{"id":19320,"date":"2018-03-02T14:51:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T19:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=19320"},"modified":"2018-04-02T11:46:01","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T16:46:01","slug":"wolskis-wrestling-ramblings-a-lapsed-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2018\/03\/02\/wolskis-wrestling-ramblings-a-lapsed-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolski’s Wrestling Ramblings: A lapsed fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0I feel like I\u2019m in a rut. WWE isn\u2019t nearly as fun as it was nine years ago when I first started watching. Everything is bland, uninteresting and downright bad at some points, save for a few people like AJ Styles, The New Day, Seth Rollins, Elias and Braun Strowman. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The action is solid, but without stakes. The promos for the most part are boring, and are just a way to kill time. Wrestlers who have tremendous abilities aren\u2019t allowed to pull out their best stuff and it bores me. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"AJ-Styles-Will-Defend-the-WWE-Championship-Against-Dean-Ambrose-at-WWE-TLC\"\u00a0 \u00a0It feels like none of the matches matter, as feuds rarely get personal and never have the feeling of \u201cthese two guys hate each other\u201d (and even if they did they can\u2019t bleed, so it loses some of the fire), and the presentation never makes it feel like a win matters. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0You\u2019ll have guys like Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, two men who don\u2019t win a lot of matches, and they both pull off fluke wins to go the the WWE title match at Fastlane. Sure, they\u2019re just pawns in the bigger Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon story (which has drug on for months now, and isn\u2019t interesting anymore), but that doesn\u2019t make it any more fun to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The only pay-per view I\u2019ve watched in the last four months was the Royal Rumble, and I couldn\u2019t even watch all of that. I skip Raw and Smackdown until I hear about something must see. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The only reason I keep the WWE network now is for NXT and the back-catalogue of shows, which is well worth the $9.99. Yet it still feels like I\u2019m giving my money away to continue supporting mediocrity. Granted, I\u2019m just one loser that writes about wrestling on the internet, but it feels weird.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Something that was a habit, a ritual, a thing I looked forward to every week has become a chore. I wonder if people who watch other TV shows spend time thinking about how it could be better, trying to rework things to fit what they think is the best way, but I guess that\u2019s the thing that makes wrestling unique. The endless possibilities that can be made with the talent available. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brock_Lesnar_and_Paul_Heyman_April_2014\"
The stranglehold Brock Lesnar has had on the main event since 2014 is part of why WWE, specifically Raw has become stale. No one can fight for the Universal Championship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0It also helps that most of the shows are booked at the last minute and can change at the whim of a 70 year old man. Yet somehow they remain predictable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0However, not all is lost. I can still relive the glory days of wrestling and watch over 20 years of what I\u2019ve missed with the network. Plus I\u2019ve also been able to watch and experience something different in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and I have TNA and ROH DVDs that I still need to watch. It\u2019s actually a little overwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0But that\u2019s what you have to do when things get stagnant. You have to jump out of your comfort zone and try new things. That\u2019s why in the past month I\u2019ve made efforts to watch some new stuff, and it\u2019s paid off pretty well. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0This thought process also extends beyond wrestling, and goes for everything you do. If something\u2019s getting stale to you and you\u2019re not enjoying it, take a break! Granted, it\u2019s harder to do that when it\u2019s something you\u2019ve been watching for nine years and treat like a ritual, but I can tell you it\u2019s worth it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Until then, I\u2019ll catch you in another edition of Wolski\u2019s Wrestling Ramblings. Next time it\u2019ll be a little more positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry Wolski<\/strong>
\nExecutive Editor<\/p>\n

\"WWE_NXT_TakeOver_Brooklyn_Promotional_Poster\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0I feel like I\u2019m in a rut. WWE isn\u2019t nearly as fun as it was nine years ago when I first started watching. Everything is bland, uninteresting and downright bad at some points, save for a few people like AJ Styles, The New Day, Seth Rollins, Elias and Braun Strowman. \u00a0 \u00a0The action is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":19326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2104,2109,3,2138],"tags":[2000,2305,2141,2440,2441,2438,772,2173,2439],"class_list":["post-19320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-opinion","category-tartan-news","category-wrestling","tag-henry-wolski","tag-njpw","tag-online-exclusive","tag-roh","tag-tna-wrestling","tag-wolskis-wrestling-ramblings","tag-wrestling","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/WWE_Logo.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-51C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19327,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19320\/revisions\/19327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}