Bye Bye WWE!

Today is a big day for those who watch professional wrestling on television here in the United Kingdom, because today, December 31st, 2019, after over thirty years, Sky’s contract with World Wrestling Entertainment comes to an end. From tomorrow all WWE programming will be available on BT Sports. I don’t subscribe to BT Sports, or the WWE Network for that matter, so for the first time since the summer of 1989 I won’t have access to any new WWE material.

And you know what? I’m really not that bothered about it.

Those of you who have either known me for a long time or have stumbled over my Two Sheds Review work over the past few years may be quite surprised to hear about that, given that I’ve been a wrestling fan for as long as I can remember, that I kind of achieved my dream a little by working in the British wrestling business, and that I spent countless hours, many of them late night, writing hundreds of live event, DVD and live television reviews.

But if truth be known the wrestling business doesn’t have the same hold over me anymore. The men and women of this industry have given me lord knows how many hours of entertainment over the decades, and I’ve got so many great memories, but it’s a simple fact that I’ve found other ways to keep myself entertained over the past couple of years or so.

I’ve only actually watched one full show since the beginning of 2017. I’ve seen snippets here and there, but the inclination, the desire to sit down in front of my television to watch an entire show has long since evaporated.

So why is this? Why do I really not care about what happens in the professional wrestling business these days? Maybe the roots of this can be traced all the way back to the end of 2005 when I left the wrestling business. Maybe all the crap I’ve had to put up with from certain quarters since then soured things for me, and it’s taken this long for the effect of those events to work their way into my system.

Or maybe it’s simply the fact that, as I said before, I’ve found other forms of entertainment, film, television, books, music, whatever. These days I’d rather watch a ten year old episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA than a new episode of Smackdown or Raw.

Then again, maybe that’s the main reason. I once wrote that watching professional wrestling was like listening to music, in the sense that I’d rather listen to classic rock bands such as Deep Purple or Fleetwood Mac than newer artists such as Taylor Swift or whoever else tops the pops charts these days. It’s the same with wrestling. I’d rather watch one of Samoa Joe’s Ring of Honor matches than his current WWE run.

So does this mean that The Two Sheds Review, just a few months away from it’s 20th anniversary, is finished? As the old saying goes, never say never, because it’s far more likely that I will start watching wrestling again at one point. After all, I still have a very large collection of old wrestling shows. I could easily open up one of those drawers and pick out a DVD to watch if I’m so inclined.

Thanks for the memories WWE. Maybe we’ll renew our relationship somewhere down the line.