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Hello from an unseasonably warm New York City, where I just had a week that well, if you know you know. I’m publishing this newsletter early, partially because I’ve been writing it in my head for months now, and partially because I don’t want any of the things that will happen at WrestleMania 42 (which begins tonight) to tint this story. This newsletter isn’t about what’s about to happen, but what’s been happening.

For more than a decade, I spent this very weekend watching WWE WrestleMania, the pyro-heavy spectacle where men throw men at men and fans get emotional when storylines do or don't deliver the goods. This is the first time since 2013 that I won't be watching the pro wrestling supershow, and it's not because of some scheduling conflict. I have been done with WWE for months now, which is a bit of a surprise to friends who know me well.

I've made many a friend through pro wrestling, and I've even interviewed performers for articles I'm proud of. I've traveled for wrestling, with such varied locations as Wolverhampton, England for British independent wrestling, Reseda in California for an iconic showcase of the best of the best unsigned talent, Livonia in Michigan for one of my favorites’ final shows with a promotion, and Arena Mexico in Mexico City for the vibes.

I cared a lot about the stories told in pro wrestling, to an extent that I now feel almost embarrassed about. Here's how and why I checked out.

My fandom first started to wane in 2020, when I felt embarrassed by how much money and time I spent supporting some pretty sketchy weirdos. That's when Speaking Out, the #MeToo of pro wrestling happened, when courageous fans and wrestlers came forward to reveal how performers we supported were abusive individuals. It led some people to become unhireable, though allegations followed some as they remained employed by major promotions. The former instances might have convinced some wanting to watch the industry with a clean conscience that the problems were getting rooted out. The latter was a reminder that life isn’t cut and dry.

After 2024 saw WWE chief Vince McMahon's sex trafficking lawsuit knock him out of the company twice, questions remained about who in the leadership knew what and when. Current WWE president Nick Khan, for example, is described as an instrumental part of McMahon's schemes with employee Janel Grant, with intent to share her with former WWE and UFC champion Brock Lesnar, who was disappeared off TV in the aftermath of the lawsuit. Questions followed about when WWE would bring Lesnar back, but folks assumed that wasn't going to happen. Not while the lawsuit was still an active thing. Some fans don't care, as clearly evidenced by the "Thank you Vince!" chants during the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this weekend, which are one of the many ways those fans embarrass the rest.

Except the ending of SummerSlam 2025 saw the tattooed Minnesotan return as a surprise at the end of the night. Later, Lesnar's on-screen representative Paul Heyman would tell bloodsport analyst Ariel Helwani that any 'critics' of Lesnar's return should "get over it. He's here, and he's gonna be here, and you ain't gonna be able to cancel him." This phrase from Heyman, whose made his career by being a pro wrestling provocateur, wasn't exactly surprising, but Lesnar's return continued. 

Not only did the SummerSlam PPV end with the focus on Lesnar's return, and tarnishing a pretty darn good match between Cody Rhodes and the soon-retiring John Cena, but Lesnar went on to three more highly-promoted matches and now he's being used to this day as a part of the ascent of promising young wrestler Oba Femi, who I would love to be able to watch right now.

But that moment that Lesnar was used for shock value basically sent a curdling sensation at my gut, and one I realized I didn't want to feel again. I didn't want to be supporting WWE the next time someone came back. I wouldn't watch their programming again until I got a free ticket to see John Cena's final appearance at Madison Square Garden, which I took out of curiosity. I was a bit uneasy about even attending that, because of the potential return of Vince McMahon, whose ties with Cena continued through the Fast X star's retirement from in-ring "competition."

Still, social media has kept me at least moderately aware of what's going on in WWE, and that amount of awareness has made it easy to skip Mania this year. That's because I've yet to see much I want to watch, starting with how Oba Femi is being wasted on a Brock Lesnar match. Maybe this is a test of his ability to thrive under the spotlight in a low-risk match, but I don't care.

Then, looking at the other 12 advertised matches for the two-night event (yes, WrestleMania takes up 2/3rds of a weekend now), I keep chuckling at this nonsense. Sure, I dislike the trio of influencer/wrestler Logan Paul, bland wrestler Austin Theory and streamer IShowSpeed, but I could not feel inspired to even boo them as they team up against perennial midcarder LA Knight and Samoan siblings Jey and Jimmy Uso. And this is a prime example of what's going on here. For every match where the talent are proven and valuable — Stephanie Vaquer and Liv Morgan and Seth Rollins and Gunther — much of this event looks so sloppy that I'm not shocked that WWE has admitted it will be using AI for writing.

Then, well, there's the problem that both of the main events have mediocre stories, especially the night 1 main of champion Cody Rhodes fighting his once-mentor Randy Orton, who has ESPN-platformed loudmouth Pat McAfee in his corner. While this could have been a match that plumbed the rich and stories history between these two, it's become all about the interloper in the corner, who's been complaining about how today's WWE has been worsened by internet fan favorites who aren't the jacked-up giants he prefers and blaming this for the lackluster ticket sales at hand. 

The other main event got pulled into this conversation, after CM Punk (my once favorite wrestler) was done lambasting Roman Reigns — in a feud that’s mostly involved whining about the former being old and making the career of his opponent possibly-tougher because of a podcast interview — he pivoted to shout "PAT MAGAFEE" and say that McAfee's agent (Ari Emanuel, the CEO of WWE parent company TKO Group Holdings, Inc.) needs to lower the Mania ticket prices, which fans have been bemoaning. And this sort of meta storytelling that focuses on WWE's corporate greed (tickets have been too expensive, leading to last-second sale pricing) might do it for some, but it’s lousy entertainment. Distract me from the elephants in the room, don't make them the villain. For years, they pulled off Vince McMahon as the villainous boss, but that was never supposed to be about the WWE's actual treatment of its workers.

Those familiar with the pro wrestling landscape, folks who have been to WrestleMania weekend before, are aware that being out on WWE doesn't exclude someone from following its biggest show of the year to the city it's taking over. Smaller wrestling promotions always fill venues in the same city as WrestleMania for a nearly-week-long schedule of events that gives fans a series of more-affordable opportunities elsewhere. 

And that's always been a source of entertainment or at least amusement, but this year WWE decided to put WrestleMania in Las Vegas for a second year in a row, killing off any chance I had of going for the smaller shows. First of all, this was a disappointment because the company originally was supposed to bring Mania to New Orleans, which was a great time when it was last there in 2014. Second of all, I already spend more than enough time in Las Vegas for work every January for CES. 

Then, thirdly, I'm sort of increasingly out on pro wresting writ-large. There's a chance, as they say, "it was just a phase.” A really-long phase. Maybe I'll explain that later this summer. But instead of hosting a WrestleMania watch party tonight, I'm hosting a movie night for some friends, and there's nothing I'd rather be doing.

Thank you for reading this far.

Next time I won’t be talking about wrestling.