WWE 2025: Welcome to the Streaming Era

[Epic for Springs]

This gets said annually but this is probably the worst Mania build in quite some time. Maybe the actual show will deliver but I find myself less interested in Cena/Cody with each passing week and it's unfair Main Event Jey isn't getting an actual main event nor are any of the women.

KO/Orton? Is this 2016?

 

[Valeyard]

People are hyped though. It's actually as interesting as it is frustrating for me because the divide between wrestling fans and WWE fans has never been larger, if that makes any sense. Vince got what he wanted in the long run.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

ESPN’s Pat McAfee and others amplified a false rumor. A teenager’s life was ‘destroyed’

An Ole Miss freshman has engaged legal representation and says she intends to take action against McAfee, ESPN, and potentially others

www.nytimes.com

"
Since his show began airing on ESPN in 2023, McAfee described WNBA player Caitlin Clark as a “White bitch.” (He later apologized.) On X, he made a joke about former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually abused hundreds of young girls and women. (He defended the reference in the midst of what he described as an “all-out onslaught” of backlash.) Aaron Rodgers, the NFL quarterback, used a paid appearance on McAfee’s show to falsely suggest that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was linked to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. McAfee apologized “for being a part of it.”
"
Fuck I hate this guy so much

 

[Valeyard]

No one person harms their shows more than him. Ruins literally everything.

 

[Broward83]

So according to Booker T, the reason we don't see more Black talent on WWE PLEs is simply because they don't have the talent a man like him had..

 

[Valeyard]

Don't hate the playa. Hate the game.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

...the crowds make themselves the story of the show instead and it hurts the product ultimately.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but it's on the promotions and talent themselves to change this. Crowds want to give in and enjoy the show, but most of it just isn't delivering at the level that would make crowds stop hijacking it.

 

[Valeyard]

Company is just not for me anymore. Like I dug seeing Gunther bloody up the one Uso to taunt the other, but it just felt like watching a slick remake of something that felt so different. Platinum Dunes wrestling.

 

[Valeyard]

That said while the shows look better than ever they 100% do not feel like wrestling anymore, and if my wrestling doesn't feel like wrestling then what the hell good is it

 

[strummer]

WWE has signed Miro/Rusev according to PWI and Post Wrestling.

 

[Hawk 34]

WWE has signed Miro/Rusev according to PWI and Post Wrestling.

No word yet if they will re-sign God to continue their storied rivalry.

 

[Valeyard]

Putin gimmick better come back.

 

[909]

WWE has signed Miro/Rusev according to PWI and Post Wrestling.

Bad idea. Really bad idea. It's the same mistake Tony made. You can't just scoop up a bunch of guys like a vacuum and expect that everything's going to go fine. He hasn't wrestled regularly in a really long time and the last thing he did was tell Tony that he wouldn't put over Hangman Page. So like you know good luck with that.

 

[Valeyard]

Dude worked TMZ for this so good for him.

 

[Gary]

Company is just not for me anymore. Like I dug seeing Gunther bloody up the one Uso to taunt the other, but it just felt like watching a slick remake of something that felt so different. Platinum Dunes wrestling.

I'd be fine with it if it weren't so obvious that somebody who shouldn't be anywhere near the title (Jey Uso) wasn't going to be champ. Dude's terrible in the ring and his character is annoying.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

People are hyped though. It's actually as interesting as it is frustrating for me because the divide between wrestling fans and WWE fans has never been larger, if that makes any sense.

The only problem I have with this take is that it seems to presuppose that "wrestling fans" can't like WWE, and vice versa.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

The only problem I have with this take is that it seems to presuppose that "wrestling fans" can't like WWE, and vice versa.

I wouldn't say that it's pushing the ides that "wrestling fans" can't like WWE, but more that there's a clear divide between "WWE fans" (people who only watch WWE) and wrestling fans.

 

[Valeyard]

Exactly. You can like The Dark Knight and the Machinist, but they're not the same genre of Bale.

WWE is not pro wrestling anymore, but a show that has wrestling on it. It's the longest running action adventure series on television. It's not for me anymore and hasn't been for longer than I probably am willing to admit.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I wouldn't say that it's pushing the ides that "wrestling fans" can't like WWE, but more that there's a clear divide between "WWE fans" (people who only watch WWE) and wrestling fans.

I don't disagree at all with the notion that a divide exists. I might take issue with the idea that it's "more clear" than it's ever been; I tend to feel like the divide is as clear as it always was. I feel like that's been the game the whole time, at least as far back as when Ted Turner (allegedly) called Vince McMahon to tell him that he'd gotten into the 'wrasslin business and Vince (allegedly) replied, that's nice, I'm in the entertainment business.

If I were to liken fandom to the Kinsey scale, where a zero was Exclusively WWE fan and a 6 was Exclusively "Wrestling" fan (whatever that even means), I would, were I being honest with myself, probably put myself at around a 2. So, I guess maybe the fact that I still consume and enjoy both has me feeling a way about what often comes across to me as a false ultimatum of having to choose one and/or reject the other.

 

[Valeyard]

It's very different. The wrestling, the tastes, and the audiences are barely the same. WWE is not perceived like, say, the WWF was. It isn't a wrestling company and hasn't been for many years. There's wrestling in it, but the name itself is its own genre. It's experiences and moments over stories and blowoffs. It's in a completely different world than AEW is when it comes to intention and philosophy, and the modern WWE fans don't want anything else because nothing is like it. I have yet to meet a modern WWE universe dweller in the wild who gives a fuck about anything other than them. This isn't 1988.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

https://x.com/djvlad/status/1907379390930932045

Welp

 

[Hawk 34]

https://x.com/djvlad/status/1907379390930932045

Welp

Man ricochet is gonna be disappointed too

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

David Bixenspan (@davidbix.bsky.social)

Just heard Chasyn Rance was arrested today for violating terms of his sex offender registration. Specifically, the Orange County Jail website says he failed tor report changes in vehicle ownership, failed to report an “internet ID, web page, or app name” 2x, and provided false registration info 3x.

bsky.app

he just got arrested today as well so lol

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

It's very different. The wrestling, the tastes, and the audiences are barely the same... It isn't a wrestling company and hasn't been for many years. There's wrestling in it, but the name itself is its own genre. It's experiences and moments over stories and blowoffs. It's in a completely different world than AEW is when it comes to intention and philosophy, and the modern WWE fans don't want anything else because nothing is like it...

I don't disagree with any of this, except I guess for the part about WWE not being perceived the way WWF was. Which brings me to my point of contention, which is the belief that this is somehow different from how it's always been. It isn't, at least not from my point of view.

 

[Valeyard]

In 80s terms, WWE is Dynasty or Dallas. AEW is the WWF. There's are absolutely similarities but no one would ever consider them the same thing. Can the audience overlap? Absolutely, but that doesn't mean it's the same audience.

As far as different than it's always been, the kind of fan has changed more than anything. People aren't ashamed to go to WWE shows, or watch TV. It's treated with a level of respect it has never had for reasons that allude me. It isn't the WWF where it's a mainstream novelty, now it just is mainstream. The audience now wouldn't have touched it ten years ago or more. I really don't know how else to say it. It's completely different and the world is completely different.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

If I were to liken fandom to the Kinsey scale, where a zero was Exclusively WWE fan and a 6 was Exclusively "Wrestling" fan (whatever that even means), I would, were I being honest with myself, probably put myself at around a 2. So, I guess maybe the fact that I still consume and enjoy both has me feeling a way about what often comes across to me as a false ultimatum of having to choose one and/or reject the other.

No lie, I really like this analogy. A Kinsey scale of wrestling fandom works better for me than an iceberg chart, or at least tells a different story in regards to what kind of fan someone is.

Maybe it's too PWO-y, but I'd say it warrants its own topic. Even if there's only 3-4 people in the thread.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I’d join that thread, but my opinion is skewed by the fact that I mainly watch old school.

 

[Tino Standard]

CM Punk: Two-Night WrestleMania Is More Opportunity For People To Experience The Rare Air Of A WrestleMania Main Event | Fightful News

CM Punk comments on main eventing WrestleMania 41.

www.fightful.com

So, now the Buy One, Get One Free Four-Night Extravaganza is good. We’ve come a long way, baby.

 

[Hawk 34]

It’s almost like a pro wrestler will say something to a specific audience to get a specific reaction in a specific moment.

That can’t be true tho because wrestlers never pander to an audience.

 

[Hawk 34]

Orton/Owens for Mania is in jeopardy (oh no) because Owens is still injured to the point alternate plans are being discussed.

Unless Owens has a severed leg, I’m not sure what injury would keep him from working a Kevin Owens match except the fact it’s against Orton and all of a Kevin Owens match is a “that don’t work for me brother” for Orton (and rightly so).