10 Stages Of Life As A Wrestling Fan
2. Nihilism
This stage arrives at a very specific time - the WWE main roster product of 2018, to be exact.
Sometimes we forget why we fell for Vince’s charms in the first place. Rich beyond reason and care by this insane new TV rights era, WWE is presently presenting a product that, with the not at all inconsiderable SmackDown excepted, is a creatively unambitious and meaningless shambles. Many of us watch abbreviated pirated YouTube highlights and still wish we had a second smartphone with which to distract ourselves at the sheer bloody state of a dying-inside Bobby Lashley wearing a haunted uncanny valley smile when confronted with three Indy wrestlers in drag mocked up like his sisters.
It’s not an insightful comparison, but it’s an apt one: WWE and the cynical, ageing fandom suffer through an unhappy marriage. I get asked by the comments section why I still watch. Other than the fact that my job is to reflect WWE through a subjective lens, I - and I gather from Twitter and Reddit many others - persist purely as a result of the sheer time and commitment (and money) spent as a WWE fan. It’s hard to give up on especially when, even at the worst of times, Vince is still capable of showing flashes of his old brilliance.
There’s always something worthwhile - Ronda Rousey’s incandescence, Shinsuke Nakamura’s hilarious character work - even if the majority of the screen is caked in sh*t.