If your reading the blog then you know that I am a lifelong wrestling fan. My dad was a fan of wrestling and I started watching wrestling because of him, I've never not watched wrestling. WWE, then WWF, you could say was my first favorite promotion, we didn't have cable at my mom's house so I could only watch Superstars and Saturday Night's Main Event. My dad has cable and got WTBS so I could watch NWA / WCW plus AWA on ESPN and later even UWF and the Savoldi's ICW / IWCCW. My dad would also rent all of the wrestling tapes, through all that as a kid WWF was THE BEST.
My tastes in wrestling has changed, but I have never not loved pro wrestling. I was the perfect age and demographic for ECW in the mid to late 1990's. In the early 2000's I really go into New Japan Pro Wrestling and that style. With the advent YouTube and streaming watching wrestling around the world became easier. I've been a subscriber of New Japan World since it's launch.
My passion for WWE has a whole has dwindled, over the years as talking segments became the predominant part of their shows. I like bell to bell in ring action, that I what I appreciate. WWE has not been my number 1 flavor of wrestling for many years now, for a time NXT with my number 1 US promotion but then they did that NXT 2.0 ridiculousness and to me it just went down hill.
Since the launch of AEW they have taken over as my number 1 US promotion, world wide New Japan is number 2. I enjoy wrestling from across the independents, Japan, Mexico, the UK, Canada and beyond.
I haven't watch a full episode of Raw or Smackdown since the VERY disappointing March 10, 2025 episode of Raw from Madison Square Garden. I had, had hopes that they would put on a great show. Instead on an over 2.5 hours show, we got 53:55 of in ring action spread over 4 matches. I keep up and I read the results but I only go watch specific matches now. I watch the PLE's but get frustrated with all the recaps and promo packages and video packages between matches.
Ever since TKO bought out WWE they have slowly changed the company structure. They, essentially do not do house shows in the US, only running a couple in Texas this year. Ticket prices are ridiculous! The cheapest seats at WrestleMania 42 in 2026 are $800. The upcoming Raw in Boston, Cena's last Boston Appearance, the backrow of the balcony was near $300 and now with Ticketmaster dynamic pricing it's over $400. The back row of the balcony! With these ticket prices and lack of house shows WWE has priced me out. It's not affordable to take my kids to a show.
With the lack of wrestling on their TV shows, I really have no interest in going to their TV product. In the last 15 years the best wrestling was at their House shows.
My buddy Ben, a WWE loyalist and self described apologist, blindly loves everything WWE and thinks they do no wrong, even he feels betrayed by WWE's announcement to hold WrestleMania 43 in 2027 in Saudi Arabia. WrestleMania weekend was a vacation destination for fans from around the world to converge on whatever city it was going to be held. They are not going to have the same fans traveling to Saudi Arabia for the shows.
I was surprised when Royal Rumble 2026 was announced for Saudi Arabia, I never thought they would get Mania before the UK. I thought for sure they would run WrestleMania at Wembley Stadium to get a bigger number than AEW. With that rabid European fanbase it seemed like a nature place to have you first Mania outside for North America.
How can I watch WWE, great question, I have to pay for Netflix to watch Raw, I need to pay for Cable to watch Smackdown and NXT unless you have antenna that gets the CW. You have to pay for Peacock to get the NXT PLE's, Saturday Night's Main Event, and the WWE Library and you have to pay for ESPN Premier package to get the PLE's. That adds up to a shit-ton of money a month.
I was very frustrated with how Vince was running the WWE near the end of his tenure. After reading this quote TKO Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro saying that Vince McMahon was "primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn't totally focused on maxing the opportunity there". It's odd to discover that Vince was actually doing right by the fans. This quite also proves that TKO doesn't care about wrestling fans, just getting as much money as possible from them. I get it, wrestling is a business and businesses to make money, but they are doing so at the expense of their fan base. They are catering to the causal fan and social media influencers.
There are so many wrestler in the promotion that I love like AJ Styles, Stephanie Vaquer, Kevin Owens Dirty Dom, and other. I do enjoy their Saturday Nights Main Event specials and how they are presenting Lucha Libre AAA.
As a whole though it's frustrating that the promotion that I literally watched my whole life has changed so dramatically that it's hard for me to watch.
Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page. You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.
Until next time!