TOP FIVE LIST: The Best Aspects of Being a Pro Wrestling Fan in 2025 compared to past years and eras

I’ve been watching professional wrestling for 33 years. There have been tremendous times where you’d see other people wearing pro wrestling attire, and there have been times where you didn’t want people looking when you opened your phone in case your news feed was open on a WWE article.

It’s human nature to complain, and wrestling has given us plenty to gripe about. Every time I would make the attempt to leave it behind, I’d realize that at my core I loved it. As many times I have tried, I eventually had to come to terms with it and tell my favorite form of entertainment, “I just can’t quit you.”

The beautiful thing in the current era is you don’t have to be as worried to share a clip with friends or on socials. Fandom is back at an all-time high. Let’s celebrate how great it is to be a wrestling fan in 2025.

Variety

My other passions in life have always embraced this, so it’s nice to see professional wrestling finally come around. I’m a music and movie guy. I’ll let others determine my levels of knowledge, but what I love about each of those art forms are variety. Sometimes I need something angry to scream with, sometimes ska will lift my spirits. I may be in the mood to watch an artful film where every scene leads up to a mind-blowing conclusion, where other times, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back simply hits the spot.

If I want to tune into wrestling that is polished and tells pretty good stories for the masses, WWE is there. Maybe you like the action in the ring and the innovative moves of AEW. Perhaps you want that anti-authoritarian punk rock feel, there’s GCW that’s easy to see with a Triller subscription. If the promotion you’ve been watching isn’t doing it for you anymore, you can find something that will.

Keeping Up

As much as this one hurts Wade and the PWTorch, it used to take a lot more to be an “inside fan” of pro wrestling. You had to pay for 900 numbers, pay for newsletter subscriptions, or pay for magazines (which were confusing with what was worked and what wasn’t). Point was, you had to pay.

Now I start every morning watching Ollie & Crew on YouTube (Support Wrestle Talk!), and a mid-day Wrestlelamia video that keeps me pretty up to date. Then you check the credible sites (and why wouldn’t you start with PWTorch? Wade’s an OG with plenty of cred) when you need the full scoop. News is broken on everything from podcasts to Sports Illustrated, making news be everywhere.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Podcast weekly Tuesday Flagship episode with guest cohost Rich Fann where they discuss the positives of being overwhelmed with a busy weekend of pro wrestling: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Amount of Content

Isn’t great to have all that coverage now with the sheer amount of new wrestling matches out there every night of the week?! My inner kid before I had a job and responsibilities loves that there is wrestling seven days a week. Just with “mainstream” wrestling on Mondays, I can watch Raw, Tuesdays NXT, Wednesdays Dynamite & Evolve, Thursdays have TNA Impact, Fridays Smackdown, Saturdays have Collision and oftentimes PLEs and other events, then Sundays have LFG and PPVs on some weeks.

Then there’s ROH, NWA, GCW, and make sure you support your local indie! Some may complain of too much content, and from WWE, we are feeling pretty saturated, but that’s mostly a wild argument. If you love something and people are out there doing it for your enjoyment, appreciate what we all have!

Representation

A big one for me, because wrestling has always been there for me. Growing up socially awkward and feeling like an outcast, wrestling was one of the things in my life where I didn’t feel like an outcast. I think it’s important to have an outlet when growing up that gets you and you get it. And with the wrestling buffet that is professional wrestling, there should be room for everybody.

Wrestling was, as most things created and controlled by white establishment, controlled by white establishment. When a Samoan was on your television, he was a savage who didn’t speak English. Mexican wrestlers were great high-flyers and exciting to watch, but it wasn’t always important who they were, making anyone in a mask interchangeable. Women were side pieces, in every way you can define them, and black wrestlers could never be the main draw, with the Junkyard Dog’s being few exceptions and in limited territories.

I don’t want to even start with anyone who had anything even suggesting LGBTQ in their character or if it was known about them personally. Now, when I watch, I see color. Women are treated as respected wrestlers more than ever before. I can also tune in every year to Effie’s “Big Gay Brunch.” Mark Henry has often said how important it is for little kids to see someone doing something great who “look like them,” and that is why I am such an advocate for inclusion in entertainment. I love that Anthony Bowens is openly gay, and it has nothing to do with his character or how he is treated. It’s the best way to grow your audience, while being the right thing to do.

Streaming

Any time I want to watch wrestling, I can. I have my phone, streaming on my television, and a tablet. I can watch it at work when I’m bored. I can watch things on delay when I’m busy. I can watch it on a plane or a train along with my Green Eggs & Ham. I can get nostalgic about old WCW, or honor the passing of Sabu.

I don’t have to pay a cable company $100 a month for a package where all I wanted was wrestling. I don’t have to have a collection of DVDs or rely on my VCR or DVR being set correctly. I can subscribe to Max, Netflix, or Peacock and find wrestling.

You can pull up so much content on Triller from multiple indies. TNA offers an awesome value on their TNA+ service. Then if you’re broke, and all you can do is tap into the old lady’s WiFi who doesn’t know how to set a password, you have YouTube, PlutoTV, and plenty of other means to consume and pass time enjoying the purest form of entertainment.