Do you watch wrestling?

[Taco-Calamitous]

Hi. I am 34 years old, and I still watch pro wrestling.

Last night, pro wrestling was on TNT for the first time in 18 years. It was the premiere of the new league, AEW, on cable programming. In the same time slot was WWE's third roster's show, NXT. Perhaps technically, NXT would be referred to as the WWE's "developmental" program, but a lot of seasoned wrestlers are there, and many fans consider it much better than the main roster's programs (Btw, "WWE" used to be "WWF," but got sued by the World Wildlife Foundation, or something, in the early 2000s, and had to change its name). Head to head, this first week, AEW won out in the views count, @1.5 million to @890 thousand, I think the numbers were. That's still about a half million to a million less viewers than WWE's main shows, Raw and Smackdown, but still pretty good for a new show, mostly made up of wrestlers the mainstream hasn't heard of.

I watched AEW's programming, and occasionally switched over to NXT to see what was going on. AEW has two veteran announcers from the 90s, and a new dude: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, and Excalibur. Jim Ross (JR) might be the most easily recognizable voice of the three, and probably the most used for memes, but hearing Schiavone's voice call a match on TNT for the first time since probably the 90s was surprisingly nostalgic. Like, in a way where it awakened an old memory. Excalibur is gonna have some fun getting out from underneath those two's shadows.

The new company is led by formerly indie wrestlers, the Elite: Cody Rhodes, Nick and Matt Jackson--the Young Bucks--Kenny Omega, and Hangman Adam Page. Cody is the son of the late Dusty Rhodes, who at one point, was in a lead role against the WWE's old main competition, WCW, before it got bought out by the WWE. So far, Cody and the Young Bucks have been booked fairly strongly, while Omega and Hangman have one win and multiple losses in the league, each. Omega and Hangman have both lost to two opponents: Chris Jericho and Pac. Jericho is the inaugural champion of the league and a well known name, but Pac--while well-regarded in the indie scene, and somewhat well known in his own right from a stint in the WWE--is a bit of a weird booking choice, to me. Omega might be the most decorated wrestler they have right now (aside from maybe Jericho) and Hangman is their future. It was said that Pac refused to appear at their first PPV this year because he was booked to lose, so maybe that's why? He is a great talent, and maybe they have plans for him. We'll see...

The biggest difference between AEW and the WWE to me, though, is that AEW is using smaller dudes who can do more acrobatic stuff, and aiming for an older audience. Regardless, to me, they have the top guys in the business right now, in Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. Like, Omega is THE singles competitor, and the Young Bucks are THE tag team. To me, there's an obvious lineation from Ric Flair, to Shawn Michaels, to Kenny Omega. I won't pretend that I am the most educated wrestling fan, but to me, Omega is the logical progression from those two. He's as talented in the ring and on the mic. And the Young Bucks are what the Rockers would be if they had two Shawn Michaels's, and not Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty (even though looking back, Jannetty had a lot of potential too, and it's sad that his drug issues got in the way). The Young Bucks' 3 matches thus far in AEW have been the most exciting wrestling I've watched in quite a while, and Kenny has put on some good matches--but not as good as he had in New Japan, that I saw, yet. There's a lot of other great talent so far in AEW, too. And in NXT. It's really a shame that those are the two shows going head to head, as NXT is really the best the WWE has to offer right now.

WWE appealed to me way more during the Attitude Era, in the late 90s-early 2000s. That is when I started watching wrestling. I started watching regularly the week before Stone Cold Steve Austin won his first championship. He is probably my favorite of all time, still. Watching his matches to this day, he has an intensity to him, like a rabid badger. Even though he's a rattle snake. When he "took his ball and went home," because he wouldn't take the L against Brock Lesnar on free TV, is about the time that I more or less lost my interest in wrestling, and stopped watching for a long time. I started watching again because of a group called "The Shield," and a particular member, named "Dean Ambrose." He is now in AEW, by his old indie name, "Jon Moxley." His best stuff is in the hardcore style of wrestling.

Blah blah blah. There were a lot of great people back in the day, in both companies, and it's regrettable to me that I missed some of those guys in their prime, or overlooked them before they died, tragically young. I was aware of some wrestlers in the early 90s: Hogan, Savage, the Road Warriors (because they were on the back of some comic I bought), (vaguely) Rick Flair, and (because he was on Boy Meets World) Vader. I think I saw Kevin Nash and Scott Hall on Mtv at one point, too. A little bit before I started watching wrestling, I took notice of the Undertaker and Goldust, who were two kinda creepy guys, heh. And I think I remember Shawn Michaels super-kicking Bret Hart while he was in a wheel chair, before he was about to say something. Memories~!

Here, also have a video:


...bye.

[nix]

I used to watch it as a kid and then grew away from it, but i got back into big time during the Attitude era, and then also when they swallowed up WCW and had a load of WWE vs WCW things going on, but then from what i can remember, thats when it all started going downhill, as they pretty much went PG.

No chair shots or hardcore matches, most of the great wrestlers had quit or moved onto making movies or just took a back seat because of age, it just went all very boring and predictable and i gave it up. To pinpoint the time, id say when John Cena got big is when the WWE turned to absolute shite

[Pete]

I loved it as a kid and pretty much like Nix, stopped watching when the Attitude Era did.

I loved the early 90s stuff, the WCW vs WWF stuff, the nWo and so of those gimmicky angles and spoofs of things that were actually funny. Now, everybody is too afraid to say anything out of fear of being sued or called insensitive.

[Taco-Calamitous]

I was like y'all. A friend in the Air Force showed me an NXT match, Bayley vs Sasha Banks, which really looked gritty and physical, in like 2014. And then I had a friend who was always watching, ever since he was a little kid, who was in my ear. Plus, even after I stopped watching, I liked listening to shoot interviews and podcasts and such, and that all kinda drew me back in.

I think the dudes in AEW are going to be allowed more creative control, btw. Everything the WWE guys say is scripted, seemingly--except on Twatter, or whatever.

EDIT: The NWA has been rebooted by Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, in the style of old territory wrestling. Here is the first episode of their program, Powerrr, which debuted today: