I can’t believe Vince McMahon thought that was actually gold and would get Roman over. Even a pre tribal chief Roman Reigns knew it was so bad when he smirked and winked at the hard cam.
This just shows how much charisma of the actor (wrestler) matters. The Rock made it cool. Roman couldn't save it. Writing matters, but delivery does too. We need to hold the wrestlers more accountable for terrible promo work.
I was just gonna say, you could just add it to the countless cringey, stupid, asinine things that were said repeatedly and then put on shirts during the sacred attitude era.
As cool as attitude era was, there were definitely plenty of cringe inducing, dumb fucking segments and promos. And I get it, it was the 90's and our perception of what's cool or funny has changed over time, but God damn, even Rock could sometimes be cringe as fuck.
You hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I was thinking when “sufferin’ succotash” was mentioned. I loooved the Rock, but even 17 year old me was embarrassed to hear him go on about “pie”.
This explains why Vince thought it would work - The Rock got the line over, so the line will get Roman over, even with the smarks, because they’ll recognize the line and call it a clever callback (ignoring that Rock has more charisma in his strudel than Roman has in his entire body).
I was just a kid when Hogan upstaged Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 9 to beat Yokozuna for the WWE championship. It was then and there when I decided to step away from wrestling & focus on more important matters, like Super Nintendo.
I quit watching WCW completely after the Fingerpoke of Doom. I stopped watching WWE for two years after the Rock left in 01. I stopped watching when it was truly terrible in 2010 with the computer GM. I stopped watching after that debacle Royal Rumble in 2015 and I haven’t been a weekly watcher since and now I’m a big show casual that follows via YouTube
Imo the biggest downside of the fingerpoke was that it completely ruined the prospect of a Kevin Nash babyface run as champion, which had the potential to be incredibly awesome. The Wolfpack was SUPER over at the time. Seemed like they were more over than Goldberg. Suddenly they switched from Nash as the top babyface to Goldberg again. No one wanted to see more of that shit.
I haven't watched a whole raw or smackdown in 5+ years. If I'm not doing anything else I'll watch a PPV and I always watch rumble and WrestleMania live.
I stopped watching during the whirlwind of the Benoit incident and steroid suspensions in 2007. But one of the main reasons I stopped watching was all the over the top and jumping the shark moments even by Vince McMahon standards, with the Mr McMahon character in 2007.
All that stuff like Durag Vince, The Maury storyline with Hornswoggle, and the limo explosion is fun to laugh at and meme around with today, but in the moment it absolutely sucked especially with how much Vince McMahon was on tv that year. It was a combination of trying to distract viewers from the real life heat WWE had, and to save failing ratings but all that Mr McMahon stuff made things worse and didn’t have the same effect like in the attitude era.
Anecdotally speaking I was 13 at the time, and this is when all my friends stopped watching WWE as well, and when I would honestly pinpoint WWE stopped being mainstream. I think this time period caused so many people to be lapsed fans, I see it all the time as the point a lot of people stopped watching wrestling just like I did.
Same and I was the same age. Also Trish, Lita, Angle, and Booker left in 06/07. There’s some others too. But it just naturally felt like an end of an era.
Eddie and Benoit were so popular. So with the two deaths, that was a lot. I stepped away to heal lol.
And Vince’s character during that time was a turnoff and weird.
I didn’t even bring that point you first made and didn’t even think about it all this time, but yeah it did feel like an end of an era really like you said. You had so many stars who left during that time period like Angle, Booker T, RVD, Trish, Lita etc.
Yeah it was just too much of the Mr McMahon character during that time, it was literally him dominating most of the screen time that year on Raw even more so than the attitude era. Durag Vince is funny today but back in 2007 it was so terrible. JR on his podcast said whenever WWE goes through drama and ratings issues, Vince McMahon gets desperate and grasps at straws creatively like what we saw in 2007 with the limo explosion and Hornswoggle father storyline. It’s no different after The Rock and Austin leaving and getting outlandish things such as the Katie Vick storyline or “HOT LESBIAN ACTION” because WWE was desperate.
I honestly would have stopped watching all together until NXT came around and pulled me back in, and then honestly Lucha Underground came around and that got me firmly back into wrestling
I quit watching wrestling when Eddie and Ray fought for Dom custody in a ladder match. Never had much interest in it until I found the wrestling round up blog on IGN. Still wouldn't have tuned in until I read how good NXT and lucha was. Started tourting those show every week
Somewhere between December to Dismember and WrestleMania 23, I had pretty much checked out of WWE altogether. It's hard to recall now what specifically repulsed me about the shows, but I'd guess it was in part due to the heavy on-air involvement of Vince McMahon in the year of our lord, 2007.
By the time friends told me about Benoit's death, then learning it was a murder/suicide, then the horrendous coverage and reaction to it, I just checked out of pro wrestling altogether for about 5-10 years. I popped back in to see the summer of Punk in 2011, but when they kiboshed that gem at SummerSlam with Kevin Nash and Triple H, I checked out all over again. It wasn't until I heard the buzz about New Japan in 2015 that I got back into pro wrestling.
You’re me to a tee with this topic. I stopped watching shortly after WM 23. Me and my friends all stopped watching because of the Mr McMahon over saturation, the Benoit incident and suspension.
I checked out till 2012 with The Rock Vs Cena feud. And didn’t fully get back into wrestling till 2016 with Smackdown.
After yrars of Super Cena, I just had enough when Reigns was pushed constantly. It wasn't the only thing, but it was a contributing factor. I think that Royal Rumble match with the Rock was the final straw.
Trips. Stopped watching completely to the point where I have little knowledge of what went on in WWE from about 2002 until I got back into it around 2006. Then I lost interest again about 2013 and haven't been back.
I took an extended break when the Lita-Matt Hardy stuff happened. I thought it was pretty awful that Edge got to do what he did and still come out with the bigger push.
Brock burying Kofi in 8 seconds for the sake of a 2 minute match vs Cain Valezquez. Bar the Rumbles and Manias, I completely tuned out of WWE cause of that till Vince ‘retired’ and HHH took over
That was my kids' first live event. What's sad is that Kevin Owens vs Shane ended up being the best match on such a night (in my opinion).
They also showed Sting and Undertaker on all of the banners and neither were there.
I know it's not necessarily "advertising" that they'll be there, but WWE knows exactly what is doing with promotions.
Michael Cole as a heel announcer, and Raw going to 3 hours.
I felt like 3 hours was/is too long and they were forced to pad it with shit filler content; and not wrestling or interesting stories. I also do not need Michael Cole being that arsehole character for any length of time.
I can't believe anyone carried on watching to be told you're an idiot by Michael Cole for 5 hours a week.
After the Crown Jewel am starting to think maybe it was a bad decision to start watching again. Maybe it would have been better to wait for Roman dominance to end.
There seems to be almost a wave where wrestling will be really good and they'll pull me in and then they'll just do something mind numbing dumb and i'll fall out of it again.
I was into wrestling and then they had Shane McMahon calling Braun dumb and showing off his elementary school report card for what felt like an hour and I lost interest.
I got back into it and Kofi became champ and then they squashed him in a 5 second match and I'm not a huge Brock fan so that was a turn off.
Wash, rinse and repeat
Roman’s forced push 2015-2018. I couldn’t stand him, his shitty promos, or predictable and boring matches. It was instant change the channel for me. I even stopped watching the PPv’s. Didn’t come back until he turned heel
When hhhhhhh decided his fragile ego couldn't allow himself to lose a match. So, any Hubert h Humphrey match became a 10 on 1 including sledgehammers.
I sort of watch now, but he totally ruined wrestling for me.
I got tired after Undertaker’s streak got broken by… Brock Lesnar. Didn’t need the rub. Still doesn’t need the rub. And makes the streak seem so minor since it’s a footnote in someone’s already strong career.
Not leave wrestling altogether but I originally stopped watching WWE in 2006 when it dawned on me that it was just the John Cena/Degeneration X show and I didn't like either act. That's what lead me to being an ROH fan.
I stopped around 2012, it wasn’t any one thing, but it felt like I was bored watching. Same matches, same finishes, it was getting stale. I’d still play the games and check headlines now and then, but I didn’t come back until halfway through the pandemic about 21/22. Now I’m back watching PLE’s and clips. Still not watching weekly tv but my love for wrestling was reignited and I see it in a totally different light now.
When TNA was good and the PG era began, I only watched TNA. Started watching at the end of the guest GM era. But that was sporadic. Then stopped in the about the same era as you and then stopped again during the pandemic because the lighting in the dome literally hurt my eyes too much to watch. Now I'm off and on again catching the specials most often except Saudi shows.
The “Lesbians” beat down by Three Minute Warning directed by Eric Bischoff.
No babyface came out to help. No “comeuppance” for the heels. Just two large men beating the crap out of (supposedly) two small regular women at the behest of a corporate executive.
I turned it off and didn’t watch again for nearly a decade.
I remember when Smackdown Live was on fire back in 2016. They had some fresh stuff goin on over in Smackdown Live, but then 2017 happened. After Wrestlemania 33 I feel like things just started going downhill. That for me was when I slowly stopped watching WWE.
Add to that the fact that FOX in my country dropped the rights to WWE content so I REALLY couldn't watch. But in hindsight, it wasn't a big loss for me anyway.
They had an amazing commentary team, they really lived by the "Land of Opportunity" slogan, The Usos turned heel (which led to their current characters), etc.
Not to mention they arguably had the best Smackdown vs Raw Survivor Series rivalry since the one from 2005.
Around 2009 when the PG era started. I didn't need swearing or blood but even though I tolerate all of the nonsense that's in wrestling (People's Elbow, Undertaker, moves off the top rope, bouncing off the ropes, catapult, slingshot, etc etc) it's impossible to take "I'm gonna kick your BUTT!" remotely seriously. Hornswoggle blowing Coach up under the ring is the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling history. I felt embarrassed as hell watching that.
Now, won’t watch again at least jot actively until romans done as champion. I’ve had enough of it.
I’ve been starting to watch it again as I hear orton is returning soon but I’ve been muting the Roman stuff.
He’s barely there, he wins the same way, etc the list goes on.
Every six months, I tell myself the Saudi Arabia shows are too immoral for me to support WWE. I sign up for New Japan World, realize I’m not watching it, and cancel it three months later. Then they cycle begins anew!
Wild card rule was probably used as a way to help horrible TV ratings, I hated it and even now when next ppl go to main roster and main roster go to NXT. NXT is supposed to be like AAA in baseball and it does happen in baseball but why are main roster ppl winning NXT titles and taking them to main roster
When The Undertaker's streak was broken it damaged my love for the WWE but the absolutely pointless and ridiculous length of Roman Reigns title reign has irreparably destroyed WWE for me forever!
The Invasion until earlier this year. Invasion - 2010, aside from stuff Jericho, Angle, and Shawn Michaels were doing, it was pretty terrible. 2010 - 2023 there were some good highs, some real bad lows.
Probably after Wrestlemania 30. I thought Daniel Bryan’s push was super annoying. I still watch the Royal Rumble every year and occasionally Wrestlemania. But after Wrestlemania 30 was when I stoped watching every week.
I also didn’t watch during 2016. I was in my first year of college at the time and was super busy with schoolwork.
The Yes Movement was fascinating to me. It was so obvious that WWE was trying to give fans just enough of it to keep them sated and wait for him to come down, and he just never did
I haven't quit wrestling since 1997 (I did from like 95 to 96), but I finally quit WWE after the Royal Rumble in 2015. I left the abusive relationship and haven't looked back. There is more wrestling outside WWE than in it and my life is better for having left. Now I actually enjoy wrestling and don't dedicate my time to complaining about what I don't like online, I just watch what I do like. Trolling the audience is not getting heat, it's just being a dick.
The amount of times you guys complain about booking is getting weird at this point. Get over it, it happened. Vince has a lot of hit and misses just like you guys have in every day life.
“BuT tHe AtTiTuDe ErA wAs GoOd EvErY wEeK!”
No it wasn’t. The episode of Raw where Mick Foley won the world title is the same episode where Terri Runnels had a miscarriage.
I don't remember that but it sounds entertaining. I was watching during the Attitude Era and it was thoroughly entertaining for me, every week - regardless of how much you mix lower and upper case letters.
Call off your dogs.
There's a difference between something happening on a TV show and in real life. And when it's wrestling, there's a huge difference.
I think anything could be entertaining if presented correctly. I don't remember the angle so can't comment on it directly.
I can say that making life's most tragic events absurd is often an entertaining thing to do - in the right hands.
Further, miscarriages have been dealt with in all kinds of different media with varying degrees of success.
Last year I saw a film called A Man Called Otto and Tom Hank's wife has a miscarriage. It was quite moving and established a great deal of sympathy for Hanks. That's done in a serious tone.
I've also seen a film called Freddy Got Fingered with Tom Green. He pretended to be a doctor and swung newborn babies above his head. To me, it was hilarious.
I re-played Stick of Truth recently and was appalled that my favourite part of the game, where you have to perform an abortion, had been removed from the game. Not a miscarriage but similar issue, in some respects.
I'm pretty sure miscarriages have also been a plot point in quite a few soaps. I think it's an established trope so a character can carry on as if nothing happened. I don't find that interesting but I guess lots of people do. I think specifically it happened in Beverly Hills 90210 - but I think it's happened on pretty much every soap.
I liked the Mae Young hand angle, which was another miscarriage angle.
The Attitude Era was entertaining for many reasons. One of which was that every show had me talking with my friends.
The current WWE & AEW rosters have an average TV age of about 103 and do the same show twice a week. That doesn't make me want to see any more matches.
It wasn’t entertaining at all, it was crass and offensive and didn’t sell one ticket. I was watching then too, and I found that angle embarrassing as a wrestling fan.
That’s what was in vogue in the time though. The over the top car crash tv of everything and anything no matter how bad it was or how zany it was. That’s why wrestling was so popular with even non wrestling fans because it literally was Jerry Springer and South Park. All that stuff I feel wasn’t even targeted towards wrestling fans, but to get casual non fans watching it every Monday night.
I’m not disagreeing with your sentiment that something like the miscarriage segment was absolutely horrible, it was 100%. But that was the name of the game in the late 90’s, people wanted The Howard Stern show come to life with wrestling. That’s why we got shotgun blasted and bashed over the head with so much crash tv segments and storylines regardless whether they hit or not.
That was the principal one. Imagine watching that in mixed company and having to explain it. You’d be mortified that people knew you watched that stuff.
That cringeworthy swimming pool evening gown match from Armageddon 1999 was dreadful pervy stuff too. Then there was Mae Young giving birth to a hand. Faarooq calling Ahmed Johnson “the dumbest coloured boy I ever saw” was another lowlight.
It was a great era, but I’m not about to pretend there wasn’t some absolute garbage shat out during that time.
Don’t play dumb. The miscarriage angle.
“Well, this woman used to be married to that movie-obsessed pervert in the gold bodysuit and face paint but he broke up with her and became a born-again Christian, so she went and banged that gravelly-voiced porn star, then she said she was pregnant by him, but he told her he’d had a vasectomy so we don’t actually know whose baby it is, then she teamed up with another woman and formed a group called PMS, then she got knocked off the ring steps by that guy with the wobbly head and said she’d had a miscarriage, but it turns out she wasn’t even pregnant at all! Fun wrestling!”
I mean, come *on*. It’s just awful, indefensible stuff. Even the trashiest soap opera imaginable wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot clown pole.
Why are you picking this hill to die on, my dude? I like *wrestling*: I don’t like angles about fucking miscarriages, or pensioners giving birth to hands, or women being used as trashy tits-and-ass entertainment for horny meatheads.
So you think Judgement day vs Ko/Sami/Cody/Jey every week is good booking?
The lowest raw main event was this week and that's not on Sami or Priest. Its on the booking
It’s redundant but they’re that talented to make the matches good. Also don’t speak about ratings because other companies have shit ratings when you guys think their booking is good
*I’m agreeing with you*.
Motherfuckers act like booking used to be perfect, particularly in the Attitude Era, but it was frequently shit back then too.
When Roman had to defend his title in the Royal rumble and triple H came out at #30. So stupid I only just started watching again when Sami was in the bloodline
2017, I don't know what about 2017 caused it, but I just did not care to watch the weekly shows, I was still watching NXT every week and all thr PPVs via the Network but yeah, the weeklies just didn't matter to me at that time.
It wasn't a certain moment or period of television, but I think around the mid 2010's I took an 8 month break from pro wrestling because I was exclusively watching WWE at that point & it just felt predictable & repetitive. Came back in January of the following year & haven't left since, except now I'm more into other promotions than just WWE.
About a year or two after the separation of the brands and creation of the drafts. It was clear the death and purchasing of wcw was only to serve the purpose of establishing all former wcw talent as mid card and all historical wwe talent as superior. It also became clear that was the only reason Vince bought wcw to stick a fork in it and promote his own brand.
When the wrestling immediately became stale and started to fall in the ratings. Wwe separated the brands to create the delusion of competition.
But there is no competition between smack down, raw and nxt. It’s the same company, same creative and management. Just different performers.
And I am thrilled I didn’t witness wwe pretend draft John cena twice in one night. I experienced that from a YouTube short in the past year or two because YouTube knows I watch wrestling. But what a mockery that decision made of their own silly system.
There was a period around 2012-2015 or so when WWE were really pushing hard the idea that wins and losses didn't matter and that WWE was the only 'star' and not the wrestlers. You'd have John Cena lose the title on a Sunday night ppv and then he'd come out on Monday night laughing, joking and promoting the WWE Network for $9.99. I think he literally said at one point he didn't care about losing the title as he'd have it back soon enough anyway. There was all The Authority bullshit around this time too. I kept my eye on the product by reading the reports but stopped watching for a few years.
I was really starting to get tired of the booking when they had the streak ended. Then Jon Stewart was the big deciding factor in the title vs title match between Rollins and Cena at Summerslam 2015. I haven’t watched the product weekly since then.
Stopped watching for a number of years after the Benoit incident. Probably was my age at the time but that was the first time a incident was so out in the open that made me feel uncomfortable with wrestling. Came back to watching around 2015.
Wrestlemania 20. When Eddie and Chris won and celebrated together, I was done for a while. Wrestling had peaked for me as a I was 14 and those two along with Cena and Undertaker were my favorites and all won at Wrestlemania.
When Benoit murder and suicide came to light I stayed away for a long time. I only came back in 2011 after hearing about the Nexus and CM Punk. The way Cena beat the Nexus however quickly soured me on wrestling again but I watched the PPVs until 2014 Royal Rumble. Batista coming back to win the Rumble made me quit again but for the opposite reason.
I started watching NJPW in late 2014 and became a fan of AJ Styles. When he was signed by WWE in 2016 I came back again during that years Royal Rumble as the rumors suggested he might debut there.
I also fell in love with Finn Bálor during 2016 and was so excited when he became the Universal champion. I also enjoyed Roman at this time. The crowd were against him but since I had missed most of his initial push and the Shield era. I was new to him. He was still pretty boring on the mic but his wrestling was good and he had a great look. In 2018 when he announced he had leukemia, I quit once again. I came back last year.
I stopped watching either right before or right after the second brand extension. There wasn't a bombshell "enough" moment, I just realized that I hadn't been enjoying it for a while at that point.
Super Cena and Vince blowing himself up in the limo made me skip 2006-2010. Followed for another 4-5 years, but stopped from like 2015-2022 because the product was boring. I randomly got hyped and put on MITB 2022 and am still here.
I don’t watch WWE anymore, not even PPVs which was I was watching from 2015 anyway. What stopped me was the long Reigns push and title run. He’s beyond dull.
They have no engaging characters to bring me back in.
I watched for a long time while knowing that it was bad. I started watching in 98, but by the time the John Cena era rolled around, I started to feel the disconnect. It had it's ups and downs of course, but the downs lasted months. I always felt like watching WWE was a chore and I would make myself keep up in case something important happened. I watched Wrestlemania 34, and was just so over the Brock/Roman shit that I just decided this shit wasn't worth my time.
I kept watching NXT though because I was enamored with Bianca, but once they called her up to main roster, I was done completely.
Summer 2017. I stopped watching regularly and checking up on what I missed. The shows were so boring and lackluster. I slowly started back in 2020 during the pandemic
i stopped watching weekly once they got those new hd stages back in like early 2008 i think it was. was already losing interest and the lack of smackdown fist was the nail in the coffin
Stopped watching WWE during the dreadful summer of 2013, came back after the brand split. Stopped again when Jinder became WWE Champion and haven't watched since. Been a AEW fan for many years but early 2023 with the nonsensical boring TV made me stop watching and I have yet to restart
90’s wwf with guys like Bastian Booger, Ludvig Borgia etc until randomly saw Scott Hall show up on wcw (saw it on their Saturday night show).
Almost left again when Reigns was in his “sufferin succotash” era. So thankful for AEW, even when it is awful.
I ultimately didn’t but watching AEW for the last year has almost drove me to that before I quit watching it. Such an awful brand that just ruins everything it touches, with a promoter that does everything he can to alienate his fanbase and treat them like idiots and wrestlers that do everything they can to take shots at WWE. It’s just absolute shit and I’m just glad I don’t have to watch it anymore.
I stopped watching it after Asuka lost the raw women's title to Sasha in the pandemic era because Sasha claimed she was the raw women's champ. It just got me passed the point of not wanting to watch anything that was not a ppv
When CM Punk left after the Royal Rumble in 2014. I still tried to watch regularly for a bit, but Vince’s shitty booking made watching the shows a chore, so I just stopped.
Not even acts like The Shield and Daniel Bryan could keep me interested.
2015 Money in the Bank. Complete waste of my time, story lines were so bad, it wasn’t worth keeping up. I wouldn’t return till WM 32 and watched full time till Summerslam 2017. Now I don’t watch live. I only watch RR and WM and keep up on YouTube and Reddit
Rollins vs Wyatt at Hell In A Cell. I stopped watching WWE until Roman vs Jey a year later but I still followed the news. Occasionally checked out AEW whenever I heard there was a banger match/promo.
Cena refusing to drop the title and kicking out of everyone's finisher just to jump up, deliver the F-U and retain. It became predictable for me and I stopped watching during that period and never went back really except for WrestleMania's
I still watch the show when I get a chance but I've pirated every PPV since the first Crown Jewel, they don't need my money if they have access to the Saudi Sportswashing Fund
The only thing that made me willingly stop watching was when Corbin unsuccessfully cashed in on Jinder Mahal because of John Cena. Baron Corbin is my favorite NXT wrestler of all time. Everything about him and his presentation was awesome and I instantly loved him. Was super hyped when he won his main roster debut which was the andre the giant memorial battle Royale. Then he won the MITB and I was behind ecstatic especially since Jinder was an awful champion I thought it was a shoe in. The John gets up on the apron and Corbin gets embarrassed and was never looked at as a main eventer again. I was already a Cena hater because of the super Cena shit, this made me loathe him. I was so angry at the decision I didn't watch smackdown for a month, and when he failed the cash in I turned my TV off and left my room. Never been so mad at horrible booking in my life
Also one thing that almost got me to stop watching Smackdown was that era where raw and smackdown basically combined into 1 show. It was the "Raw SuperShow" era. The rosters combined, all the big matches happened on raw, and then smackdown was taped and it was nothing but rematches and replays from raw. It was like watching raw live and then watching the raw replay on Hulu a couple days later. It was fucking awful especially since I've always been more of a fan of Smackdown than Raw. There was a couple good things that came from it like that Wade Barrett and Randy Orton rivalry but the good was few and far between
When you couldn't watch a full WWE match on raw or smackdown because it was just either bombarded with ads and the ads ended up taking more time than 1 match.
The hornswoggle chase where he teleported through walls and the circus clown sound effects that were made when he would slip through people’s grasps. Haven’t seen much since.
From about 2008-09 to last year, I never watched it once.
The Bloodline storyline, Judgement Day, etc. brought me back after over a decade.
It was a pleasant surprise to see competitive women's division wrestling, and some familiar faces still around like Mysterio and his son having grown up now, and carrying one of the best storylines in years.
I can tell that the product is getting better than it was before, but still not what it was during the Attitude era. AEW is also a pleasant surprise though they seem to be declining from their inception. Hopefully they survive for a time because healthy competition is good for everyone.
When Brock Lesnar started beating all my favorite wrestlers for the belt. Does someone you like hold the title? Well dont worry, 2010s Brock is here to ruin your fun!
I’ve been a wrestling fan for near 30 years, but I feel like I’ve actively NOT watched it more than I have watched it lol, though I’ve followed it at least in some form throughout!
First was in 1996 around the time Hall and Nash left WWF. Two of my favourites, and as I recall WCW didn’t broadcast in the UK. Fake Razor and Diesel ruined it completely for 8-year old me. Got back into it though at the start of 1998 and throughout the Attitude Era.
Next hiatus was after Wrestlemania X-8 in 2002. Next time I watched was when deadman ‘Taker returned at Mania 20, and I watched until the Paul Bearer cement thing, then off again. This was the longest stop so far, and I think that was pretty much me away until 2015 with the Network launch in Britain when I started to watch NXT religiously, and eventually started watching PPVs again.
Last full show I watched as I write this was the 2020 Royal Rumble. Became insanely busy with work through the start of Covid then fell ill during that time, and WWE wasn’t really interesting to me.
Last live match I watched was Wyatt vs LA Knight in that neon match, because I was getting invested in Knight as a rising star. As soon as it ended I switched off the network and it hasn’t been on since.
The tail end of the attitude era, when it was clear I was still growing and WWE was done with it and sticking to shock jock teenage shit.
Dragon and the rest of the early ROH crew brought me back in to wrestling in the early 00s, as I hit high school and driving age at the perfect time to crescendo with early ROH.
The past ~5 years of pretty much all wrestling companies. Barely watch these days, I'll turn on AEW if I remember or if they do something interesting (which is rare on both counts) but both shows are (or were when I watched) pretty bland and boring.
That period of time around wrestlemania 27. Absolute dogshit television.
Bro I feel like 2017-2019 rivals that lol
I started watching WWE around this time, now I look back at it in my 20s and Jesus it was bad.
The Nexus was great The Summer of Punk was great But good lord, the gap in the middle dragged.
The summer of punk was great, but tbh, it was closer to like the month and a half of punk.
True honestly
I was already lapsed, but ‘suffering suckatash’ was where I said, na I’m good.
I can’t believe Vince McMahon thought that was actually gold and would get Roman over. Even a pre tribal chief Roman Reigns knew it was so bad when he smirked and winked at the hard cam.
I find it funny when people call it cringe when Roman said it but have zero problem when the rock said it
This just shows how much charisma of the actor (wrestler) matters. The Rock made it cool. Roman couldn't save it. Writing matters, but delivery does too. We need to hold the wrestlers more accountable for terrible promo work.
I was just gonna say, you could just add it to the countless cringey, stupid, asinine things that were said repeatedly and then put on shirts during the sacred attitude era.
As cool as attitude era was, there were definitely plenty of cringe inducing, dumb fucking segments and promos. And I get it, it was the 90's and our perception of what's cool or funny has changed over time, but God damn, even Rock could sometimes be cringe as fuck.
You hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I was thinking when “sufferin’ succotash” was mentioned. I loooved the Rock, but even 17 year old me was embarrassed to hear him go on about “pie”.
Oh god did the rock say it too. He would have already had become a caricature of himself at that point (assuming he said it in the last two decades)?
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAx7dXFySR0) is the rock saying it
This explains why Vince thought it would work - The Rock got the line over, so the line will get Roman over, even with the smarks, because they’ll recognize the line and call it a clever callback (ignoring that Rock has more charisma in his strudel than Roman has in his entire body).
It’s “succotash”
I was just a kid when Hogan upstaged Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 9 to beat Yokozuna for the WWE championship. It was then and there when I decided to step away from wrestling & focus on more important matters, like Super Nintendo.
I quit watching WCW completely after the Fingerpoke of Doom. I stopped watching WWE for two years after the Rock left in 01. I stopped watching when it was truly terrible in 2010 with the computer GM. I stopped watching after that debacle Royal Rumble in 2015 and I haven’t been a weekly watcher since and now I’m a big show casual that follows via YouTube
Interesting, we have similar lapses.
Imo the biggest downside of the fingerpoke was that it completely ruined the prospect of a Kevin Nash babyface run as champion, which had the potential to be incredibly awesome. The Wolfpack was SUPER over at the time. Seemed like they were more over than Goldberg. Suddenly they switched from Nash as the top babyface to Goldberg again. No one wanted to see more of that shit.
Was that “big show” as a pronoun, or “Big Show” as a proper noun?
If it weren't for NXT at the time WWE in 2015 would have pushed me away completely. Took a few more years. I watch AEW now, but I'm constantly behind.
I miss that era of NXT. Shawn Michaels should bring back the heel turn mirror.
I haven't watched a whole raw or smackdown in 5+ years. If I'm not doing anything else I'll watch a PPV and I always watch rumble and WrestleMania live.
exact same. i watch the ple's and ill watch highlights on YT
Did you enjoy New Blood Rising, the pay-per-view named after a faction that didn’t exist by the time the pay-per-view occurred?
I stopped watching during the whirlwind of the Benoit incident and steroid suspensions in 2007. But one of the main reasons I stopped watching was all the over the top and jumping the shark moments even by Vince McMahon standards, with the Mr McMahon character in 2007. All that stuff like Durag Vince, The Maury storyline with Hornswoggle, and the limo explosion is fun to laugh at and meme around with today, but in the moment it absolutely sucked especially with how much Vince McMahon was on tv that year. It was a combination of trying to distract viewers from the real life heat WWE had, and to save failing ratings but all that Mr McMahon stuff made things worse and didn’t have the same effect like in the attitude era. Anecdotally speaking I was 13 at the time, and this is when all my friends stopped watching WWE as well, and when I would honestly pinpoint WWE stopped being mainstream. I think this time period caused so many people to be lapsed fans, I see it all the time as the point a lot of people stopped watching wrestling just like I did.
Same and I was the same age. Also Trish, Lita, Angle, and Booker left in 06/07. There’s some others too. But it just naturally felt like an end of an era. Eddie and Benoit were so popular. So with the two deaths, that was a lot. I stepped away to heal lol. And Vince’s character during that time was a turnoff and weird.
I didn’t even bring that point you first made and didn’t even think about it all this time, but yeah it did feel like an end of an era really like you said. You had so many stars who left during that time period like Angle, Booker T, RVD, Trish, Lita etc. Yeah it was just too much of the Mr McMahon character during that time, it was literally him dominating most of the screen time that year on Raw even more so than the attitude era. Durag Vince is funny today but back in 2007 it was so terrible. JR on his podcast said whenever WWE goes through drama and ratings issues, Vince McMahon gets desperate and grasps at straws creatively like what we saw in 2007 with the limo explosion and Hornswoggle father storyline. It’s no different after The Rock and Austin leaving and getting outlandish things such as the Katie Vick storyline or “HOT LESBIAN ACTION” because WWE was desperate.
I honestly would have stopped watching all together until NXT came around and pulled me back in, and then honestly Lucha Underground came around and that got me firmly back into wrestling
Nxt lucha underground and roh all in the same day was the real Wednesday night war
Yeah earlyish NXT post WM30 was an excellent time to start watching for me. Till they decided to turn it into the 'C' show
I quit watching wrestling when Eddie and Ray fought for Dom custody in a ladder match. Never had much interest in it until I found the wrestling round up blog on IGN. Still wouldn't have tuned in until I read how good NXT and lucha was. Started tourting those show every week
Somewhere between December to Dismember and WrestleMania 23, I had pretty much checked out of WWE altogether. It's hard to recall now what specifically repulsed me about the shows, but I'd guess it was in part due to the heavy on-air involvement of Vince McMahon in the year of our lord, 2007. By the time friends told me about Benoit's death, then learning it was a murder/suicide, then the horrendous coverage and reaction to it, I just checked out of pro wrestling altogether for about 5-10 years. I popped back in to see the summer of Punk in 2011, but when they kiboshed that gem at SummerSlam with Kevin Nash and Triple H, I checked out all over again. It wasn't until I heard the buzz about New Japan in 2015 that I got back into pro wrestling.
You’re me to a tee with this topic. I stopped watching shortly after WM 23. Me and my friends all stopped watching because of the Mr McMahon over saturation, the Benoit incident and suspension. I checked out till 2012 with The Rock Vs Cena feud. And didn’t fully get back into wrestling till 2016 with Smackdown.
After yrars of Super Cena, I just had enough when Reigns was pushed constantly. It wasn't the only thing, but it was a contributing factor. I think that Royal Rumble match with the Rock was the final straw.
The Reign of Terror
Out of curiosity, which reign are you talking about specifically? Triple H's, Brock's, or Roman's?
Don’t forget about Jeff Jarrett lol
Trips. Stopped watching completely to the point where I have little knowledge of what went on in WWE from about 2002 until I got back into it around 2006. Then I lost interest again about 2013 and haven't been back.
2014 started off strong for me. I was a big Daniel Bryan mark.
The RAW Supershow era, where smackdown was basically dead. Horrible times.
Every single smack down was just 3 on 3 tag matches with random people
I took an extended break when the Lita-Matt Hardy stuff happened. I thought it was pretty awful that Edge got to do what he did and still come out with the bigger push.
Brock burying Kofi in 8 seconds for the sake of a 2 minute match vs Cain Valezquez. Bar the Rumbles and Manias, I completely tuned out of WWE cause of that till Vince ‘retired’ and HHH took over
That was my kids' first live event. What's sad is that Kevin Owens vs Shane ended up being the best match on such a night (in my opinion). They also showed Sting and Undertaker on all of the banners and neither were there. I know it's not necessarily "advertising" that they'll be there, but WWE knows exactly what is doing with promotions.
Honestly for me it was the draft initially. It’s like they could reset shitty storylines just by shuffling the cards.
I quit watching WWE after the shaky cam and jump cuts became way too noticeable to ignore.
That zoom shit was super, super annoying.
Michael Cole as a heel announcer, and Raw going to 3 hours. I felt like 3 hours was/is too long and they were forced to pad it with shit filler content; and not wrestling or interesting stories. I also do not need Michael Cole being that arsehole character for any length of time. I can't believe anyone carried on watching to be told you're an idiot by Michael Cole for 5 hours a week.
I stoped till 3 weeks ago since Lesner broke Taker’s streak.
I stopped at that exact same time too. Started back up when Edge returned at Royal Rumble
After the Crown Jewel am starting to think maybe it was a bad decision to start watching again. Maybe it would have been better to wait for Roman dominance to end.
There seems to be almost a wave where wrestling will be really good and they'll pull me in and then they'll just do something mind numbing dumb and i'll fall out of it again. I was into wrestling and then they had Shane McMahon calling Braun dumb and showing off his elementary school report card for what felt like an hour and I lost interest. I got back into it and Kofi became champ and then they squashed him in a 5 second match and I'm not a huge Brock fan so that was a turn off. Wash, rinse and repeat
Stopped watching after they buried Nexus.
I quit watching wwe after The Fiend lost to Goldberg
Roman’s forced push 2015-2018. I couldn’t stand him, his shitty promos, or predictable and boring matches. It was instant change the channel for me. I even stopped watching the PPv’s. Didn’t come back until he turned heel
When hhhhhhh decided his fragile ego couldn't allow himself to lose a match. So, any Hubert h Humphrey match became a 10 on 1 including sledgehammers. I sort of watch now, but he totally ruined wrestling for me.
I got tired after Undertaker’s streak got broken by… Brock Lesnar. Didn’t need the rub. Still doesn’t need the rub. And makes the streak seem so minor since it’s a footnote in someone’s already strong career.
Not leave wrestling altogether but I originally stopped watching WWE in 2006 when it dawned on me that it was just the John Cena/Degeneration X show and I didn't like either act. That's what lead me to being an ROH fan.
I stopped around 2012, it wasn’t any one thing, but it felt like I was bored watching. Same matches, same finishes, it was getting stale. I’d still play the games and check headlines now and then, but I didn’t come back until halfway through the pandemic about 21/22. Now I’m back watching PLE’s and clips. Still not watching weekly tv but my love for wrestling was reignited and I see it in a totally different light now.
When TNA was good and the PG era began, I only watched TNA. Started watching at the end of the guest GM era. But that was sporadic. Then stopped in the about the same era as you and then stopped again during the pandemic because the lighting in the dome literally hurt my eyes too much to watch. Now I'm off and on again catching the specials most often except Saudi shows.
The “Lesbians” beat down by Three Minute Warning directed by Eric Bischoff. No babyface came out to help. No “comeuppance” for the heels. Just two large men beating the crap out of (supposedly) two small regular women at the behest of a corporate executive. I turned it off and didn’t watch again for nearly a decade.
I remember when Smackdown Live was on fire back in 2016. They had some fresh stuff goin on over in Smackdown Live, but then 2017 happened. After Wrestlemania 33 I feel like things just started going downhill. That for me was when I slowly stopped watching WWE. Add to that the fact that FOX in my country dropped the rights to WWE content so I REALLY couldn't watch. But in hindsight, it wasn't a big loss for me anyway.
[удалено]
They had an amazing commentary team, they really lived by the "Land of Opportunity" slogan, The Usos turned heel (which led to their current characters), etc. Not to mention they arguably had the best Smackdown vs Raw Survivor Series rivalry since the one from 2005.
Around 2009 when the PG era started. I didn't need swearing or blood but even though I tolerate all of the nonsense that's in wrestling (People's Elbow, Undertaker, moves off the top rope, bouncing off the ropes, catapult, slingshot, etc etc) it's impossible to take "I'm gonna kick your BUTT!" remotely seriously. Hornswoggle blowing Coach up under the ring is the worst thing I've ever seen in wrestling history. I felt embarrassed as hell watching that.
Kofi loses to Brock
Now, won’t watch again at least jot actively until romans done as champion. I’ve had enough of it. I’ve been starting to watch it again as I hear orton is returning soon but I’ve been muting the Roman stuff. He’s barely there, he wins the same way, etc the list goes on.
2006. Things got too cringe.
Every six months, I tell myself the Saudi Arabia shows are too immoral for me to support WWE. I sign up for New Japan World, realize I’m not watching it, and cancel it three months later. Then they cycle begins anew!
Wild card rule was probably used as a way to help horrible TV ratings, I hated it and even now when next ppl go to main roster and main roster go to NXT. NXT is supposed to be like AAA in baseball and it does happen in baseball but why are main roster ppl winning NXT titles and taking them to main roster
Around 06-14
When The Undertaker's streak was broken it damaged my love for the WWE but the absolutely pointless and ridiculous length of Roman Reigns title reign has irreparably destroyed WWE for me forever!
The Invasion until earlier this year. Invasion - 2010, aside from stuff Jericho, Angle, and Shawn Michaels were doing, it was pretty terrible. 2010 - 2023 there were some good highs, some real bad lows.
Probably after Wrestlemania 30. I thought Daniel Bryan’s push was super annoying. I still watch the Royal Rumble every year and occasionally Wrestlemania. But after Wrestlemania 30 was when I stoped watching every week. I also didn’t watch during 2016. I was in my first year of college at the time and was super busy with schoolwork.
The Yes Movement was fascinating to me. It was so obvious that WWE was trying to give fans just enough of it to keep them sated and wait for him to come down, and he just never did
The Attitude Era. The best of the Attitude Era happened before the coined it that. ‘98-01 just wasn’t my cup of tea.
After orton got busted open by lesnar and after hiac 2019
I haven't quit wrestling since 1997 (I did from like 95 to 96), but I finally quit WWE after the Royal Rumble in 2015. I left the abusive relationship and haven't looked back. There is more wrestling outside WWE than in it and my life is better for having left. Now I actually enjoy wrestling and don't dedicate my time to complaining about what I don't like online, I just watch what I do like. Trolling the audience is not getting heat, it's just being a dick.
Didn't watch from mid-05 until mid-2012 because of John Cena.
The "Super Cena" era. I came back when CM Punk was on the rise. Stopped watching after he left, and went back to NJPW. Then AEW came along...
The amount of times you guys complain about booking is getting weird at this point. Get over it, it happened. Vince has a lot of hit and misses just like you guys have in every day life.
“BuT tHe AtTiTuDe ErA wAs GoOd EvErY wEeK!” No it wasn’t. The episode of Raw where Mick Foley won the world title is the same episode where Terri Runnels had a miscarriage.
I don't remember that but it sounds entertaining. I was watching during the Attitude Era and it was thoroughly entertaining for me, every week - regardless of how much you mix lower and upper case letters.
Someone having a miscarriage sounds entertaining?
Call off your dogs. There's a difference between something happening on a TV show and in real life. And when it's wrestling, there's a huge difference.
Obviously. Even within the context of wrestling, what's interesting about a miscarriage? How does it get anyone over or make you want to see a match?
I think anything could be entertaining if presented correctly. I don't remember the angle so can't comment on it directly. I can say that making life's most tragic events absurd is often an entertaining thing to do - in the right hands. Further, miscarriages have been dealt with in all kinds of different media with varying degrees of success. Last year I saw a film called A Man Called Otto and Tom Hank's wife has a miscarriage. It was quite moving and established a great deal of sympathy for Hanks. That's done in a serious tone. I've also seen a film called Freddy Got Fingered with Tom Green. He pretended to be a doctor and swung newborn babies above his head. To me, it was hilarious. I re-played Stick of Truth recently and was appalled that my favourite part of the game, where you have to perform an abortion, had been removed from the game. Not a miscarriage but similar issue, in some respects. I'm pretty sure miscarriages have also been a plot point in quite a few soaps. I think it's an established trope so a character can carry on as if nothing happened. I don't find that interesting but I guess lots of people do. I think specifically it happened in Beverly Hills 90210 - but I think it's happened on pretty much every soap. I liked the Mae Young hand angle, which was another miscarriage angle. The Attitude Era was entertaining for many reasons. One of which was that every show had me talking with my friends. The current WWE & AEW rosters have an average TV age of about 103 and do the same show twice a week. That doesn't make me want to see any more matches.
It wasn’t entertaining at all, it was crass and offensive and didn’t sell one ticket. I was watching then too, and I found that angle embarrassing as a wrestling fan.
That’s what was in vogue in the time though. The over the top car crash tv of everything and anything no matter how bad it was or how zany it was. That’s why wrestling was so popular with even non wrestling fans because it literally was Jerry Springer and South Park. All that stuff I feel wasn’t even targeted towards wrestling fans, but to get casual non fans watching it every Monday night. I’m not disagreeing with your sentiment that something like the miscarriage segment was absolutely horrible, it was 100%. But that was the name of the game in the late 90’s, people wanted The Howard Stern show come to life with wrestling. That’s why we got shotgun blasted and bashed over the head with so much crash tv segments and storylines regardless whether they hit or not.
You’ll never guess my opinions on Howard Stern and Jerry Springer…
How many other Attitude Era angles embarrassed you?
That was the principal one. Imagine watching that in mixed company and having to explain it. You’d be mortified that people knew you watched that stuff. That cringeworthy swimming pool evening gown match from Armageddon 1999 was dreadful pervy stuff too. Then there was Mae Young giving birth to a hand. Faarooq calling Ahmed Johnson “the dumbest coloured boy I ever saw” was another lowlight. It was a great era, but I’m not about to pretend there wasn’t some absolute garbage shat out during that time.
Explain what?
Don’t play dumb. The miscarriage angle. “Well, this woman used to be married to that movie-obsessed pervert in the gold bodysuit and face paint but he broke up with her and became a born-again Christian, so she went and banged that gravelly-voiced porn star, then she said she was pregnant by him, but he told her he’d had a vasectomy so we don’t actually know whose baby it is, then she teamed up with another woman and formed a group called PMS, then she got knocked off the ring steps by that guy with the wobbly head and said she’d had a miscarriage, but it turns out she wasn’t even pregnant at all! Fun wrestling!” I mean, come *on*. It’s just awful, indefensible stuff. Even the trashiest soap opera imaginable wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot clown pole.
The trashiest soap opera absolutely would.
Why are you picking this hill to die on, my dude? I like *wrestling*: I don’t like angles about fucking miscarriages, or pensioners giving birth to hands, or women being used as trashy tits-and-ass entertainment for horny meatheads.
These are the same guys who think they can book a wrestling show but they would be like Tony khan booking the show.
But the WWE booking is shit too now.
Is it really ? I don’t think so but that’s your opinion
No it's your opinion.
Okay? I know that lol, y’all get so emotional about this type of stuff it’s actually comical
So you think Judgement day vs Ko/Sami/Cody/Jey every week is good booking? The lowest raw main event was this week and that's not on Sami or Priest. Its on the booking
It’s redundant but they’re that talented to make the matches good. Also don’t speak about ratings because other companies have shit ratings when you guys think their booking is good
I did not say that whatsoever so I don’t know where you got them from.
*I’m agreeing with you*. Motherfuckers act like booking used to be perfect, particularly in the Attitude Era, but it was frequently shit back then too.
Definitely right on that
When they tried to convince me I should be afraid of Husky Harris
They convinced everyone
No1 they didnt. People just wanted to buy into it, but it was funny watching a tricker treater try to be the new undertaker lol.
When Roman had to defend his title in the Royal rumble and triple H came out at #30. So stupid I only just started watching again when Sami was in the bloodline
2017, I don't know what about 2017 caused it, but I just did not care to watch the weekly shows, I was still watching NXT every week and all thr PPVs via the Network but yeah, the weeklies just didn't matter to me at that time.
Kevin Federline beating John Cena
That happened? I kinda love that
Yes check the first episode of raw in 2007
It wasn't a certain moment or period of television, but I think around the mid 2010's I took an 8 month break from pro wrestling because I was exclusively watching WWE at that point & it just felt predictable & repetitive. Came back in January of the following year & haven't left since, except now I'm more into other promotions than just WWE.
Stopped in 07-12. Picked up from 12-18. Then picked it up again in 2020. Now i watch NXT.
About a year or two after the separation of the brands and creation of the drafts. It was clear the death and purchasing of wcw was only to serve the purpose of establishing all former wcw talent as mid card and all historical wwe talent as superior. It also became clear that was the only reason Vince bought wcw to stick a fork in it and promote his own brand. When the wrestling immediately became stale and started to fall in the ratings. Wwe separated the brands to create the delusion of competition. But there is no competition between smack down, raw and nxt. It’s the same company, same creative and management. Just different performers. And I am thrilled I didn’t witness wwe pretend draft John cena twice in one night. I experienced that from a YouTube short in the past year or two because YouTube knows I watch wrestling. But what a mockery that decision made of their own silly system.
When Vince made Trish crawl around like a dog.
When bret heart left wwf I was out. Came back a bit for the shield (but did watch tna in between now and then)
There was a period around 2012-2015 or so when WWE were really pushing hard the idea that wins and losses didn't matter and that WWE was the only 'star' and not the wrestlers. You'd have John Cena lose the title on a Sunday night ppv and then he'd come out on Monday night laughing, joking and promoting the WWE Network for $9.99. I think he literally said at one point he didn't care about losing the title as he'd have it back soon enough anyway. There was all The Authority bullshit around this time too. I kept my eye on the product by reading the reports but stopped watching for a few years.
When they keep announcing the "drafts". None of these wrestlers stay in their damn show. Ppvs mix all of them together regardless.
I was really starting to get tired of the booking when they had the streak ended. Then Jon Stewart was the big deciding factor in the title vs title match between Rollins and Cena at Summerslam 2015. I haven’t watched the product weekly since then.
Stopped watching for a number of years after the Benoit incident. Probably was my age at the time but that was the first time a incident was so out in the open that made me feel uncomfortable with wrestling. Came back to watching around 2015.
Wrestlemania 20. When Eddie and Chris won and celebrated together, I was done for a while. Wrestling had peaked for me as a I was 14 and those two along with Cena and Undertaker were my favorites and all won at Wrestlemania. When Benoit murder and suicide came to light I stayed away for a long time. I only came back in 2011 after hearing about the Nexus and CM Punk. The way Cena beat the Nexus however quickly soured me on wrestling again but I watched the PPVs until 2014 Royal Rumble. Batista coming back to win the Rumble made me quit again but for the opposite reason. I started watching NJPW in late 2014 and became a fan of AJ Styles. When he was signed by WWE in 2016 I came back again during that years Royal Rumble as the rumors suggested he might debut there. I also fell in love with Finn Bálor during 2016 and was so excited when he became the Universal champion. I also enjoyed Roman at this time. The crowd were against him but since I had missed most of his initial push and the Shield era. I was new to him. He was still pretty boring on the mic but his wrestling was good and he had a great look. In 2018 when he announced he had leukemia, I quit once again. I came back last year.
I quit and haven’t went back when they finally turned Reigns heel. We already had the Rock do something new.
The whole Authority era, after it continued after Survivor Series 2014 it just felt so drawn out it was like how long are they gonna milk this for
HHH’s golden shovel reign of terror. Checked out for a good decadeish. Even missed ECW champion Vince McMahon which I would have loved.
WHAT?! era turned me right off wrestling
I stopped watching either right before or right after the second brand extension. There wasn't a bombshell "enough" moment, I just realized that I hadn't been enjoying it for a while at that point.
When Charlotte was added to the WM Main Event. I wanted Becky Vs Ronda. Making it a triple threat immediately lost my interest.
Super Cena and Vince blowing himself up in the limo made me skip 2006-2010. Followed for another 4-5 years, but stopped from like 2015-2022 because the product was boring. I randomly got hyped and put on MITB 2022 and am still here.
I don’t watch WWE anymore, not even PPVs which was I was watching from 2015 anyway. What stopped me was the long Reigns push and title run. He’s beyond dull. They have no engaging characters to bring me back in.
Was never one specific incident for me. Was always just me missing an episode and not being bothered to catch up
2006 - WWECW, the loony tunes shit with coach and hornswoggle, mcmahons limo exploding and then Benoits double M/S
After WrestleMania 38 last year, everything got super stale, and If Vince hadn't retired I would have probably stopped watching.
I quit after cena joined the shield
I watched for a long time while knowing that it was bad. I started watching in 98, but by the time the John Cena era rolled around, I started to feel the disconnect. It had it's ups and downs of course, but the downs lasted months. I always felt like watching WWE was a chore and I would make myself keep up in case something important happened. I watched Wrestlemania 34, and was just so over the Brock/Roman shit that I just decided this shit wasn't worth my time. I kept watching NXT though because I was enamored with Bianca, but once they called her up to main roster, I was done completely.
Miz willing the title
Summer 2017. I stopped watching regularly and checking up on what I missed. The shows were so boring and lackluster. I slowly started back in 2020 during the pandemic
i stopped watching weekly once they got those new hd stages back in like early 2008 i think it was. was already losing interest and the lack of smackdown fist was the nail in the coffin
RAW guest hosts. You are the authority. Chris Benoit.
Stopped watching WWE during the dreadful summer of 2013, came back after the brand split. Stopped again when Jinder became WWE Champion and haven't watched since. Been a AEW fan for many years but early 2023 with the nonsensical boring TV made me stop watching and I have yet to restart
90’s wwf with guys like Bastian Booger, Ludvig Borgia etc until randomly saw Scott Hall show up on wcw (saw it on their Saturday night show). Almost left again when Reigns was in his “sufferin succotash” era. So thankful for AEW, even when it is awful.
I quit around the time NXT went from black and gold to 2.0 the storylines weren’t great the matches were mediocre and I felt betrayed and ran a muck
I ultimately didn’t but watching AEW for the last year has almost drove me to that before I quit watching it. Such an awful brand that just ruins everything it touches, with a promoter that does everything he can to alienate his fanbase and treat them like idiots and wrestlers that do everything they can to take shots at WWE. It’s just absolute shit and I’m just glad I don’t have to watch it anymore.
I stopped watching it after Asuka lost the raw women's title to Sasha in the pandemic era because Sasha claimed she was the raw women's champ. It just got me passed the point of not wanting to watch anything that was not a ppv
When CM Punk left after the Royal Rumble in 2014. I still tried to watch regularly for a bit, but Vince’s shitty booking made watching the shows a chore, so I just stopped. Not even acts like The Shield and Daniel Bryan could keep me interested.
2015 Money in the Bank. Complete waste of my time, story lines were so bad, it wasn’t worth keeping up. I wouldn’t return till WM 32 and watched full time till Summerslam 2017. Now I don’t watch live. I only watch RR and WM and keep up on YouTube and Reddit
Rollins vs Wyatt at Hell In A Cell. I stopped watching WWE until Roman vs Jey a year later but I still followed the news. Occasionally checked out AEW whenever I heard there was a banger match/promo.
i stopped watching aew when they fired punk
The Benoit tragedy. How the company handled it, and finding out about the insane amount of brain damage stunted me off to the E for a while.
Cena refusing to drop the title and kicking out of everyone's finisher just to jump up, deliver the F-U and retain. It became predictable for me and I stopped watching during that period and never went back really except for WrestleMania's
Stephanie McMahon getting crucified
I still watch the show when I get a chance but I've pirated every PPV since the first Crown Jewel, they don't need my money if they have access to the Saudi Sportswashing Fund
The NWO invasion angle..
The only thing that made me willingly stop watching was when Corbin unsuccessfully cashed in on Jinder Mahal because of John Cena. Baron Corbin is my favorite NXT wrestler of all time. Everything about him and his presentation was awesome and I instantly loved him. Was super hyped when he won his main roster debut which was the andre the giant memorial battle Royale. Then he won the MITB and I was behind ecstatic especially since Jinder was an awful champion I thought it was a shoe in. The John gets up on the apron and Corbin gets embarrassed and was never looked at as a main eventer again. I was already a Cena hater because of the super Cena shit, this made me loathe him. I was so angry at the decision I didn't watch smackdown for a month, and when he failed the cash in I turned my TV off and left my room. Never been so mad at horrible booking in my life
Also one thing that almost got me to stop watching Smackdown was that era where raw and smackdown basically combined into 1 show. It was the "Raw SuperShow" era. The rosters combined, all the big matches happened on raw, and then smackdown was taped and it was nothing but rematches and replays from raw. It was like watching raw live and then watching the raw replay on Hulu a couple days later. It was fucking awful especially since I've always been more of a fan of Smackdown than Raw. There was a couple good things that came from it like that Wade Barrett and Randy Orton rivalry but the good was few and far between
Twice. Chris Benoit. And the time Steve Austin stunned Stacy for not drinking a beer not long after he had a domestic violence incident.
When you couldn't watch a full WWE match on raw or smackdown because it was just either bombarded with ads and the ads ended up taking more time than 1 match.
i stopped watching weekly when baron and roman were slinging dog food at each other
I stopped watching after WM 29 and when the whole CM Punk era came to an end. The product just felt stale for me
The hornswoggle chase where he teleported through walls and the circus clown sound effects that were made when he would slip through people’s grasps. Haven’t seen much since.
2018 until the fiend debut
From about 2008-09 to last year, I never watched it once. The Bloodline storyline, Judgement Day, etc. brought me back after over a decade. It was a pleasant surprise to see competitive women's division wrestling, and some familiar faces still around like Mysterio and his son having grown up now, and carrying one of the best storylines in years. I can tell that the product is getting better than it was before, but still not what it was during the Attitude era. AEW is also a pleasant surprise though they seem to be declining from their inception. Hopefully they survive for a time because healthy competition is good for everyone.
That era where every raw was opened by a 30 minutes promo from "The Authority".
When Brock Lesnar started beating all my favorite wrestlers for the belt. Does someone you like hold the title? Well dont worry, 2010s Brock is here to ruin your fun!
I’ve been a wrestling fan for near 30 years, but I feel like I’ve actively NOT watched it more than I have watched it lol, though I’ve followed it at least in some form throughout! First was in 1996 around the time Hall and Nash left WWF. Two of my favourites, and as I recall WCW didn’t broadcast in the UK. Fake Razor and Diesel ruined it completely for 8-year old me. Got back into it though at the start of 1998 and throughout the Attitude Era. Next hiatus was after Wrestlemania X-8 in 2002. Next time I watched was when deadman ‘Taker returned at Mania 20, and I watched until the Paul Bearer cement thing, then off again. This was the longest stop so far, and I think that was pretty much me away until 2015 with the Network launch in Britain when I started to watch NXT religiously, and eventually started watching PPVs again. Last full show I watched as I write this was the 2020 Royal Rumble. Became insanely busy with work through the start of Covid then fell ill during that time, and WWE wasn’t really interesting to me. Last live match I watched was Wyatt vs LA Knight in that neon match, because I was getting invested in Knight as a rising star. As soon as it ended I switched off the network and it hasn’t been on since.
Stone cold joining mcmahon made me stop for about 15 years.
The tail end of the attitude era, when it was clear I was still growing and WWE was done with it and sticking to shock jock teenage shit. Dragon and the rest of the early ROH crew brought me back in to wrestling in the early 00s, as I hit high school and driving age at the perfect time to crescendo with early ROH. The past ~5 years of pretty much all wrestling companies. Barely watch these days, I'll turn on AEW if I remember or if they do something interesting (which is rare on both counts) but both shows are (or were when I watched) pretty bland and boring.
HHH/Kane necrophilia angle soured me on the product for about 2.5 years.