10 Reasons Why Your Friends Don't Watch Wrestling Anymore

Believe it or not, it used to be cool to watch wrestling. When Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and The nWo were dominating Monday nights, missing Raw or Nitro meant being left in the dust come Tuesday conversation with similarly-obsessed friends. Those days are long gone.

There's a misconception amongst those in power in the wrestling industry that the business is cyclical -- periods of lesser popularity (and profitability) are followed by periods of greater popularity, and all a good promoter can do is hold on, weather the lean times, and look forward to the next boom. In truth, that line of thinking constitutes little more than wrestling executives excusing their own stubborn behavior. Like in any other business, identifying problems beats waiting for salvation.

How did it all change? How could wrestling -- once mandatory watching for teenagers, college students, young adults, and anyone who prided themselves on being on the cutting edge of pop culture -- experience such a mass exodus of fans? In a period of a few years, millions of people stopped watching pro wrestling, and in the years since, the numbers have become even weaker.

It's not 1999 anymore -- when Tuesday morning rolls around, there's nobody to talk to about the hot angles on Raw the night before. Then again, maybe there weren't any hot angles on Raw the night before. Here are 10 reasons why your friends don't watch wrestling anymore.

WWE was riding such a wave of popularity in the early 2000s that they managed to put their primary competitor, WCW, out of business, purchasing the assets of the organization for a song. Many fans expected the greatest storyline of all time to come as a result, but instead, they got the first major misstep from WWE following their greatest boom period ever.

The invasion was doomed from the start -- not because WWE refused to shell out the money needed to acquire the contracts of superstars like Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Sting, and Bill Goldberg (though that would have helped), but because they had no interest in making the WCW talent look competitive with WWE's roster. Apparently forgetting that Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Kanyon, Lance Storm, and the like were now their own employees, WWE beat them routinely, taking all drama out of the confrontations between the sides.

Things got worse. ECW joined WCW in the Invasion, but Stephanie McMahon became the group's mouthpiece. With The Alliance, as they came to be known, short on talent, Steve Austin defected, becoming the de facto face of WCW. By the time the whole angle was put out of its misery at Survivor Series (six months after it began), WCW was unrecognizable.

WCW's fans, insulted at the portrayal of the company they loyally followed, quit watching wrestling altogether. Undoubtedly, many WWE fans were also disappointed with how this dream battle was handled, and their fandom also wavered.