How many times have you "lost your passion"?

[MikeRaw]

Pretty standard here. Most wrestling fans, at some point, have "lost their passion", and took a break from wrestling for a while.
How many times has this happened to you, and how did you get back into wrestling?
For me, it's happened many times.

I watched as a really, really little kid until about '97, but that was more because my brother would watch it. I got into it on my own in mid-98, and watched until 2000. I missed pretty much all of 2000 though, and then in 2001, I got back in. After that, I've watched pretty much non-stop. I watched 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and then had a short break, and then watched 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and onwards until now.

My only real break was the one in 2000, because I missed the entire year. Other than that, i've been watched almost non stop since '98. I've only had a few little breaks, for a month or two at a time, like in late 2004, I stopped watching until RR 2005, and in late 2006, I stopped watching until RR2007. That's it though. Those two 'little' times, were just because of lack of interest, or disappointment with the product, but I got drawn back because of the Road to Wrestlemania excitement each time.

So, for me, I've "fallen out" with wrestling quite a few times, and always seem to get back into it because of the hype of wrestlemania and all that.

What about everyone else?

 

[xtremebadass]

Never. My brother always tries to bring me down by saying how everything on wrestling sucks, but it never effects me. I could sit and watch wrestling on TV for hours at a time. I would never get tired of it, never get annoyed, unless Jillian is on TV, and I would never hate it. I just love wrestling, that's like my only interest.

Although SmackDown 2006 was pretty damn bad, but yes, I still watched it!

 

[CT Styles]

I stopped watching probably around 2004 because I was younger and it was around the time when Kane was setting RVD on fire and I had a little sister. My dad told me to turn it off because she was there and once I turned it off I just somehow forgot about it. Then I bought the game SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 and went, 'Wait?! What happened?!' and I started watching whatever year Bret Hart got inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I then started looking up Bret Hart videos and found the Montreal Screwjob where I discovered Shawn Michaels and fell in love with his cocky gimmick and discovered my hero.

 

[X-Sterl-X]

I lost interst for about 3 months back in like 04. Other than that I have been hooked since I was 5.

 

[JimmyD]

Twice for me.

The first time came around about the mid-90s and wasn't really due to the product that wrestling was presenting at all: I still loved Bret Hart, but I had started to feel like wrestling was for kids and that I, at the grand old age of 9, needed to grow up. That break lasted a couple of years before I picked up where I left off in late 1998. I distinctly remember that the specific feud that got me back into it was The Rock vs Mankind, where I passionately sided with the former despite the latter being the good guy. After that I remained hooked for a good four years, until just after the invasion angle happened, at which point I lost interest because of how stale the product had become.

This time round I'm not really sure what's got me back into it. Being ill and having a lot of time on my hands mixed with the likes of CM Punk and John Morrison probably had something to do with it.

 

[JMay187]

Its happens but only for about a month or so. I just get sick and tired of them shoving John Cena's gay ass down our throats.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

I've never really completely 'lost my passion' but in mid-07 I begun to slip a bit I suppose. I used to watch every week, but with Khali as champion and HBK injured, I just kinda drifted off until about the time Randy became champion and Shawn came back.

 

[Airfixx]

Started watching late '89....

Slowly lost interest during the summer of '93... Dispite a re-active Mr Perfect, a singles HBK on the rise, Bret's 1st world title reign earlier in the year and a kick-ass '92, we had The Lex Express (uuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!) and a lot of the guys I used to love started leaving or at least stopped wrestling (Jake, Savage, DiBiase, Warrior, Flair, Heenan)... Saw less and less (due to lack acces to WWF TV) and the gradual decline continued... The last event I watched was Summerslam 94. Age was somewhat of a contributing factor too.

FFWD a massive 12 years and having bought a cheap VHS of Summerslam '88 on a whim, I got totally addicted again and decided to see how the product progressed...

I scored most of the IYHouse PPVs, again on VHS, for mere pennies on Ebay and dispte them being pretty shitty saw something in them that I liked still and kept digging... Attitude era, Invasion, Brand Extention.... I've nearly caught up now and it's safe to say i'm a bonafide WWE 'lifer'.

 

[Evil Austin]

I started watching in mid 1999 at the age of six and much like XBA stated I have never missed a heart beat, good or bad I always watched it. I remember as a kid like somewhere between that six year old age until about eleven I would watch reruns like three times a week and jump up and down and mark for the faces. I mean sure I have missed an episode here and there but it's not like I have lost interest, if I have mised an episode I usualy would watch it on youtube and catch up on what had happened and if not on you tube read up on the IWF what the results where.

Still Wrestling isn't my only thing in life but it is a big part of it, my parents watched it from the 80's and still do while my grandparents before television would watch it and buy tikets in Australia to see every friday in teh 60's the Killer Kowlalski in action. I grew up with Wrestling.

 

[C4]

I lost interest in the past eight months or something.

When I missed an episode of RAW and watched a newer episode weeks later, nothing seemed to have changed. I just didn't want to watch the same old boring stuff again.

But as Jeff Hardy became Champion and the Royal Rumble season came around, I started watching again. And now I'm pretty much excited for WrestleMania.

 

[charismatic-benji]

I didn't exactly lose intrest, but shortly after WrestleMania 23, my parents got rid of Sky TV, so i couldn't watch it. But then, at the Night Of Champions i watched it over a friends house, and the managed to bribe my parents into subscribing again. So yeah, pretty much a year out for me.

 

[1chiban]

I've kinda had periods where I've been less interested - where I've still watched the shows but not really took much notice of them - played video games or did something else while they were on etcetera.

Never stopped watching though, having started watching it in 1997.

 

[Triple I]

That's never happened to me

 

[JimmyD]

Looking back at it, I really miss the days when I would match Livewire, Heat and whatever the other one was called back in those days (Afterburn?) religiously, to the point where I would see them more than once a week, because it became more difficult for me to watch RAW due to the late time it was on in the UK on Mondays. I used to mark out so hard back then. Like, even when Kane entered the Royal Rumble I would go mental.

I find it incredibly difficult to do that anymore. I still love wrestling but there's no one in the business that makes me really want to just forget my smarky elitism and cheer like a ten year old kid again. Closest thing is CM Punk and Alex Shelley really.

 

[MikeRaw]

I know what you mean, Jimmy. Even though it would be stupid as hell to mark out these days, especially at any age past like, 10, I still miss those days.
I wouldn't wanna be a little mark now, at my age, but I do miss being like 8 and thinking wrestling was real. It brought more excitement.