What Turned YOU off From the WWE

[romanstylesiii]

Once upon a time, people on here threatened to stop watching. and well, they finally did. Viewership is down 47% from when the authority angle started.

For me, it was the constant pandering to the previous era. Never before has the WWE put over a previous era over their current talent. They seem to have fetish to do it regularly in this era.

[Bad Moon]

A lot of little things frustrated me when watching it so I always took breaks from watching for months at a time but I think the last straw for me was when they started doing the Saudi blood money shows.

[James Fabiano]

The Reign of Terror.

[Aceorton]

It's been awhile, but the original brand split in 2002 and the watered-down rosters and bad angles resulting from it are what did it.

That said, there have been times when I could have worked my way back in and started watching again in recent years, but I'm turned off by:

- The scripted promos
- The forced nicknames and terminology (WWE Universe! Championship opportunities!)
- Forcing "stars" and storylines that the fans clearly don't want, while at the same time deliberately shutting down things that are getting over organically
- This new trend of "cinematic" stuff (sorry, it's just not wrestling)

[Deleted]

The rematches and how clear they make it that they put 0 effort into 90% of what they book.

There’s obviously way more but those are the main two.

[Fade]

2007- the first year I kind of tuned out since 1998, though I have trouble pinpointing what led to it.

2014 - Punk leaving and then dropping the ball with him made me kind of phase out since things from 2008 (Orton, Nexus, Punk, Rock) had kind of kept me interested.

The brand split w/ Shane kind of sucked me back in, but the last few years have been the most grueling to the point where almost all entertainment came from a schadenfreude point of view. And even that’s dissipated. It’s the abysmal lack of quality along with the apparent contempt they (Vince) have for fans along with the explosion of the Indy scene, NJPW, and AEW.

[realist]

Hulk Hogan's return from his racism scandal. To be fair, I was already hanging on by a thread, just keeping the network to watch old shows. When Hulk was given a hero's welcome, I was done. I cancelled my network subscription and I have not looked back since. The WWE will likely never get one red cent from me ever again, as I have honestly moved on. It's weird to say, because wrestling was such a big part of my life for 30 years. I bought all the t-shirts and videogames and went to all of the shows in my area. Now, I only keep up with it by listening to podcasts when I work out and by visiting this board. I still really enjoy this board and many of the hilarious posters and photoshop threads.

[cassonova]

I had been frustrated for awhile with the poor writing and some of the force feeding certain wrestlers. But the final straw was Brock winning Money in the Bank. I honestly wouldn't have had too much issue with it, except he didn't take part in the match...just showed up. I took that as an F-U as a fan because all these guys worked their butts off, only for the almost openly acknowledged "chosen one" to saunter in and yoink.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

I was already upset about the mass firing in the middle of a pandemic, but after WrestleMania, all the Roman stuff, I just cut it off. I don't know when I'll be back.

No one should be wrestling right now, some companies need to do something survive. WWE doesn't.

[thechase]

2013 was a particularly brutal year outside of anything Bryan (and by extent the fans supporting him) were doing. My then-existing mental health took priority and I stopped staying up ungodly hours to watch RAW. Oh, and what should have been Ziggler's time getting cut short (and not for the first time) probably had something to do with it too. There was a time where we all believed.

There are precious few things that you have a lifetime appetite for. Wrestling is one of them for me, but WWE isn't.

[Deleted]

People organically getting over getting cut off at the knees

"Grab that brass ring, but go f*** yourself if we didn't intend for it to happen"

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Nothing really

When I get bored I stop watching. In general I don't watch every show anyway, just keep up with results.

[Dave the Dave]

I went down to PPVs only during Roman’s big push. It seems downright silly now to hate WWE for booking.

I stopped all together after WM 35. It was like 9 hours and I didn’t like most of it. The shows have continued to be bad. Then the Saudi shows/ other political BS..I cancelled the network. No more money to this horrible company.

[Celgress]

Saudi Arabia was the final straw, but I was hanging on by a thread after Punk getting his legs cut off and Hogan's return. I can't support a company any longer who only cares about money, not about its talent or the world in general (Saudi Arabian cash and weapons play a key role in fueling every conflict in the region).

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Hogan coming back made me resolve to not watch or give them money regularly til Vince leaves. I mean it might not be better with HHH and Steph but it has a chance to be where I would look into it.

[Push R Truth]

I was an "every TV show, every PPV" guy from the mid 90's until HHH Reign of Terror. Then I was "mostly RAW, rarely Smackdown and just a couple PPV's". Cenamania made me "mostly RAW, no Smackdown and only the Big 4 PPVs".

I hovered at that level for a LONG time. Then the 6 year long Baron Corbin Push made me "Raw maybe twice a month, Smackdown even less, and even though I have the WWE network I sometimes forget there's a PPV on"

Although to be honest COVID has made me watch more because, well, I'm a sports dude and no NBA/MLB makes Val go something something. But I'm not pretending like the current WWE is so good is the reason I'm watching. It's because I got jack shit else to do

ALL THAT SAID, the non wrestling product is better than ever. Total Divas, R Truth Game Show, Table for 3, WWE24, all the documentaries... dat's where the good shit is now.

[Deleted]

Like others, it was the brand split and Reign of Terror for me. I’ve mentioned before I thought WWF’s “jump the shark” moment was the Angle milk truck which is when I first said to myself “man this isn’t as fun as it used to be”. Then brand split and Katie Vick just put it over the top. The botched Invasion angle was money thrown into the toilet, and they could never recover from that in my eyes.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

The Denver debacle....what could have been a feel-good program after getting dumped on and discarded over the Denver Nuggets basketball game, immediately went to shit because of Vince’s meltdown over “Enoooooooooooos!”

His blatant pettiness and disregard for goodwill towards himself during that show turned me off from Raw and Smackdown for a long time

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

A bunch of individuals. Roman Reigns, Goldberg, Otis, New Day, Charlotte. When they’re on, I change the channel.

[Ryushinku]

Jul 23, 2020 11:59:14 GMT -5 James Fabiano said:

The Reign of Terror.

Full time watching, same for me.

I still read the tv reports, watch the big PPVs and special matches and so on. But I tuned out from watching everything during 2003, and even by the eventual end of the Reign in 2004 I didn't come back properly.

1997-2003 were my watching, or trying to watch, everything era.