Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

There's just too much wrestling


Recommended Posts

Long time lurker here but I figured this would be the best forum to discuss.

There's too much wrestling.

Throughout the week I watch AEW regularly, NJPW big shows, big WWE shows, while also trying to catch up on older stuff such as 80s Lucha, Mid South, and early Mid Atlantic. The latter stuff I almost never get a chance to watch and all of this doesn't include wanting to watch NXT among other things.

My question to you is how do you stay on top of it all? Do you just pick a few promotions to watch regularly? Just watch recommended matches? Just the old stuff?

I know there is no one answer to these questions but I'm just curious to how everyone else navigates the massive amount of content available to us.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome aboard to the best board going! 

Me, I tend to cherry pick the matches that I want to see. WWE, NXT and NJPW are the promotions I watch the most from. Depends on the card whether I'll see the whole show. I usually do the big PPVs.

Edited by The Natural
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dude imagine growing up in the 80s where on local TV you had 3 WWF syndie show, 2 NWA syndie shows, 3 TBS NWA Shows, Mid-South/UWF, World Class, Memphis, 2 WWF USA Shows (a 2 hour show and a 1 hour show) and WWC on Univision and CCW on UHF. That's like 15 hours of wrestling in the NYC area alone. Shit that's not counting 2-3 hour WWF show once a month from MSG/Meadowlands/Nassau Coliseum.

It a fuckin miracle I had time to watch Kung-fu movies and Soul Train on the weekends!

James

Edited by J.H.
  • Like 7
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the board.  Since you were lurking I'm sure you know what you're getting into.  But thankfully you picked a good one to join.

For starters there's no issue with too much wrestling.   Growing up I would seek whatever wrestling I could (mainly on the weekends) and after adjusting the ol' rabbit ears for so long ended up with some things to keep me occupied.  So going from that to now we're all absolutely spoiled and quite fortunate.  I would be thrilled if I was a kid and had access to all this from the start.  And to watch it at my own pace?  Damn, that would have been paradise as a kid.

As for the question yes for me there is too much wrestling for me to catch up on.  Now that's me as a 9-to-5er with free weekends and that's been busy lately.  I watch all the WWE and AEW shows but with WWE I do tend to fast forward through matches that I either don't want to see or really just have no consequence to it at all.  Oh, and NWA Powerr is sublime though I've fell a bit behind on MLW.  Hoping to binge watch to catch up while off Monday.  Of the stuff I used to watch I had to drop ROH and Impact.  ROH has had too many issues for me to continue supporting them.  And with Impact I'm so incredibly behind that instead of catching up from last July I'm best off just dropping it.

So to stay on top of it all I quite honestly read the board while at work.  That and the wonders of Youtube and Youtube TV to allow me to watch it anywhere.  And if I'm on a time crunch I'll have Youtube videos got at 2x speed which surprisingly works for me.  Now when I become a dad the stuff I watch will be cut in half so this board will do wonders to keep me up to speed.  All else fails there's always the Observer podcasts to fill in the blanks.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed.  I have a friend who is on paternity leave, and he's always texting me about whether or not I watched some random wrestling match, and the answer is always no.  I just don't have time.  My wrestling consumption is pretty much just NXT and AEW, but I'm behind on those after being out of town for Christmas.  I have no idea how I used to keep up with this stuff when I was younger, because I feel like my social life was even busier than it is now.  I watched the first show from Wrestle Kingdom, and I only had time to do that because I left early from work because of snow.  

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome. I'm in a pretty similar position: longtime, frequent lurker. Only occasional poster.

I think the key for me was just revisiting the perspective that pro wrestling is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby for those of us who are nothing more than audience members. I think if one sits down and analyzes which aspects of pro wrestling they enjoy the most and focuses their time on wrestlers/promotions that check the most boxes, it's easy to trim away some of the fat and "cherry pick" anything you may have missed. We're not required to watch any of this, and there is no test after the program is over.

For me: about two or three years ago, I decided that the storylines, production, and camera work on RAW and Smackdown was doing an incredible disservice to a phenomenally talented roster of professional wrestlers. Stopped watching all mainline WWE TV and PPVs, and I got an incredible amount of my time back. I came to find that NJPW offered an extremely high level of in-ring action and athleticism, no "forced" promos (the backstage comments are on Youtube if you choose to watch them, you can still make sense of the shows without the promos, and you aren't held hostage as a viewer by a 20 minute promo in the middle of a broadcast), and camera work/production that allowed matches to breathe and helped convey the story the wrestlers were trying to tell, rather than take away from it. Everything I didn't like about WWE, NJPW got right.

Once I figured that out, NJPW became my main promotion. I'll read the board threads here to see if there's anything worth checking out from NXT or AEW, and if there is, I'll spend some time checking that out - again maintaining the perspective that I'm not beholden to anyone to watch the whole program, nor am I required to watch anything every week.

I feel you, though. The choices in pro wrestling viewership are just as paralyzing as other choices available to us. I've certainly had those "Man, I've been watching wrestling for almost thirty years and have never properly checked out Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, or Jumbo Tsuruta matches...I should probably hit up Youtube. But wait...have I gotten the most out of my NJPWWorld subscription this month? There are hundreds of Liger matches..." moments a lot lately.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Right now I’m only watching aew and new japan and that’s more than enough to satisfy my wrestling needs. I read the observer and follow along with everything that’s going on, and it’s like I kind of wish I could watch more but don’t have the desire to get wrapped up in more weekly viewing. Like, I’ve never watched a minute of powerr, I read all the praise and it sounds like a fun show but I don’t want to add another hour of wrestling per week. 
 

I love how much great wrestling there is right now. I want all these companies to thrive. In the 70s, each year 30 million tickets were sold to wrestling events in the us. Now it’s under two million. I say we bring it back to 30. I want multiple sold out shows on the same night around the country. But I’m not gonna be watching all of them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Welcome to the board.  Since you were lurking I'm sure you know what you're getting into.  But thankfully you picked a good one to join.

For starters there's no issue with too much wrestling.   Growing up I would seek whatever wrestling I could (mainly on the weekends) and after adjusting the ol' rabbit ears for so long ended up with some things to keep me occupied.  So going from that to now we're all absolutely spoiled and quite fortunate.  I would be thrilled if I was a kid and had access to all this from the start.  And to watch it at my own pace?  Damn, that would have been paradise as a kid.

As for the question yes for me there is too much wrestling for me to catch up on.  Now that's me as a 9-to-5er with free weekends and that's been busy lately.  I watch all the WWE and AEW shows but with WWE I do tend to fast forward through matches that I either don't want to see or really just have no consequence to it at all.  Oh, and NWA Powerr is sublime though I've fell a bit behind on MLW.  Hoping to binge watch to catch up while off Monday.  Of the stuff I used to watch I had to drop ROH and Impact.  ROH has had too many issues for me to continue supporting them.  And with Impact I'm so incredibly behind that instead of catching up from last July I'm best off just dropping it.

So to stay on top of it all I quite honestly read the board while at work.  That and the wonders of Youtube and Youtube TV to allow me to watch it anywhere.  And if I'm on a time crunch I'll have Youtube videos got at 2x speed which surprisingly works for me.  Now when I become a dad the stuff I watch will be cut in half so this board will do wonders to keep me up to speed.  All else fails there's always the Observer podcasts to fill in the blanks.

I'm new to fatherhood at 5 months now and that definitely limits my watching along with work.

I agree though that there is no issue with too much wrestling. Maybe the issue is I want to watch too much, hah.

I was loving NWA Powerr, missed the PPV and fell behind. Although it looks good with Scurll and Steiner in now. Always loved Steiner, for better or worse.

Speaking of the Observer, since becoming a Dad I can count on one hand the amount of newsletters I've read but I always catch the podcasts to keep me up to date.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Teflon Turtle said:

Welcome. I'm in a pretty similar position: longtime, frequent lurker. Only occasional poster.

I think the key for me was just revisiting the perspective that pro wrestling is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby for those of us who are nothing more than audience members. I think if one sits down and analyzes which aspects of pro wrestling they enjoy the most and focuses their time on wrestlers/promotions that check the most boxes, it's easy to trim away some of the fat and "cherry pick" anything you may have missed. We're not required to watch any of this, and there is no test after the program is over.

For me: about two or three years ago, I decided that the storylines, production, and camera work on RAW and Smackdown was doing an incredible disservice to a phenomenally talented roster of professional wrestlers. Stopped watching all mainline WWE TV and PPVs, and I got an incredible amount of my time back. I came to find that NJPW offered an extremely high level of in-ring action and athleticism, no "forced" promos (the backstage comments are on Youtube if you choose to watch them, you can still make sense of the shows without the promos, and you aren't held hostage as a viewer by a 20 minute promo in the middle of a broadcast), and camera work/production that allowed matches to breathe and helped convey the story the wrestlers were trying to tell, rather than take away from it. Everything I didn't like about WWE, NJPW got right.

Once I figured that out, NJPW became my main promotion. I'll read the board threads here to see if there's anything worth checking out from NXT or AEW, and if there is, I'll spend some time checking that out - again maintaining the perspective that I'm not beholden to anyone to watch the whole program, nor am I required to watch anything every week.

I feel you, though. The choices in pro wrestling viewership are just as paralyzing as other choices available to us. I've certainly had those "Man, I've been watching wrestling for almost thirty years and have never properly checked out Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, or Jumbo Tsuruta matches...I should probably hit up Youtube. But wait...have I gotten the most out of my NJPWWorld subscription this month? There are hundreds of Liger matches..." moments a lot lately.

I think that's a good point about watching wrestling for it to be enjoyable. Growing up in the 90s I was a hardcore WWF fan, would rent all the Coliseum tapes, and that was the extent of my fandom, maybe catch the odd TV show. That changed when Austin came on the scene and I'd watch RAW more often but not all the time.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and I meet a guy in my hometown who turns me onto AJPW and everything Japanese wrestling. Since then it's been an obsession to try and stay on top of it all. I think the obsession, along with listening to the Observer regularly, has created the need to watch every recommended match I hear about or read and thus has created my dilemma.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It comes down to this:

What do you want and why do you want it?

What's your goal? Is it to keep track of everything so that you can be fulfilled that you're not missing anything? Is is to take in inputs from other people so you have a curated understanding of the best stuff? Is it to watch weekly shows/promotions so that you're engaged and following along?

Do you want to be part of something? If so, what something? The fanbase of a promotion? Knowing what you're talking about here? On twitter? 

I have limited time. I definitely can't watch most things live given my family situation. 8-9:30 is bedtime for kids of different ages and then some of the only time I get to spend with my wife most days is 9:30-11 or so. I'm up again at 5:45. 

Moreover, wrestling's generally gone to a place where I'm not satisfied with it. 

I spend my time watching older, unearthed footage. I'm going to spend every Tuesday for the next three years writing about the 300 or so French matches from the 50s-80s we've unearthed. We just started this week and everything we've seen so far is great. (Here are the first two matches/reviews: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/01/tuesday-french-catch-day-di-santo-van.html) 

Would I rather it be something where dozens and dozens of us were engaged on so that there could be more of a social component to it and I could feel more part of something? Yeah, I'm human, aren't I? But I'm not a point where where I'd rather watch stuff JUST to get that, just to be in the broader conversation, just to make sure that I'm an expert and haven't missed anything. My life is pretty damn full and following along for some other things here is enough for me. So I'll lean towards my joy in a controlled way and maximize what I want out of it.

While you're more than welcome to spend your limited time along with us, I suggest each and every one of you figure out what it is you really want out of the hobby and go for it.

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I spend my time watching older, unearthed footage. I'm going to spend every Tuesday for the next three years writing about the 300 or so French matches from the 50s-80s we've unearthed. We just started this week and everything we've seen so far is great. (Here are the first two matches/reviews: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/01/tuesday-french-catch-day-di-santo-van.html) 

This seems like something I can sink my teeth into.  Just subscribed to the Youtube channel (which I should have done long ago) and am looking forward to checking this out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That French Catch is pretty awesome, trust me. 

Personally this board and Segunda are a boon for my watching. I pretty well trust the opinions of a lot of people on here and can bend my viewing according to what comes recommended. As for the TV wrestling the DVR has been better than sliced bread. My remote's fast forward is probably gonna crap out soon but hey, what can you do. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With a 8-6 job and a bargain theater cinema junkie I still somehow find time to write about wrestling every day, but there's still a ton of wrestling I won't ever see, that I want to see. I've been better about just following my whims about what I actually want to watch mixed with what I most feel like writing about. If I don't feel inspired in some way to write about it, I don't always watch it. I've said it before, but if I had this kind of access to decades of footage when I was a teenager, it's likely I wouldn't have hardly talked to another live human again. But now I have immediate access to tons of stuff I will never be able to watch. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's all about watching what you want, but not getting overwhelmed by all of the possibilities.

personally, i watch NWA Power and AEW Dynamite every week. i'm slowly making my way chronologically through ECW (currently at november 97) and when i am in the mood for more i'll put AEW Dark on in the background or pop in some 80s WWF or late 90s WCW.

the point is, that's a lot of wrestling but most of it is at my own pace and i enjoy it.

Edited by twiztor
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watch way too much wrestling and still feel like I miss too much, but that's fine. As much as I love having access to old stuff in theory, in practice I nearly always feel like I'm wasting my time watching it. To me, seeing history being made live, or nearly live, is a huge part of the appeal of wrestling, however minor and silly that history might be. Because it's a hybrid of art and sport, I need the sport part to be at least a little unpredictable to get the most out of it.

I no longer force myself to watch Raw and Smackdown, but I'll usually at least give them an hour each with my finger on fast forward. Sometimes though, if the opening promo's especially tedious and I get the sense there will be no matches or story developments of any worth, I'll just look up spoilers.

I always watch PPVs and mainline NXT, but have weaned myself off 205 and NXT UK. I watch all the significant New Japan shows, I watch Dynamite, and recently I've been quite enjoying MLW. Plus I go to Progress every month. And I think that's everything. I try Impact every so often but can't be arsed when we don't get it in HD over here, and I stopped watching NWA after a few weeks when it became clear there was little chance of a substantial match breaking out most of the time.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little update since starting this thread, I've made the decision for the time being to watch the weekly programs I want, which is essentially Dynamite, along with pimped matches from other shows, while also watching big NJPW and WWE shows.

As of late I’ve been fortunate/unfortunate in that where I’m living there is a state of emergency due to a wild blizzard that happened last Friday; unfortunate for the blizzard and not being able to leave my house until today, but fortunate because I caught up on a lot of wrestling. I’ve been digging the Segunda Caida website as well as the Wrestling On The Internet Not From The Now thread, watching a lot of matches I’ve never seen before. Just watched Harley and Wahoo from ‘78 today for the first time, great stuff!

One takeaway from this thread for me is to enjoy what I want and not feel I need to watch everything. With all the great content there is just not enough time in the day to watch it all. Don’t get me wrong I’m still going to try and watch it all but not feel like I NEED to.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a kid/teen I wish we had the streaming services we have today to watch anything/everything we want when we want.  I had to rely on blockbuster video for most of my ppv needs up until 1996ish when people had the ppv boxes.   As a 19 yr old I shilled out a huge amount of $$ to get tapes of the WCW shows I never got to see as a kid. Sadly they were the Turner versions and clipped to shreds.  So in a sense it's great that we have so much available to us as opposed to where we were even 10 yrs ago. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/17/2020 at 11:58 AM, J.H. said:

Dude imagine growing up in the 80s where on local TV you had 3 WWF syndie show, 2 NWA syndie shows, 3 TBS NWA Shows, Mid-South/UWF, World Class, Memphis, 2 WWF USA Shows (a 2 hour show and a 1 hour show) and WWC on Univision and CCW on UHF. That's like 15 hours of wrestling in the NYC area alone. Shit that's not counting 2-3 hour WWF show once a month from MSG/Meadowlands/Nassau Coliseum.

It a fuckin miracle I had time to watch Kung-fu movies and Soul Train on the weekends!

James

Growing up I had WWF Superstars on Saturday morning, WCW Worldwide at some ungodly hour for a kid, and for literally three weeks, a UHF channel that carried Memphis and a women's wrestling show. I don't know if the station vanished after those three weeks and just wouldn't come in here anymore, or if they dropped their wrestling block.

But that was it. That was all the wrestling I got. They didn't run cable down our road until 94.

Right now, today, just on actual TV, there are I believe 12 hours of wrestling available. Plus my various streaming subs and YouTube. It's impossible to follow it all, at least for me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the great thing about the current state of wrestling. Something for everyone. Me I watch NWA Power because it scratches that itch for old school action, AEW because I enjoy seeing all the new stars in addition to guys I've enjoyed for years (Omega, Jericho, Bucks, Moxley, etc) and Impact for that indy feel. If I had the time I'd watch MLW more too but I don't feel like I'm missing much because there's so much I already enjoy (not shitting on MLW by the way, what I've seen of them I've enjoyed). Far cry from a year ago when I was fast forwarding through most of Raw and watching ROH circle the drain. 

Edited by BrianS81177
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/17/2020 at 8:43 AM, byrning_hammer said:

Long time lurker here but I figured this would be the best forum to discuss.

There's too much wrestling.

Throughout the week I watch AEW regularly, NJPW big shows, big WWE shows, while also trying to catch up on older stuff such as 80s Lucha, Mid South, and early Mid Atlantic. The latter stuff I almost never get a chance to watch and all of this doesn't include wanting to watch NXT among other things.

My question to you is how do you stay on top of it all? Do you just pick a few promotions to watch regularly? Just watch recommended matches? Just the old stuff?

I know there is no one answer to these questions but I'm just curious to how everyone else navigates the massive amount of content available to us.

I don't watch shit I don't like.  This is actually very rare on the internet where a lot of people watch things they don't like and complain about them.  I'd say I'm kind of 50/50 on AEW though and I wasn't at first.  They do a lot I really like and the stuff I don't like is growing to meet it.

There really is something for everyone.  I can just watch a shitload of old W*ING if all the new shit pisses me off.  Pluto TV plays 2005-2007 AAA constantly.  Those two periods save me from completely dropping off the map sometimes.

Edited by Tromatagon
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This will sounds weird but a quick bit about wrestling growing up...there was often 15 hours worth out there yes but it never came in regular doses. It was like afternoon cartoons. There would be 15 hours worth for a while, less than that, and sometimes only 1 hour before it would change up again. Wrestling never quite had Wheel of Fortune level syndicated show status anywhere but TBS lol!  
 

There was also the other similarity it had with cartoons. Even when wrestling stayed on the air, it was never in both the same place and time frame. 1 show would replace another sooner than later. And whatever show stayed would get put on Saturday nights at 1am or something. 
 

There was something fun about it though. Finding a wrestling show on at a random time was mark out moment alone.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watch AEW and NWA weekly. I watch CMLL streams or more so have it on in the background. I haven't watched WWE since Hell in a Cell. I got tired of their shit and I have option now so fuck it, I don't gotten so Brock and non finishes in main events. I canceled my Network Subscription not as a bullshit point. My wallet was stolen and I never updated the card info. I don't miss it. I miss the Nitro's but I wasn't happy with the updates anyway. Back to the point I was trying to make there's enough good wrestling out there you can cherry pick what you watch and you don't have to watch what you don't wanna watch.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are too many species of plankton.

There are too many musical instruments. 

There are too many films. 

There are too many species of beetles. 

No one is requiring that I familiarize myself with the above.  I'm sure that there's plenty of wrestling that I'll never see, hell, Jushin Liger has been a favorite for three decades and I'm sure that there are literally hundreds of his matches preserved that I'll never see. Oh, well. It's about watching what you like as time permits, (unless you're Dave Meltzer, in which case it's an occupation to watch as much as you possibly can.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The easiest way for me to digest the current stuff is by shutting out WWE almost completely. I'll watch the Rumble, Mania, and the odd PPV that does well with the critics, still check in to the big NXT episodes and Takeovers, but I can't imagine having the energy to watch anything else if I had to trudge through 3 hours of RAW to start of the week. Cancelling the Network did hurt a bit as I was having fun going through every episode of ECW Hardcore TV and all that Mid-South, but it'll always be there. NJPW is my bread and butter but with AEW being a very big deal in my household (took the s/o to the first TV taping + the first PPV, watching BTE + Dark + Dynamite without her now counts as cheating) that's kind of become the new primary brand to follow.

NWA Power is something I attempt to binge and look forward to catching up on. I started to follow CMLL on youtube (they do a great job with it) but right when I was getting back into it they put on that very lackluster Anniversary show and the whole Rush thing blew up, so I got the timing wrong on that one.

Since puroresu is my foundation I usually order myself a $50 stack of DVDs every Black Friday from ivpvideos - partly for old times' sake, partly because he's a local guy doing God's work - so I've been using that as an excuse to work on some of my blind spots. Picked up a lovely three-disc Blu-Ray Best of Michinoku pro comp, every Korakuen show DDT put on in 2010, a bunch of NJPW Dome shows from the dark ages, the history of the Triple Crown between the NOAH split and the long Kawada reign, the very first HUSTLE shows, etc. I don't actually have TV so popping one of those discs in while I'm cleaning, working from home, or grinding out my insane handheld videogame backlog is very nice. I also have a youtube playlist of commercial tapes that includes a ton of Puerto Rico stuff, there's all those years of free AJPW and oh my god so much Memphis. So yeah. I'm set.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...