No and this is coming from a Lapsed Fan. Here's the deal, wrestling right now is in a weird streaming niche' where folks actually have the option of watching a shyt load of wrestling without dealing with the woes of trying to get into more wrestling:
- Spending shyt load of money on tapes
- Tape collecting
- Bootleg cable
- etc
For the most part, you barely see folks outside of the internet talking about wrestling like the good ole days. I remember dudes having long winded discussions on DX, NWO, etc. Nowadays, the feeling is not there for the general public. Look at the current roster in the WWE....fukking goobers
. Wrestlemania not even being on the radar, the indie scene being weird and disgusting
, and NJPW kinda fell off
. Don't get me started with the AEW meme
. Bottom line, just because there are "options" nowadays, it's not how it used to be
.
"It used to be better" -Lapsed Fan
Wanted to Pos Rep you on the Lapsed Fan reference but for some reason I cant?
You hit it on the head though, in terms of traditional metrics, Wrestling is nowhere where it was even in previous down periods. But I guess in terms of new metrics for TV (Social media impression, Youtube views/Twitter/Blogs/Podcasts/Conventions) its probably got a decent and sizeable slice of the pop culture pie but that shyt is fragmented anyway and its tricky to tell whats popular or not (like it music you have dudes who do 500 million streams and views who couldn't fill an arena on their own and have to settle for festivals with others to look big or small venues)
But traditionally the tv ratings are down and even live attendance across the board for house shows and indies is down. Even in hotbeds like the UK, the WWE last tour wasnt selling out despite the names (Rousey, Bryan, Hardy, Styles, Rey). And dont even try to mistake of thinking just because Wrestling appears "big" in Japan and UK, you can walk down the street or into a bar and strike a conversation with a regular person about Wrestling
You just have marks who have conventions, indie shows and Q&A's they all socialise at and the internet
People will also ay everything is down its because Cena and Reigns were out but they were sliding year on year even with them there. Literally only people who make an impact are attitude Monday Night Wars guys coming back (Goldberg, Rock) and even they cool off
I think an underrated aspect to the false perception that Wrestling is still big is how much you have grown marks in the media who are
trying to push WWE and wrestling as more mainstream acceptable. You remember ESPN giving WWE a big push a couple of years back, Bleacher Report, Vice, HBO CBS Sports, Sky, Forbes etc covering Wrestling because they got people like Brian Campbell, Dave Shoemaker Rosenberg, Sam Roberts etc trying to push it and these media companies justifying it cause they see the twitter trends and Youtube views but what does that even mean with no monetisation behind it?
I will say this though
@Wacky D is right in terms of saying quality in ring work in and more importantly out side of WWE is cool and there is rise of more indie companies in America, Japan and UK that helps and more streaming and fans have given more options for the fans but its still a cannibalisation of the market share given everyone still watches all plus WWE or some and just WWE and complain about the oversaturated onslaught of Vince's programming.
Its natural for Wrestling fans to be lapsed and fall in and out of it, everyone does that but I dont think the padded digital numbers and the one big brand event or Stadium show or two signify a boom as even the territory system was doing stadium shows in the decline final years
This is the dumbest question I've heard in weeks
