Why Do You Like Wrestling?

[Main_Event_Quality]

What is it about wrestling that hooks you to the point where you feel the need to watch week in and out? Here's my reasons:


Young MEQ: I was into the spectacle. The large men inspired me to workout like crazy. I wanted to be them. I marked out for the heroes overcoming the beatings and wrong doings of those evil and I loved the stories attached to them if I remembered any. I was also a huge Hulk Hogan mark. I was such a Hogan mark I cried when Warrior beat him. It was the first time I'd seen Hogan lose.

Preteen/teen MEQ: I loved ECW. I loved the NWO. I loved the Rise of Attitude. I loved hardcore. I loved the sex (to an extent). The action has risen and it was something magical and extreme to witness. The Rock (nuff said). TLC. Luchadores. High fliers. Tables. Technicians. It was just amazing.

Young Adult MEQ: I prefer good wrestler over everything. I like GOOD booking. I want the great days of yesteryear to return in a bit. At least in terms of booking making sense more often than not.

[revolution1232000]

I like a good wrestling match particular between two guys who have good ring chemistry like Benoit and Jericho did in their matches. TNA used to put on great wrestling matches and was Non-Stop Action but now its 2 hours with about 40 minutes worth of matches if you are lucky. WWE isn't much better for matches but its out of ring segments are entertaining sometimes.

For me WWE misses the Rock, sure he wasn't the most technical of wrestlers but the guy was hands down the best entertainer in wrestling.

[DevildrummerX]

At first I liked wrestling for the pageantry and spectacle. But now I like to see a good match between two awesome athletes. While it's very clear wrestling will probably never return to the Attitude Era/Monday Night Wars days; I'm still a sucker for a good match and I still find it entertaining.

[Goldash]

Gonna take MEQ's template for my reply:

Young Goldash:
I watched for the characters and angles, to cheer the faces and boo the heels. I watched WCW religiously with my father every week during their "glory days", marveled at the high-flying abilities of Rey Mysterio Junior, the awesomeness of Sting and the indestructibility of Goldberg, thought Hollywood Hogan was a jealous, past-his-prime crybaby and that Chris Jericho was an obnoxious whiner who seemed to embarrass my favorite wrestlers week after week. I was oblivious to the crap angles and main-event matches WCW offered, which, IMO, may have just worked in my favor. But like anyone watching WCW, I slowly began to lose interest. The final straw was the night after WCW Mayhem, the final WCW pay-per-view I ever ordered (in which Bret Hart defeated Chris Benoit in a simply awesome World Title Tourney Finals Match), in which Vince Russo, in all his glory, decided to bring back the nWo...with Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett at the helm. And I instantly wished death to WCW and became a WWF fan. At this time, I started e-fedding and making my own league, some little thing you guys haven't heard of called the URWL. And that's when my knowledge of wrestling began to change...

Teenage Goldash:
Characters and angles are beginning to matter less to me, but since it's a boom period in wrestling, they still are captivating enough to interest me. This is the era of Wrestlemania X-Seven (the greatest WM event ever in my opinion) and the groundbreaking-on-paper but royally-fucked-in-execution Invasion Angle. The angles were starting to get less trashy and more substantial. Individual matches and their execution begin to captivate me more than just who wins and who loses and who gets the girl at the end of the day. Championship belts begin to embody card hierarchies and not simply "who's the best" anymore. I begin to play Extreme Warfare and Promotion Wars and learn much about how the wrestling industry truly operates. I begin to understand and appreciate how feuds and angles are booked, learning to appreciate them from another perspective. I begin to respect wrestlers for how they perform, not how they're portrayed. I start to see the strategy in wins and losses and how an angle can live or die on booking. I watch "Beyond The Mat" for the first time and it opens my eyes to a world I never thought existed. Just as it's on its dying legs, I begin to watch something called "Extreme Championship Wrestling" and appreciate its breed of professional wrestling. I shake my head in disappointment as the WWE buries WCW and ECW in the Invasion Angle. I cry out in anger as the WWF changes its name to the WWE as the result of a lawsuit. I see WWE attract Hogan, Goldberg, Ric Flair and Scott Steiner to its program, than watch them get buried (with the exception of Hogan and Flair, of course) and fired before my eyes, then ask myself, "what did I like about those guys in the first place?" I see the WWE split brands, make its monthly pay-per-views into less-than-stellar events, leaving the big matches for Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series (but mostly WM for obvious reasons). TNA debuts, and with the exception of many amazing moments, it doesn't hold my attention. I start becoming disgruntled with WWE's brand of wrestling and start purchasing its older events and old-school compilations on DVD to re-live its genuine but not-as-high-flying golden days. I become a Hulk Hogan mark (for some odd reason). The wheels start turing and I bring the URWL back from the grave.

Adult Goldash:
I'm getting bitter and fed up with the current state of wrestling. I have many ideas to fix the product but I don't have as much time as I did to put those ideas into motion with the URWL, so I turn away from wrestling for long periods at a time, returning when something piques my interest (Wrestlemania, CM Punk's ill-fated title reign). I discover Ring of Honor and start collecting its DVD's, which opens my eyes to the indie scene. I still collect WWE DVD's despite being alienated with the product, but mostly it's to reminisce on the bygone days of the promotion. "TVPG" may as well be the Mark of Cain. I start to see potential stars go to waste in the WWE due to horrible booking and angles. I start to see the product become a shadow of its past self, promoting wrestlers that fans detest (Cena, Khali, Henry, Big Show in ECW, Carlito/Masters three years ago). I begin to think Vince McMahon's done more bad than good to professional wrestling after watching archived territorial wrestling shows from the early and mid-1980's. I see numerous casual fans turn their back on professional wrestling and turn to MMA because "it's real" and wonder just how wrestling can attract that audience back. I see Raw's guest hosts and let loose an epic facepalm. I see TNA's "on a pole" matches and nearly suffocate myself in embarrassment. And lastly, I hear that Gabe Sapolsky plans to bring Ultimo Dragon's Dragon Gate stateside, and finally gain some optimism. If there's anything that could bring wrestling out of its doldrums, it's the indies. And suddenly, I begin to get interested in wrestling again...