How The Future Of Wrestling Might Be In Grave Danger

You never read about "lapsed" fans of film, sport and TV. You do read threads on Reddit about what moment drove you away (Triple H in f*cking 2002, to just throw an example out there), and what moment brought you back. How many of those driven off by these abject empty arena shows might not return? And how bad might these ratings get? Every week brings with it a new yikes moment.

What has been determined from the Empty Arena Era is that wrestling is positioned far more precariously than was thought. It is very telling, and very concerning, that every major and legitimate sporting league across the globe suspended operations with no hesitation, as wrestling proceeded on with no compunction. It was unthinkable to go on, and the NBA, La Liga, Serie A et al. simply stopped promoting games, fully secure that the TV network and fanbase couldn't do much of anything about it. They weren't going to give up on sports. It was unthinkable. There was a shared acceptance between fans and administrations that one would meet back again with the other, once all this has passed.

Both Triple H and Cody opined, on the respective first empty arena shows, that pro wrestling is a public service of sorts, that there is a compulsion to do this born from that which drives the pro wrestler at their very core. But was just a smokescreen of rhetoric?

If wrestling would always be there for us, to paraphrase each man's rah-rah speech - if we could be assured of its comforting staying power - why weren't they comfortable going away for a while first, for our benefit?