Did anyone lose their passion for wrestling?

[Deleted]

Wrestling has always been a big part of my life. Ever since I was around 2 year old, some of my first memories were watching the likes of Bret Hart, Yokozuna, Doink The Clown and Papa Shango.

My sister was a massive fan at the time and she give over her Hasbro collection to me when I was about 3 or 4. One of my first words as a kid was actually "BANZAI!"

As I was growing up all the way through the New Generation Era, to the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression era, wrestling was pretty much my entire life. It was ALL I thought about. I used to look forward to Mondays and Fridays just to see what would happen next.

When I was around 17, I started training for a few months. Some of the people I was training with at the time have ended up doing really well for themselves in the wrestling business... Seshion Moth Martina probably being the biggest success story of them all.

But unfortunately at the time it was costing me a lot of money and I had to give it up. Right now I am in the progress of studying for a Masters Degree in Marketing and I have also set up my own Marketing Agency on the side while I am doing this.

From around the age of 2 to around age 21, I was properly obsessed with wrestling. I'd go and meet all the wrestlers when they came into town and I have good experiences with a lot of them.

But as I started getting older, I find myself being more of a casual fan. I don't care as much when something happens such as a title change. I used to spend all day on forums arguing with people over wrestling and now it's just like "None of this REALLY matters or affects my life in any way shape or form. It's just a show at the end of the day."
I haven't been to a wrestling show since 2011. Although I would love to go to Wrestlemania with my brothers.
Although I can still really enjoy wrestling, If I'm being completely honest, I am mainly watching out of habit. I sit back and just let it play out infront of me and whatever happens, happens. I still shake my head at some decisions (Goldberg beating The Fiend) but then I just think to myself "Why am I even surprised?" and remember that it's not worth the energy of complaining about it or getting angry about it.

Does anybody else feel the same way? Have you gone from obsessed with wrestling to... Not really caring that much and simply watching as a casual fan?

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Yup, multiple times. I'll get way in, find a particular corner to enthuse about, eventually get more casual, drop out for a year or three. My current focus, which is helped by AEW, would likely have burnt out already if my fiancee hadn't gotten into the routine of watching with me (becoming, in fact, our main TV show to watch together) and my coincidental meeting with a megafan who wants to know more about some of my favorite eras (like 00's ROH and 90's AJPW).

[Deleted]

I should also mention that I barely watch the shows anymore.

I just watch the Top 10 moments on YouTube and then I watch the PPVs.

[rnrk supports BLM]

Beth Phoenix

[Legion]

I did, took a break for a good 3 years, then recently, during the lockdown and the Network having the free tier, I've found myself getting back in to it.

Pretty much since WM I have found myself enjoying NXT and SD, and even Raw has ticked up.

However, the exceptional negativity from some posters in seemingly every single thread is a real turn off, and while I have been a board member for decades, I really find myself turned off this place more than the product recently.

[Deleted]

That's how I am right now. I read reports of the results. I watch the monthly PPVs and that's enough WWE for me.

[XIII]

Yeah, I hang out here and that’s pretty much it these days. Doesn’t seem like I’m missing much of anything. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

No; I gained a passion for never giving the WWE any of my money ever again.

[GuyOfOwnage]

I've been a fan since I was 2 years old in 1990. My first and definitely longest-lasting burnout was probably early in 05, largely spearheaded by the Reign of Terror and JBL's reign over on Smackdown. Couple that with the fact that I had my first serious girlfriend, and at the time, what I thought would be this nerd's one and only ever chance to have a woman interested in his downstairs business, and I wouldn't again watch full-time until the build to Mania 23. I've tuned out off and on - the guest host era had me avoiding Raw like the plague, and I had some personal issues to address from the summer of 2012 to the summer of 2013. But when you do come back to it, you feel refreshed and far less cynical than you did when you left.

Shit, in some ways I feel burn out right now. There is just so much pro wrestling out there to consume at the moment that it's exhausting just trying to keep up with it. And I'm not complaining, but it's the reason that some weeks, I just read results and check out YouTube highlights.

[Wieners=$$$]

Nope. I have, however, lost my passion in watching Vince McMahon try his damndest in killing it.

[ayumidah]

sorta. I still have the shows on but unless it's Seth or something, I'm not always paying full attention. Other shows and anime have slowly gained ground on wrestling lately.

[Chiral]

It happens. 2012 WWE burned me out so bad and I didn't feel the spark again til like the WM30 build. When it happens it's best to just distance yourself and not like stick with something that's bumming you out from my experience.

[warden]

I thought this was going to be about Braden Walker boy is my face red

As for the question. No. My interest never wanes. Yes there are a lot of dumb things that happen in the industry and whatnot but whatever I have always treated it as a show and nothing all that serious. Of course these days I haven't been watching but that's due to some inaccessibility with my connection and cause wrestling without the crowds is like bad theater lol. I catch a few matches here and there on the weekends and usually catch most of the ppvs

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Not me, personally. There’s so much varied types of wrestling out there, and it’s a well ranged form of art. It’s hard for me to get bored with it for too long.

[Celgress]

I lost my passion for WWE a long time ago (although I sometimes watched NXT until AEW arrived). However, I still follow Japan, Mexico, AEW (recently), and the Indies. I simply can't stomach Vince's product anymore (and haven't been able to for about five years).

[1 Free Moon-Down with Burger]

Kinda yeah.

The guys that I enjoy are gone or on the way out and the next generation is stuff I just don’t see the appeal of. AEW and NXT are this play wrestler comedy stuff that I’m not into. So I just don’t care anymore.

[Jaws the Shark]

I've had a couple of periods of burnout, although I carried on checking the news and sometimes the results.

The first was in 2001/2 that lasted until probably about 2004 or 2005, when WCW and ECW were killed off and wrestling just stopped being exciting and I started finding other things to use my time and money on. TNA, ROH and NOAH really brought me back in the mid-2000s, but a combination of WWE purging ROH, NOAH's big names getting injured or dying, and Russo torpedoing TNA pushed me away again for a few years. I came back around the mid-2010s thanks to Britwres and NJPW, but my interest began to wane once WWE really got their claws into Progress (there's a theme here...), and coronavirus buggering up a lot of wrestling hasn't helped at all.

As much as I am/was excited about indy wrestling and puro, I don't think I will ever be as excited about wrestling as I was in 1999 and 2000. Which makes me a bit sad.

[Gus Richlen Was Wrong]

On occasion but I've found that WWE is still pretty much what I enjoy even if it's not as much as it used to be. NXT is knocking it out of the park so there's zero chance I miss it if I don't have to. And if I ever stop procrastinating, I may finally put my Network sub to good use and do that Ruthless Aggression Era SD review blog.

[thehottag]

Still have a huge passion for wrestling, just not for watching WWE. Haven't watched a full Raw or Smackdown for 16 years now.

[The Gallus Mark]

A couple of times, but I would (and currently) still check the results

I am living at home and being responsible, my mom and I rarely leave the house, so we’ve gotten into a groove of watching shows together. She’s never been a wrestling fan due to a traumatic experience in her youth, so we don’t watch it. I don’t miss it, even though I do watch a few minutes here and there on my iPad (like this week’s NXT for example)

I am excited to watch when things (hopefully) get back to normal, but I don’t miss it right now.