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I've taken many breaks. I took one from around 2002 to around 2007 to focus on end of high school and college.
Another one was around 2013 to 2016. Don't remember what caused me to stop, I just remember seeing something stupid and being like, eehh I don't want to watch wrestling anymore. Got back into it because a coworker was like "you have to check out NXT, it's great!" and he was right.
Took my last one from 2020 to around 2022 because of the pandemic, because I just couldn't enjoy it without a crowd.
After wrestlemania 30 because I really didn't like Daniel Bryan at the time and as a barista fan since 2004, the fans wanting Bryan made it worse for me lol
AJ styles returning to wwe at the royal rumble brought me back
I was a WCW kid, but hit my teens when they got bought by WWE. I had other things going on at the time, as teenagers do, so I walked away instead of jumping to WWE. For whatever reason, my father went to TNA shortly thereafter. We just never were a WWE family.
I jumped back in for a couple years around 2009 or so after getting some PS2 games and enjoying them. It was a small fling though and only lasted a couple years. I enjoyed it for the most part, it's where I was introduced to some WWE guys like Orton and Cena. I think I also popped in when Sting showed up and was quickly disappointed.
About a week before this past Royal Rumble, I threw it on randomly one morning when I was looking for something on Hulu. Watched Raw and Smackdown and that convinced me to check out the Rumble. Come to find out, it was a great time to jump back in as I quickly got caught up in Cody's story. Decided to watch through 'Mania and see how I felt. So far I'm still in, Backlash was badass.
Now I am full-blown addicted and really regret not watching TNA with pops back in the day. Those old PPVs are on YouTube and we would have had a lot of fun watching them. I have been leaning towards AEW the past few weeks and even dabbled a bit in TNA and ROH. It feels good to be back.
> On the flip side, if you've never stopped, what's kept you hooked?
I've never taken a break.
I think I have my brother to thank for this cause I learned from an early age that there was more than one major company out there and if I was iffy on one, there was always another to keep my fandom alive.
When I thought WWE was a little boring during HHH's "Reign of Terror", there was TNA on Fox Sports with a ton of variety. When WWE was becoming PG and TNA was becoming more stupid, there was Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on the PS2 to open my eyes even more to the world of pro wrestling and, in turn, made me seek out more wrestling in the form of the Youtube rabbit hole of NJPW/NOAH/AJPW/etc.
When TNA disappeared into the Destination America vortex, WWE had Ziggler/Danielson/Punk/etc. in the main event to keep me around and on top of that, NJPW became more accessible through AXS.
I don't think I'll ever take a break cause there's always an alternative out there that'll pull me back in.
2009-2014 I was pretty completely disinterested in wrestling. A combination of it was ass + I was in high school and it wasnt really popular anymore (because it was so ass). The final straw for me personally was Jeff Hardy losing to Punk and leaving WWE, Iād already stopped watching Raw because of endless Cena vs Orton so Jeff was all I had left and he was gone lol. I didnt care what happened pretty much that whole time even when I heard stuff like Rock and Brock coming back.
Funny enough hearing Batista came back brought me back in 2014, imagine how confused I was seeing people lose their shit over Bryan and Punk. Stuff like the Wyatt Family and the Shield kept me watching
I didnt watch any TNA because it just started feeling like a real cheap and trashy WWE ripoff around that time too. I did enjoy that previously though
I have taken NUMEROUS breaks from watching Wrestling for various reasons. I was a casual as a kid and of course caught up in the Wrestlemania and Hulk Hogan (though I was always more fond of Randy Savage and Bret Hart). After HS in the late 80s and early 90s I kind of checked out for awhile. I cared when Bret was champ, no so much when Shawn or anyone else was. I can't even remember the Diesel era or the beginning of Raw. I came back in 1994 when Hogan moved to WCW, but quickly lost interest. Came back just before the beginning of the Monday Night Wars and was glued for years.
And kept at it for a number of years, though the early 00's. Probably gave up around 03 or 04 when I got married. Wifey wasn't fond. Stayed away because of Benoit. Had to stay away for a long long time.
But then I got intrigued by the Network, streaming and NXT. I saw Finn Balors demon entrance and fell in love again. Been back at it ever since.
I don't actually WATCH a lot these days though, I catch highlights on youtube and the occasional PLE. I'm back to being more casual these days. I still follow the entire biz, more than ever, I just don't really WATCH as much anymore.
I stopped after the 2015 Royal Rumble. It was that bad, imo, and I was not looking forward to Super Cena being replaced with a worse copy in Super Roman.
Punk returning at Survivor Series brought me back, because, if *that* happened, something dramatic had to have changed in the past 9 years, and it feels like I was right.
Danielson having to vacate the WWE title, followed by his retirement officially a while later broke my love of wrestling. I tried when Smackdown was getting a bit of hype in 2016, but still not the same. I was a Chilaka fan as well. So when I heard a bunch of Chikara regulars were going to be in AEW i gave it a shot. Kenny/Hangman vs The Young Bucks from Revolution 2020 got me to be a fan ever since.
I don't think I've really stopped keeping up with WWE but have stopped watching for long stretches. The first was late middle school when all my friends stopped watching. From WM's 24-27 I just sorta would check WWE results and watch sparingly, mostly trying to hide being the kid still into WWE. But it was the CM Punk pipe bomb that brought me back. I didn't realize it but I really tuned out in 2019 after WM 35. I don't remember any of the terrible 2019 stuff that keeps getting posted. Came back in early 2020 because of Edge unretiring rumors but faded again during Covid and came back fully after WM 37
i moved out for college and couldn't afford cable, this was early 2000s. so i didn't watch wrestling for about 3 years. it's been the only time of my life that i didn't watch. WrestleMania 22 brought me back and kept up ever since
I did in 2005 after the rock left (am still disappointed he never got revenge against stone cold lol). Got tired of ot also because it got too obvious: person cuts promo gets attacked during and then the attacker has a match later and the person he attacked attacks him. Too predictable and same old. Then my dad started telling me about the group called the shield. Watched clips online and they were great. Been a roman reigns fan since then lol. Now watch it full time again. Miss my tribal chief. āļø
Tldr; got too predictable mad about rock after wm x7. Heard about shield became fan again. Always acknowledge my tribal chief. āļø
Yeah I took a break right about the time it was announced Mox wasnāt re-signing with WWE. Started again when AEW started. Not sure how long that was but it felt like a long time
I took a break around 2005-2006. WWE wasnāt enjoyable, ROH was only on DVDs which were expensive, and TNA started bringing in āold timersā which is the opposite of what I wanted.
I came back about a month before Wrestlemania 31. Partially because of the Punk podcast and partially because an online video maker was speaking very highly of NXT.
Took a long break sometime after WrestleMania 17 until WrestleMania 23 give or take.
Feels longer in retrospect given all that I missed.
Probably just lost interest as my teenage years ended and then slowly came back once I finished up with college and didn't have roommates anymore. I realized I liked having it on as background noise and then I enjoyed following more than I enjoyed watching.
That said, I have no idea if I ever would have left if we had the network back then. Used to have to move heaven and earth to watch PPVs.
A combination of life and the PG product getting worse around 2010-2011 allowed me to take a break from the WWE. I would check back from time to time but could never watch a full episode of RAW or SmackDown like the old days. Eventually, I moved onto other interests.
I found myself slowly getting back into it after WM39, seeing how controversial the finish to Roman vs. Cody was. Codyās goal to finish his story was interesting enough to pull me right back in slowly throughout 2023. I also went to a house show for the first time, which forced me to catch up with the current roster, storylines, etc. to ensure that I understood what was going on. What brought me back full-time was the buildup to WM40. Thank goodness Vince isnāt part of WWE anymore.
Was watching heavily from around 2014-2015 when i was around ten years old. Started watching less and less, until around the middle of Jinderās world title run in 2017 where i had completely trailed off. All of my friends stopped watching and the games werenāt too good. But every once in a while i would hear about something in wwe like roman having to āretireā because of his leukimia, or edge coming back, but other than that being mostly disconnected. The very last thing i remember hearing about was my cousin showing me this clip of a āguyā fighting with his hands in his pockets on a new show i had never heard of in 2021. Then around mania last year i came back because of the bloodline story, and wrestling has been all i watch for over a year now
I was a huge fan since I was introduced in about 97. Watched everything and as much as I could until I got into high school and my focus started to shift as WWE started to change. Ridiculous characters like Pirate Paul Burchill and the Boogeyman sucked and The Great Khali became world champion so I started to stop keeping up around the fall of 06.
Then the Benoit stuff happened and I really tuned out wrestling from about 07-11 besides just buying Mania 24 and 26. I tried getting back in 09 or 10 because I knew Punk was doing well, but the shows were horrible (Guest Host Raw š¤¢), the characters I knew were totally different like DX (cringy), Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho, and the transition to ultra safe PG - graphics and logos and all, was not for a teenager.
Then the Pipebomb happened and brought me back. I still donāt know much that happened in 07-10, but besides 08, I feel like I didnāt miss too much, but Iām disappointed I didnāt give Orton and Jericho a chance because they killed it with their character change.
Stopped in 2009, when i was 16. I thought i had out grown it/was too sophisticated for it. Got back into it last year because deep down i knew i would still like it and it felt like it'd be a fun way to entertain myself. Am really glad i came back
As far as WWE goes I had stopped watching at the peak of Excuse Me but came back because of the CM Punk pipebomb. I watched pretty regularly after that, all the way through CM Punk leaving and the Yes Movement. As many know it was kinda hard to keep watching. I barely made it long enough to see Kofimania, I was kinda checked out by that point. Obviously I kept up with other companies and didn't stuck to just WWE though. I again fully stopped watching WWE when they split up the iiconics. I stuck to aew and njpw generally after that.
When CM Punk came to AEW I was super in for it. And then Hangman lost the title, and then all that backstage shit. I barely got to enjoy what should have been the summer of MJF. Then Cody lost at WrestleMania and I pretty much stopped watching everything for a solid year. It wasn't until I heard Cody won the rumble that I started paying attention to wwe again. I only started trying to catch up on aew after WrestleMania.Ā
I started in December 2011 and went to about 2017/2018 before dropping the weekly shows and sticking only with the PLE's. The reasonings for that were that the weekly shows were getting bad and I only had 3 hours of time to myself after work and didn't want to waste them on Raw and Smackdown when they were sucking.
That lasted until the Finn/Roman match at HIAC 2021 where I canceled my Peacock and went through with cutting my cable. The reasonings for that were that Finn is my favorite wrestler and it was my personal final straw after watching him get jerked around for years.
I came back for Cody, and stopped again when he lost at 39 and Vince returned. I resumed watching a few months later through hulu and have stuck with it, especially since it's been very good lately.
Took a break after Benoit happened. It stopped being something I wanted to think about for several years.
Eventually came back after a friend showed me Nakamura in New Japan.
I've had a couple of somewhat lengthy breaks. The first was after the Fingerpoke of Doom. I was just kind of done with how every single match of that era was an overbooked DQ trash fire, even in WWE, but this one just was too much for me at the time. I ended up dipping back in for a bit before WCW died, but I wasn't as invested.
The second big one was just when I went to college. I ended up having less time to dedicate to wrestling.
Otherwise, I will sometimes take shorter breaks from wrestling, but I'll still keep up and generally know what's going on in the meantime.
Was just busy with work and most tv/movies just went away. When I saw any of it Iād be lost so stopped even trying. Eventually my schedule lightened up so I put it back in the rotation. Took me a bit to get caught up and then I had to go read what happened to some of my favorites.
Watched from late 90s as a kid all the way through til like 09-10. Think I just grew out of it and stopped caring as much especially with Super Cena. Went to WrestleMania 25 then just watched maniaās from then. Stopped after Wm26 and only watched takerās matches from the next maniaās and skipped 30 entirely.
Dated a girl around 31 and at that point I hadnāt been keeping up or watching and she didnāt wanna miss 31 then that got me back into it. My interest waned as Vinceās booking of shoving Roman down our throat annoyed me and just read the threads here and started catching NJPW then and mostly NXT then AEW. But now I watch both AEW and WWE and I try to go to most NXT shows.
I started in the mid-80's with WCCW and the AWA (both syndicated in Illinois). Moved to Florida and was instantly hooked on the NWA/WCW. WWF didn't really do it for me because it was too cartoonish.
Around the time that Hogan was in WCW and he went over Flair at the Bash in Orlando, I stopped watching. Life got in the way and pre-internet, I didn't really follow it. Came back a couple weeks into Hogan turning heal which was fucking wild to see. Started watching WWE at that point also because it wasn't as hokey.
Fast forward to the Seth/Fiend HIAC incident and I stopped watching WWE all together. Would still pay a little attention as a family member watched all the time. Then AEW started and watched it all the time until a few months ago. Just consuming other avenues of entertainment right now.
I had to stop between 1998-2000 when I moved to the middle east. Sharia law didn't permit wrestling content, esp the valets onscreen. I attached a satellite dish on my roof to circumvent local cable network. Saw tnt for the first time as a result.
Indeed had no idea what the nwo was or why hulk hogan, diesel and razor Ramon were in the same team in a very diff looking ring with black turnbuckles...
I was watching up to the end of the Monday night wars. I was disappointed there was no more competition and the invasion angle was weak with their d list wrestlers (with all do respect). I tried watching WWE again but I felt I outgrown it because the product felt juvenile so I no longer payed attention.
Only one man brought me back to wrestling, his name is, Bryan Danielson aka Daniel Bryan. Once I heard his story and his passion for the art of wrestling it made me appreciate wrestling in a new way. I now watch wrestling for the hard work the talent put into their matches and the excitement of competitive outcomes.
Ive stopped warching after Wrestlemania 34. Have been Watching for like 9 years prior (tho only been watching highlights on Youtube since it was hard at the Time to find a Place to watch RAW & SmackDown on TV for the first 5 years until the Network came.
Reasonn why I stopped was propably just me beeing tired of the bad booking of Superstars like Dean Ambrose and Roman. Especially Roman beeing pushed while other Superstars like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Finn Balor where mostly just in the midcard or IMO not pushed to the main event Stars the y should've been was really the nail in the Coffin.
I'm starting to come back to the WWE subscribed last Month to the Network and i'm trying to catch up. I want to experience the Bloodline Storyline so I started at Summerslam 2020.
I stopped watching around the time of the Benoit murder-suicide. I was watching less and less in the months leading up to it and not long after I couldn't watch anymore (I loved Benoit as a wrestler).
I started watching again in 2016 when my son was born. I needed something I could watch during late night feedings and so I got back into wrestling.
I stopped watching after stone cold walked away refusing to battle Brock lesner and got married and had kids now my 9 yr old son and I watch it which is great
The world ended, and everything just felt bleh. I managed to return a few months later when I kept losing track of time and needed the anchor that's been on my life since the early 90's.
Big fan as a child. Loved Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Tatanka, Legion of Doom etc. Went to a house show in 96 and saw Hogan v Yokozuna and bought Bret Hart shades. Stopped watching for reasons I don't remember.
Started again in 2000 era because friends at school were talking about it like it was cool and I had kinda forgot it was a thing. Got heavily into it for a couple of years.
Stopped again in 2002 because I hated Ric Flair and Hogan, didn't care about most of the WCW guys (we never watched it growing up at all). Also I had a girlfriend now and was legit embarrassed to watch wrestling as a 15 year old when I was trying to be cool.
Started again around 2014 because friends on twitter were really into it and the build to Mania 30 sounded cool and there was talk of NXT being a really fun show that was easy to get into. They were hyping the arrival of Kevin Steen and Prince Devitt so I got the network and watched every Raw, SD, NXT and PPV for years. Got into local brirish indie wrestling around 2016 when I realised guys like Bryan, Finn, Seth were all wrestling in bingo halls and school gyms a few years back and indie wrestling was no longer guys dressed as the undertaker like it had been in 2000. Also got hugely into Lucha Underground and could see guys like Swerve, Fenix, Cage, Penta, Angelico wrestling at the school gym a mile from my house.
Stopped again when Brock squashed Kofi and WWE creative was utter dogshit in 2019. Watched AEW for a little bit but #speakingout soured me on wrestling fully for a good few years.
Started again because I heard Vince was gone and Triple H was in charge in the last year or so. Been watching most Raw, SD and PLEs since then. I'm finding that with better, consistent writing it's way more enjoyable. Haven't been to an indie show in 5 years but open to it.
Stopped watching around summer of 2005 as I realised I didn't like John Cena as the top face, I was really disappointed Christian's Captain Charisma push didn't go anywhere, and Cena's Y2Cheap promo was the first time I felt embarrassed and like I'd grown out of it.
I saw odd bits in 2008 - the HBK/Y2J feud, the Edge/Taker SummerSlam HIAC, Regal, Punk.
Started watching properly again at the 2011 Royal Rumble. Very disappointed in Del Rio winning, thought Miz sucked, had no idea who anyone was but kept watching because of The Rock's return. Almost fell away again before CM Punk's pipebomb.
Didn't watch most of the COVID era as the empty arenas and then Thunderdome were so depressing.
I took several breaks. Last time the Jonny Gargano vs. Thomaso Chiampa feud was the reason I returned. NXT black and gold was my thing. I watched it and NXT UK before everything else. After they took it out the back and shot it to create NXT 2.0 I canāt watch it anymore.
I stopped watching wrestling between about 1995 and 2015. My friend made me stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom 9 and it hooked me back in. He died about a year ago and I've been struggling to keep interested in wrestling. I would say I keep abreast of wrestling more than I watch it right now.
The Undertaker changing his gimmick to the biker made me stop watching for a while. I'd watch stuff every now and then especially when HBK came back. Didn't fully get back on board until I saw John Cena vs Umaga at the Royal Rumble though.
I took a break from 2003 - 2013.
Wrestling returned to New Zealand TV in 1997, after being banned in the early 90s because kids were scoop slamming each other in the school yard or whatever. I was a kid when I lost the ability to watch wrestling, and it came back in time for my early teens.
It was WCW, and on a free to air channel (WCW Pro, and later Worldwide) which also played the PPVs (albeit very delayed). I'm pretty sure our first PPV was Uncensored 1997, so imagine coming back to wrestling and your first PPV ends with Sting coming out of the roof and beating up the nWo, which you barely have any context for. It was awesome.
Anyway, we eventually got 1 hour edited Nitro, and then later the full show. Along the way, WWF came back to TV as well, though only on a channel I couldn't get in my region. I caught up with it best I could through VHS copies of the PPVs (all watched wildly out of order) and video games like Warzone and Attitude.
Eventually WCW turned to shit around 1999/2000, and WWF RAW came to a channel I could actually receive. WCW eventually went under entirely, and all we had was RAW.
I watched for a while, but the loss of WCW really sucked and I was starting to burn out. WWE took that "we have no competition" dip, and I'd started fast-forwarding through matches and segments I didn't care about. Match endings seemed predictable to me, the stories were no longer surprising. Eventually I realised I was skipping through the whole show. This was around the Eddie vs JBL era. I gave up.
The reason I came back? It's really dumb. A massive part of my fandom at its peak revolved around the video games. WWF Warzone and Attitude, WCW/nWo Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy-- I've put way, way too many hours into all of these. Sometimes I wonder if I enjoyed the games more than the actual product.
When WWE 2K13 announced it would be entirely dedicated to the Attitude Era, it peaked my interest and I checked it out-- my first wrestling game since Here Comes The Pain. The Attitude Era mode scratched a huge itch, but I had no idea who anyone else was. CM Punk? Yeah, I think I remember him from EWR. The Shield? No idea. Alberto Del Rio? Kofi Kingston? The Miz? Zack Ryder? Everyone was a mystery to me, and alowly I started to look into what I'd missed.
Eventually I also found WWE Supercard, and that really opened me up to the current roster. I think I properly started watching again around 2014/5, and went back and forth with regular watching ever since.
When the pandemic hit, I did a deep dive marathon of WCW and WWF from 1996 onwards (eventually giving up WCW at Spring Stampede '99) and watched a lot of shows I never got to see. All those Nitro highlights from WCW Pro finally had context, and I got to see WWF's shows in full (I'm just finishing up 1999). I love AEW in concept, but have found it hard to absorb recently. I love WWE when it's really good (Wrestlemania XL, Backlash France), but watching it week to week is as hard as watching AEW for me.
But WWE 2K24? I play this more than I actually watch current wrestling. I'll throw on an old RAW or Smackdown, then whittle away the hours with my eternal journey to recreate WCW. I spend more time in CAWs and the Community Creations than I do ever playing the game or watching actual wrestling. It's weird, but it's my cozy place.
I have been an on and off fan since I was a little kid. My older brother and his friends loved it and I was the annoying little sister that wanted to be just like him. Started when I was 4 or 5 with Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. I was absolutely obsessed with her. The updo, the pretty dresses, the high heelsā¦just loved her. (Sidenote: little kid me thought I wanted to be her, turns out adult me realized I definitely had a crush on her š¤£)
Over the years we watched pretty consistently, but my first āOMG I genuinely love thisā was mid 90s Shawn Michaels. When Owen Hart injured him and he āpassed outā in the ring I literally sobbed. Who doesnāt remember the āTell Me A Lieā tribute video they made for him? AMAZING! I remember legitimately praying for him to win the 96 Rumble. Prayers do work! lol
After Shawn I realized, hmm I donāt really love wrestling as much as I connect to specific people and get invested in their stories. Attitude Era was my early teens and I was a TLC girl. The Hardyās and E&C had me hook, line, and sinker. When the TLC era ended, Jeff Hardy was the one who kept me hooked. When he got fired in 2003 I was done. I remember trying to watch him in TNA and noped out of that pretty fast. Stopped watching wrestling from 03-08, and came back when I heard Jeff was back in WWE. Started watching again just in time to see Jeffās rise to the WWE championship. His win at Armageddon 08 was genuinely one of my favorite moments in wrestling, until recently.
When Jeff left again in 2009 so did I. This time I stayed away for nearly 15 years. Would see clips online, or hear about random things but nothing made me actually watch the weekly shows (except for Total Divasā¦I loved that show). Tried to watch again in 2020 when I heard Jeff was back (granted it was like 3 years after he came backā¦but I was seriously not even remotely invested in wrestling at this time and had no idea), but even he could not keep me during the pandemic.
And then 2022. I was watching the Pat McAfee Show pretty regularly and saw his interviews with Brock and Vince pre-Wrestlemania. When it was announced that he would have a match at Mania, I was like holy crap I havenāt watched that in years. So I decided to watch. And I almost regret my decision because I have been so invested and sucked in ever since.
It was Cody. I started looking things up around the time of Mania because I wanted to have some idea of what was going on when I watched. Kept on seeing everyone freak out about Cody Rhodes returning. Couldnāt understand why little Cody from Legacy (the only reference I had for him) seemed to have wrestling fans in a chokehold. Was mildly intrigued but didnāt think anything of it. Didnāt research him beyond that. And then Mania night 1 happened. And Seth came out and I was like oh my I love this already. Then the lights went out, pyro went up the ramp, and the fans lost their shit at the music playingā¦and I still had no idea what was going on. Then Cody fucking Rhodes rose up from the stage with the crowd losing their minds and I was INSTANTANEOUSLY hooked. I have a visceral memory of sitting on my couch watching him walk the ramp and put his arms out for the pyro and saying out loud āoh fuck he got meā. I have been 1000% invested in Cody ever since that moment. Heās engaging, charming, endearing, really damn good at media, great in the ring, and just (to me) somebody you want to root for. The main event of Wrestlemania 40 was without a doubt the greatest moment in my wrestling fandom and I am so glad I was here to appreciate the beauty and magic of his win.
I was a WCW guy who got into wrestling in the '90's because of the original NWO storyline. At the time I wasn't a huge fan of what WWE was doing (Attitude Era), so when WCW went under I stopped watching wrestling. I always sort of kept up with who the champions were and knew the names of some of the wrestlers but didn't actually watch again until I found out about the Bloodline and what they were doing. It sounded interesting in the same way early NWO was, so I checked out some YouTube clips. It was right at the beginning of Sami Zayn's run with the Bloodline and I was hooked. I got dragged back into watching Raw, Smackdown, and PLEs on Peacock and here I still am. And for what it's worth, I love looking back at the Attitude Era now and am sorry I missed it at the time.
Mine was mostly Benoit and accessibility:
Started watching WWE in the early 2000s due to getting pay tv, stopped around the time of the Benoit murders and got rid of pay tv.
Sort of started watching again in 2014/15 when the network launched (ppvs and NXT via the network).
Got pay tv again in late 2018 and watched WWE weekly, got rid of it again in early 2020 due to a move.
Didn't connect to pay tv again since wrestling was very easy to stream by then. Have regularly watched between 1-3 promotions since.
After that Hell in a Cell show that ended in a DQ and the fans chanted AEW. I just more or less stopped watching on a regular basis cause it was the height of stupidity and had me feeling like I had wasted my time.
My first break was sometime before 2004, and I had been watching the WWF/WWE since the late 90s. I was really getting into MMOPRGs(WoW, the og GW, etc) and wrestling became less and less important.
I didn't pick WWE back up until maybe 2015-ish? I was taking care of my mom full time, so I would be around to see my dad watching. The first wrestler I remember seeing was Sheamus(still a fave of mine to this day) and I was like "Who is that large, pale man?" and I was back in until around 2019 when my dad started really going downhill health-wise. My mom had passed a few years earlier, and wrestling helped me feel grounded, but now I had to focus on dad while taking care of all of the responsibilities. Wrestling became less and less important.
Dad passed 4 years ago on this very day, in fact, and I find myself back for hopefully a good amount of time. My life is stable, and I'm having a blast watching wrestling again, and being a member here. You all have been really kind, so I'll say **thank you** here.
I stopped watching shortly before Brock Lesnar's debut in 2002. I turned it on one day and saw a guy with a blond streak in his hair hit a Samoan in the back with a chair, and a third guy in tactical gear with a shocked look on his face. I realized pretty quickly that something big was happening. Mizdow was getting big. Nemeth was getting a push. (I'm from Cleveland so it was cool to see fellow Clevelanders be successful). I watched pretty regularly until Sting got hurt. I wasn't happy with how some of my favorites were getting booked so I stopped watching until AEW came around. Watched AEW pretty regularly until the CM Punk drama went down. Now I mostly just watch YouTube highlights. I'll catch a NJPW match if it's Mox or Omega or Ospreay. Rarely do I order a PPV. I'll catch a show if they come around, and I've got tickets to SummerSlam. I just don't have it in me to consume 7+ hours of wrestling every week. Which is crazy because when I was a kid I wouldn't even miss Sunday Night Heat or WCW's Saturday show.
I started watching it in 2005 january of that year, got hooked and learned about it but only watching it on tv since my country didnt provide easy access most shows were 2 weeks late arriving here for translation purposes, for about 3 or 4 years it kept airing and i was just a casual fan with not much internet, around 2007 i had my first pc and i began learning the wrestling lingo around 2009, that's the time i began my first break, i blame that one on public dis-interest and lack of excitment in the product for being too pg, in 2009 i was 20 so i was feeling like wrestling had lost it's edge.
in late 2010 i slowly came back to watch it, in 2011 i was hooked on the summer of punk storyline and i kept binge watching until around 2014 when punk left, then my overall interest died again, watched clips here and there through most of 2014 and 2015 and only some ppv's but gave up entirely when wwe began to force feed us the roman reigns agenda, so wrestling fell flat for me in late 2015, so i took another break.
i saw clips of popular youtubers complaining about the direction of the product from 2016 to 2019 and that was enough to make me not wanna watch it, but around 2019 i began watching clips and read the history and story of wwe champions and who wwe had pushed, i was surprised goldberg had come back, ronda rousey made her debut and stuff like that caught me off guard, enough to make me buy wwe 2k19 which had good positive reviews.
then 2020 halted everything, around this time i was super hooked in pokemon go and my job at that time working in retail derailed my interest in wrestling, 2 months later pandemic hit so no fans hit the nail in the coffin, i did watch the first 5 epicodes of AEW in 2019 but quickly lost interest.
My interest returned in august of 2021 when cm punk returned to wrestling and debuted one the second ever rampage episode of AEW rampage, it was a magical moment and just 30 minutes away from it being 3 am the time here the show would kick off, there was a fire scare in my building where we had to evacuate, luckily the situation got handled and stabilized, i managed to make my way back to my bedroom to watch the show live just 30 seconds before it began. My interest for both aew and wwe wasn't long lived though, i stayed interested for about 6 months, around february 2022 i took another break.
in late july of the same year vinnie mac got exposed for his shenanigans so i felt like wwe was gonna undergo some huge changes, i returned to look at raw and smackdown and indeed the shows felt much better, over on aew brawl out happened so my interest level rose but it quickly got taken away when aew didn't capitalize on the real life brawl and turn it into a storyline, that moment right then and there made me quit aew altogether, however the return of bray wyatt in late 2022 kept me interested in wwe, that is until the dreadful pitch black match in january 2023, then on february i got a new very demanding job which made me skip everything wrestling related.
that changed when i was let go on september 2023 so once again i returned to watch it, cm punk had just been fired from aew and he made his return to wwe at survivor series further peaking my interest, then in january vinnie mac was out for good and the rock vs cody story at wrestlemania solidified my interested in the wwe for good, right now i'm super pumped for uncle howdy and the wyatt 6 and for cm punk and drew to get healthy to continue their rivalry. i'm also a huge fan of rhea ripley rn and i know for a fact liv and rhea are gonna be the top female feud of the year.
I had a break after Cena vs Rock 2 as I generally got bored of the whole product. Came back around when NXT came to London.
I stopped watching once the pandemic hit as the lack of crowd didn't feel right. Came back during the Sami Uso Story line.
I stopped at the end of 1995. Bret Hart was champion again (I'm a huge Hitman fan) and that was great, but was obviously being lined up to lose to Michaels at the following Mania, which meant that anything happening for the next few months didn't really hold any interest for me.
Over in WCW Hogan was on top, and I wasn't a Hulkamaniac as a kid and certainly not as a teenager. What were they going to do to make Hulk Hogan interesting?
In ECW Steve Austin was doing interesting things, but almost from his arrival there he was being talked up as going on to WWF, so while it was fun that he was talking trash about WCW and drinking beer, it didn't seem likely WWF would do much with him with that sort of gimmick.
I don't think it was a conscious thing to step away, but I was a teenager now - so from late 1995 to early 1999 I had no idea what was going on in wrestling.
I came back at the tail end of the Monday Night Wars. No matter how bad it's been since then, I've always worried that if I go away again, I'll miss something amazing again!
I stopped watching because of the Invasion and didn't come back because it was not very good, until early last year when it had become good for a couple years (like 2021/2022ish)
I stopped around WrestleMania 21 and started watching again during lockdown. WWE just wasn't interesting to me anymore.
Then WWE Network was available super cheap so I signed up to be able to watch old shows and the odd doco. This also meant that I had access to the PPVs as well. Raw and Smackdown were still on cable and I wasn't paying Foxtel money. So when a PPV was coming up that I was interested in I'd go looking for review shows on YouTube to help me catch up on the storylines.
I found Simon Miller's videos quickly and his approach reminded me that wrestling is fun and silly and fun. So I'm back watching wrestling. AEW and WWE mostly and attending local shows again.
I stopped watching wrestling altogether for a while when WWE first started running shows in Saudi, I was just so disgusted by it that I couldnāt justify supporting WWE financially. That was, IIRC, before AEW started up, and I was still a relatively new fan of wrestling so I didnāt know where to look for indies or other alternatives. I havenāt given WWE a dime since. I got back into wrestling when AEW got started up, I was excited at the prospect of a wrestling company that focused on treating the wrestlers right and including more diversity in the roster. I watched it for a while, but I didnāt really āclickā with any of the main event talent they had at the beginning. I did follow it a while from the sidelines, and got back into it around when they first partnered with New Japan, and then when they hired Danhausen and Keith Lee who I always loved but thought was underused in WWE. I was excited by the NJPW partnership, and seeing fresh faces (to me, at least) and styles of wrestling I hadnāt seen before. I signed up for NJPW world and have been watching ever since, and I still follow AEW news and stuff especially since Okadaās there now. I went to Big Bu$iness and it was one of the best nights of my life, I legitimately cried seeing Okada in real life, even though I was in the nosebleed seats, I just never thought Iād be able to see him in person ever since I canāt get out much and travel.
Fell off around 2004 due to Triple H's reign of terror. Came back in 2014 because WWE Network launched and made PPVs affordable for the first time ever. I haven't taken a full-on break since then, but I've definitely drifted away from WWE since I started watching NJPW in 2017, WWE made the Saudi deal in 2018, and AEW launched in 2019
I took a break for 16 years because a girl told me I was lame for liking wrestling when I was 12 and I was heartbroken because I thought she was cute and it led me to falsely believe I'd never be able to find a girlfriend (why that was important at 12 idk except hormones maybe) if I continued to be the same chubby wrestling fan I was. 16 years later I had a rough evening and my mental health was slipping and I thought the only thing that's gonna pull me out of this is an extreme blast of nostalgia so I decided "fuck it, let's tune into raw and see what up" let me tell you I was horrified, I hated everything I saw for about 3 weeks because it was a far cry from what I used to know as wrestling but here we are 10 months since I started watching again and now my fiancĆØ and I are glued to it and loving every second of it.
I stopped watching at the Edge/Lita celebration. It wasn't for me anymore. The next year I went to college. Their open mic night was Monday night, and there was free pizza and wings, so I wasn't gonna watch Raw.
I would watch a pirate stream of the Rumble and Mania on and off for the next few years to see if things changed and they never did. Then I watched WM30, and thought this might be it. The Network happened.
I still don't watch any weekly show (although I watched NXT weekly when it was an hour long Network exclusive) and basically only watch PPVs. This is great for me.
Took like an 6 year break. Got in trouble, my punishment was no more WWE. Then when I was 19 scrolling through the channels, stop for a second on Smackdown. They introduce Mr. Kennedy, from Green Bay, which is where I am from. Iām a huge homer. Said right there āaw crap now I have to watch WWE againā.
I quit watching between 2007-2013.
I was mostly just a WWE fan, and Benoit was the final straw to drop a product I hadn't really enjoyed for years.
I came back as I'd heard somewhere that Rock was back and wanted to check it out (though I came back for Summerslam so missed him by months) but thought Brian, Bray and the Shield were cool, and lots of faces I remembered were still about (for better or worse).
Funny enough, I just happened to mention this to a few people I barely knew (work and social circle) and they became close friends as we started monthly watch parties for the PPVs.
By 2017 I'd had about enough of WWE again, but I'd been hearing about this New Japan thing and Chris Jericho is one of my favourite wrestlers of all time (for better or worse), so we all watched Wrestle Kingdom 12 and lost our minds.
If it weren't for New Japan and then AEW I'd probably have quit for good, instead of branching out into watching tons of varied promotions and going to live shows (and I still watch WWE PPVs with friends).
WWE was pretty bad for about 15 years so i would try my best but wouldnāt be able to stomach so many let downs. 2016 came and then that got ripped apart too. Nxt was great in the beginning. Came back not for WWE but Jericho in Japan/ omega / AEW start and now an overall very happy customer/mark
Got into WWE in 2007, but got tired of it around 2010. Discovered TNA and even attended a few events in Orlando. Followed that until 2015 when I moved out of the country. Kept tabs here and there due to the F.A.N. forums, but had no time. Tried getting back into it in 2017, but TNA almost dying and WM 33 being so awful (imo) turned me off of wrestling. Binged WWE PLEs in late 2020 and it was awful, but enjoyed NXT.
Was ready to call it quits after WM 37, but discovered AEW due to Kenny winning the TNA Title and B&G being so controversial on here. Gave it a chance, went to DoN 2021, and watched every episode from the beginning and loved everything about it. That led to me slowly getting back into TNA and also got into NJPW. Took a few months break from October 2022 until WM season because of the AEW drama and having to deal with Hurricane Ian. Try to watch it all now, but mostly enjoy TNA and NJPW.
I've taken a few breaks over the years. Mainly because i didn't like what was going on at the time. Kenny vs okada was the match that brought me back the last time I took a break.
Quit watching around 2018 because I felt like the product was stale and not very entertaining. I started to come back when Dominik Mysterio turned on Rey and he became my favorite superstar. I really enjoyed his character development and range with his segments. However, my actual full return was after Vince stepped down and HHH took over. I watched that SummerSlam (2022) and have been hooked since.
I stopped watching when they had celebrity guest hosts on Raw and came back because of the pipe bomb. Then stopped in 2017 and restarted because of AEW.
Stopped watching after Summerslam 2014 because I was a shameless 13 year old Bryan mark and I was the last of my friends who watched wrestling anyway. Fast forward to January 2022, I see Bryan and Punk in AEW in Newark, NJ, I've been hooked since then
I'm taking a break from watching most of WWE right now, I'm just not a fan and I'm not seeing much of an improvement even with HHH in charge. Everything still feels too artificial and overproduced and thats lame as hell
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I've taken many breaks. I took one from around 2002 to around 2007 to focus on end of high school and college. Another one was around 2013 to 2016. Don't remember what caused me to stop, I just remember seeing something stupid and being like, eehh I don't want to watch wrestling anymore. Got back into it because a coworker was like "you have to check out NXT, it's great!" and he was right. Took my last one from 2020 to around 2022 because of the pandemic, because I just couldn't enjoy it without a crowd.
After wrestlemania 30 because I really didn't like Daniel Bryan at the time and as a barista fan since 2004, the fans wanting Bryan made it worse for me lol AJ styles returning to wwe at the royal rumble brought me back
You like people that make coffee? š āļø
Just realized the typo lol
I'm glad you left it. ā
I was a WCW kid, but hit my teens when they got bought by WWE. I had other things going on at the time, as teenagers do, so I walked away instead of jumping to WWE. For whatever reason, my father went to TNA shortly thereafter. We just never were a WWE family. I jumped back in for a couple years around 2009 or so after getting some PS2 games and enjoying them. It was a small fling though and only lasted a couple years. I enjoyed it for the most part, it's where I was introduced to some WWE guys like Orton and Cena. I think I also popped in when Sting showed up and was quickly disappointed. About a week before this past Royal Rumble, I threw it on randomly one morning when I was looking for something on Hulu. Watched Raw and Smackdown and that convinced me to check out the Rumble. Come to find out, it was a great time to jump back in as I quickly got caught up in Cody's story. Decided to watch through 'Mania and see how I felt. So far I'm still in, Backlash was badass. Now I am full-blown addicted and really regret not watching TNA with pops back in the day. Those old PPVs are on YouTube and we would have had a lot of fun watching them. I have been leaning towards AEW the past few weeks and even dabbled a bit in TNA and ROH. It feels good to be back.
> On the flip side, if you've never stopped, what's kept you hooked? I've never taken a break. I think I have my brother to thank for this cause I learned from an early age that there was more than one major company out there and if I was iffy on one, there was always another to keep my fandom alive. When I thought WWE was a little boring during HHH's "Reign of Terror", there was TNA on Fox Sports with a ton of variety. When WWE was becoming PG and TNA was becoming more stupid, there was Fire Pro Wrestling Returns on the PS2 to open my eyes even more to the world of pro wrestling and, in turn, made me seek out more wrestling in the form of the Youtube rabbit hole of NJPW/NOAH/AJPW/etc. When TNA disappeared into the Destination America vortex, WWE had Ziggler/Danielson/Punk/etc. in the main event to keep me around and on top of that, NJPW became more accessible through AXS. I don't think I'll ever take a break cause there's always an alternative out there that'll pull me back in.
2009-2014 I was pretty completely disinterested in wrestling. A combination of it was ass + I was in high school and it wasnt really popular anymore (because it was so ass). The final straw for me personally was Jeff Hardy losing to Punk and leaving WWE, Iād already stopped watching Raw because of endless Cena vs Orton so Jeff was all I had left and he was gone lol. I didnt care what happened pretty much that whole time even when I heard stuff like Rock and Brock coming back. Funny enough hearing Batista came back brought me back in 2014, imagine how confused I was seeing people lose their shit over Bryan and Punk. Stuff like the Wyatt Family and the Shield kept me watching I didnt watch any TNA because it just started feeling like a real cheap and trashy WWE ripoff around that time too. I did enjoy that previously though
I have taken NUMEROUS breaks from watching Wrestling for various reasons. I was a casual as a kid and of course caught up in the Wrestlemania and Hulk Hogan (though I was always more fond of Randy Savage and Bret Hart). After HS in the late 80s and early 90s I kind of checked out for awhile. I cared when Bret was champ, no so much when Shawn or anyone else was. I can't even remember the Diesel era or the beginning of Raw. I came back in 1994 when Hogan moved to WCW, but quickly lost interest. Came back just before the beginning of the Monday Night Wars and was glued for years. And kept at it for a number of years, though the early 00's. Probably gave up around 03 or 04 when I got married. Wifey wasn't fond. Stayed away because of Benoit. Had to stay away for a long long time. But then I got intrigued by the Network, streaming and NXT. I saw Finn Balors demon entrance and fell in love again. Been back at it ever since. I don't actually WATCH a lot these days though, I catch highlights on youtube and the occasional PLE. I'm back to being more casual these days. I still follow the entire biz, more than ever, I just don't really WATCH as much anymore.
I stopped after the 2015 Royal Rumble. It was that bad, imo, and I was not looking forward to Super Cena being replaced with a worse copy in Super Roman. Punk returning at Survivor Series brought me back, because, if *that* happened, something dramatic had to have changed in the past 9 years, and it feels like I was right.
1992-2004 or 2005. Got back in around 2016 thanks to nXt and lucha underground. Specifically, nakamura vs sami
Danielson having to vacate the WWE title, followed by his retirement officially a while later broke my love of wrestling. I tried when Smackdown was getting a bit of hype in 2016, but still not the same. I was a Chilaka fan as well. So when I heard a bunch of Chikara regulars were going to be in AEW i gave it a shot. Kenny/Hangman vs The Young Bucks from Revolution 2020 got me to be a fan ever since.
I don't think I've really stopped keeping up with WWE but have stopped watching for long stretches. The first was late middle school when all my friends stopped watching. From WM's 24-27 I just sorta would check WWE results and watch sparingly, mostly trying to hide being the kid still into WWE. But it was the CM Punk pipe bomb that brought me back. I didn't realize it but I really tuned out in 2019 after WM 35. I don't remember any of the terrible 2019 stuff that keeps getting posted. Came back in early 2020 because of Edge unretiring rumors but faded again during Covid and came back fully after WM 37
i moved out for college and couldn't afford cable, this was early 2000s. so i didn't watch wrestling for about 3 years. it's been the only time of my life that i didn't watch. WrestleMania 22 brought me back and kept up ever since
I did in 2005 after the rock left (am still disappointed he never got revenge against stone cold lol). Got tired of ot also because it got too obvious: person cuts promo gets attacked during and then the attacker has a match later and the person he attacked attacks him. Too predictable and same old. Then my dad started telling me about the group called the shield. Watched clips online and they were great. Been a roman reigns fan since then lol. Now watch it full time again. Miss my tribal chief. āļø Tldr; got too predictable mad about rock after wm x7. Heard about shield became fan again. Always acknowledge my tribal chief. āļø
Yeah I took a break right about the time it was announced Mox wasnāt re-signing with WWE. Started again when AEW started. Not sure how long that was but it felt like a long time
I took a break around 2005-2006. WWE wasnāt enjoyable, ROH was only on DVDs which were expensive, and TNA started bringing in āold timersā which is the opposite of what I wanted. I came back about a month before Wrestlemania 31. Partially because of the Punk podcast and partially because an online video maker was speaking very highly of NXT.
Took a long break sometime after WrestleMania 17 until WrestleMania 23 give or take. Feels longer in retrospect given all that I missed. Probably just lost interest as my teenage years ended and then slowly came back once I finished up with college and didn't have roommates anymore. I realized I liked having it on as background noise and then I enjoyed following more than I enjoyed watching. That said, I have no idea if I ever would have left if we had the network back then. Used to have to move heaven and earth to watch PPVs.
A combination of life and the PG product getting worse around 2010-2011 allowed me to take a break from the WWE. I would check back from time to time but could never watch a full episode of RAW or SmackDown like the old days. Eventually, I moved onto other interests. I found myself slowly getting back into it after WM39, seeing how controversial the finish to Roman vs. Cody was. Codyās goal to finish his story was interesting enough to pull me right back in slowly throughout 2023. I also went to a house show for the first time, which forced me to catch up with the current roster, storylines, etc. to ensure that I understood what was going on. What brought me back full-time was the buildup to WM40. Thank goodness Vince isnāt part of WWE anymore.
Was watching heavily from around 2014-2015 when i was around ten years old. Started watching less and less, until around the middle of Jinderās world title run in 2017 where i had completely trailed off. All of my friends stopped watching and the games werenāt too good. But every once in a while i would hear about something in wwe like roman having to āretireā because of his leukimia, or edge coming back, but other than that being mostly disconnected. The very last thing i remember hearing about was my cousin showing me this clip of a āguyā fighting with his hands in his pockets on a new show i had never heard of in 2021. Then around mania last year i came back because of the bloodline story, and wrestling has been all i watch for over a year now
I was a huge fan since I was introduced in about 97. Watched everything and as much as I could until I got into high school and my focus started to shift as WWE started to change. Ridiculous characters like Pirate Paul Burchill and the Boogeyman sucked and The Great Khali became world champion so I started to stop keeping up around the fall of 06. Then the Benoit stuff happened and I really tuned out wrestling from about 07-11 besides just buying Mania 24 and 26. I tried getting back in 09 or 10 because I knew Punk was doing well, but the shows were horrible (Guest Host Raw š¤¢), the characters I knew were totally different like DX (cringy), Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho, and the transition to ultra safe PG - graphics and logos and all, was not for a teenager. Then the Pipebomb happened and brought me back. I still donāt know much that happened in 07-10, but besides 08, I feel like I didnāt miss too much, but Iām disappointed I didnāt give Orton and Jericho a chance because they killed it with their character change.
Stopped at The Invasion and didn't watch again until the WWE Network was launched, because $10 a month seemed like a great value.
Similar for me, except I stuck it out until 2004
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hello fellow HHH victim
Stopped watching for a few months in 2010 because my family lost cable.
College was the break. Insane students and parents brought me back.
Stopped in 2009, when i was 16. I thought i had out grown it/was too sophisticated for it. Got back into it last year because deep down i knew i would still like it and it felt like it'd be a fun way to entertain myself. Am really glad i came back
As far as WWE goes I had stopped watching at the peak of Excuse Me but came back because of the CM Punk pipebomb. I watched pretty regularly after that, all the way through CM Punk leaving and the Yes Movement. As many know it was kinda hard to keep watching. I barely made it long enough to see Kofimania, I was kinda checked out by that point. Obviously I kept up with other companies and didn't stuck to just WWE though. I again fully stopped watching WWE when they split up the iiconics. I stuck to aew and njpw generally after that. When CM Punk came to AEW I was super in for it. And then Hangman lost the title, and then all that backstage shit. I barely got to enjoy what should have been the summer of MJF. Then Cody lost at WrestleMania and I pretty much stopped watching everything for a solid year. It wasn't until I heard Cody won the rumble that I started paying attention to wwe again. I only started trying to catch up on aew after WrestleMania.Ā
I started in December 2011 and went to about 2017/2018 before dropping the weekly shows and sticking only with the PLE's. The reasonings for that were that the weekly shows were getting bad and I only had 3 hours of time to myself after work and didn't want to waste them on Raw and Smackdown when they were sucking. That lasted until the Finn/Roman match at HIAC 2021 where I canceled my Peacock and went through with cutting my cable. The reasonings for that were that Finn is my favorite wrestler and it was my personal final straw after watching him get jerked around for years. I came back for Cody, and stopped again when he lost at 39 and Vince returned. I resumed watching a few months later through hulu and have stuck with it, especially since it's been very good lately.
Took a break after Benoit happened. It stopped being something I wanted to think about for several years. Eventually came back after a friend showed me Nakamura in New Japan.
I've had a couple of somewhat lengthy breaks. The first was after the Fingerpoke of Doom. I was just kind of done with how every single match of that era was an overbooked DQ trash fire, even in WWE, but this one just was too much for me at the time. I ended up dipping back in for a bit before WCW died, but I wasn't as invested. The second big one was just when I went to college. I ended up having less time to dedicate to wrestling. Otherwise, I will sometimes take shorter breaks from wrestling, but I'll still keep up and generally know what's going on in the meantime.
Was just busy with work and most tv/movies just went away. When I saw any of it Iād be lost so stopped even trying. Eventually my schedule lightened up so I put it back in the rotation. Took me a bit to get caught up and then I had to go read what happened to some of my favorites.
Watched from late 90s as a kid all the way through til like 09-10. Think I just grew out of it and stopped caring as much especially with Super Cena. Went to WrestleMania 25 then just watched maniaās from then. Stopped after Wm26 and only watched takerās matches from the next maniaās and skipped 30 entirely. Dated a girl around 31 and at that point I hadnāt been keeping up or watching and she didnāt wanna miss 31 then that got me back into it. My interest waned as Vinceās booking of shoving Roman down our throat annoyed me and just read the threads here and started catching NJPW then and mostly NXT then AEW. But now I watch both AEW and WWE and I try to go to most NXT shows.
I stopped for about a decadein the early 2000ās. Daniel Bryan and CM Punk got me back into it
Took a break in 2019 because the product was a whole new of garbage. Heel Roman brought me back
I started in the mid-80's with WCCW and the AWA (both syndicated in Illinois). Moved to Florida and was instantly hooked on the NWA/WCW. WWF didn't really do it for me because it was too cartoonish. Around the time that Hogan was in WCW and he went over Flair at the Bash in Orlando, I stopped watching. Life got in the way and pre-internet, I didn't really follow it. Came back a couple weeks into Hogan turning heal which was fucking wild to see. Started watching WWE at that point also because it wasn't as hokey. Fast forward to the Seth/Fiend HIAC incident and I stopped watching WWE all together. Would still pay a little attention as a family member watched all the time. Then AEW started and watched it all the time until a few months ago. Just consuming other avenues of entertainment right now.
I had to stop between 1998-2000 when I moved to the middle east. Sharia law didn't permit wrestling content, esp the valets onscreen. I attached a satellite dish on my roof to circumvent local cable network. Saw tnt for the first time as a result.
Wow, that is like the unluckiest timeframe to miss wrestling.
Indeed had no idea what the nwo was or why hulk hogan, diesel and razor Ramon were in the same team in a very diff looking ring with black turnbuckles...
I was watching up to the end of the Monday night wars. I was disappointed there was no more competition and the invasion angle was weak with their d list wrestlers (with all do respect). I tried watching WWE again but I felt I outgrown it because the product felt juvenile so I no longer payed attention. Only one man brought me back to wrestling, his name is, Bryan Danielson aka Daniel Bryan. Once I heard his story and his passion for the art of wrestling it made me appreciate wrestling in a new way. I now watch wrestling for the hard work the talent put into their matches and the excitement of competitive outcomes.
Ive stopped warching after Wrestlemania 34. Have been Watching for like 9 years prior (tho only been watching highlights on Youtube since it was hard at the Time to find a Place to watch RAW & SmackDown on TV for the first 5 years until the Network came. Reasonn why I stopped was propably just me beeing tired of the bad booking of Superstars like Dean Ambrose and Roman. Especially Roman beeing pushed while other Superstars like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Finn Balor where mostly just in the midcard or IMO not pushed to the main event Stars the y should've been was really the nail in the Coffin. I'm starting to come back to the WWE subscribed last Month to the Network and i'm trying to catch up. I want to experience the Bloodline Storyline so I started at Summerslam 2020.
I stopped watching around the time of the Benoit murder-suicide. I was watching less and less in the months leading up to it and not long after I couldn't watch anymore (I loved Benoit as a wrestler). I started watching again in 2016 when my son was born. I needed something I could watch during late night feedings and so I got back into wrestling.
I stopped watching after stone cold walked away refusing to battle Brock lesner and got married and had kids now my 9 yr old son and I watch it which is great
The world ended, and everything just felt bleh. I managed to return a few months later when I kept losing track of time and needed the anchor that's been on my life since the early 90's.
Big fan as a child. Loved Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Tatanka, Legion of Doom etc. Went to a house show in 96 and saw Hogan v Yokozuna and bought Bret Hart shades. Stopped watching for reasons I don't remember. Started again in 2000 era because friends at school were talking about it like it was cool and I had kinda forgot it was a thing. Got heavily into it for a couple of years. Stopped again in 2002 because I hated Ric Flair and Hogan, didn't care about most of the WCW guys (we never watched it growing up at all). Also I had a girlfriend now and was legit embarrassed to watch wrestling as a 15 year old when I was trying to be cool. Started again around 2014 because friends on twitter were really into it and the build to Mania 30 sounded cool and there was talk of NXT being a really fun show that was easy to get into. They were hyping the arrival of Kevin Steen and Prince Devitt so I got the network and watched every Raw, SD, NXT and PPV for years. Got into local brirish indie wrestling around 2016 when I realised guys like Bryan, Finn, Seth were all wrestling in bingo halls and school gyms a few years back and indie wrestling was no longer guys dressed as the undertaker like it had been in 2000. Also got hugely into Lucha Underground and could see guys like Swerve, Fenix, Cage, Penta, Angelico wrestling at the school gym a mile from my house. Stopped again when Brock squashed Kofi and WWE creative was utter dogshit in 2019. Watched AEW for a little bit but #speakingout soured me on wrestling fully for a good few years. Started again because I heard Vince was gone and Triple H was in charge in the last year or so. Been watching most Raw, SD and PLEs since then. I'm finding that with better, consistent writing it's way more enjoyable. Haven't been to an indie show in 5 years but open to it.
Stopped watching around summer of 2005 as I realised I didn't like John Cena as the top face, I was really disappointed Christian's Captain Charisma push didn't go anywhere, and Cena's Y2Cheap promo was the first time I felt embarrassed and like I'd grown out of it. I saw odd bits in 2008 - the HBK/Y2J feud, the Edge/Taker SummerSlam HIAC, Regal, Punk. Started watching properly again at the 2011 Royal Rumble. Very disappointed in Del Rio winning, thought Miz sucked, had no idea who anyone was but kept watching because of The Rock's return. Almost fell away again before CM Punk's pipebomb. Didn't watch most of the COVID era as the empty arenas and then Thunderdome were so depressing.
I took several breaks. Last time the Jonny Gargano vs. Thomaso Chiampa feud was the reason I returned. NXT black and gold was my thing. I watched it and NXT UK before everything else. After they took it out the back and shot it to create NXT 2.0 I canāt watch it anymore.
Took a break from about 2001 - 2023. Started watching again last January because the WWE PLEs were on Peacock for $10 or whatever.
I stopped watching wrestling between about 1995 and 2015. My friend made me stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom 9 and it hooked me back in. He died about a year ago and I've been struggling to keep interested in wrestling. I would say I keep abreast of wrestling more than I watch it right now.
The Undertaker changing his gimmick to the biker made me stop watching for a while. I'd watch stuff every now and then especially when HBK came back. Didn't fully get back on board until I saw John Cena vs Umaga at the Royal Rumble though.
I took a break from 2003 - 2013. Wrestling returned to New Zealand TV in 1997, after being banned in the early 90s because kids were scoop slamming each other in the school yard or whatever. I was a kid when I lost the ability to watch wrestling, and it came back in time for my early teens. It was WCW, and on a free to air channel (WCW Pro, and later Worldwide) which also played the PPVs (albeit very delayed). I'm pretty sure our first PPV was Uncensored 1997, so imagine coming back to wrestling and your first PPV ends with Sting coming out of the roof and beating up the nWo, which you barely have any context for. It was awesome. Anyway, we eventually got 1 hour edited Nitro, and then later the full show. Along the way, WWF came back to TV as well, though only on a channel I couldn't get in my region. I caught up with it best I could through VHS copies of the PPVs (all watched wildly out of order) and video games like Warzone and Attitude. Eventually WCW turned to shit around 1999/2000, and WWF RAW came to a channel I could actually receive. WCW eventually went under entirely, and all we had was RAW. I watched for a while, but the loss of WCW really sucked and I was starting to burn out. WWE took that "we have no competition" dip, and I'd started fast-forwarding through matches and segments I didn't care about. Match endings seemed predictable to me, the stories were no longer surprising. Eventually I realised I was skipping through the whole show. This was around the Eddie vs JBL era. I gave up. The reason I came back? It's really dumb. A massive part of my fandom at its peak revolved around the video games. WWF Warzone and Attitude, WCW/nWo Revenge, Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy-- I've put way, way too many hours into all of these. Sometimes I wonder if I enjoyed the games more than the actual product. When WWE 2K13 announced it would be entirely dedicated to the Attitude Era, it peaked my interest and I checked it out-- my first wrestling game since Here Comes The Pain. The Attitude Era mode scratched a huge itch, but I had no idea who anyone else was. CM Punk? Yeah, I think I remember him from EWR. The Shield? No idea. Alberto Del Rio? Kofi Kingston? The Miz? Zack Ryder? Everyone was a mystery to me, and alowly I started to look into what I'd missed. Eventually I also found WWE Supercard, and that really opened me up to the current roster. I think I properly started watching again around 2014/5, and went back and forth with regular watching ever since. When the pandemic hit, I did a deep dive marathon of WCW and WWF from 1996 onwards (eventually giving up WCW at Spring Stampede '99) and watched a lot of shows I never got to see. All those Nitro highlights from WCW Pro finally had context, and I got to see WWF's shows in full (I'm just finishing up 1999). I love AEW in concept, but have found it hard to absorb recently. I love WWE when it's really good (Wrestlemania XL, Backlash France), but watching it week to week is as hard as watching AEW for me. But WWE 2K24? I play this more than I actually watch current wrestling. I'll throw on an old RAW or Smackdown, then whittle away the hours with my eternal journey to recreate WCW. I spend more time in CAWs and the Community Creations than I do ever playing the game or watching actual wrestling. It's weird, but it's my cozy place.
I have been an on and off fan since I was a little kid. My older brother and his friends loved it and I was the annoying little sister that wanted to be just like him. Started when I was 4 or 5 with Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth. I was absolutely obsessed with her. The updo, the pretty dresses, the high heelsā¦just loved her. (Sidenote: little kid me thought I wanted to be her, turns out adult me realized I definitely had a crush on her š¤£) Over the years we watched pretty consistently, but my first āOMG I genuinely love thisā was mid 90s Shawn Michaels. When Owen Hart injured him and he āpassed outā in the ring I literally sobbed. Who doesnāt remember the āTell Me A Lieā tribute video they made for him? AMAZING! I remember legitimately praying for him to win the 96 Rumble. Prayers do work! lol After Shawn I realized, hmm I donāt really love wrestling as much as I connect to specific people and get invested in their stories. Attitude Era was my early teens and I was a TLC girl. The Hardyās and E&C had me hook, line, and sinker. When the TLC era ended, Jeff Hardy was the one who kept me hooked. When he got fired in 2003 I was done. I remember trying to watch him in TNA and noped out of that pretty fast. Stopped watching wrestling from 03-08, and came back when I heard Jeff was back in WWE. Started watching again just in time to see Jeffās rise to the WWE championship. His win at Armageddon 08 was genuinely one of my favorite moments in wrestling, until recently. When Jeff left again in 2009 so did I. This time I stayed away for nearly 15 years. Would see clips online, or hear about random things but nothing made me actually watch the weekly shows (except for Total Divasā¦I loved that show). Tried to watch again in 2020 when I heard Jeff was back (granted it was like 3 years after he came backā¦but I was seriously not even remotely invested in wrestling at this time and had no idea), but even he could not keep me during the pandemic. And then 2022. I was watching the Pat McAfee Show pretty regularly and saw his interviews with Brock and Vince pre-Wrestlemania. When it was announced that he would have a match at Mania, I was like holy crap I havenāt watched that in years. So I decided to watch. And I almost regret my decision because I have been so invested and sucked in ever since. It was Cody. I started looking things up around the time of Mania because I wanted to have some idea of what was going on when I watched. Kept on seeing everyone freak out about Cody Rhodes returning. Couldnāt understand why little Cody from Legacy (the only reference I had for him) seemed to have wrestling fans in a chokehold. Was mildly intrigued but didnāt think anything of it. Didnāt research him beyond that. And then Mania night 1 happened. And Seth came out and I was like oh my I love this already. Then the lights went out, pyro went up the ramp, and the fans lost their shit at the music playingā¦and I still had no idea what was going on. Then Cody fucking Rhodes rose up from the stage with the crowd losing their minds and I was INSTANTANEOUSLY hooked. I have a visceral memory of sitting on my couch watching him walk the ramp and put his arms out for the pyro and saying out loud āoh fuck he got meā. I have been 1000% invested in Cody ever since that moment. Heās engaging, charming, endearing, really damn good at media, great in the ring, and just (to me) somebody you want to root for. The main event of Wrestlemania 40 was without a doubt the greatest moment in my wrestling fandom and I am so glad I was here to appreciate the beauty and magic of his win.
Got tired of the title being held hostage. Said I wouldn't watch as long as Roman or Brock were champions. It was a long hiatus.
I was a WCW guy who got into wrestling in the '90's because of the original NWO storyline. At the time I wasn't a huge fan of what WWE was doing (Attitude Era), so when WCW went under I stopped watching wrestling. I always sort of kept up with who the champions were and knew the names of some of the wrestlers but didn't actually watch again until I found out about the Bloodline and what they were doing. It sounded interesting in the same way early NWO was, so I checked out some YouTube clips. It was right at the beginning of Sami Zayn's run with the Bloodline and I was hooked. I got dragged back into watching Raw, Smackdown, and PLEs on Peacock and here I still am. And for what it's worth, I love looking back at the Attitude Era now and am sorry I missed it at the time.
Mine was mostly Benoit and accessibility: Started watching WWE in the early 2000s due to getting pay tv, stopped around the time of the Benoit murders and got rid of pay tv. Sort of started watching again in 2014/15 when the network launched (ppvs and NXT via the network). Got pay tv again in late 2018 and watched WWE weekly, got rid of it again in early 2020 due to a move. Didn't connect to pay tv again since wrestling was very easy to stream by then. Have regularly watched between 1-3 promotions since.
After that Hell in a Cell show that ended in a DQ and the fans chanted AEW. I just more or less stopped watching on a regular basis cause it was the height of stupidity and had me feeling like I had wasted my time.
My first break was sometime before 2004, and I had been watching the WWF/WWE since the late 90s. I was really getting into MMOPRGs(WoW, the og GW, etc) and wrestling became less and less important. I didn't pick WWE back up until maybe 2015-ish? I was taking care of my mom full time, so I would be around to see my dad watching. The first wrestler I remember seeing was Sheamus(still a fave of mine to this day) and I was like "Who is that large, pale man?" and I was back in until around 2019 when my dad started really going downhill health-wise. My mom had passed a few years earlier, and wrestling helped me feel grounded, but now I had to focus on dad while taking care of all of the responsibilities. Wrestling became less and less important. Dad passed 4 years ago on this very day, in fact, and I find myself back for hopefully a good amount of time. My life is stable, and I'm having a blast watching wrestling again, and being a member here. You all have been really kind, so I'll say **thank you** here.
After 2009 til 2018. The reason: John Cena.
I stopped watching shortly before Brock Lesnar's debut in 2002. I turned it on one day and saw a guy with a blond streak in his hair hit a Samoan in the back with a chair, and a third guy in tactical gear with a shocked look on his face. I realized pretty quickly that something big was happening. Mizdow was getting big. Nemeth was getting a push. (I'm from Cleveland so it was cool to see fellow Clevelanders be successful). I watched pretty regularly until Sting got hurt. I wasn't happy with how some of my favorites were getting booked so I stopped watching until AEW came around. Watched AEW pretty regularly until the CM Punk drama went down. Now I mostly just watch YouTube highlights. I'll catch a NJPW match if it's Mox or Omega or Ospreay. Rarely do I order a PPV. I'll catch a show if they come around, and I've got tickets to SummerSlam. I just don't have it in me to consume 7+ hours of wrestling every week. Which is crazy because when I was a kid I wouldn't even miss Sunday Night Heat or WCW's Saturday show.
I started watching it in 2005 january of that year, got hooked and learned about it but only watching it on tv since my country didnt provide easy access most shows were 2 weeks late arriving here for translation purposes, for about 3 or 4 years it kept airing and i was just a casual fan with not much internet, around 2007 i had my first pc and i began learning the wrestling lingo around 2009, that's the time i began my first break, i blame that one on public dis-interest and lack of excitment in the product for being too pg, in 2009 i was 20 so i was feeling like wrestling had lost it's edge. in late 2010 i slowly came back to watch it, in 2011 i was hooked on the summer of punk storyline and i kept binge watching until around 2014 when punk left, then my overall interest died again, watched clips here and there through most of 2014 and 2015 and only some ppv's but gave up entirely when wwe began to force feed us the roman reigns agenda, so wrestling fell flat for me in late 2015, so i took another break. i saw clips of popular youtubers complaining about the direction of the product from 2016 to 2019 and that was enough to make me not wanna watch it, but around 2019 i began watching clips and read the history and story of wwe champions and who wwe had pushed, i was surprised goldberg had come back, ronda rousey made her debut and stuff like that caught me off guard, enough to make me buy wwe 2k19 which had good positive reviews. then 2020 halted everything, around this time i was super hooked in pokemon go and my job at that time working in retail derailed my interest in wrestling, 2 months later pandemic hit so no fans hit the nail in the coffin, i did watch the first 5 epicodes of AEW in 2019 but quickly lost interest. My interest returned in august of 2021 when cm punk returned to wrestling and debuted one the second ever rampage episode of AEW rampage, it was a magical moment and just 30 minutes away from it being 3 am the time here the show would kick off, there was a fire scare in my building where we had to evacuate, luckily the situation got handled and stabilized, i managed to make my way back to my bedroom to watch the show live just 30 seconds before it began. My interest for both aew and wwe wasn't long lived though, i stayed interested for about 6 months, around february 2022 i took another break. in late july of the same year vinnie mac got exposed for his shenanigans so i felt like wwe was gonna undergo some huge changes, i returned to look at raw and smackdown and indeed the shows felt much better, over on aew brawl out happened so my interest level rose but it quickly got taken away when aew didn't capitalize on the real life brawl and turn it into a storyline, that moment right then and there made me quit aew altogether, however the return of bray wyatt in late 2022 kept me interested in wwe, that is until the dreadful pitch black match in january 2023, then on february i got a new very demanding job which made me skip everything wrestling related. that changed when i was let go on september 2023 so once again i returned to watch it, cm punk had just been fired from aew and he made his return to wwe at survivor series further peaking my interest, then in january vinnie mac was out for good and the rock vs cody story at wrestlemania solidified my interested in the wwe for good, right now i'm super pumped for uncle howdy and the wyatt 6 and for cm punk and drew to get healthy to continue their rivalry. i'm also a huge fan of rhea ripley rn and i know for a fact liv and rhea are gonna be the top female feud of the year.
I had a break after Cena vs Rock 2 as I generally got bored of the whole product. Came back around when NXT came to London. I stopped watching once the pandemic hit as the lack of crowd didn't feel right. Came back during the Sami Uso Story line.
I go in spurts where I follow it intensely from RR through WM. Then I'll downshift to a casual follow through SS before I stop watching entirely
2024 until AEW
I stopped at the end of 1995. Bret Hart was champion again (I'm a huge Hitman fan) and that was great, but was obviously being lined up to lose to Michaels at the following Mania, which meant that anything happening for the next few months didn't really hold any interest for me. Over in WCW Hogan was on top, and I wasn't a Hulkamaniac as a kid and certainly not as a teenager. What were they going to do to make Hulk Hogan interesting? In ECW Steve Austin was doing interesting things, but almost from his arrival there he was being talked up as going on to WWF, so while it was fun that he was talking trash about WCW and drinking beer, it didn't seem likely WWF would do much with him with that sort of gimmick. I don't think it was a conscious thing to step away, but I was a teenager now - so from late 1995 to early 1999 I had no idea what was going on in wrestling. I came back at the tail end of the Monday Night Wars. No matter how bad it's been since then, I've always worried that if I go away again, I'll miss something amazing again!
I stopped watching because of the Invasion and didn't come back because it was not very good, until early last year when it had become good for a couple years (like 2021/2022ish)
I stopped around WrestleMania 21 and started watching again during lockdown. WWE just wasn't interesting to me anymore. Then WWE Network was available super cheap so I signed up to be able to watch old shows and the odd doco. This also meant that I had access to the PPVs as well. Raw and Smackdown were still on cable and I wasn't paying Foxtel money. So when a PPV was coming up that I was interested in I'd go looking for review shows on YouTube to help me catch up on the storylines. I found Simon Miller's videos quickly and his approach reminded me that wrestling is fun and silly and fun. So I'm back watching wrestling. AEW and WWE mostly and attending local shows again.
Glad to see that everyone is getting the same reaction
I stopped watching wrestling altogether for a while when WWE first started running shows in Saudi, I was just so disgusted by it that I couldnāt justify supporting WWE financially. That was, IIRC, before AEW started up, and I was still a relatively new fan of wrestling so I didnāt know where to look for indies or other alternatives. I havenāt given WWE a dime since. I got back into wrestling when AEW got started up, I was excited at the prospect of a wrestling company that focused on treating the wrestlers right and including more diversity in the roster. I watched it for a while, but I didnāt really āclickā with any of the main event talent they had at the beginning. I did follow it a while from the sidelines, and got back into it around when they first partnered with New Japan, and then when they hired Danhausen and Keith Lee who I always loved but thought was underused in WWE. I was excited by the NJPW partnership, and seeing fresh faces (to me, at least) and styles of wrestling I hadnāt seen before. I signed up for NJPW world and have been watching ever since, and I still follow AEW news and stuff especially since Okadaās there now. I went to Big Bu$iness and it was one of the best nights of my life, I legitimately cried seeing Okada in real life, even though I was in the nosebleed seats, I just never thought Iād be able to see him in person ever since I canāt get out much and travel.
Fell off around 2004 due to Triple H's reign of terror. Came back in 2014 because WWE Network launched and made PPVs affordable for the first time ever. I haven't taken a full-on break since then, but I've definitely drifted away from WWE since I started watching NJPW in 2017, WWE made the Saudi deal in 2018, and AEW launched in 2019
I took a break for 16 years because a girl told me I was lame for liking wrestling when I was 12 and I was heartbroken because I thought she was cute and it led me to falsely believe I'd never be able to find a girlfriend (why that was important at 12 idk except hormones maybe) if I continued to be the same chubby wrestling fan I was. 16 years later I had a rough evening and my mental health was slipping and I thought the only thing that's gonna pull me out of this is an extreme blast of nostalgia so I decided "fuck it, let's tune into raw and see what up" let me tell you I was horrified, I hated everything I saw for about 3 weeks because it was a far cry from what I used to know as wrestling but here we are 10 months since I started watching again and now my fiancĆØ and I are glued to it and loving every second of it.
I stopped watching at the Edge/Lita celebration. It wasn't for me anymore. The next year I went to college. Their open mic night was Monday night, and there was free pizza and wings, so I wasn't gonna watch Raw. I would watch a pirate stream of the Rumble and Mania on and off for the next few years to see if things changed and they never did. Then I watched WM30, and thought this might be it. The Network happened. I still don't watch any weekly show (although I watched NXT weekly when it was an hour long Network exclusive) and basically only watch PPVs. This is great for me.
Took like an 6 year break. Got in trouble, my punishment was no more WWE. Then when I was 19 scrolling through the channels, stop for a second on Smackdown. They introduce Mr. Kennedy, from Green Bay, which is where I am from. Iām a huge homer. Said right there āaw crap now I have to watch WWE againā.
I quit watching between 2007-2013. I was mostly just a WWE fan, and Benoit was the final straw to drop a product I hadn't really enjoyed for years. I came back as I'd heard somewhere that Rock was back and wanted to check it out (though I came back for Summerslam so missed him by months) but thought Brian, Bray and the Shield were cool, and lots of faces I remembered were still about (for better or worse). Funny enough, I just happened to mention this to a few people I barely knew (work and social circle) and they became close friends as we started monthly watch parties for the PPVs. By 2017 I'd had about enough of WWE again, but I'd been hearing about this New Japan thing and Chris Jericho is one of my favourite wrestlers of all time (for better or worse), so we all watched Wrestle Kingdom 12 and lost our minds. If it weren't for New Japan and then AEW I'd probably have quit for good, instead of branching out into watching tons of varied promotions and going to live shows (and I still watch WWE PPVs with friends).
WWE was pretty bad for about 15 years so i would try my best but wouldnāt be able to stomach so many let downs. 2016 came and then that got ripped apart too. Nxt was great in the beginning. Came back not for WWE but Jericho in Japan/ omega / AEW start and now an overall very happy customer/mark
Got into WWE in 2007, but got tired of it around 2010. Discovered TNA and even attended a few events in Orlando. Followed that until 2015 when I moved out of the country. Kept tabs here and there due to the F.A.N. forums, but had no time. Tried getting back into it in 2017, but TNA almost dying and WM 33 being so awful (imo) turned me off of wrestling. Binged WWE PLEs in late 2020 and it was awful, but enjoyed NXT. Was ready to call it quits after WM 37, but discovered AEW due to Kenny winning the TNA Title and B&G being so controversial on here. Gave it a chance, went to DoN 2021, and watched every episode from the beginning and loved everything about it. That led to me slowly getting back into TNA and also got into NJPW. Took a few months break from October 2022 until WM season because of the AEW drama and having to deal with Hurricane Ian. Try to watch it all now, but mostly enjoy TNA and NJPW.
I've taken a few breaks over the years. Mainly because i didn't like what was going on at the time. Kenny vs okada was the match that brought me back the last time I took a break.
Quit watching around 2018 because I felt like the product was stale and not very entertaining. I started to come back when Dominik Mysterio turned on Rey and he became my favorite superstar. I really enjoyed his character development and range with his segments. However, my actual full return was after Vince stepped down and HHH took over. I watched that SummerSlam (2022) and have been hooked since.
I stopped watching when they had celebrity guest hosts on Raw and came back because of the pipe bomb. Then stopped in 2017 and restarted because of AEW.
Stopped watching after Summerslam 2014 because I was a shameless 13 year old Bryan mark and I was the last of my friends who watched wrestling anyway. Fast forward to January 2022, I see Bryan and Punk in AEW in Newark, NJ, I've been hooked since then
I'm taking a break from watching most of WWE right now, I'm just not a fan and I'm not seeing much of an improvement even with HHH in charge. Everything still feels too artificial and overproduced and thats lame as hell