Wrestling is a 'cyclical business'. It'll come around again; I stuck it out before and it paid off; I can wait again.
That being said, WrestleMania 25 was a major disappointment. If I'd paid $55 for that I'd feel really cheated.
― MacDara, Thursday, 16 April 2009 00:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I've actually been getting back into wrestling a little bit in the last few weeks. I'm sure wrestling diehards will laugh, but it was watching The Wrestler that piqued my curiosity again.
I was originally into it as a casual fan circa 1998-2002, but kind of lost interest after that, mainly because I was a poor student who had no way of really seeing PPVs etc (as a britisher it took that bit more money and effort I think to follow it), and all the "brand extension" stuff seemed pretty crappy. During that period it was all about WWF for me, and I had no knowledge of anything outside of that except WCW and ECW, which I assumed at the time wasn't worth bothering with. I also was never into it enough to find out about the backstage/business/non-kayfabe aspects either.
Anyway, I went to a UK taping of Smackdown the other week, after a friend offered me a spare ticket, and that was pretty dire sadly. But it did motivate me to go away and read more about the industry (some of the rl stories and scandals are frankly astonishing) and also check out some classic matches, which is really easy with Youtube etc. I love that mid-90s Japanese stuff and I think I'm also a bit of a mark for Samoa Joe now; a lot of awesome wrestlers seem to have been associated with ROH in the last few years actually, which in the pre-Internet days would have totally passed me by.
But I don't know how long my flirtation with the sport will last tbh, given that I still don't really have any kind of access to cable nor is my interest sufficient to warrant tieing up my broadband connection for hours with enormous torrents. Plus WWE seems to be filled with too many roided up morons with no charisma and TNA seems to be filled with too many has-beens looking to make a quick buck before retirement, so meh.
That is the tale of one wrestling dilettante anyway. Although it isn't very interesting, I thought I'd post just because it is a shame no one uses this board any more; trawling through old threads there were some decent discussions on here back in the day - the same can't really be said for many other wrestling forums! (Actually if there are any intelligent forums on the subject I'd be interested in any recommendations. I started looking at DVDVR occasionally, but I'm finding it a bit impenetrable so far, and I'm not forking out actual money to follow the Wrestling Observer blog).
― ears are wounds, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 14:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Keep at it. Most of the good indie promotions in the States sell DVDs online, and they're not too expensive either, so it's pretty easy nowadays to sample stuff you might only have read about on the news sites and blogs.
Of course I shouldn't be one to tell you this, because I've never even seen Ring of Honor. But I have seen some Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (shitty camerawork but good action) and a smattering of Chikara (some spot-monkey nonsense but a lot of good stuff, and a healthy level of zaniness). Under-the-radar DVDs of Japanese promotions are also available very cheap from the right places.
I'm pretty bored with the WWE and TNA myself, I only keep watching out of some false sense of loyalty or something. I rarely watch Raw anymore, and when I do it's on fast-forward 'cause of all the rest holds and looky-likeys with no personality.
― MacDara, Thursday, 30 April 2009 11:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, and the only other thing that keeps my interest alive is Power Slam magazine. They share my exasperation with the state of the business but without most of the smarky bullshit that pollutes the IWC.
― MacDara, Thursday, 30 April 2009 11:10 (fourteen years ago) link
one year passes...
four years pass...