I’ve stopped as I’m now working at least 35 hours a week or more and the shows starting here at 1am in the UK doesn’t help either.
I listen to John and Wai’s podcasts to get my RAW and Smackdown fix as I love their reviews of the show.
I have stopped watching Raw and Smackdown live. I record the shows on my DVR and the following day listen to John and Wai’s review. If there is anything must see I’ll watch but most time they are Deleted.
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I listen to Post and used to listen to the LAW /because/ I stopped watching the main product. Five hours of chaff and if I really want to I can go back and watch notable things! Hell yeah!
I live in the west coast…shows start at five and and I ain’t doing shit on Mondays and Tuesdays and sometimes Sunday.
I’m a creature of habit.
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I’d previously stopped watching from about 2007-2010, but I can’t see myself not staying abreast of the general happenings within the company, especially with the talent they’ve acquired.
Even if the current booking doesn’t do it for me, there are enough quality matches monthly (not weekly) that compel me to at least tune in for just the wrestling.
So obviously a lot of people have stopped watching every week. I personally feel the same way as John after reading feedback from someone who said they didn’t watch the show.
If you didn’t watch it you shouldn’t be particularly critical about it.
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I did before for around 3 years during the mid 2000s when it started to become absolute trash. Seen things from that era since then and can’t say I missed much. Slowly started to come back into it when I heard Jeff Hardy became champion and the Jeff Hardy/CM Punk feud that followed that really got me into it. The special guest GM and the laptop GM nearly made me call it a day again but CM Punk then saved the day again.
In terms of right now, the frustration is that they have a lot of talent and the feeling of things potentially being great soon is still there.
I stopped watching years ago; pretty much after I discovered wrestling podcasts. The only WWE shows I watch these days are 205 Live and nXt plus PPVs.
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I took an extended break in the mid 2000’s and would be more than willing to do so again if the product gets to be a chore to watch (and some weeks it feels that way especially now). That said even back in the day when I wasn’t watching I would stay up to date through PWInsider, Meltzer, etc. and I’d do the same now if I quit watching. Obviously POST Wrestling would be added to the list of sites I’d use to stay current 
As of now, if there is Baseball on, it takes priority for me over Raw and Smackdown but I’ll flip over every so often. My other problem is after watching New Japan, I can’t get into those two shows, and it gets frustrating seeing the talent they have just spinning their wheels.
I think the hardest part of quitting for most people is thinking, “I’m going to miss it” or “What will I do with the extra time anyways?”
Trust me, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I stopped watching pretty much all WWE programming because it just got to be too much to keep up with and I used the extra 5-10 hours each week to follow indy wrestling and watch hit tv shows.
At first I did kinda miss the WWE a bit, and I’d think I was probably missing something important, but over time you realise that you’re not missing anything important. And on the rare occaisions something amazing happens, trust me, you’ll hear about it.
It’s way more fun following the WWE through the eyes of insiders than watching RAW/Smackdown anyways. The real-life stories are way better/more interesting.
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I stopped and it’s almost 100% due to how many hours of content they put out right now.
I’m burned out and it seems like a life waster to even go back to watch the decent segments.
Wonder if they thought about when making the decision to move to the hour raws. More tv money but also some fan burnout.
stopped after backlash 2018. shinsuke vs styles was the last thing keeping me on and they somehow fucked it up three times in a row. NXT and New Japan are blessings.
I’ve been watching wrestling since the early 1970s
The only times I’ve stopped watching was when I didn’t have access to it
That said, if WWE got rid of everyone I enjoy watching (Brock, Seth, Dean, Owens, Zayn, Dolph, Chad, Samoa Joe, Cesaro, Kofi, Shelton Benjamin, Sin Cara, Xavier Woods, Mickie James, Alexa, Alicia Fox, Charlotte, and most of the 205 roster… replacing them with more people like Akam, Rezar, Big Show, Cass, Tye, Orton, Karl Anderson, Lana, Tamina, Carmella, Mandy Rose, Peyton Royce, Sonya Deville, Billie Kay, Nia Jax, Riott, Dana–then yeah, I’d stop watching the main shows and get more back into NJPW, ROH, NXT, and my local indie scene
I already did.
Podcasts help me not have to suffer.
Haven’t watched seriously since CM Punk left. And now i’m starting to barely watch PPVs apart from the important ones.
The whole thing is an unintentional comedy now. The Roman Reigns stuff is hilarious, Stephanie feeling the need to get one over on people again is really humourous and stuff like the Lashley segment are so bad, I fucking love it.
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I’ve not watched RAW or SmackDown (other than the post-Mania shows this year - and those shows only made me more commited to not bothering with them anymore) in over a year. RAW is way to fucking long and way to uncreative. SmackDown is shorter and a little bit more satisfying overall but since Road Dogg took the book it’s angles have got just as unwatchable for me as RAW’s already were. Main roster WWE is so bad right now, which is even more disappointing when you look at the talent they are outright wasting on both shows and up and down the card. I’m close to giving up on the “pay-per-views” as well to be honest; they’ve barely managed to put on a single above average card on a Sunday night this year - Royal Rumble was the last well paced card with enough going on to be worthwhile, WrestleMania was upside down and badly booked and Money in the Bank isn’t looking as enjoyable as it usually has been. I keep up with WWE thanks to @johnpollock and @wai0937 being kind enough to brave through these awful shows and produce podcasts that recap what happened - they are true heroes.
It’s not like I’ve quit wrestling all together though. I do still watch NXT and 205 Live, I watch New Japan and PROGRESS religiously, I check in with ROH and PWG every now and then, I’m looking forward to the new season of Lucha Underground, and while I’m months behind, I really quite enjoy Stardom, CMLL and NOAH’s shows as well. WWE might be the world’s biggest pro-wrestling company but they aren’t the best (in my opnion) and they certainly aren’t the only one out there.
I used to feel the exact same way, especially the last part. WWE beat it out of me. I’m no longer invested in anything that happens on RAW or SmackDown because none of it feels like it matters within a month or so… and that’s my opinion right now. If they start getting better and I see/hear the opinions of people I respect changing also, I’ll check back in but I’m not spending five hours a week being bored, frustrated and disappointed just to be able to say that I’m bored, frustrated and disappointed by WWE and have someone I don’t know on the internet take my opinion seriously; because they won’t anyway if they disagree with me.
Thank you all for the responses! To answer my own question, I just check-in for probably about a total of 30 mins out of 3 hrs. Pretty much at the beginning of every hour and the very end. Been putting my focus more on individuals than companies.
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It’s strange so many are falling off bc the WWE has basically always been the same. This is kinda what they do. They sometimes have better or worse rosters but most things don’t really change much.
Using podcasts to keep up with WWE isn’t pulling the plug…Bunch of masochists. I didn’t like the Lashley segment as much as the last guy…so I watched hockey instead.
Wasn’t some existential crisis because I feel obligated to watch everything.
I always get that feeling of “what will I miss?” But then I watch highlights on YouTube or listen to John and Wai, and it reminds I’m not missing much (with the exception of Miz, Rollins, Finn, Samoa Joe). The product is stale, it’s either completely PC or it’s totally juvenvile. So not fun either way.