Why I Love Pro-Wrestling Episode: DVR-less

State of the Programming Address

Since I only have access to my DVR on the weekends, I fell behind on watching the WWE product.  Since their programming is more or less live, it really must be watched weekly to keep up with it.  I guess I could binge watch the programs but watching the main roster is about 5 hours a week and that takes up a lot of viewing time.  Besides, I had gotten a lot of pleasure out of live tweeting Monday Night Raw and loved experiencing events along with everybody else.  I have to avoid spoilers like crazy which I have done pretty unsuccessfully.  This also puts me behind on listening to my favorite pro-wrestling podcast: The Rough House (NSFW use headphones)

At the height of my Sports Entertainment watching habits I watched nine hours per week.  On Monday I watched WWE Raw (3 hours).  On Thursday I watched both NXT (1 hour)  and TNA Impact (2 hours).  On Friday I watched WWE Smackdown (2 hours).  On Saturday I watched ROH Television (1 hour).  If I ever wanted to watch anything but wrestling then I was going to have to cut back.  I sadly cut ROH and Smackdown out which brings me down to 5 hours with fast forwarding through commercials which is more manageable.  Tack on the monthly Pay Per View event and you have 23 hours a month.

I have kept up with TNA Impact and some of you in the know might be wondering why.  The show has been on Spike TV and no matter what they do, they have never risen above a 1.0 rating.  At certain points they have had Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ric Flair and ton of old legends and young talents involved.  Unfortunately they hire people like Vince Russo and allow people like Dixie Carter to have creative imput.  Spike TV has finally had enough and will be pulling the plug at the end of the year (Merry Christmas!).  The product is alternately horrible and great and lately it has picked up quality not unlike Angel Season 5.  World Championship Wrestling lost their TV time on TNT and died out in 2001.  WWF lost their deal with USA in the nineties and ended up thriving.  Either way, I’m intensely interested to see how it shakes down.

Being behind can definitely feel daunting and I feel disconnected from something I really love to experience.  In the meantime I have been scratching the sports entertainment itch by discovering Insane Championship Wrestling on Youtube.  ICW is hardcore Scottish wrestling promotion operating out of Glasgow.  As such, there is a huge amount of Scottish wrestlers with a smattering of English, Irish and Welsh performers too.  The promotion feels rebellious and fun and is definitely worth a watch.  Two little warnings:  Some people have trouble with foreign accents but I happen to love the Scottish accent and I have experience deciphering it.  Also, here is quite a bit of blood and violence and one of the commentators tends to be pretty intense i.e. “I hate him!  Give me a coat hanger and a time machine!”

As stated in a previous post, I want to branch out and occasionally try to watch other promotions.  I want to get my hands on some CZW footage as I hear rave reviews of Dean Ambrose’s time there.  I want to check out AAA and EMLL as they are pretty well known as the top Mexican promotions.  I have tried a little bit of Japanese promotions but the language barrier has been tough.  I really wish there was either an English dub or subtitles.  There probably is and I just have not found it.   I want to watch more MCW and support Maryland performers and shows.  I want to watch promotions that I’m not even aware of yet.

Most of all, I want to relax on my couch and binge watch Monday Night Raw and NXT but I guess I’ll have to wait for the weekend.

Tags: Insane Championship Wrestling, Smark, TNA, WCW, WWE