Yeah, Idk where breh was for 2003 but that shyt was hell and there were no other readily promotions available to watch
Are we in the dark ages of wrestling?
- Thread starter WhatsGoodTy
- Start date
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
I mean, you couldn't find a biggest wrestling fan than Ric Flair and dude was in the biz 50 years ago and became a huge star 45 years ago. Same with Dusty.Straight up dumb shyt to say from them.
FTR been fans and are one of the GOAT tag teams today; might even have another MOTY to go under their name.
Sasha Banks been a fan for a long time and one of the most over female wrasslers. She has the personality and ring work down, yet because she’s a fan that’s a bad thing?
You wont find bigger "marks" for the business and themselves than 90's Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and they lead half the business in the US for 4 years. shyt, Steve Austin is a HUUUGE fan of wrestling, dude knows stuff (and has watched stuff) tape traders nerd out about
We gonna act like we were watching weekly 70'-90's wrestling from all over the U.S and around the world like we do now
. Or like anyone younger than 35 doesn't just pick and choose 90% of what we want to see from any promotion before 1995. We basically watch a bunch of "best of" shyt from the past and then compare to weekly episodic shyt from nowadays and go "oh this shyt ain't that good 
" well no shyt 
if you pick weekly anything from any era you are gonna find the same damn flaws you see today.
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thenatural
Superstar
No, I think people just have more access to these wrestlers professional and personal lives. I been in too many threads where I've seen dudes just 
over who these men and women are dating. The botches can be a little much, but it ain't like that botchamania shyt started 2.5 years ago. That's been going for a long time. Also, let's be honest, it's a lot of 30+ year old fans on this forum. At some point, you grow out of it.
over who these men and women are dating. The botches can be a little much, but it ain't like that botchamania shyt started 2.5 years ago. That's been going for a long time. Also, let's be honest, it's a lot of 30+ year old fans on this forum. At some point, you grow out of it.
Doctor Wily
CapcomSwag
A huge chunk of the audience checked out after the whole Beniot situation.
RhymesWell
All Star
As much as I used to love playing EWR back in the day, AEW has proven that style of booking simply will not work as far as entertainment. I miss compelling adult storylines. I know it's fake but make me care a little. Characters are at an all time low, and also like some of you have already expounded on, I hate how the majority of wrestlers are marks for themselves or the biz. That shyt was cool when it was only a few guys who were down but now it seems like it's completely flipped. You got people like Adam Cole or the Bucks who don't even care to look at least a little intimidating. These dudes don't look like fighters straight up.
American wrestling been in dark ages for nearly 20 years since Stone Cold and The Rock have retired. I know both returned shortly, but it wasn't the same.
In those 20 years the wrestling failed to build their next mega star. Cena does not compare to those two and wrestling business failed to make a proper MMA-pro wrestling crossover when they had guys like Lashley and Lesnar but decided to showcase suplex after suplex with no sense of creativity at booking.
Wrestling is a dog shyt no matter if you are old or new fan. The main guy on WWE roster can't even defend his titles on PPV right now.
In those 20 years the wrestling failed to build their next mega star. Cena does not compare to those two and wrestling business failed to make a proper MMA-pro wrestling crossover when they had guys like Lashley and Lesnar but decided to showcase suplex after suplex with no sense of creativity at booking.
Wrestling is a dog shyt no matter if you are old or new fan. The main guy on WWE roster can't even defend his titles on PPV right now.
Those were terrible times too. But in mid 90s the MMA wasn't a huge thing yet. Pro wrestling can't afford mediocrity right now. They have lost far too many fans to MMA shows and companies like WWE do the kids show now because they gave up on competing. WWE is so bad their show now depends on arabian prince family.
It’s probably the best it’s ever been in terms of match quality, but what good is that if you can’t make the fans care about who’s in the ring in the long term?
There’s maybe a handful of people in the industry who can either make you turn your brain off and believe every single word that they’re saying, or at the very least get you to buy into the idea of what they’re trying to sell you. But they’re not written/booked to their strengths or they’re simply not featured that often
There’s maybe a handful of people in the industry who can either make you turn your brain off and believe every single word that they’re saying, or at the very least get you to buy into the idea of what they’re trying to sell you. But they’re not written/booked to their strengths or they’re simply not featured that often
I don't think UFC is a real threat because there is a revolving door of stars they burn thru each 3-5 years. It's impossible to have long term draws outside of Jon Jones who can't get right. If the E spent the last 20 years still building stars and not on that bitter "nobody is bigger than the brand pal" booking they would have longterm stars again. It's like boxing. I thought mma was supposed to kill boxing 3-4 times by now. And that's a legit sport that is more direct competition. They all can exist if they did what they did well.
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
But they for sure can afford mediocrity. WWE depends on U.S. TV money, Saudi money is what allows them to have big revenue that keep stakeholders happy. WWE is company that puts ZERO effort on their product and they print money like crazy, they have been "failing" upwards for close to a decade.
The n°2 promotion in the U.S is about to negotiate a new TV deal that will have them winning double (or more) of what they get now. The sell out most of their shows and are starting to churn out 1 million dollar gate events.
There's a difference between wrestling in the US having no shot at being close to mainstream as they were for two very brief periods in the 80's & 90's and "the dark ages". Wrestling in the U.S is very healthy. You've got WWE, AEW, MLW, Impact having broadcasting deals that allow them to be seen easily accessible (and ROH will get eventually get a new deal too), that's as healthy as you gonna get for niche product like wrestling (and again, being niche is not "dark ages" in this day and age because some niches are profitable). Then you get a slew of independent promotions that also make money and/or exposure through streaming that they couldn't get before.
MMA getting more money and getting sports media coverage is not that big a deal for wrestling in the sense of being a healthy business. It's an issue if you wanna get bigger and expand your audience but nowadays that's not really needed because there's enough money to continue to function without having to go outside the bubble. When you have that ability, you are very far from any sort of "dark age". Specially when you compare it to early-mid 90's and mid 00's to early 10's. It's really night and day.
Rell84shots
Veteran
Exactly. The reason wrestling was popular was because you were looking at people who larger than life, now most wrestlers look like Walmart/Gamestop managers and that shyt doesn't sell. Despite all the indie hires since 2014, it's a heel Roman and a face Lesnar that are the 2 biggest names in wrestling. If NFL & NBA players looked like the average person people wouldn't watch it, the same goes for wrestling.
Peter Parker
Superstar
New Generation era all over again, shyt is cyclical
KFBF
Superstar
We have access to more wrestling than ever before but rarely does any of it matter. WWE is run by Nick Khan who has reduced wrestling to a series of algorithms and executive meeting jargon. AEW is run by one of the worst wrestling minds of all time. I’m not convinced Russo couldn’t run a more entertaining product tomorrow with no preparation. Neither of them are running any angles that really matter and they’re the big two.
The biggest angles have been Sasha, MJF, Stephanie, and MVP making Jericho bytch out. Of the last 200 matches on either company’s product the only one that matters was Cody vs Rollins.
If these two are the NBA and the Big Three everything else is the equivalent of watching ballislife videos.
shyt sucks none of it matters.
The biggest angles have been Sasha, MJF, Stephanie, and MVP making Jericho bytch out. Of the last 200 matches on either company’s product the only one that matters was Cody vs Rollins.
If these two are the NBA and the Big Three everything else is the equivalent of watching ballislife videos.
shyt sucks none of it matters.
Every few years y'all say "this is the worst it's ever been." I've read it in 2002, 2006/07, 2010, 2015, 2020 etc etc. It's been bad for a long time. It hit bottom over a decade ago, probably close to 15 years or so and it's been mediocre ever since. Sometimes one of your favorites will get pushed and then it's suddenly a great time to be a wrestling fan again.......for three months then it's back to the status quo. The reality is that even when someone you like is being pushed the overall product is still atrocious, but now someone you like is headlining the shyt show.
With all of that said there's still enough entertainment value to draw in a steady, if a bit weak, supply of new fans. They eat this stuff up. WWE and even AEW aren't creating a wrestling product for fans of 80s, 90s, 00s or hell, even early 10s wrestling fans in some cases. Once you accept that you can filter out whatever you enjoy and discard the rest. A lot of you have problems doing that though and I'd suggest you take a break or stop watching it altogether.
With all of that said there's still enough entertainment value to draw in a steady, if a bit weak, supply of new fans. They eat this stuff up. WWE and even AEW aren't creating a wrestling product for fans of 80s, 90s, 00s or hell, even early 10s wrestling fans in some cases. Once you accept that you can filter out whatever you enjoy and discard the rest. A lot of you have problems doing that though and I'd suggest you take a break or stop watching it altogether.
