The WWE Universe: A New Fan's Perspective

For nearly 23 years, I have been raised by my family to think that wrestling is garbage entertainment...entertainment for barbaric idiots who didn't know what true entertainment was. Even when that conversation died down, I didn't care for wrestling. As a strict pacifist, I looked upon the WWE in disgust that not only were people being brutally violent towards each other on live TV (my knowledge of the violence in WWE came strictly from the Attitude era and I had no idea they toned it down to PG in the Modern era), but the fans were so ecstatic to see that bloodshed and brutality. I thought wrestling fans were among some of humanity's worst.

However, I have a friend that has grown up with wrestling his whole life and been a big fan. For years he has tried to get me on the bandwagon with him so he can have wrestling as a common interest with me, and for years I fought him on it. However, very recently, in maybe the past month or so, the stars aligned. I was feeling really depressed and feeling like my morals of compassion, kindness, and pacifism were worthless...that the world was going to hell despite my best efforts. Feeling defeated and feeling like pacifism was a waste of my time and energy now, I basically said to myself "Screw it. Lets watch the world burn, starting with watching people beat the crap out of each other for other people's amusement." The next time after that when my friend asked me to watch Monday Night RAW with him, I didn't say no. I didn't come up with an excuse to shy away from it. I did it and submitted myself to the reality that kindness and compassion was not humanity's future. It was hate and violence, like the WWE presented (even if I already knew it was fake). "Might as well get used to it," I thought.

On July 3rd, 2017, I sat through my first entire Monday Night RAW, and like I said, the stars aligned. Due to putting aside my morals out of depression, I was able to look at the WWE in a new light and to my surprise, found that I actually enjoyed it...no...I loved it! Over the following 3 weeks, I have become obsessed with WWE. I've bought the video games, changed my wallpapers, followed superstars I've liked on Twitter, watched every RAW, Smackdown, NXT and PPV, and even subscribed to the WWE Network. I'm in full on fan mode and loving every second of it...until I have to interact with other fans that aren't my friend.

You see, when watching the live streams of RAW, Smackdown, NXT, and PPVs, the chat constantly complains about everything, says the show is boring or that it sucks, and it makes me ask myself, "Do these people even really like wrestling?" I don't care who's facing who or how the match is going. It's all exciting to me cause it's all new to me! I'm not very familiar with the history of individual superstars or the WWE as a whole beyond what my friend has told me so I go into every event excited and don't look at the competitors and go, "Well that's gonna be a boring match."

The WWE Universe has been nothing but a buzzkill for me. Superstars I like are frowned upon for reasons I don't understand, matches are ruined for me by negativity, and I'm made to look like a fool for enjoying the things other people find boring or stupid. This has made it damn near impossible to actually make friends within the WWE Universe who appreciate the product like I do. I don't doubt that the WWE isn't in its prime right now. I don't doubt that it has some problems. I don't want to make it seem like I think the fans are whining about nothing. They have more experience with the product than I do so they are probably right in their claims that so-and-so superstar is overrated or that the story lines are garbage. However, that complaining has made it extremely hard to connect with them and continue to enjoy the product unhindered.

I am not making this post to try to change everyone's behavior. That would be a ridiculous waste of my time. I'm just here to say that if you know you are watching WWE with a brand new fan, maybe try to hold your tongue at the things you object to and be considerate. All of this is new to them and they need to build their own history with the WWE instead of having the entire 30+ years of previous history jammed down their throats in an attempt for them to be on the same page as you and be as dissatisfied with the state of the product as you are. Let them be satisfied with it as is and enjoy it for what it is now, even if you don't. Eventually, they will catch up with you. They may not be as knowledgeable as you about the times before they started watching, but they will eventually find themselves on the same side in the court of public opinion. Giving the newer fans a Honeymoon phase with the WWE before they grow to resent the state of it is all I'm asking for.