Has this been a terrible year for wrestling and can it be saved? Lets talk...

[DaHNIC82]

Both companies refusal to elevate black talent is what got them here

AEW refusal to really give Swerve, Hobbs , The Hurt Syndicate to be main focus points over his indie favorites The Bucks, The Death Riders, have costed them....

Triple H would rather let Alester Black, Dragonov, The Wyatt 6 , DIY, Judgement Day, and The Motor City Machine guns draw flies to shyt over giving talent like Trick, Obi, Melo, The New Day, Street Profits and a serious R Truth time to really cook

 

[DANJ!]

It's been a relatively weak year compared to 21 thru 24. It actually didn't start off bad (and that Cena turn had everybody talking), but I'd say by the spring, it's taken a consistent series of falls. I don't think it's the end of the world like people are treating it, but it's easily been the weakest year of this decade (aside from 2020 which obviously had its issues).

 

[jerniebert]

I only watch AEW but I've enjoyed it. If I didn't enjoy I it wouldn't watch like I did with WWE.

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

I take actual breaks from wrestling

why waste my time watching something I dislike when all I read is negative sh-t from here to justify watching it

 

[CM_Burns]

Its been pretty bad, yea.

AEW had a pretty strong start, it wasnt their best run ever, but the first 4 months of the year was more interesting than the last couple years of the show and felt fresh. The last few months its fallen back into mediocrity. Its not terrible, but the interesting stuff they were doing with Ricochet, Hurt Business, and Megan Bayne is done. Watchable, but missable shows.

WWE, the biggest problem was the Rock angle. You build Roman up for 3 years to basically never lose, then he loses to make Cody as the new super babyface. But they have Rock go over Night 1 and have the big angle the next night to keep Rock as a background threat looming over Cody. Then the payoff of by far the biggest angle sucked.

They made the right move with Cenas face turn and thats been good the last few months, otherwise the shows are watchable but missable also.

 

[R=G]

I have to catch up since like the Sept 15th Raw...just see results and posts on here.

 

[Larry]

I take actual breaks from wrestling

why waste my time watching something I dislike when all I read is negative sh-t from here to justify watching it

You must have only read the thread title and not the quite literal opening sentence


Raw is on right now and I’m watching Luka dog the Charlotte hornets. This year has been the least amount of wrestling I’ve ever watched specifically because it’s been ass (to me)

 

[Trips]

Pro Wrestling in 2025 has been mostly trash

With AEW
Poor Creative
Failure to keep viewer retention
Lack of proper storytelling
Lack of consistency
Focused more on “star ratings” than having a watchable weekly show
Poor Main Event scene
Low attendance
Poor Women’s Division


With WWE
Poor Creative
Lack of Storytelling & consistency
Lack of Champions defending there titles
Poor tag division
Poor Women’s Division on SD
High Ticket Prices
Underwhelming PLE Cards
Failure to push Newer Talent
Failure of having Black Talent in Higher Roles

The only bright spots this year has been Stardom, TNA & NXT but as a wrestling has been horrible for both major promotions

hitting many of the notes I feel to varying degrees. I will say still chopping it up with the peeps here makes all the shows/ples/ppvs more fun to watch.

 

[thenatural]

I'll tune into a lot of AEW PPVs but rarely watch weekly shows. Usually read the recaps. The PPVs are usually great wrestling wise but they're long. My biggest gripe is some of their guys look like they walked from the used mattress to the ring.

Similar with the WWE. Watch the PLEs and SNMEs. I've been reading recaps more often than not on weekly TV. I'll tune into RAW tonight because its Cena's last time. But I had to be reminded via a podcast ad. If not, I would've watched MNF, and if that got out of hand, binge a show on Hulu. My largest gripe with them is that they give 85% effort for 30% of the year and 15% for 70%.

To answer your question, AEW can recover because they don't have a choice. Booking for the "We are awesome" crowd only gets you so far. The WWE doesn't have a incentive to cater to their median fan base for the foreseeable future.