A Casual Fans’ Wrestling Experience
I like to keep things as positive as possible.
I like WWE.
I like AEW.
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I was able to take my son and good friend of mine to a WWE house show this past weekend. Saturday Night Main Event!
This was the card for that show:
- Street Profits/Ezekiel vs Alpha Academy/Theory
- Dana Brooke vs Tamina vs Nikki A.S.H.
- Veer vs Cedric Alexander
- AJ Styles vs Ciampa
- Bianca Belair vs Carmella
- Omos vs R-Truth
- Alexa Bliss vs Doudrop
- Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs The Judgment Day
- Riddle vs Seth Rollins (Street Fight)
Myself and my son are two wrestling fans that watch plenty of wrestling, spend countless amounts of money on merchandise and go to as many live shows as we possibly can. Our experience is not what this will be about.
My friend? An individual who doesn’t watch wrestling at all outside of 2 or 3 AEW shows earlier this year. He may have watched a bit back in the day during the height of wrestling’s popularity.
We had a GREAT time. I would occasionally check over to see what kind of reactions my friend was having during the show. Watching him crack up at the antics of Montez Ford and comedic genius of R-Truth, marvel at the size of Omos and react to all the high spots was reassuring. The show and company that I’m constantly told is so unbearable that nobody wants to watch it anymore was entertaining my friend, a non wrestling fan, as much as it was entertaining myself and my son. And before you hit me with that “well WWE isn’t a wrestling show” nonsense, just know that if I was to ask him what kind of show he just watched, he’d say a wrestling show. So zip it slappy!
After the show, we made our way back home and a lightbulb went off in my head. With all this talk about casual fans over the internet, I now had one right here in the passenger seat ready for me to pick his brain. What kind of information could I pull from his head? Did he really enjoy himself as much as I thought? I had to know, so I sent him a list of questions the next day about his experience, his enjoyment and the things that he wasn’t a fan of and below is what he had to say.
His Favorite Part of the Show?
He enjoyed almost every part of the show except one match in particular that I will get to in just a moment. And yes, that includes the 24/7 match and hijinks that followed. All of the extra comedy bits that were added in the matches, he had no issue with at all. He welcomed them as a viewer with an open mind. Take notes folks.
His Least Favorite Part of the Show?
The Alexa Bliss and Doudrop match was his only gripe, but not for the match itself. Prior to them engaging in any sort of physicality, the two of them took turns standing on the turnbuckles to get a reaction from the crowd multiple times. He wasn’t a big fan of that as it didn’t make any sense and that’s a complaint I can fully understand. He didn’t have anything negative to say about the match itself though, nor the fact that Alexa Bliss was carrying around a little doll.
Thoughts on Omos?
He kept it short and sweet for his answer here. “Omos is tall and one jacked mofo!” Add that comment to the face he made when he realized how tall Omos was and you can see why WWE continues to try and push this man as an attraction. He also made the comment during Omos’ match with Truth that he would like to see Omos take on Brock Lesnar. That’s a fight he’d pay to see.
From my own observations, Omos is the one superstar on this show that my friend really took notice of on the night.
Favorite Match of the Night?
He couldn’t pick a favorite as he was entertained by most of them. The only matches he didn’t think were particularly good were Omos versus Truth and Alexa versus Doudrop. And his issues with the Omos/Truth match was for the simple fact that it was a squash match. He loved the back and forth between Truth, Omos and MVP prior to the match. Not much to get involved with when one giant man is completely destroying another man.
To save you from a broken record, the overall consensus of the show was very positive. He rated the show a 10 out of 10 because in his words, “I only knew two people at the Main Event show in Tallahassee, but I still had a great time.”
Will this turn him into a massive wrestling fan? Probably not. Will he occasionally turn on the show to check out some more of what he enjoyed? Possibly. But I think the biggest thing to takeaway from this whole experience is that the pre-conditioned wrestling fans that think they know what’s best and what works don’t always know what they are talking about. Not everything is always going to work for everybody. You have to hit all demos with your product if you want it to be as successful as possible and that is exactly what WWE does very well.
So with that, I hope you were able to take something from this brief breakdown of a non fan’s experience. This wasn’t to tell you that you’re wrong for not enjoying things but to remind folks that everybody should have the chance to enjoy the show. What doesn’t work for you will work for plenty of others and vice versa. As always, if it does not spark joy for you… turn it off and enjoy what you enjoy. Thank you and have a nice day!
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