Falling back in Love with Wrestling

 So, in my previous post I described how I fell in love with wrestling. I started watching wrestling in 1991 and stopped watching in 1999 when WCW fell off a cliff (was always more invested in WCW than WWF). WWF drew me back in in early 2002 by bringing back the nWo. I consider myself nWo 4 life, so I had a duty to watch! I was then dedicated to WWE (and sometimes TNA) from 2002 onwards. However, in around 2016, I was growing increasingly fatigued by WWE and was simply bored by their product, I stopped watching wrestling in early 2017.

At the time, I assumed that my relationship with wrestling had come to an end. I started to doubt this assumption when ITV revived World of Sport (an iconic wrestling brand here in the UK) in 2018. And I really enjoyed watching these new exciting young wrestlers like Kip Sabian, Will Ospreay, Bea Priestley, Viper etc. Sadly, WWE didn't like the idea of another fairly successful show in the English speaking world and basically gutted the UK indie scene to create WWE UK (the less said about that stain on British wrestling, the better) and basically killed off World of Sport.

So, again, I was without wrestling in my life on a weekly basis. My partner, also a long suffering WWE fan who had also grown disillusioned with WWE, found out about an indie promotion called Revolution Pro Wrestling, who ran a monthly show in London at the Cockpit Theatre. We went to a Cockpit show in late 2018. I was just struck by the intensity and pace on display. I was also struck by how different the wrestling was to what I'd been programmed to accept as wrestling from my years of watching WWE. It blew my mind that things could be done another way. 

Although I wasn't watching wrestling regularly, I checked Ewrestlingnews.com nigh-on every day out of habit. So, I was aware of the rumours, in late 2018, of a new promotion. Looking back, the announcement of the creation of All Elite Wrestling in January 2019 was a monumental moment in my journey back to loving wrestling. When Double or Nothing '19 came around, I was so excited to learn all about these wrestlers I had never seen wrestle before. Orange Cassidy, Kenny Omega and Joey Janela appealed to me the most. 

I then bought the 3 following AEW PPVs. By the time AEW Dynamite started in October 219, I was fully invested. My investment in AEW, alongside my burgeoning interest in RevPro meant that I was now fully back in love with wrestling and it was often the first thing I thought about when I woke up. It felt like I had awoken from a wrestling hibernation.

Since this time, I've continued to watch AEW and RevPro. I go to at least 2 UK indie shows a month (mainly RevPro) and have been to AEW shows in the UK and US and a few New Japan shows when on holiday in Japan. I'm so happy that WOS, RevPro and AEW reinvigorated my love of wrestling. I honestly don't know what my life would look like now without wrestling, due to the fact that it takes so much of my time and that I have made loads of friends through wrestling. 

If you're going through a period where you're not getting that magical feeling from the promotion you watch, take a break or try something else. My view is that once you fall in love with wrestling, you never fall out of it. It's just that sometimes the wrestling you're watching does not fulfil your wrestling needs.