Has YouTube changed the way you watch wrestling?

[chazraps]

A few threads over the past few weeks got me to thinking about being a fan in the late-90s as the internet really gained popularity. I remember in '98 or so only seeing Waylon Mercy's name pop up in Raw results and scouring Lycos.com to find an image of him to no avail.

Then I remember in the early-2000s how easy the internet made VHS tape-trading. For $25.00 or so, if one looked hard enough they could find any number of shows from wrestling's past in oft-debatable quality.

Now, I can pretty much find every single segment ever broadcast all over the world in good-to-great quality in a matter of seconds.

There was a time when my access to the wrestling's past was limited to the Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and two Video Updates within walking distance from my house. Now I can see anything I want without getting out of bed. I don't even have to set a DVR to record an event, I can just wait ten minutes after it finished and find the entire thing online.

How has YouTube, or streaming video on the internet as a whole, affected your wrestling viewing habits? What do you think it means for fans post-90s boom?

[rapidfire187]

Oh yea, it's definitely changed my wrestling habits. I still watch RAW every week but I don't bother watching every single wrestling show on TV because I know if I miss something good I can just watch it online the next day. I don't spend a lot of time watching old matches anymore though, I basically got that out of my system years ago. There's not much good WWE/WCW/ECW stuff that I've never seen anymore.

[B'Cup x]

its how I'm able to watch WWE shows, without the internet I would not be able to follow the product ona regular basis x

if this is agaisnt the rules, please delete x

[kidglov3s]

It makes seeing wrestling matches, segments, etc a lot easier than it used to be. If I had it when I was eight years old I probably would've never left the computer until I had seen every Bret, Yoko, Hulk, Macho, Demolition, etc match that I could find, which would probably be never as new matches would always be being uploaded. Hell I do that now, lol. It's great having the direct access to primary sources that it allows, rather than just relying on secondhand accounts for things.

Like one of my favorite wrestling moments was this spinebuster that Arn Anderson did in the tag match at Great American Bash 1988 that was cut from the Turner VHS but was in the youtube version of the match and I'll never forget how with that one move he crushed the dreams of every man woman and child in that arena.

[The Beast Disincarnate]

When you're not from north america, youtube is the only way you can watch wrestling. The international versions of the wwe shows are the worst thing you can imagine.

[Crappler El 0 M]

I will admit to watching SmackDown on youtube before it has even aired in the U.S. on a couple of occasions (due to knowing I wouldn't be able to watch it when it aired). Obviously these weren't posted by the official account and I would never link to them.

[Deleted]

Every now and then I look up a segment I missed from that week's shows or something but otherwise, not something I use much for wrestling reasons.

[MolotovMocktail]

Kind of off-topic, but how do you think Youtube would have affected the territories if it was around back then? Would it have helped, as fans who wanted to see as much wrestling as possible would have seen every possible territorial show online, or hurt as one would have squeezed out the others like Vince ended up doing anyway?

[Miss_Carol]

They don't air wrestling where I live, there's literally no channel for it. I can watch Raw on a channel called Eurosport, but it airs very late at night and is months or maybe even years behind the live show. The last time I saw it on tv there was a match involving Edge and Lita, so yeah

Needless to say, if there was no youtube, I would be no wrestling fan

[wildojinx]

I mainly use it for matches from the past, as i still watch the weekly shows (seeing stuff like CM Punk's pipe bomb promo as it happened is more exciting than seeing it with some knowledge of whats going to happen anyway).

[chazraps]

Mar 31, 2012 16:21:20 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

Kind of off-topic, but how do you think Youtube would have affected the territories if it was around back then? Would it have helped, as fans who wanted to see as much wrestling as possible would have seen every possible territorial show online, or hurt as one would have squeezed out the others like Vince ended up doing anyway?

Excellent question!

I think it would have unquestionably helped the territories if they were making a quality weekly televised product.

For example, streaming technology was in its infancy in 1998 when Realmedia/Realplayer began to become commonplace. As a result, the summer of 1998 saw ECW for the first time finally available to anyone in North America who had an internet connection. While the IWC was still a microcosm, for the first time that entire microcosm could get a chance to see what all the hype was about absolutely free. That's dealing directly with a target audience who is ravenous for your product.

That in mind, it depends during the territory if they were more focused on just a quality live product or one that also had an appealing televised aesthetic. With how great WCCW looked on screen, there's no doubt in my mind that the internet would have done wonders for them. Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling would have been much, much bigger as well, especially with their top-notch presentation.

Likewise, Championship Wrestling from Florida, even with their talent, would have potentially had their reputation hurt by this as (comparatively speaking) their television programming had the cinematography of a snuff film.

[rnrk supports BLM]

Oh, it's a huge boon; there's so much obscure stuff that you can hear about and then immediately watch. I never would have known about Yoshihiko or Ta-Gar, Lord of the Volcano, without the internet.

And there's really no point IMO to watching non-live wrestling programs on TV when you can see them at your own leisure online, skipping the commercials/recaps/uninteresting segments.