What a Time to be a Fan
Photo Credit: Scott Lesh Photography @ScottLesh724) via SESCOOPS
I’ve watched a lot of pro wrestling in my 29 years, despite a few year hiatus in my later years of high school.
The last 20 years have left the WWE mostly unchallenged as THE major professional wrestling company. Sure, TNA tried. But that’s about all they did; try. MTV put out Wrestling Society X but most wrestling fans I know haven’t even seen it. For as long as I’ve been an internet wrestling fan, there have always been rumors of a wealthy business mogul funding a promotion, and up until about 3 years ago, every time it ended up as nothing more than a rumor.
The internet and streaming platforms provided a way to distribute wrestling to the masses like never before. The first time I really heard about New Japan Pro Wrestling was when Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling partnered with NJPW to present Wrestle Kingdom 9 and make it available to US fans with English commentary (I actually reached out to Jarrett to work with GFW in 2014 and was fully prepared to move anywhere in the US to do so. Praise be to Flair that Double J never responded). Wrestle Kingdom 9 was my first experience with Japanese wrestling and their popularized Strong Style. I immediately realized that this was the pro wrestling that was made for me. WK9 led me down a rabbit hole of watching a ton of older NJPW and subsequently into Ring of Honor (ROH), then a major partner of NJPW. ROH in the mid 2000s put on some of the best pro wrestling that I have ever seen, with quality only rivaled by the last 2 years of AEW.
To this day, I contend that if I had seen KENTA vs Bryan Danielson at ROH’s Glory By Honor V in 2006 when it occurred, I would have gone to wrestling school. Sometimes I lament this thought. But I’m sure my parents prefer the path I took. Plus, pursuing my cubical dreams instead led me to meeting Sean and Chris. In 2006, as a 14 year old, the odds of me stumbling upon this match were slim to none. However, in 2021, a 14 year old kid has the opportunity to flip on TNT or YouTube and see their own version of KENTA vs Danielson, inspiring them to pursue a career in the business.
We’re in a golden age of accessibility of wrestling. Love the larger than life superheroes? Watch WWE. Do you prefer work rate wrestling and long term storytelling? Watch AEW. Think Strong Style is the best form of pro wrestling? New Japan! Hell, even the smaller indies like GCW, AAW and more can be streamed, which gives fans more to watch and independent wrestlers a better chance to make a living.
We don’t, and likely won’t, talk about WWE often on this site. It’s not a shot at them or people who enjoy their product. As I’ve mentioned above there is so much pro wrestling available to view at all times and because of that, we only spend time on what we enjoy most. Will we watch the Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, etc? Of course. And if WWE adjusts their style and storytelling, we may even go back to watching the product regularly but for us to be able to operate this site and still function in our everyday lives, we have to put a cap on what we watch.
The Internet Wrestling Community is notorious for tribalism, negativity and an overall attitude that makes you question why they even watch wrestling. We’re not looking to add to that perception. We’ll tell you what we like & we’ll also tell you what we don’t like but you’ll never hear of us actively wasting our energy on wrestling we do not enjoy. The supply of wrestling we love already outweighs the time we have to watch it.
