It’s probably safe to make the assumption that everyone on here is a pretty big wrestling fan and has been for a good number of years. I’m just curious if anyone had an extensive break in their fandom from wrestling and what time period did this break occur in?
My hiatus from following wrestling started shortly after Wrestlemania 24 in April 2008 all the way up until the night Bret Hart returned to WWE in January 2010. I barely followed the current wrestling product and didn’t even have that much interest in watching the old stuff. This was mostly due to a combination of me losing interest, being busy with college, not having many friends like wrestling anymore, and the horrible Guest Host era on Raw.
I certainly had a long break. I missed the entire original Shield run. I sorta kept up by reading PWInsider but didn’t watch at all. I still get baffled by stories about Brad Maddox. I have no clue about him.
I first started watching wrestling in 1984 when I was 7 watching Saturday Night’s Main Event, and stayed a fan until 1989 or so. I didnt pick it back up until about 1999 in college and watched until the night Orton did the “Eddie is in hell” promo on Rey Mysterio I think that was 2004-2005ish. Started watching again the night after SummerSlam 2016, and have been pretty fully invested ever since. I probably consume much moee wrestling ans wrestling media than any other point in my fandom. Just went to my first Indy show last night too.
I started watching WWF at the height of the attitude era in 1998 and then brilliantly only started watching ECW in 1999 and WCW in 2000 before they each shut down. But I quickly became obsessed and watched every show, documentary, retrospective, etc. I could find on DVD and VHS. The Dallas area had an indy show on UPN at Midnight on Saturday nights I would watch. It’s where I first saw Paul London. I burned myself out watching everything and became too critical and cynical.
So I took a 3 year break from 2003-2006 when I was in college. When WWE brought back ECW and gave RVD his championship run it brought me back in. I was quickly able to get caught up on what had been happening with WWE, TNA and ROH.
I’ve watched pretty consistently since. I’m lucky because my wife is even a fan. But we do not have the time to watch five hours of WWE TV, NXT, 205 Live, PPV’s, Network specials and keep up with NJPW, ROH, Evolve and the rest of the indys. I don’t see how anybody does. It’s just insane and i’m getting burned out again.
Nowadays its so easy just to follow the industry as a whole on Twitter and YouTube. I haven’t watched a full episode of Raw in a year. Instead if something fun or funny happens or there’s a great match it’s easier to seek it out than sit through hours of mediocre product.
I took about a four year break in the mid 1990’s. I didn’t care to see trash wrestling like Duke the Dumpster Droese (pun intended), Henry Godwinn, the Goon, and Mantaur put on. Honestly, Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Rock got me re-interested in watching again.
The day CM Punk did his pipe bomb and started the trend of nerds taking over pro wrestling…I took my longest hiatus…thank god The Rock came back or I would’ve never been back.
The only break I took from watching wrestling was from 1991 to 1993 but only because we didn’t have cable tv back then (that’s what living in a small village does to you). I was able to somewhat keep track by renting VHS of WWF PPVs during that time. And my uncle was nice enough to make me copies of those PPVs. I had Survivor Series 92, Royal Rumble 93 and Wrestlemania 9. I’ve been again a regular watcher since the fall of 1993.
I took a break from late 96 to mid 98 (just after Austin won the title) – I was pretty bored of the product in general, despite being a huge HBK fan. It’s crazy to think of how much changed in those two years – it was a completely different look and feel, lots of new guys and people that I was familiar with (like HHH) were completely different.
I also missed most of 2003-6, due to being in University and having limited access. 2006 was a horrible year in WWE btw.
For me, I took a break around 1994 when WCW decided to job out Ric Flair to Hulk Hogan. Then you saw all of Hogan’s friends come in and the product took a serious nose dive. WWF wasn’t too much better at this point. What brought me back was ECW a year later with the Guerrero/Malenko classic series. That was the wrestling I was missing.
I took a long break after the Benoit tragedy. I’d done a lot of research into CTE and traumatic brain injuries even before that point, and I immediately suspected that brain injury is what caused the tragedy.
I had a really hard time reconciling that - Benoit was one of my favourite wrestlers. And his dedication to his craft not only killed him, but killed his innocent wife and son as well.
I watched whatever the PPV was where he “no-showed” his match for the ECW title; I watched the Raw tribute show despite instinctively knowing that this was going to bite WWE in the ass…
And then I didn’t watch wrestling again from late June 2007 up until December 2011. Aside from the Wrestlemania’s, I still haven’t really watched anything from that era. I have ROH DVDs still in the plastic from mid-2007 because, even having found a way to reconcile the impact of wrestling on what happened, it was such a dark time for wrestling I can’t, and don’t want to go back to it.
I totally agree with you about that time period. It was a dark time for everyone that was a fan of Chris, myself included. I honestly can say that I have a hard time remembering anything from that time period. I was still watching but I would have to sit down and go on a website to look at the results of what was going on at the time to remember. As I type this, I really can’t remember the other things that was going on then. It’s a weird feeling.
The Benoit Tragedy was horrible, but to me it actually caused me to watch WWE more closely in the weeks following it to see how they would respond to it. The Cena/Lashley feud they did for the PPV after was a fresh babyface vs babyface program that kept my interest. I also remember quite a few bigger name stars getting suspended due to Wellness Policy violations and wondering how WWE would book around it. It was also interesting because I don’t think they toned down the raunchiness of their product right away, as I seem to remember the PG Era beginning in 2008.
I basically took a hiatus from around 99/00 up until 2014 or so. I don’t know why other then growing out of a bit as I was going into my later years in high school and into college where I didn’t have a TV.
This is a great topic
I started in 1988 and took 1995 to 1996 off because of moving cities and feeling dissatisfied with WWF after Bret Hart was displaced by Diesel then Shawn.
My biggest break was 2003 to 2007. I was very focused on university and got very into comic books.
What got me back on 2007 was the Writer’s strike made tv unbearable and no unions or workers rights in wrestling meant no strikes.
Also, chris jerichos return in '07. I felt with him coming back after a layover it was time for me too. The discovery of ROH aND NJPW in 2011 and 12 cemented my love of this Thang.
I’ve noticed school aND relationships being a common theme here. Anything else common to long breaks?
I started watching in 1997 and feel I’ve never had any big breaks from following. Even when I’ve not watched I’ve still followed. I’ve think the biggest “break” I took was around 2002 as I become very disheartened by WWE after Jericho’s Undisputed title reign, thankfully the Wrestling Channel came around in the UK and that introduced me to the indy scene.
I watched everything I could starting with Summerslam 1991 when I was six years old. I became primarily a WCW fan in 1996 when my buddy ordered Bash at the Beach to see who “the third man” would be alongside Nash and Hall. I watched Nitro every week but flipped to Raw during commercials and still caught the WWF PPVs that my friends would order (I don’t think I ever ordered a PPV myself) in addition to watching and listening via the “scramble-vision” method that was popular in the pre-digital days.
Despite being the key demographic (a teenage male) for WWE in the Attitude Era, I was pretty turned off by the presentation around that time. As far as WCW, I still turned on Nitro and Thunder if I was home, but once I started high school, it became less of an “appointment viewing” thing for me. I hung on to WCW to the bitter end, and then that was pretty much it.
My brother as well as few college buddies shared my love for the “older stuff” and we would occasionally dive into an older pay-per-view on YouTube or DVD, but I never ventured back into the current product for a span of about nine years until a friend of mine inviting me over for a get-together that turned out to be a WrestleMania 27 watch party. I also got a DVR around that time, so I added Raw into the mix and watched bits and pieces that way.
As a poster boy for WWE marketing, there are two things that turned me back into a weekly devotee: the launch of the WWE Network and the vignettes for the soon-to-be debuting Wyatt Family (who I had never seen in NXT). So I started watching Raw weekly for the vignettes and the eventual debut, and the WWE Network made me a regular PPV watcher for the first time ever. I’ve still never really caught up on the stuff that I missed, aside from the Manias and the “all-time great” matches from that era.
So as ridiculous as it may sound to a future generation… or maybe it already does… it was none other than Bray Wyatt that turned me back into a fan.
I started watching WWF back in 88’ when I was about 4-5 years old. I continued watching faithfully through the new generation, and into the attitude era. I also watched WCW as much as I could.
After the invasion angle and the onset of the PG era I took a break coming back casually during the first brand split, or other big angles that caught my attention. Introduction of The Shield, seeing Sting in WWE, etc.
I finally came back full-time in early 2017, when Lucha Underground showed up on Netflix in Canada. I watched a large portion of Season 1, and was bitten by the pro-wrestling bug. I signed up for the WWE Network, was introduced to NJPW and now I am more into wrestling than I have ever been .