I've been a fan of wrestling and the WWF / WWE my entire life. I don't have a memory of the first time I watched wrestling, my Dad was a fan and so I have always watched. My first live wrestling show was June 4, 1989 at the then Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. In the main event "Macho Man" Randy Savage with Sensational Sherri defeated WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan by count-out.
Unlike many my of my friends growing up I never waivered in my fandom of Professional Wrestling. I've always had collection of wrestling memorabilia, t-shirts, and once I got my license going to live shows, even traveling out of State to attend them. I've been to the big 4 WWE PPV's, WCW shows, TNA, Ring of Honor, AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling and numerous Indies.
From the 1980's to today I've watched all the wrestling on TV that I could find, traded tapes back in the day to get wrestling from Japan and Mexico, and at technology has progress streamed my wrestling. Today we have the capability to watch more wrestling live from around the world than ever before.
Through all of this I have been a fan of the WWF/WWE, was a day 1 subscriber of the WWE Network and subscribe to Peacock now. While WWE has not always been my favorite flavor of wrestling to watch, I still watched.
However these last few years their weekly television show have become unwatchable to me. Smackdown would have moments of greatness but Raw, each time I try I'm disappointed. Their format of their show has become to cater to the casual fan, I don't care about 20 minute promos, and long talking segments, I just want to watching wrestling matches. The bell to bell in the ring action is what I care about.
I was hyped for the Netflix launch of Raw on January 6, 2025, advertised a WrestleMania caliber show, and for me it was not. There were 4 matches on the show that ran just over 3 hours and total in ring time was 62 minutes and 28 seconds. That leaves two hours of commercials, showing celebrities in the crowd and talking segments. From the end of the women's title match it was 25 minutes before the Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso match started, and after 2 minutes they went to a commercial break.
What's so frustrating and discouraging to me is the promotion I have loved my whole life I can't stomach watching any longer. I have friends that LOVE the product and think every show is amazing, and I guess good for them, but I can't see how they like it so much.
I will continue to follow what is happening on Raw & Smackdown, watch clips and select matches that I'm interested, and I will watch the "Premium Live Events" because that is where the best matches usually take place even those tend to frustrate me with their long segments between matches.
I'm just not the WWE's primary demographic any longer. Thankfully for me my choices for alternative wrestling is practically endless. Not to mention, I can always go back and watch the extensive history of wrestling and classic matches I have access to.
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