shit about that time in 07-08 at the age of 13-14. I enjoyed wwe up until 2008 but then I quit watching in 2009 and came back in 2011.

Its not that ive outgrown it. Even in 2009 I was 15 years old and sick of wwe. Its not my taste. Smackdown 2002-2005. Nxt. New japan. Thats my brand of wrestling. Cant stand the attitude era or other goofy stuff. Enjoyed wcw 96-98 way more then anything from wwf attitude.
 
#46 ·
Implying that wwe's program is fun

:ti :ti :ti
 
  • Like
Reactions: 275553
#51 · (Edited)
It's funny you mention SpongeBob. I watched it just the other day and it was better than most things on TV today.

"Growing out" just means having one's interest and excitement dumbed down. It is arguably itself a dumbed down synonym for getting dumbed down.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pittsburgh_412
#29 ·
I think the real issue is people consider themselves experts and look at things with such a critical eye that it's very hard for anything to live up to expectations when placed under such a microscope. It's not their fault and it doesn't make them bad fans or smarks or whatever negative name you want to throw at them, it's just how things turned out with everything being so exposed.

Here's an example. Undertaker and Bray Wyatt can have a great match at Wrestlemania, but if Bray loses people will slam the match because in their minds it destroyed Bray. If they have a match that is entertaining, that's what we should be concerned with, not the extras that go into it.
 
#42 ·
The reality is that you guys are expecting too much from WWE when it comes to them catering to what you want. CM Punk and Bryan were pushed hard from 2011 to 2014. I think hardcore fans thought they could dictate everything since that point. I'd even say that it's possible a lot of fans thought for sure that WWE would cater once again this WM with Bryan, but WWE put their foot down. The reason fans are so miserable is because they are mad that they can't dictate to WWE this time around. Don't get me wrong: the vocal fans have a powerful voice. But it's hard for WWE to cater this year once again when they have little to nothing to show for last year's catering job. They pushed Daniel Bryan at the expense of Batista, and in doing so had to put Cena under Brock at Summerslam.
 
#47 · (Edited)
The reality is that you guys are expecting too much from WWE when it comes to them catering to what you want.
I'll agree that perhaps our expectations are too high: expecting WWE to create viable storylines for more than one guy at a time, expecting them to utilize the deep and broad talent pool they have atm, expecting them to actually build characters and plotlines over time. Yeah, those days are long gone, and after watching again since 2012 I am gradually accepting that I will not find those elements within WWE programming.

Thank God for NJPW, Lucha Underground, ROH, and NXT.
 
#53 ·
There is plenty of good wrestling out there if you only care about the matches. ROH, NJPW are good, and even WWE has plenty of good matches these days. The problem is that WWE is the only promotion who has a decent handle on any kind of Storytelling/character building, which is what a lot of people enjoy about wrestling. they have gone really bland on the angles, and really weak on the character development. So they kind of went backwards, rather than people outgrowing it.

Think about it, back in the Hogan era they were very PG and geared toward a younger audience. But they also had a way of making their midcarders stars who people knew things about, and whose feuds people still cared about. There are Curtain Jerkers in the hall of fame, and deservedly so, because they were all still stars.

Now, Roman Reigns in in the WM main event, what do we know about him? Bray Wyatt just spouts a bunch of pseudo-intellectual stuff, but we don't have any backstory on him. They just repeat Lunatic fringe over and over for dean ambrose, but we don't know any of his motivations... I think the main thing that is missing is promos putting the individual characters over, and promos by those characters talking about themselves. There is nothing to them for fans to identify with. These days they are just thrown into feud after feud, and all the promos go in that direction--- I did recently learn that Sheamus likes to fight though...
 
#57 ·
The WWE OVERPRODUCES itself is what I get from this post. Vince did not micromanage back then as he does now mixed in with a bunch of "writers". I remember Bret Hart talking about his match with Savage on SNME and how he asked Vince for the finish and Vince responded by telling him to figure it out as he's the great wrestler.

WWE prides itself too much on "making stars" which causes there to be less character development since everything seems to be coming from creative.
 
#66 ·
This is RackaRacka from Australia, they make lots of special effects short films

But they put together old footage of them as kids growing up, showing a comradery and compared to kids in "Stand by me"

This vhs footage is awesome and should bring a bit of WTF, and fun nostalgia to kids growing up during attitude era

Our Epic Childhood: http://youtu.be/pp0BipIY4g8






Kids do it better than current WWE roster!
 
#76 ·
I was starting to think this but luckily i have a little brother who is 10 so i show him some random episodes of Raw in the AE and he agrees it is alot worse off now than it was back then.

When you know about the industry it takes away the magic of it all from your perspective as a kid so you have to try your best to enjoy it for what it's worth.

As much as i like this forum, if i'm being completely honest reading dirt sheet reports ruins any potential surprises. I don't like Reigns but i knew he was going to win the RR and face Lesnar so maybe if i didn't know it was a certainty i could have got on board with it more.

It's more difficult as a smark to accept that they choose who is on top so when it's not your guy it is frustrating. If it was real and your guy was being beat you would just learn to accept it and hope your guy improves at fighting/wrestling lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: promoter2003
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top