I'm Sorry For Loving Wrestling So Much

Me, 1986

​I love wrestling. I have loved wrestling since I was eight years old. I love old school wrestling most of all, and yes, I realize that is mostly because I am soon going to be 53 years old. I also realize that old school wrestling is pretty much dead, gone, and buried. 

Pro Wrestling Noah has a much slower paced (mostly) harder hitting, better selling, style than any other wrestling company on Earth. I will always be a fan of Noah, a respecter of it without doubt. The problem though is that it's not American style wrestling. They don't do in ring, or at a podium promos/interviews. They don't do any real angles, not as I know angles to be in America. They have few real "big" personalities. Their reason for fighting is simply for the competition. I crave more than that. I also miss English commentary on EVERY show. Most of all I miss having people to interact with about what I am watching. People to agree with and even people to disagree with. Watching Japanese wrestling is pretty lonely. 

Stardom is the best "modern day" wrestling there is. However it suffers from lack of everything I mentioned about Pro Wrestling Noah. The in ring stuff is great as well, but it's also a lonely place to be a fan, as an English speaking American. They also do too much comedy for my tastes. Not enough to make me say it's not any good, but still too much imo. 

I had found my place in indy wrestling for a number of years. I LOVED IT!!!! What made me start to not love it, but to actually hate it, was dick boy Joey Ryan, finger gun idiot Dick Justice, and other clowns like that. Dance competitions, blow up doll matches, and invisible men, made me loathe the indy scene with a passion. Yes, I was never fond of the lack of selling, or insane bumps that not only didn't end a match, but the wrestler on the receiving end of said insane bumps, often coming back to WIN the damn match, made me flee the indie scene, insulting everything about it on the way. 

MLW gave me joy for a few  years, but now they've sold out to some of, if not the worst comedy bullshit I've seen in years, if ever. Micro man is bad, so insulting, that I am almost hurt to see it happening in a company that I put over so strongly. It breaks my heart watching that go on in that company. Mean while, I can't recall the last Von Erich match I've seen there. 

The NWA had such potential, but The Question Mark bull shit is just cringe, and shits on everything they do in that company, or did. Now the Nick Aldis stuff seals their fate imo. They had magic in a bottle and not only spilled it, but smashed the bottle all over the sidewalk. 

I have wanted to love and support AEW simply because someone, ANYONE, finally took on Vince McMahon again. I've always liked and respected Eric Bischoff for the same reason. AEW did some hideous shit for a long time (so did WCW). Stuff that angered me, and made me want to scream, and I often did scream about it, anywhere I could. Currently AEW reminds of the one company that I worked for, that I loved, and that's Legacy Wrestling. They have decent enough angles (stories) at the moment, and lots of solid matches, in the modern style, that pales in comparison to my beloved JCP style, but I love wrestling....and I don't want to...hell I can't forsake it. I have tried, and tried, and tried, to walk away from wrestling, and I am just unable to. It's my favorite entertainment medium by far. Nothing else is even close. 

So I am going to see how much I can enjoy AEW for now by not acting like an insider. I will cheer for who I like, and boo who I hate. I will root for "my guys" to win, and those I can't stand to lose. Just like I did as a kid, and later a teenager, back in the day. Yes, I now know who deserves pushes and who doesn't, depending on a lot of different merits. I understand who can work, and who can't. I will forever be disgusted by those who refuse to sell as much as they should, but I got over that as a long time Ring of Honor fan, a while ago. 

AEW may again go down a road that disgusts and infuriates me, we shall see. But for now, I need a non WWE, American company, that I can find people to engage with about. A company with more than a small YouTube or FITE TV audience. A company that's easily accessible, because that is the ONLY way you can ever find an engaged audience, and a company that in the very least, has some guys I consider friends and acquaintances that I worked with, on their way up. So excuse me for just wanting to TRY to enjoy American wrestling again. Yes, that means compromises, and no, I don't like compromises, at all, but I've learned it's either that, or just being a bored, lonely, Japanese wrestling fan that misses so many elements of what I think Pro Wrestling is.  

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