It's no secret to long-time followers of wrestling that the kinds of things we see on TV today don't hold a candle to what was out there back 10 or 15 years ago. The "attitude era", as it's referred to, spoiled us. There were 3 major competitors running steadily in the United States at that time in the form of Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment. It was a great period for the "sport" as the talent working then was as great of a combination of skill and charisma as has ever been seen in the world of wrestling.
Now, for all intents and purposes, World Wrestling Entertainment IS professional wrestling in the United States. Yes, TNA/Impact Wrestling is there, but they aren't considered a major competitor to WWE (they have their niche but their audience pales in comparison to that of WWE). Likewise, the independent wrestling scene is a jumbled mess of companies that seem to ebb & flow in terms of being able to deliver a hit only to have it fade into obscurity shortly thereafter. Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and Chikara are at the top of the food chain in terms of indies. WWE has signed a lot of talent to come out of those companies, which is a testament to the kind of athletes that are out there working in high school gyms, bars, and VFW halls every weekend still trying to make a name of themselves. It would be awesome if one or more of those federations could grow to be a bigger entity but I just don't see it happening - not now and maybe not ever. Wrestling just isn't the draw that it once was.
As wrestling has changed over time, so too has the fan base and its ability to express themselves. The internet has been a great tool for wrestling as the product is as visible as it has ever been, but at the same time the internet has also been one of the worst things that could've ever happened to wrestling because there are no secrets anymore. Everybody knows by now wrestling is a show, a form of entertainment no different from a Broadway play. But because of the internet and the amount of information that's out there, every fan who's read one dirt sheet or wrestling "news" website is suddenly an industry insider with their finger on the pulse of the business.
The combination of knowledge acquired from often unreliable sources, unfettered freedom of speech, a cultural attitude where complaining without having an actual point is acceptable, and a slew of mountaintops from which these complaints can be slung into the ether of the World Wide Web (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.) has brought us to where we are now. A couple nights a week, hundreds upon thousands of armchair match-makers tune into Monday Night Raw, Impact Wrestling, or SmackDown and let loose to all their online buddies about how Vince McMahon is an idiot, Dixie Carter has no business in wrestling, and that the wrestlers they hate are being forced upon the masses despite being talentless hacks while the wrestlers they like are being horribly misused by the companies for which they're working.
How do I know this? Because I do it myself, that's why, and I think we - as fans and consumers - have every right to making our opinions known.
First and foremost, what makes me an "expert" or capable of delivering valid analysis of pro wrestling? I'd show you the certificate I got off the web for being an internationally recognized master connoisseur of wrestling but it's printed on paper that will literally disintegrate if I were to attempt replicating it, so you're just going to have to take my word on this.
In all seriousness, I'm a lifelong fan and while I may have never been a wrestler I did spend a brief bit of my life working as a production assistant (for lack of a better phrase) with a couple independent federations. I would never toot my own horn about those experiences, but I think I've been around long enough to know the difference between good wrestling and bad wrestling as I've seen plenty of both.
When I buy a product that winds up being a disappointment, I tend to want to tell others of my experience so that they might not waste their money on the same piece of garbage I did. It's not griping for the sake of griping either, this is legitimate criticism we're talking about here. Now apply that line of thought to professional wrestling. I go to live events, I buy pay-per-views, I own wrestling-related merchandise. I'm not a WWE stockholder but I've definitely contributed to their earnings over the years in other ways.
That said, I don't see what I'm doing as being anything different than what most consumers engage in these days via the modern marketplace; think of it as leaving a 2-star product review on Amazon. The difference is that when I report a bauble I purchased as being less than ideal it can't get its feelings hurt because it isn't able to comprehend it's own ineptitude whereas when you tell a wrestler with an overly inflated ego that they aren't that great they tend to get defensive about it. And you know what? That's fine, too! They can buy their own hype all they want or, better yet, maybe they can take what's being said about them constructively. (I admit that's a difficult thing to do, especially when you've got random 12 year old kids on Twitter telling you to learn to work.)
The most consistent comeback I've seen to comments made by folks like me is that if we know so much about how the wrestling business should be run then why aren't we operating our own promotion, having live events, producing TV shows, web content, and the like? I'll answer this in two parts.
1) If I had access to WWE's roster, I would take advantage of the abilities those men & women possess. That's one of the biggest problems with the product nowadays; wrestling and being a charismatic personality isn't the focus, it's the angles and the storylines that matter. We're in an era where writers who have little to no knowledge of wrestling history put together the material that's seen on TV and where bodybuilders and swimsuit models get opportunities above guys and girls who've worked in obscurity for 5-10 years on the indies. How much sense does it make that a guy who's drawn crowds in the US, Mexico, Japan and Canada plays second fiddle to a dude who has an amazing physique and the wrestling acumen of a breath mint? None, that's how much. Let wrestlers actually wrestle - it worked before, it can still work today.
2) It's my experience that people either pursue wrestling as a business or a hobby; for me, it couldn't be a hobby. If I were to become a promoter it would be a full time job because that's what it would take for things to progress beyond mediocrity. Unfortunately, I don't exactly have a whole bunch of money lying around to invest in an entertainment-based venture. For that matter, even if I was a multimillionaire I wouldn't be wasting my disposable income by running a wrestling promotion because the failure rate is huge. (Alternatively, if someone bleeding cash were to come to me and say, "Hey, I'm going to give you a million bucks but you have to use it to make the best wrestling product anyone's ever seen!", I'd be all like "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.") As a business, indy wrestling simply isn't profitable. Taking risks is a part of any business, sure, but starting an independent pro wrestling promotion and expecting to make money is like planting a jar of grape jelly in your yard and expecting a wine vineyard to appear. It's just not going to happen.
The other question I see often is "If you dislike what's on TV so much then why don't you just stop watching?" You've probably seen a sports fan at a game dressed like this.
That pretty much sums up the way I feel as a wrestling fan right now. There are times where I'm ashamed to admit that I'm still hanging around but I also can't give up on "my team", to use another sports analogy. I've been watching pro wrestling for the majority of my life. I'm as big a fan of wrestling as you're likely to ever meet. I have passion enough to stick with it because I know how great it was and I know it can be great again. I don't want to miss what might be around the corner because I was a fair-weather fan who walked away when times got rough.
