American wrestling fans.

[Strong Style X]

This post is based mostly off of observation of a lot of the casual wrestling fans in America, including a surprising percentage of the IWC. The idea of a post like this always strikes me when I read things about the Attitude Era or WCW getting bought out. People always seem to say "wrestling isn't the same anymore, wrestling died" etc. But I know that most of the people who say this obviously haven't seen wrestling outside of America that weren't effected by things like this at all. They speak of WWE/TNA/WCW/ECW like they're the only companies that have existed.

Also, a portion of the IWC seem to whine and complain excessively about WWE or TNA's product like they're the only wrestling companies in the world. Not to mention; it seems to work that way with "blah blah blah company x is best" when most of them have never seen wrestling outside of what comes on cable TV. There's a wrestling for practically anyone in the world, yet people seem unaware of it. If people dislike WWE/TNA or the style of major American promotions why don't they go look for alternatives? Do they not understand that non-American wrestling exists? Also, I hate when people use language barriers as an excuse in some cases because not all wrestling promotions use talking/mic work to the degree America does.

So I'm curious, if you're a type of fan that only follows major American wrestling but dislike it, why haven't you reached for an alternative? If you like wrestling but haven't bothered looking for other companies that could potentially be better, why haven't you? If you dislike the current state of wrestling, why not expand your horizons?

My point to asking this is; that there's so many options in the wrestling world right now outside of just America and I really wish the majority of the IWC knew that and were open to giving these a chance and not be judgmental or biased. I'm curious on what the feedback might be! Please feel free to answer the questions I asked or ask any questions you may have about the topic.

 

[Lucha-Libre is wrestling]

The real wrestling fan do have choices outside WWE ,TNA and ROH. To be honest I enjoy watching WWC from Puerto Rico and AAA from Mexico. These 2 promotions are available on cable and satellite, yes they in Spanish but most TV's now a days have SAP with Close caption so you can read along in English. Then we are going to have the ignorant person say thats not wrestling its Lucha Libre. News flash Lucha Libre means wrestling in spanish, back in the days wwf had a weekly show named superstars of wrestling it was on in ny on Saturday morning around 11am on ch.9 but on tuesday you turn on ch.47 at 11pm and what was on the same show from saturday morning but in spanish and it was called Las Super Estrellas De La Lcha Libre. I always wonder what the american fans and promoters mean by lucha libre style, I guess its just ignorant America at its best. Maybe we should say latin or spanish style wrestling which would be more proper. Now back to the topic in hand I wish New Japan wrestling can be view on tv here in the states because i have bought a few of their DVD's and their promotion is great. In a way i feel cheated not being able to see new japan on U.S. TV. So guys if you really stop being ignorant you will see there is a world of wrestling beside WWE,TNA and ROH. And for the real wrestling fan that would like to see AAA its on Sunday's 5pm-7pm on Galavision and no u don't need the spanish package for this ch., WWC comes on SAT. and Sun 11am or 12noon on WAPA America most cable company give this channel without the spanish package on satellite you may have to pay extra.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Even now most people just know WWE and TNA. Even the average wrestling fan hardly doesnt know much about ROH.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

A big problem is that most alternatives aren't available to a lot of wrestling fans to actually see. For instance, I don't know of anyone personally that has HDNet so they couldn't watch ROH. I suppose one could just order some ROH DVDs from the ROH site but most Americans fans aren't going to spend their money on something that they're not sure that they even like.

In order to get American fans interested, then a wrestling company has to have its product on a well known network that's available in most homes. That's how it's always been and that's probably how it's going to be for the forseeable future. I've watched AAA and I've checked out a few episodes of Lucha Libre USA and I'm just not into it at all. The wrestlers are far too cartoonish, so many of the matches I've seen in AAA are mindless clusterfucks with most of the offense being comprised of hurricanranas and suicide dives. Also, it's hard for me to take male wrestlers seriously when they routinely get beaten up in matches against women. It's just not for me but that's fine, different strokes for different folks.

The problem with the IWC isn't necessarily WWE or TNA, it's the fact that many of them believe themselves to be much smarter than they actually are. They think that they're experts on wrestling just because they watch a lot of it and talk about it on internet forums. If someone doesn't like what they're seeing, that's one thing. But a huge problem is that there are a lot of windbags that think that just because they think something sucks or that something doesn't work, then everyone else is supposed to agree with them. If they didn't complain about WWE or TNA, they'd complain about AJPW, NJPW, Dragon Gate, WWC, AAA, CMLL and just about any other wrestling promotion out there. If you look hard enough, you can find something to bitch about in any wrestling promotion in any particular style and that's the MO of a lot of internet wrestling fans.

 

[wrestlingfan]

But remember that they're sstream site out there that will post things such as ROH, Though I see your point. Not many want to watch alternatives. The best alternatives I can think of is Japan or any other high-popular indies such as Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Guerilla. maybe even Chikara. I've seen Lucha Libre U.S.A. It bored me too. too cartoonish, too much luchardor stuff, and I've grown up. masked wrestlers aren't my forte anymore. Even NWA which is still in America may not fit certain people's style. its mostly old-school and they got low quality in terms of camera, and all that stuff that makes the company look pro. I've seen an Adam Pearce promo and it literally looks like they gave him a mic and put him in some random building.