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Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE Superstars had one of the most hectic schedules in the entertainment industry. Not only did many of them compete in 100+ matches per year, but the men and women of the WWE roster spent over 250 days away from their homes on an annual basis.
In modern-day WWE, a lot of Superstars’ backstories revolve around their love of wrestling during their childhood, with the likes of Bayley incorporating this as part of her 2013-2019 babyface persona.
However, as the years have gone on and schedules have become busier, some Superstars have decided to no longer watch WWE programming.
In this article, let’s take a look at three WWE Superstars who stopped watching wrestling, as well as three who had never watched wrestling before joining WWE.
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#6 Stopped watching WWE: Finn Balor
Speaking in a June 2020 interview with impressionist Al Foran, Finn Balor opened up about his journey to WWE and his experiences with the company so far.
One of his most interesting comments came when he revealed that he does not watch the majority of his own matches because it makes him cringe when he watches himself back on television.
The first WWE Universal Champion clarified that he will watch a match of his if he thinks it was terrible, but he does not watch good matches because he will only pick them apart and end up not liking them.
When Foran mentioned The Undertaker’s ‘Last Ride’ docuseries on the WWE Network, Balor said he does not watch any kind of wrestling these days because he does not want to be influenced by others.
“I have this weird theory that, like, I don’t even watch wrestling anymore. Nothing at all. Zero. You’re talking about 'The Last Ride' and all these documentaries, I won’t watch anything because I don’t want to be influenced by anything else. I feel like the more that I watch, the more that comes into my stream of consciousness, even unintentionally, I’ll imitate that.”
Balor added that it is easy to accidentally copy another wrestler’s pattern of moves and sequences, so he prefers his matches to be a complete blank canvas.
#5 Never watched WWE: Brock Lesnar
It is well known that Brock Lesnar does not watch WWE. In fact, as you can see at the start of the video above, the company’s decision-makers even took the unusual approach of using this fact as part of a storyline in 2018 when Paul Heyman asked “The Beast” if he had seen what Roman Reigns said about him.
“Obviously I didn’t, Paul. I don’t watch the show, Paul. Why would I watch the show?”
In 2019, WWE made it clear once again that Lesnar does not watch the show when his character was unaware that he had an entire year to cash in his Money in the Bank contract.
Four years earlier, Lesnar confirmed in an interview on ESPN’s Face to Face that he did not watch WWE as a child.
“I didn’t grow up as a pro wrestling fan. I never watched pro wrestling as a kid. The first time I’d ever seen pro wrestling or ever had the desire to even watch it, I was already a senior in college when the company approached me and wanted me to participate with the programme.”
Lesnar also said on The Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network in 2015 that he sees WWE as a job where “I clock in and I clock out”.
#4 Stopped watching WWE: CM Punk
CM Punk said on the No-Sports Report Show in 2020 that he found it “completely impossible” to watch WWE when no fans were in attendance at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but did you know that he even stopped watching shows during his time with the company?
One year after his exit from WWE, Punk told Ariel Helwani (11:30 mark of the video above) that he was still in contact with some of his old WWE colleagues but he only watched matches and segments involving his wife, AJ Lee.
“I didn’t watch when I was there! People think I, like, cold turkey [stopped watching WWE after leaving]. I didn’t watch when I was still there. I didn’t watch my stuff. I just didn’t watch.”
Asked if that was due to WWE becoming just a job for him, Punk replied, “Yeah, very much.”
“The Best in the World” began watching WWE again after joining FS1 show WWE Backstage in 2019. As you can see above, he tried to catch up on five years’ worth of wrestling before his first appearance on the show.
#3 Never watched WWE: Sid
WWE director Bruce Prichard has said on multiple occasions on his Something to Wrestle With podcast that Vince McMahon has always been a huge fan of Sid Eudy (aka Sid Justice, Sid Vicious and Sycho Sid).
Speaking on the Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast in 2020, the two-time WWE Champion and two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion explained that he only saw the wrestling industry as a way to make money and he was never interested in opponents or the outcome of his matches.
“I was never a wrestling fan. I never watched it my whole life and I got into it just for the business side and money. I looked at it as a business… I didn't care about winning or losing as I knew it was fake. I didn't take it seriously like a lot of guys did. I never looked at a booking sheet. I never knew who I was working with and didn't care.”
The highlight of Sid’s WWE career came in the 1990s when he headlined WrestleMania on two occasions, losing against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VIII and against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13.
#2 Stopped watching WWE: Dolph Ziggler
Like many WWE Superstars, Dolph Ziggler grew up as a huge wrestling fan. He told RWD in 2013 that he enjoyed watching Superstars including Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect, as well as the man who many people compare him to, Shawn Michaels.
“Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Mr. Perfect…there are so many. Whoever stood out as the meanest people, they just stood out and made you remember what they had done. Ring generals like Flair and Michaels were the best ever at that, so they were easy to look up to.”
Nowadays, it seems that Ziggler takes the Finn Balor approach to watching (or, rather, not watching) WWE and wrestling in general.
The two-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion’s “I wrestle to pay the bills” Twitter bio is likely a joke, but his frequent tweets about not watching wrestling appear to be very real.
Ziggler, who also performs as a comedian, could be joking around, of course. But, as we’ve seen with some of the other WWE Superstars in this article, it is not that uncommon for people in WWE to stop watching once they join the company, so we’re inclined to believe that he is being serious!
#1 Never watched WWE: Xia Li
Xia Li made her WWE debut in the inaugural Mae Young Classic tournament in 2017 and she has since gone on to feature regularly in NXT.
Speaking in a 2018 interview with ESPN, NXT founder Triple H revealed the extraordinary story behind Li’s journey to WWE.
“Two years ago in China when I first met Xia Li, she didn’t know what WWE was. We had to explain to her what WWE was because we were there looking for athletes and she had never seen it.”
Triple H explained that Li grew up in farmlands in China and she was unaware that WWE and the world of sports entertainment even existed. When he showed her what it was, she replied, “Oh yeah, definitely.”
From there, he said she fell in love with WWE and instantly got the bug to perform, so the company decided to invite her back and offer her a contract as a Performance Center recruit.
The video above shows Li’s emotional return to China at a WWE live event in Shanghai, where she teamed with Carmella to defeat Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose in a tag team match.
