If you’re a fan of professional wrestling who foolishly spends time on “X”, the social platform that used to be Twitter, you’ve likely encountered O’Shea Jackson Jr, a Los Angeles based actor best known for playing his father Ice Cube in the biopic Straight Outta Compton
I don't know if you set out as a child to absolutely eviscerate Ice Cube's son someday, but that day was today. I have never seen AEW and I've watched one WWE event in the last few years, but your writing is outstanding. We'll done.
Really great article (as usual!) that challenges some of my preconceptions about my own fandom. Admittedly I am not nearly as hardcore or educated on wrestling in its various forms and histories around the globe as many, but I’m firmly in a (majority?) group who enjoyed WWF casually as a kid, came of age in that sweet sweet Attitude Era, then fell out of things as life and growing up got in the way, following back along to what US networks presented to us in a catch-as-catch can manner as time permitted, only to reminisce about peak Stone Cold and Rock and Mankind and DX and the like.
I was an AEW fan from the start, eagerly anticipating a more mature presentation of wrestling and “sports entertainment” than what WWE had been serving up for two decades. And for the first 3+ years I became an ardent loyalist, not only for the various styles they showcased in the ring, but for the creativity and edge in the product and overall dogged determination to keep things going throughout the pandemic. I still have fond memories of smiling as MJF stood at ringside betting on matches in an empty Daily’s Place with Shawn Spears, then having a moment of awareness of “how cool is it that I can have this moment of joy as the world is seemingly falling apart?” Tony Khan earned some PPV buys from me on this type of goodwill alone - I quite literally *wanted* to give back to the company in view of what I felt they had given me.
All that said, the past year has seen my interest in AEW steadily erode to the point I generally pass on Rampage, skip most of Collision, and only skim through Dynamite on my DVR. While there can be no doubt a LOT of that stems - for me! - from the departure of Cody (unquestionably a commanding presence whether you liked him or not), the Punk drama, mishandling of talents who seemed to be gaining momentum in the eyes of fans (Wardlow, Starks, Hobbs, Miro…), the listless positioning of everyone in the JAS once that dissolved, the injuries limiting MJF, Baker, Hater, Cole, and Danielson, a LOT of that also stems - for me! - of no longer really having a set of compelling through-threads that connect one week of programming to the next. Much of the “storytelling” that had me hooked in AEW from late 2019 through late 2022 has been replaced by one-off “dream bouts” (for who?) and things like the Continental Classic that may be based on foreign booking models but to my eyes just seemed like the same guys facing one another week after week, ad nauseum.
Yes, I appreciate there have been incredible Mexican and Japanese talents coming in for random matches… but I have no emotional investment in the “meaning” of any them. You offer an example of why two teams play one another… yet people also root for sports teams and watch sports generally because they have an emotional connection to one of them. Most people won’t turn on a random game and watch it start to finish. So why would wrestling be any different? And how, if I’m feeling a degree of ambivalence toward AEW now, am I that different from O’Shea?
WWE fans are part of brand communities, a thing long since detailed academically to exist and with relationship to brands that you'd expect to have them like Harley Davidson and Jeep. When I was still into the coaster/theme park stuff, the Disney fans were no different. They weren't interested in theme parks as a medium of anything or as an industry. They were interested in Disney theme parks, and would only look to anything else if it was seen as complementary (Knott's) or competitive (Universal). What was extremely wild was discovering over time how the entire themed entertainment industry generally were also Disney fans rather than theme park fans, meaning they didn't even respect or like the things they made because they weren't for Disney! I picture many of the wrestlers of today, virtually all of whom are humongous marks, having similar feelings about headlining stadium or arena shows when they aren't Wrestlemania or Summerslam.
Great piece, Jonathan. I'll never understand this "why should I care?" mentality. I grew up seeing Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Ultimo Dragon on WCW television and instead of turning the channel, I found myself absolutely fascinated by them. When the internet became a thing, I used it to learn about all the Japanese and Mexican wrestlers I had seen on TV, watched more of their matches, and became a deeper fan of wrestling in general. What happened to curiosity? What happened to wanting to learn more about the things you supposedly love?
I don't know if you set out as a child to absolutely eviscerate Ice Cube's son someday, but that day was today. I have never seen AEW and I've watched one WWE event in the last few years, but your writing is outstanding. We'll done.
Really great article (as usual!) that challenges some of my preconceptions about my own fandom. Admittedly I am not nearly as hardcore or educated on wrestling in its various forms and histories around the globe as many, but I’m firmly in a (majority?) group who enjoyed WWF casually as a kid, came of age in that sweet sweet Attitude Era, then fell out of things as life and growing up got in the way, following back along to what US networks presented to us in a catch-as-catch can manner as time permitted, only to reminisce about peak Stone Cold and Rock and Mankind and DX and the like.
I was an AEW fan from the start, eagerly anticipating a more mature presentation of wrestling and “sports entertainment” than what WWE had been serving up for two decades. And for the first 3+ years I became an ardent loyalist, not only for the various styles they showcased in the ring, but for the creativity and edge in the product and overall dogged determination to keep things going throughout the pandemic. I still have fond memories of smiling as MJF stood at ringside betting on matches in an empty Daily’s Place with Shawn Spears, then having a moment of awareness of “how cool is it that I can have this moment of joy as the world is seemingly falling apart?” Tony Khan earned some PPV buys from me on this type of goodwill alone - I quite literally *wanted* to give back to the company in view of what I felt they had given me.
All that said, the past year has seen my interest in AEW steadily erode to the point I generally pass on Rampage, skip most of Collision, and only skim through Dynamite on my DVR. While there can be no doubt a LOT of that stems - for me! - from the departure of Cody (unquestionably a commanding presence whether you liked him or not), the Punk drama, mishandling of talents who seemed to be gaining momentum in the eyes of fans (Wardlow, Starks, Hobbs, Miro…), the listless positioning of everyone in the JAS once that dissolved, the injuries limiting MJF, Baker, Hater, Cole, and Danielson, a LOT of that also stems - for me! - of no longer really having a set of compelling through-threads that connect one week of programming to the next. Much of the “storytelling” that had me hooked in AEW from late 2019 through late 2022 has been replaced by one-off “dream bouts” (for who?) and things like the Continental Classic that may be based on foreign booking models but to my eyes just seemed like the same guys facing one another week after week, ad nauseum.
Yes, I appreciate there have been incredible Mexican and Japanese talents coming in for random matches… but I have no emotional investment in the “meaning” of any them. You offer an example of why two teams play one another… yet people also root for sports teams and watch sports generally because they have an emotional connection to one of them. Most people won’t turn on a random game and watch it start to finish. So why would wrestling be any different? And how, if I’m feeling a degree of ambivalence toward AEW now, am I that different from O’Shea?
WWE fans are part of brand communities, a thing long since detailed academically to exist and with relationship to brands that you'd expect to have them like Harley Davidson and Jeep. When I was still into the coaster/theme park stuff, the Disney fans were no different. They weren't interested in theme parks as a medium of anything or as an industry. They were interested in Disney theme parks, and would only look to anything else if it was seen as complementary (Knott's) or competitive (Universal). What was extremely wild was discovering over time how the entire themed entertainment industry generally were also Disney fans rather than theme park fans, meaning they didn't even respect or like the things they made because they weren't for Disney! I picture many of the wrestlers of today, virtually all of whom are humongous marks, having similar feelings about headlining stadium or arena shows when they aren't Wrestlemania or Summerslam.
Great piece, Jonathan. I'll never understand this "why should I care?" mentality. I grew up seeing Jushin "Thunder" Liger and Ultimo Dragon on WCW television and instead of turning the channel, I found myself absolutely fascinated by them. When the internet became a thing, I used it to learn about all the Japanese and Mexican wrestlers I had seen on TV, watched more of their matches, and became a deeper fan of wrestling in general. What happened to curiosity? What happened to wanting to learn more about the things you supposedly love?