WWE and TNA: Is the Internet Killing Pro Wrestling?

Many would argue the heyday for pro wrestling was the 1990's. You had Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin any many more legends. You had the Monday Night Wars, which resulted in the WWE's attitude era. Fast froward to 2011 and pro wrestling is the least popular it's been in quite a while. You've got the WWE in the much maligned PG era. Meanwhile you've got a carbon copy of WCW, in the "upstart promotion" of TNA. 

Why has wrestling taken such a plunge from the 1990's? Some would attribute it to guys like Austin and The Rock retiring. Some would blame it on the PG era, although TNA is far from PG. I will blame it on the Internet. That's right, people like us.

The Internet began in the 1990's and exploded in the 2000's. Now I'm not going through the history of the Internet—that's beside the point.

Nowadays, for a taped wrestling show, you can look at the results as soon as they happen. This hurts the ratings for every show other than Monday Night Raw (which is live.)

As far as hurting ratings, you can watch re-runs of all WWE shows on YouTube and Hulu. This is partly self-inflicted, but I digress.

The other big difference is that the fact that wrestling is scripted is much more well known. Like it or not, people hate it. Although movies and most television shows are also scripted, wrestling gets different treatment because it's a "sport." 

The popularity of the faces has also gone down. Now you have the face of the company, John Cena getting booed by men over 18. On the flip side you have heels, like CM Punk getting cheered. In fact, Edge and Randy Orton, once great heels, were turned face because of the pops they received. Once upon a time, this was not an issue. It now is an issue because of sites like this.

This isn't debilitating by any means. I think more live shows and more compelling storylines probably bring the popularity of wrestling back up. However, it's hard to believe that pro wrestling will ever be as popular as it once was.

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