garbiel wrote:Where do I start with pro wrestling?
My experience:
- Vaguely remember watching WWF before it got renamed
- Watched the Tiger Mask anime
The Tiger Mask anime from like 2-3 years ago? That was all set in New Japan, so maybe you'd know some of their folks, in which case there is a wealth of absolutely terrific stuff there.
That said: yes, AEW is just getting going and probably pretty easy to catch up on. There's kind of various levels of engagement you can have with it, from watching all of their additional content (much of it pretty good) to watching their 4-5 shows previous to their TV show starting to just probably watching tonight and likely being able to vaguely follow it?
In terms of good quality WWE content, there's also NXT, which regularly presents a more interesting product than the 'main roster'. In theory, it's the trainees show but they've been bringing in top level indie wrestlers for years now and they're mixed in and the featured acts.
Do you have any specific fond memories and/or reasons for wanting to get into it? It might make it easier to tailor what might work for ya...
I would go with AEW if: you enjoyed fun, innovative matches, basic old school stories and a little goofy stuff
I would go with NXT if: you enjoyed fun matches based on a pretty basic formula, old school stories and a little less goofy stuff
I would go with New Japan if: you're most interested in high quality matches, albeit in a slightly different style than you might be used to, with stories that tend to build, more often than not, more through matches than through skits or promos
I would go with WWE if: you want a lot of goofy bullshit with repetitive and slightly frustrating matches albeit with many talented wrestlers
Also: women's wrestling is ascendant in all of these but New Japan. Seems useful to note if your last experience with wrestling was late 90s/early 2000s.