To other people who have stopped watching

[Deleted]

What did it for you? What things pushed you over the edge and made it impossible for you to enjoy the product or just gave you the lack of motivation to pay attention?

For me, it has a lot to do with what happened to some of my favorite wrestlers. I had gotten reinterested in the product by watching Smackdown in late 2005 and early 2006 and MNM and Finlay were among my favorite people on the roster. When Mercury got released in 2007, that damaged my interest a little bit, but it got worse when Nitro changed his character to Morrison, a change I still disagree with to this day. Then much later, Finlay stopped working on TV and got fired. The straw that broke the camel's back was probably what happened with Melina, who I have a lot of respect for both in and outside the ring. She got turned heel and fired in spite of the face pops she was getting (probably how vocal she was for trying to get women more TV time to wrestle). And a lot of my refusal to watch WWE is based on principle that I refuse to support them after pulling that.

Although, there's some other people I really liked who weren't going anywhere and I felt like they were getting screwed over too. Cody Rhodes has never been allowed to move up from the mid-carder state and get a taste of the main event for whatever reason, whether during that period where fans clamored for him to rebel against Orton or during his "Dashing" phase which I really enjoyed. And there's also R-Truth, who was more or less primed to win the WWE title in 2011, and was getting really popular, but they instead had him talk about Little Jimmy and do very little (wellness suspension or not).

I'm a fan who's very performer-oriented, and when all my favorite characters started falling by the wayside, what I viewed as an increasingly bad product became completely intolerable.

[AdamAFL was sooooo wrong]

I haven't watched SmackDown since Christian was Champ anyway so this is more my falling out with RAW. For me, early to mid 2012 was pretty bad. The odd thing was entertaining (such as Bryan vs. Punk etc.) but for the most part I was not enjoying the show. Then RAW 1000 happened, which was awesome, and I thought they'd turned a corner but alas the three hour RAW's made it unbearable. I haven't watched a full episode since October, I just can't bring myself to. I still watch the PPV's though because the wrestling is usually at least decent. But I just stick with TNA and ROH as the companies I pay full attention to now. Hopefully WWE picks up the pace again soon to draw me back in, but I really don't see how they're going to do that.

[theryno665]

Eh, I just don't feel like sitting down and watching a three-hour show for a decent match or two and the outside chance of something "shocking" happening.

[Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill]

I got bored with Smackdown. Not sure how it happened but I haven't tuned into that show for months. Now It's just Raw and the occasional PPV.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

I also cannot sit thru three hours of wrestling in one night, and when my DVR happens to record an episode, I fast forward thru a majority of it.

The only thing that is grabbing my attention right now is Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter...and they only take up a few minutes of a three-hour broadcast.

The last time I was 100% vested in their shows was ECW....consistent storylines, great writing, and a champion who took on everyone, not just an elite few who were on the higher end of the card. Also, with ECW, it seems like everyone who was on the roster got ample TV time to shine, even when someone from RAW or Smackdown would come in for an appearance.

[Deleted]

Two-hour Raws went through a period of not having anything worth watching from 9-10, so I stopped DVRing it. Figured I wasn't missing anything, so why continue?

Then they started with the Supershows, neutering SmackDown by taking all their stars and rendering the B-show into pure garbage. Adding Booker T on commentary was another knife in its back.
I love the guy's promos, but on commentary? Ugh.

[Sam Punk]

[Jiren]

I stopped around september 09 (Althought I've watched maybe around 3 RAW episodes since) because I just got bored of it.

[Indifference Abounds]

I don't think it was explicitly the reason, but I largely stopped watching the shows around the time the Summer of Punk went completely off the rails and turned into Triple H vs Kevin Nash.

There are a lot of people and things that I enjoy from the sidelines but I don't feel much compulsion to actual watch anything.

[BiloxiParish]

I watch Raw only as the only WWE show I watch.

Still watch ROH and some of TNA

Been a fan for 25 years as well

[ERON]

Mar 24, 2013 8:50:52 GMT -5 Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill said:

I got bored with Smackdown. Not sure how it happened but I haven't tuned into that show for months. Now It's just Raw and the occasional PPV.

Same here. It's just become stale and boring to me. And whenever something new and exciting comes along - Nexus, Summer of Punk, Ryback - they always seem to find a way to let all the steam out of it.

[BRAINFADE]

There was no real jumping off point for me, I just gradually got bored of the stale, predictable booking. I still keep up with what's going on, and will occasionally watch a match if people here say it's good (Cena vs Punk from Raw last month for instance), but I haven't watched a full show since Summer of Punk, I believe.

[mike2789]

I stopped watching back in 2009 on the regular, but I still follow it. I have other stuff going on, and I always save it, so if something happens I can watch it later.

I am still really interested in it, and will watch the highlights. As of late I watch a little more but not much. It doesn't interest me (watching it, I like reading about it)

[DragonMasterP]

Eventually I just got bored and stopped watching. I want to say it was around mid 2008.

[Hakumental]

Mar 24, 2013 9:43:46 GMT -5 Indifference Abounds said:

I don't think it was explicitly the reason, but I largely stopped watching the shows around the time the Summer of Punk went completely off the rails and turned into Triple H vs Kevin Nash.

Strongly seconded. This was genuinely the most unpredictable, fun, and interesting angle I'd seen in years, and to see it blown out the airlock within weeks - not even months, months I might have wryly accepted, but weeks - finally put an end to my already flickering faith in the company's creative direction.

[Milkman Norm]

I fell out of watching Raw regularly in the late attitude era/ HHH reigns era. I still watch some Raw from time to time, and from The Rumble to Mania I watch it more frequently than I do the rest of the year. Even then though I generally don't watch all 3 hrs and I don't watch it every week. The show is boring way to often. To many highlight packages, to many guys I don't really care about and most of all the third hour just falls apart. There is stuff I like, Fandango, Team Rhodes Scholar, and the usual IWC faves but as a television show Raw fails to impress.

I never really watched that much Smackdown.

[Kay Faban]

It's so weird that all these people that don't watch have such string opinions about the current product. It's like they're psychics!

[8.2.11/SAVIOR_NEZ]

There was a period I stopped watching for the most part from September 2006 to February 2008. I would catch the occasional RAW, odd ppv with friends, and I even attended Wrestlemania 23. It wasn't a huge deal for me or anything, just wanted to spend my time doing other things. It was mostly because I was tired of the direction the company was going in, and the show as a whole wasn't entertaining me. I didn't like John Cena, the new DX, Rated RKO, and lots of other things. I would try watching RAW or Smackdown, and never stay long because it didn't interest me. Even following what was happening on the shows through here never really made me want to tune in again.

When Jericho came back, I slowly started coming back and watching regularly again. While I wasn't sad that I missed most of the stuff during my hiatus, it gave me a renewed love for pro wrestling (didn't watch TNA or anything else either during that time). While I don't think I'll ever quit watching WWE forever, taking a break when things suck makes coming back when it's good again feel all the better.

[g1megatronfan]

The three hour crap. I can't do it...I tried but just get so sleepy watching it for that long. I'll watch bits and pieces of Raw but that's about it. I haven't watched full episodes of Smackdown on a regular basis for years now. It's on at a crappy time (Fridays) and after being cooped up at work all week...the last thing I want to do is sit home and watch WWE on a Fri night.

I think 3 hrs is WAY too long to even watch something you like. When I used to watch it I'd get sleepy about the 10:00pm range.

[Citizen Snips Has Left]

Stopped watching regularly after last year's Mania. Try to pick it back up randomly but get derailed by all the movie plugs, Touts and Twitter updates and recaps of what happened an hour ago.

It seems more like a reality competition than a wrestling show to me.