How has 2015 been for you as a fan?

[Raskovnik]

I've been looking back on this year and it's still surreal to me to think about the things I've been fortunate enough to see. I managed to catch Wrestle Kingdom 9 and Wrestlemania 31 in person, which is just insane how it worked out. Prior to this year, my first wrestling show that I caught in person was a house show last August, a couple nights after Summerslam, which was fun in its own right but obviously doesn't compare. I got to see pretty much ALL of my favorite wrestlers ever do their thing in person. Instant classics in Nakamura vs Ibushi and Tanahashi vs Okada, seeing a personal hero in Sakuraba wrestle a great shoot style dream match against someone who's pretty clearly my all-time favorite Minoru Suzuki, AND I got to shout along the song with the fans in the Tokyo Dome. I also got to see AJ Styles, Tetsuya Naito who I've always been a fan of, a SUPER Styles Clash that made the whole crowd lose their minds, my dudes Shibata and Goto finally win the belts, Kenny Omega, Yuji Nagata, Tenzan who is someone who will always be one of my favorites no matter how old and immobile he gets, and so on. Also, as more of a personal thing, back in the day the tag team and rivalry between KENTA and Marufuji is what got me into puro, and even if they were in throwaway matches I feel so lucky that I wound up being able to see both perform in person. I never imagined I'd be able to do that. Which brings me to the WWE side of things. Triple H, The Undertaker, Sting, Brock Lesnar, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Daniel Bryan, all of these people I never thought I'd get to see, especially with reduced schedules, and retirement and what not, I got to see them too. I don't care if it was in the form of cameos or nonsensical run-ins, it was still so awesome and a feather in my cap. I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to cross a lot of stuff off my list, and it's got me wondering if any of you guys had the good fortune to do the same this year, whether it be seeing someone live you've always wanted to see, meeting someone you always wanted to meet, etc. So how about it?

[Emmet Russell]

Well, I've lost interest in almost every product other than ROH, so I'd give it a solid D+

[Old Baby]

F-

But, I don't care.

[Alexander The So-so]

Extremely bare-bones. My life has been too hectic personally and professionally; 2015's been an up-and-down roller coaster of a year in general (terrible beginning and spring, excruciating summer, and now a happy and content autumn and December). Watching wrestling has been way off my radar.

Right now that I'm settled into a more stable lifestyle, there still isn't much for me to do. WWE's current product doesn't interest me at all, and because I'm cheap, I don't have cable, so I couldn't watch it even if I wanted to. I've been thinking of finally coming around on getting the WWE Network, but I'm hesitant to out of principle due to my growing dislike towards them as a company. And I'm just on the TNA death-watch at this point.

Basically, I just keep up on the news, try to catch Ring Of Honor when they play their shows online, and if I see an interesting shoot interview, I watch it.

[Deleted]

S rank when I have LU

F- without LU

Sitting right at about a C with LU returning soon but still having to endure the wait

[El Hijo del Havoc]

WWE-wise: D+
Everything else: A

I've gone to more wrestling shows this year than any other year combined. I've been very fortunate to attend the first Stardom USA show, NXT San Jose, 5 PWG shows (Including Nights 2/3 of BOLA) and 3 Lucha Underground tapings (Potentially 5 if I'm confirmed for the December shows). I also discovered the secret world that is UK indie wrestling and started to watch ROH more. I didn't delve into NJPW like I promised myself I would, but 2015 was when I broadened my wrestling horizons

I'm also going to my first ROH show in February for the anniversary, so 2016 is already starting off at a B+

[Raskovnik]

Dec 1, 2015 23:15:34 GMT -5 El Hijo del Havoc said:

WWE-wise: D+
Everything else: A

I've gone to more wrestling shows this year than any other year combined. I've been very fortunate to attend the first Stardom USA show, NXT San Jose, 5 PWG shows (Including Nights 2/3 of BOLA) and 3 Lucha Underground tapings (Potentially 5 if I'm confirmed for the December shows). I also discovered the secret world that is UK indie wrestling and started to watch ROH more. I didn't delve into NJPW like I promised myself I would, but 2015 was when I broadened my wrestling horizons

I'm also going to my first ROH show in February for the anniversary, so 2016 is already starting off at a B+

Yeah, this is more of what I intended the thread to be about. That's awesome, man! I hope you get into those LU shows. I'd love to catch one myself as well as attend a PWG show but it's just a bit too far from me here in Sacramento. If you want to get into NJPW do try and catch any episode of their show on AXS, and the people in the NJPW thread are all knowledgeable and pretty friendly, I think, if you want to pop in there and get the lowdown on things. Now would actually be the perfect time as their big show is going to be on the 4th of January and it kind of sets the tone for the whole year. They're also going to have English commentary for it if that's ever been a barrier to entry for you.

EDIT:



One cool moment I forgot to mention was when they trotted out all of the HoF inductees, no one really gave a shit about Fujinami other than me, so we had this kind of thing where he just focused on me in the crowd because I was fairly close to the stage and stoked to see him. I managed to get a picture of him just staring at me. He waved back at me when I wanted to make sure he was actually looking at me, haha. I felt bad because I didn't want him to get Larry Zbyszko'd. No one cared about that guy.

[siredger]

I haven't seen as many live indy shows as I wanted but I still was able to keep track of everything going on for the most part. I was bummed that I couldn't see Bobby Roode or Johnny Gargano in action to local indies (well, my dad will be 60 only once) but other than that, I've started to watch more New Japan stuff & AAA matches as well. I plan until the end of 2015 and later in 2016 to try discover more promotions and watch more indy promotions.

[ayumidah]

Extremely High highs-- Lucha Underground, Dalton Castle, Rockstar Spud.

And terribly low lows-- Seth's injury, the state of WWE right now

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

*squeezes Roderick Strong plushee*

[Dragonfly]

I'd give it a B+ myself. On one hand, Raw (with a few exceptions) has been horrible, TNA is extra horrible and my two favorite indies (IWC and PWX) had terrible years. The former has a new owner that's still trying to figure things out. The quality is improving, but he/they still have a long way to go. The latter is literally hard to watch - their production value is basically nonexistent.

On the other hand, both NXT and ROH have been excellent, both on television and in person. (Delirious and Jay Lethal are my booker and wrestler of the year, respectively.) I also got exposed to the west coast scene, thanks primarily to my after Raw palette cleanser, Portland's WCWC. It's silly, completely old school and features more Gangrel that a 1999 episode of Heat ("Fangin' and bangin'!"), but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

[Starshine]

Full of crazy highs, and a loss of interest following soon after.

I got to see a Wrestlemania live which is a memory I will cherish. Along with that also got to see NXT, Evolve, and Kaiju Big Battel in person.

But following that high, there just hasn't been a whole lot this year that's interested me. I don't understand WWE anymore. It's not even that they just don't book to my liking, I just don't understand how they're running the company anymore. I've basically lost track of ROH, PWG and NXT have felt relatively pedestrian from what I'm used to, and I even fell behind on Dragon Gate until recently.

So one giant spike, surrounded by a steady lull.

[Paco]

You have to be quick to get those PWG or Lucha Underground tickets here in Los Angeles so sadly no live wrestling for me in 2015.
Hopefully, NXT comes to town cause I'm a big fan of them too.

In my 22 years as a fan, I've experienced a lot and seen many favorites live so honestly there aren't that many things left to cross off the wrestling bucket list.
But I'm happy you had an awesome year OP

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

Over all I say I grade it a C. ROH, LU, NXT, and a few indies have had amazing matches and shows. WWE however for the most part been horrible more so recently. You can tell that the injuries have caught up and the WWE due to there blind narrow minded way of booking they had no real favorite that the paying costumers care about in the spot they want. Which is why they are forced to use the Undertaker and Kane so much. The fact that Tommy Dreamer of all people is called on to fill the Raw card. It's horrible and creating new stars naturally like the way Austin and Rock got over doesn't matter. We are forced feed some one who been rejected. Now the ratings are showing it.

You have TNA that been unbearable to watch much like the last couple of years and that covers most of any wrestling on TV. Then you have GFW which after wrestling Kingdom broadcast it was expected to be this big thing. So far it been a disappointment in the fact I felt like I was given a bunch of empty promises by GFW as how they hyped it and what the end result was. 2016 should be an interesting year on how wrestling moves on and if the WWE for example changes it's ways after the failing ratings and it way more then just Monday Night Football.

[StuntGranny®]

I've loved most ROH, LU, PWG, and NJPW shows I've seen this year.

WWE (outside of NXT) has been atrocious. Never have I cared less about that company.

[魔界5号]

I haven't been to anything this year, yet. I'm going to TakeOver in London in a couple of weeks though which should be crazy.

[Nickybojelais]

I've attended 4 shows this year.

An entertaining TNA show (yeah you read that correctly!) which saw Kurt Angle win the World title. A dull as hell WWE house show which saw Reigns and Big Show sleepwalk their way through a 10 minute borefest. A decent WWE house show which featured two good matches between Rusev/Cena and Orton/Rollins. And a phenomenal show at the York Hall run by Revolution Pro wrestling which saw AJ Styles win their heavyweight title.

In terms of watching in 2015, I ditched the network and haven't watched any WWE content since Wrestlemania, I've also stopped watching TNA. I think 2016 will see me attending more UK based independent shows and continue to shun the mainstream US shows.

So in summary, 2015 has been a revealing eye opener. It has made me realise I can live without mainstream wrestling companies whilst getting my wrestling fix from UK promotions.

[edtheripper]

I've been to 57 indy shows to this point so far this year. It has been a great year. I've gotten to see so much good stuff and gotten to meet even more amazing people.

[Johnny Flamingo]

WWE - B, Overall A+

Had one of my favorite moments happen this year. After ECW ended I stopped watching wrestling for a bit (still followed, just didn't watch it nearly as much). The group of wrestlers that got me passionate into wrestling again were Sick Nick Mondo, Lacey, Rain, Jetta and Jimmy Jacobs who are all amazingly connected to each other through one way or another. Watching them brought back that spark that seemed to die out once the "wars" ended. That "era" to me had a fitting conclusion this year with Jimmy Jacobs retirement match at Supercard of Honor IX.

Jimmy Jacobs retirement match was solid as to be expected any time he and BJ Whitmer wrestle. Having Lacey return for them to exit the ring (through the crowd) to the Ballad of Lacey was simply an awesome way to see him go out. Really cool for me to see as I become totally invested in the Jimmy-Lacey storyline during his run and Lacey is my favorite female wrestler of all-time.

Seeing them being able to exit in that manner was a cool way to not only close the chapter on their careers but also a symbolic way to close the chapter on that era of wrestling as all of my favorites from then have now moved on (Lacey, Rain, Jetta, Jacobs, Nick Mondo). Really cool to actually have all of them move on and be happy in life as opposed to seeing them wrestling way past their prime, looking for lost glory and trying to shill for bucks. Great way to slam that chapter shut and glad that no one from that group ended their careers in tragedy or being a shell of their former selves.


Outside of that it hasn't been a bad year. I've enjoyed WWE. Really enjoyed the chaos leading to Mania and a very good Wrestlemania. Loved the main event. Have enjoyed watching some excellent matches throughout the year involving Cena, Owens, Reigns, Ambrose, Rollins and New Day. NXT has been outstanding and the Brooklyn show was the show of the year for me and one of the best wrestling shows I have ever seen in a long time.

Outside of WWE I have a ton to be quite happy about. Remix Pro is putting on great show after great show and the crowds have been outstanding. Facade has been putting on great matches as well. New Japan has been exceptionally good and Wrestle Kingdom was phenomenal. AJ Styles is simply the star I think everyone thought he would be and has stepped up into that next echelon. Ring of Honor has had some consistently solid shows and I am very optimistic about their future.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Well, I love Lucha Underground and found myself looking forward to every new episode. I also began watching New Japan, and the first match I saw was Tanahashi-Okada, which had so much of that Flair-Steamboat feel (coming from someone who watched the '89 trilogy as a 7 year old) that I felt like a kid again.

I also began watching ROH and OVW, and while I can't say I'm in love with either, I've enjoyed them enough to continue watching.

I have given up on WWE and TNA. Maybe one or even both will bring me around again, but I honestly don't expect it to happen.