when did you realize wrestling became "uncool"

I started watching in the early 90s and not a lot of my friends watched it then but I was a kid so who cares. Then during the MNW everyone watched it. In fact you weren’t cool if you didn’t watch it. I was the one who got most of my friends into wrestling at that time. Then I stopped watching around 2000 when everyone was loosing interest in it but came back around mid 2002. When I got back into it I knew right away that it was the kind of thing that people looked down on. I remember lying to my friends about my fig collection saying it was my brothers. The first time I hooked up with my high school girlfriend we were skipping school and had nowhere to go so I told her I had to get my cousin a bday present and we went to TRU and I bought like $80 worth of classic superstars figs. She thought it was so sweet that I did that and we hooked up back at my house later. If she knew the truth she might have broken up with me. 😂 Now I don’t even care. Some of my friends know I watch the old stuff and they kinda bust my balls for it but f*ck um. I think wrestling will always be misunderstood.

Ive also noticed that there is a stigma about WWF vs WWE with people who don’t watch wrestling. They think WWF was cool but seriously look down on you if you mention anything WWE. Honestly I can’t really argue with them on that one.

7th grade when almost none of my classmates were watching anymore. Ultimate warrior had gotten fired after summerslam, hulk hogan left to make movies, my interest in WWF was declining as well (but I became hooked on WCW).

Bingo

grade 8 was 2001-early 2002. wwe was still cool to everyone

by the time I was going into grade 9, no one spoke of it at all except the actual wrestling fans left.

To me wrestling was always cool before the MNW ended.

When Vince Jr. took it over from his father & forced Hulkamania down our throats.

It's always cool when i'm watchin

its always lame when i'm not.


So I guess i've never come to that realization

Mid-Late 2008

Towards the end of 2007, i guess my friends must have grown out of it, and i was the only one that still liked it. So it never really got brought up, and in 2008 when i was at a friends house, i was flicking through the TV channels & landed on Raw. This was around the time Kane & Mysterio were feuding because i remember them being on, when i watched it for literally 5 or so seconds, one of my friends said - "You still watch that? You know it's fake?" So instantly fearing embarrassment, i said no. It was at that point i realised it wasn't 'cool' anymore, and it was seen as embarrassing to watch or like it.
Every now and then in 2009/2010, someone would say to me something like - "I bet you still watch WrestleMania" in a smart*ss tone, and being immature 11/12 year olds, they'd go around and tell others that i still liked & watched it.

So ever since then, i kept my love for Wrestling a secret. I stopped having friends over at my house since everything i had was Wrestling, and stopped going to their houses since it worked like - "I'll go to yours this weekend, then you can come to mine next weekend". So i never spent time with friends outside of School until 2014, even then i'd try to avoid having them over. Since then, if i planned on having anyone over, i'd hide all my Wrestling stuff, or if it was a sudden decision, i'd message Mum and she'd hide it all.
I'd go see WWE Live in Sydney every year from 2009-2014, and every time we were there, i'd always wear my hoodie & look around to make sure i didn't see anyone i knew from School.

I only opened up about it in September 2019 when i started training to Wrestle, since i couldn't really avoid it anymore. I just stopped caring what people thought, and that since we're all adults now and i only see my close group of friends, that the 'bullying' & embarrassment of it would stop, which it has.
Whenever i see my friends now, not knowing much or anything about wrestling, they'll usually ask - "How's the Wrestling? did you win?", after i let them know how training is going, it's usually followed up with - "So when do you go to WWE?"

Wrestling has never been "cool" since I've been a fan.

I personally think that the mainstream popularity of MMA has made wrestling uncool and it'll never be popular again.