When Did You Stop Watching?
 

When did you stop watching Wrestling? Obviously, most of us continued after a break...but what made you stop watching? Was it a certain storyline or something else?

I stopped watching after I went to see Summerslam(I forget what year) at the Nassau Coliseum Long Island NY event, with HHH vs. HBK as the main event. HHH slugged HBK with a sledgehammer, setting the storyline that HBK has now become sentenced to a wheelchair. Obviously this was all fake, but very soon after,at WWE NY, HBK stood up like nothing ever had happened to him. For some reason this killed my interest and i stopped watching for a while.

So what's the deal with everyone else?

The only memory I can remember before I stopped was when Brock Lesnar debuted. I just didn't care anymore after that. Really regret it, after watching some of Lesnar's stuff later.

The only time I was close to stopping was probably 2006-2008 or so. Somewhere in there I started to lose interest just in general for the product. I don't know what it was, really. I still watched RAW regularly, but wasn't really watching anything else. Maybe I was burned out and maybe Cena killed a lot of it for me. In fact I do think apart of it was Cena, and it wasn't until I accepted he was on top and it was best for business did I really start to really get into wrestling again.

But I've never truly stopped since 96, and I've missed maybe 5 RAWs (as in never saw, unless I saw it on JTV or something) from when I started watching religiously in 97 through the present. This year I start watching SmackDown! regularly again, so I'm much more into it now than I was in 2006-2008.

Since 1988, I was always watching, although I did came close to stopping in 2001, after ECW and WCW closed.

Been watching since 1990, but came close to stopping around 2005-2007.

There are also bit and pieces of stuff around 2003-2004 that I just don't remember

I stopped watching regularly around 2004 I think, but I still followed it fairly closely. Picked up again "full-time" when I got to college (thanks in large part to The Gold Standard).

Stopped around the mid 90's. Picked it back up just before the start of the Attitude era.

Stopped watching sometime around when Papa Shango made Ultimate Warrior hurl. Combination of being freaked out and "Pfffft. This is stupid."

Started watching again with Paul Bearer turning on Taker at Summerslam.

Also, stopped watching Smackdown for awhile after Eddie died. Felt like there was no point without "the heart and soul of Smackdown". Still haven't gotten back into watching it every single week like I did before.

pretty much after wcw went under i stopped. im not sure why

Haven't. Watched some form of product since 1997. Probably won't. Still can't stand SmackDown or TNA.

I demand that you explain this hatred of SmackDown!!

I stopped watching after the Rasslin federations refused to put Lance Storm and IRS in a tag team called Serious Business.

Also, I stopped watching WCW in 1998 after Goldberg became champ. Fuck that.

It looks like the b-show, it has b-show crowds, it has b-show talent... It just feels second rate. It's not worth my time. Plus it's taped, why the fuck would I spend time on a Friday, when I could be doing something better, watching something I can read on a Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

For some reason Smackdown! bothers me too, I think it's the blue color lighting scheme they use(I know, a poor excuse for not liking the show).

Why do you watch ROH? It's taped weeks in advance in a ridiculous time slot. It has no real stars and very small crowds in bingo halls. If SmackDown! is second rate, ROH is 5th rate.

Xero makes a very good point.

Also, try watching it on a day where you're less busy. Like when you're on the comedown from a totally awesome Friday night?

If Smackdown! is "unwatchable," what does that make ROH?

I stopped watching right around the time Austin was leading the Alliance in 2001, and started watching again in Februrary of 2002 when the NWO made its debut in WWE.

ROH is the biggest pile of rasslin turd ever

Well there ya go

Stopped I would have to say around 2003.. I remember the "Ruthless Aggression" thing... and I remember seeing Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle at a house show... and then after that I guess I just stopped watching wrestling.

I would read occasionally at tpww. But didn't start watching again until 2007.... or maybe even 2008... it was a long break.... since then I've caught up on all the stuff that happened.

I started watching in 1997, just before the Attitude Era boom. I stopped watching regularly in 2006 after they ruined the ECW name. I would still browse the news and watch matches or segments that I was interested to see. I just got back into wrestling regularly before Wrestlemania this year.

Because the announcers treat each talent, regardless of what slot/weight they are on the card like they're top fucking talent. They give the talent adequate time to showcase their abilities and appreciate them. Each show has a feeling of importance.

WWE has 3-7 minute matches where nothing really happens except things to either sell merch or forward storylines.

ROH matches, while scripted, show people who really give a shit about their craft. Working hard and putting their bodies through shit every match.

The production makes the show look like it's important. The video package showcase talents personalities before it showcases their in-ring ability.

SmackDown often has lame interviews, Cole shitting all over ACTUAL fucking wrestlers because of a "lack of charisma" and never lets them showcase ANYTHING. Even on Raw fucking people get a chance to have a match once in awhile, and JR at least attempts to give it some credibility.

You're attempting to compare A Lemon to A Ham. It doesn't work. Yes, they're both food - but that's literally the only thing they have in common.

I don't disagree with your arguments in that post, because you're right, but your former post mentioned nothing about content, only the presentation, shit timeslot and being taped. SD owns ROH in the presentation department, but everything else is equal.

It was a troll post and I pulled a real post out of you. :cool:

I only had a serious reply because it was you, Xero. Does that mean I respect you?! :o

Hmm, well. I was trying to find the HBK wheelchair incident on youtube but no luck. Alot of things don't make sense in wrestling, but that really killed it for me for years.

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Feel like SD has plenty of good/competative/lengthy matches. :-\

I stopped watching WWF after the greatest feud of all times (The Undertaker versus Yokozuna).

I started watching the WWE again after Brock's WWE title defense against Big Show in a stretcher match. I shall always be a huge Brock Lesnar fan. Except for the time when he destroyed Zac Gowen in front of his mother. That was bad.

Anyways...

I don't really know when I started watching but I stopped around 95. I remember still reading WWF Magazine up until King of the Ring '95 but it was difficult for me to watch anything as I didn't (and still don't) have Sky/cable.

Got back into it through a friend around SummerSlam 98. I recall watching Over The Edge and KOTR (that Cell match) from that year on videotape around the same time.

Since then I've watched/followed the product to various degrees. At Uni (2002 - 2005) I caught a lot of the PPVs but mostly read results. My biggest "down time" was probably during the Evolution/HHH show period where I would only read results and never watch anything.

Right now I watch "religiously". Raw, SmackDown, ImpactWrestling and now ROH. Either go to a friends to catch the WWE PPVs ot watch them online the next day.

I did watch the Triple-H / Rock Iron Man match during my hiatus. But I had no clue who Triple-H was.

CM Punk storyline got me watchin again

But I always thought that you were way too cool or way too hipster to watch fake wraslin.

I skipped 2004. The year that included pushes for Rene Dupree, Eugene, John Cena, the 1 year reign of JBL on SD!, the HHH reign of doom on RAW. The product was unbelievably bad. Basically I have gone back and watched the big shows and the only stuff that was any good was the JBL vs. Eddie fued.

The only breaks I have ever taken from wrestling were when I didn't have any way of watching it, but I never quit watching

Haven't had a real break off from watching wrestling but did have smaller breaks once the Brand Split occurred.

1st break was RAW-only around 2002-2003 due to college not having Spike Tv and instead had a Dish Network setup meaning only certain channels were packaged to keep cable costs down.

The only other breaks occurred when either "24" was giving on Mondays or certain shows were missed like almost all of ECW once it turned more into WWECW style and a lot of Smackdown shows the last few years (still read spoilers to stay in the loop).

I watched pretty religiously until 2007, then quit watching completely after the Benoit murders. I came back to it late last year, primarily thanks to Jabba and AL and a couple of others. I still don't watch as often as I should, though.

Started watching around 89-ish...never totally stopped watching though.
I suppose my interest started waning around '05-06, which was due in large part to Cena.

Still can't stand Cena, but there are other aspects of the product that I enjoy enough to tune in every now and then.

Haven't watched TNA since.....last December. At least, that's the last time I can remember seeing Daffney wrestle on TV.