When Did You Realize Wrestling Stopped Being Cool?

[sungod2020]

So as we all know, its been roughly 20 years since pro wrestling(mainly WWE, or F at the time) has fallen out of favor with mainstream audiences. What was once a much discussed topic in social settings has now been passed aside, mainly in favor of "real" combat sports like MMA. I'm sure many of us who continued to still watch it had that one(or several) moments in our everyday lives that reminded us that pro wrestling was nothing more than a fad.

I actually have several moments that made me realize I was the only fan left on the block.

It was in the early 2000s. The Monday Night Wars and the Attitude Era came to a close. I was in High School still in touch with the friends I made in Middle School. We use to have everyday discussions about the latest ongoings within WWF and WCW. Even merchandise such as magazines and trading cards were passed along. I remember one kid in my school wearing a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin shirt and another one of my friends brought in the three tapes he recorded for Wrestlemania 2000 all day long.  Even the pretty and popular girls at my school had some interest in it. Sure, I've still came across people who ragged on me for liking pro wrestling because it was fake, but that didn't bother me. To each his own.

Come my freshman year in High School it was a different story. Anytime I tried to bring it up with my peers I got responses such as "who cares" and "you still watch that crap?" Another moment I remember is getting a friend a Wrestlemania XIX DVD(I invited him over for the previous year, but couldn't make it for that one for reasons I forgot) for his birthday, and he ended up trading it in at the store I got for something else. Needless to say, I was hurt not only because I was trying to make it up to him for missing it, but also because we use to follow it together and talk about it passionately. 

While I knew the Attitude Era was a trend while it was happening, moments like those made me realize these so-called fans were just hoping on the bandwagon only to ditch it and go onto the next cool thing while I was always loyal to it up until the late 2000s(after that I watched on and off).

So did anybody here get signs in their real life that showed wrestling wasn't "in" anymore?

[Push R Truth]

Sometime in 2000-2001 it went from "you could watch it in a bar and people would get into it" to "you could turn it on in a bar and people would yell to change to channel".


That flip was definitely before 9/11 happened. But I can't put my finger on when it officially flipped.

[Deleted]

When my brother laughed out loud (I was like 12...) at me when I told him about Lita's pregnancy and how it all happened.

[warden]

Well started early when my dad told me as a young toddler this is fake. I said no it isn't. He responded with oh yea then how come when they punch each other no one gets any bruises? Then he laughed and walked out. But when it really stopped being cool was when they turned austin heel and had him doing comedy bits and crying. That's when every casual person said yea it's time to move on from this.

[Deleted]

In my experience it was never cool. Like, even being in grade school, during the Attitude Era, in West Virginia, I knew very few people who actually liked it and tons who were dismissive of the fact I did.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

Wrestling isn’t cool?!



Yeah, in all seriousness I never believed it was. I hid it from everyone when I first started watching before just embracing it for what it is.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Even as a kid in middle school during the attitude era, it had varying degrees of popularity, but for the majority, there was still a stigma. It was still “wrassling”. Just acknowledged cause it was big in the zeitgeist. Personally, for me? When Cena got drafted to RAW and that whole run started.

[Wieners=$$$]

If thinking wrestling is cool is lame, then just call me a big uncool.

[Susan "Poison" Candy]

I wish I could say I was a fan during the Federation, Attitude, Ruthless Aggression era to really appreciate what long time fans go through. I strangely have been around WWE, WCW, and ECW more than I thought. I knew of wrestling thanks to my grandpa, god rest his soul but I never followed it. I pretty much worked my teenage years and 20s at clubs and oddly enough I worked when alot of the wrestlers would come to the club after the shows in Michigan so I probably performed for alot of them and I didn't even know it. I became a fan after making friends with a few guys when I was married in 2006 and they introduced me more formally to it. I watched it from time to time from 2006-2016 as I was married to a doctor and he had no interest for it plus I had a daughter who I gave all my attention to so I drifted away from it until 2017 when my friend from 2006 got me back into the game. Now I am a fan of both WWE and AEW but to me wrestling has always been cool just never was a die hard fan til now so I can't really say it's not cool to me.

[Starshine]

Apr 30, 2020 19:15:59 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

Sometime in 2000-2001 it went from "you could watch it in a bar and people would get into it" to "you could turn it on in a bar and people would yell to change to channel".


That flip was definitely before 9/11 happened. But I can't put my finger on when it officially flipped.

Yeah, it felt like it was a staggered fall out of cultural grace. It didn't happen immediately so much as the interest just slowly waned away around those years.

[GuyOfOwnage]

The 80s wrestling boom had largely cooled off by the time I started watching in late 1990, so I kinda knew what it was like from the get go. None of my childhood friends shared my interest and I had no one to talk to about it, which sucked. The Attitude era was awesome in part due to the fact that my classmates were now getting into it and I could actually talk about it with people. Of course, by about post-WM17 and the deaths of WCW and ECW, it slowly reverted to being a niche again and most of my classmates admitted to me they didn't watch it anymore because "it sucks now", though thankfully by that point, the internet was a thing, so I could still talk about it on forums and such.

[ihateeverythingnu]

I have no memory of not watching. I've been watching since a baby as my parents were fans. I am 35 so I've gone from late 80's to current day.

The only time I knew more than 2 other people (other than parents) who watched was Attitude Era. My high school time was 1996 to 2001 so it covered the entire period and it was still needle in a haystack finding someone who watched.

The best you could (and it still applies today) hope for is people not watching but acknowledging what the talent does. I do feel MMA and Brock / Ronda's crossovers and talk of how wrestling f***s with your body way more have made people acknowledge (even if begrudgingly) what these men and women do.

I don't know if it's ever been "cool" though. Cool"er" maybe but it's always been looked down on. It was almost precursor reality TV in its perception.

Sold as real but scripted and fake and seen as aimed as lowest level of society.

[Deleted]

Immediately after WCW closed it was over as far as I could tell.

[nate5054]

It was high school for me as well. That said, 91-95 was also a pretty low point for the company. I'd still watch on occasion, but damn there was lame stuff then.

[Aceorton]

The first time: Owen Hart in High Energy, 1992, flapping his arms like a doofus (and I kept watching). I felt like it became cool again in the buildup to WrestleMania 13.

The second time: The "new" nWo after WMX8

[nisidhe]

Having watched it from about the late 1970s through to today, I can honestly say that it started not be as cool probably after 1990. WWE was still selling out the local arenas at $13 ringside/$11 lower bowl/$9 upper bowl, but Hogan wasn't quite as hot as he had been and Warrior was disappointing as champion. It was still possible through much of the 1990s to be a wrestling fan and not be thought of as weird, but it started to flag once WWE was alone in North America and before TNA and ROH and the smaller indies started coming up.

Today, the fandom is on the level of other subcultures such as comic books or gaming or the like. It does suffer more than its fair share of gatekeeping on one side and piss-taking on the other, but I think it can come back _if_ one or more promotions get the balance right between in-ring technique and storytelling/psychology. One element sorely, _sorely_ missing is the absolutely earnest, technically-sound, by the rules, unironic babyface. Nobody knows how to do that character anymore and they are needed more than ever.

[A Platypus Rave]

It was pretty cool in like high school for me... that was like the height of the Monday Night Wars ... honestly as soon as Austin turned I knew less people cared about it... and like no one I knew in college admitted to liking it.

[wildojinx]

First became a fan in early 1990. It was somewhat popular with my classmates then, and that continued into the first year of junior high (1991-92), but by 7th grade you saw less and less fans. By high school, while there were always fans (including my best friends), it wasnt exactly something that people talked about, at least until my senior year where it became big again thanks to Tyson and Austin. In college, it was pretty popular for the first two years I went, but by my last year (i went to a 3 year college), it was losing popularity rapidly, to the point that nobody cared about WCW dying.

[Cyno]

I never thought it was un-cool, tbh. It was always pretty popular in my friend circles.

[Deleted]

Like first grade when all the kids thought Ninja Turtles was cooler.