Well, I'll probably tune right back in next week, but...

[nisidhe]

After last night, I feel utterly done with WWE. It's exasperating to the point of nausea for me to see the heels always coming out on top and the babyfaces looking like utter chumps or having to become "tweeners" to fit Vince's mold of "big dominant men dominating = ratings". Once before the heavy-heading push booking and the heel authority figure trope had made me turn off main roster WWE for a year and change. After last night, I don't think I'm going to turn it back on again - not even the prospect of the Demon King at WM charms me at this point.

The emotional manipulation - I get it, it's part of the craft - has just become far too toxic for me with WWE; and their product, if you will, has been killing my enjoyment of pro wrestling in general. No other company has so much open contempt for its fanbase, and it's come to poison every. little. aspect. of the product, including its Superstars. When we are told that wins and losses don't matter, that certain superstars don't care a toss for winning titles or the big pay-per-view matches, why should we care about _anything_ that goes on in the ring? We, the audience, have become utterly irrelevant to WWE, in a way that our continued support for WWE becomes a self-inflicted exercise almost in masochism.

Surrounded as I am by headlines of scandals, corruption, climate change and economic and political catastrophes on all sides, the last thing I want in my life is for my entertainment - the only three hours a week I'm in my living room - to reflect that very same powerlessness and pointlessness I feel elsewhere. What many of us are hanging on AEW is a degree of hope that what we see there will be a closer reflection of the Japanese wrestling model - with its characters, factions and in-ring storytelling - than of what WWE has devolved into. Surely, they'll be better at lifting up their heroes as such, and at building their heels as interestingly in defeat as in victory. It is my fervent hope that the goodwill being shown to those leaving WWE is reaching those sitting on the fence and making them rethink their worth to the craft as a whole.

[Deleted]

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

[Push R Truth]

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

Most my the people that watch PPV's with me do that. They MIGHT watch 1 RAW a month but show up for almost every PPV.

I'd probably already do that except I like my Monday ritual of background RAW while I play on my PC.

[Allie Kitsune]

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

That, and if you don't follow along with social media during or right after shows, you don't get as much of the "if you didn't hate this, you're a horrible person who swallows whatever Vince shoves down your throat!" influence, which can be toxic all in itself.

[Bang Bang Bart]

WWE seems to enjoy one extreme (invincible babyfaces, i.e. SuperCena) and another (invincible heels, i.e. the current Raw main event heels).

[BoomPeriod]

On the road to wrestlemania and couldn't be less excited about the card lol. Some okay matches sure, but whatever.

[Juice]

Haven't watched sine last years mania. Still keep up for some reason. But wasn't that long ago Cena was always on top. And other big faces and heels looked like chumps. I like that is shifted after 17 years. Just shifted to the wrong people.

[Deleted]

Mar 12, 2019 11:10:53 GMT -5 BoomPeriod said:

On the road to wrestlemania and couldn't be less excited about the card lol. Some okay matches sure, but whatever.

Felt the same way last year.

[Gus Richlen Was Wrong]

I'm waiting for things to improve because I'd much rather hope they improve than hope that it gets worse and WWE gets crippled or insist that it'll never get better no matter what.

That and I don't think for a second that AEW is this great hope for the industry at all.

[Deleted]

Mar 12, 2019 11:07:17 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

That, and if you don't follow along with social media during or right after shows, you don't get as much of the "if you didn't hate this, you're a horrible person who swallows whatever Vince shoves down your throat!" influence, which can be toxic all in itself.

And this.  Nothing like trying to enjoy a show while following a thread full of people telling you how everything is terrible.

[Redbeard's Ghost]

I stay away from social media, watch with no expectations, and basically just cheer like I did as a 10-year old. Once you get past the idea that WWE needs to be something its not, it's still a fun way to kill a Monday night.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Mar 12, 2019 11:32:38 GMT -5 Gus Richlen Was Wrong said:

I'm waiting for things to improve because I'd much rather hope they improve than hope that it gets worse and WWE gets crippled or insist that it'll never get better no matter what.

That and I don't think for a second that AEW is this great hope for the industry at all.

I have high hopes for AEW, but people going over the top in saying it’ll be the savior of wrestling seem like they’re overexaggerating things.

[Venti]

Mar 12, 2019 11:07:17 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

That, and if you don't follow along with social media during or right after shows, you don't get as much of the "if you didn't hate this, you're a horrible person who swallows whatever Vince shoves down your throat!" influence, which can be toxic all in itself.

That's kind of how I feel. I check out forums and reddit after shows and see things that I enjoyed getting torn apart by the majority of people online. Not saying those opinions are invalid, but it kinda used to make me feel bad or stupid for liking things WWE does.

I do tend to skip Raw because on Monday evenings I'm usually too tired to sit through three hours when I can just see the highlights on YouTube. Smackdown and pay per views are usually really enjoyable for me though. But alas, I am going on a tangent.

[Jacy Derangement Syndrome]

Then don't tune back in next week.

For real, I'm not even trying to be a dick, if you hate it this much then stop watching. There's 0 sign that the writing is gonna get any less shit in the near future, and you don't have to follow along until it does.

[Prince Petty]

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

That's pretty much what I do. Skip the weekly shows but read up on what happens, and watch youtube highlights of any bits I found interesting, but only really watch the PPVs. And not even entire PPVs a lot of the time.

It's less frustrating, and also comes with the sometimes fun confusion of 'wait, this guy is supposed to be a thing now?'

[HMARK Center]

Mar 12, 2019 12:01:27 GMT -5 Venti said:

Mar 12, 2019 11:07:17 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

That, and if you don't follow along with social media during or right after shows, you don't get as much of the "if you didn't hate this, you're a horrible person who swallows whatever Vince shoves down your throat!" influence, which can be toxic all in itself.

That's kind of how I feel. I check out forums and reddit after shows and see things that I enjoyed getting torn apart by the majority of people online. Not saying those opinions are invalid, but it kinda used to make me feel bad or stupid for liking things WWE does.

I do tend to skip Raw because on Monday evenings I'm usually too tired to sit through three hours when I can just see the highlights on YouTube. Smackdown and pay per views are usually really enjoyable for me though. But alas, I am going on a tangent.

I realize it's easier to say than to experience, but outside of situations where toxic fandoms are actually hurting people in real life (not saying that never happens in wrestling, sadly) it's just not worth it to get caught up in what other people think.

That said, I do think WWE seems to want to lean into these weird, split, often hostile reactions way too often; you just don't see this kind of enormous divide when people are talking about most other promotions out there.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

Yeah, normally. I only watch PPV’s but lately I’ve been watching Raw and SDL and I really feel it’s dragging down my enjoyment of WWE. I’m usually pretty happy go lucky with them, but I’ve been getting a lot more nit picky and negative lately

[Bo Rida]

Yeah wrestling should essentially be about good overcoming evil. Sure the heels need to be strong for it to mean something but how long has Lesnar and the McMahons been in those roles?

Any victory against them is temporary.

Even if the faces have to lose there's better ways than making them look idiots.

[Pushed to the Moon]

Mar 12, 2019 9:42:32 GMT -5 @oldbaby said:

I think WWE is more enjoyable if you just avoid RAW and SmackDown and just watch the PPV's. They usually highlight the feuds with some kind of a video package which is always better than watching it play out week by week.

I agree. I watch the PPVs but I've started to basically watch Raw on fast forward and then catch up with anything "interesting" when people post it on here.

[Rave]

Preaching to the choir. I've been off WWE programming near-entirely since last year. It's just not worth the aggravation.