I made my announcement of starting GrapPro back on June 19, 2024. I launched in mid August and have been writing pretty consistently since then. From August 15, 2024 to June 18, 2026 I’ve written 309 articles for the GrapPro Magazine. This will be 310.

I have decided to take a break from watching pro wrestling which means I’ll be putting GrapPro on hiatus.

I’m not officially closing it and I’m not giving a hard date to return. I don’t know. To be honest there was a tweet I saw asking if you’d still be watching pro wrestling by 2030. It got in my head. I deleted my reply just because I realized how much it was making me realize that I wasn’t loving this anymore. And when you’re not loving it? You need to let it go.

I try to keep up with everything going on in pro wrestling and I’ve tried watching products other than just All Elite Wrestling and none of it is really capturing my imagination. Neither is AEW.

I don’t know if I’m burned out, if I just don’t love pro wrestling anymore, or if I’ve just had too much of it and I need something else. I just know the tank is empty.

I started realizing it when I was following the NHL this year. On my blog I wrote about how I was more excited about following the NHL than I had in a long time. I thought it was the best year of watching hockey I have ever watched. Even better than the nostalgia of the 1990s. And just that feeling, that excitement? I realized I didn’t have that for pro wrestling anymore. The thing I run a blog for and talk to people about every single day.

Originally I was going to wait until the end of Forbidden Door and take a break until All In London. I now realize I should only come back when I feel passionate about this again.

So if all you were wondering is what’s happening to GrapPro? It’s on a break. When I start publishing again I’ll let you know.

Let me get on a soap box for a bit before I do take an extended break. Get a few things off my chest.

I’m sick of the way we talk about pro wrestling. Honestly sick of the way we talk about… anything.

I shouldn’t have to say this but I clearly have to. I am of course all for getting out the worst motherfuckers in anything. I am all for making this industry safer for everyone to experience without persecution, hate, or being taken advantage of.

But the way we talk about everything, especially pro wrestling, feels less about engaging in the product and more about pointing out who is problematic and who isn’t. It’s not used to clean up the industry. It’s rarely used to inform people of someone’s past to be careful. It’s just to get points in an argument.

It really came to a head when the whole discussion about Will Ospreay talking about sleeping with his bride (AEW wrestler Alex Windsor) and pantomiming throwing a rag at her to tell her to clean up was going. I thought it was gross but I had a much larger issue with the rest of his promo with Swerve. I didn’t even bring it up in The Inevitable King. And it led to a bigger discussion about how women are talked about as partners, how Ospreay has a terrible reputation with women (especially responding to them online), and that could have been an opportunity to talk about it. But it wasn’t. People heard AEW being “attacked.” How people were freaking out about this instead of focusing on the sex trafficking WWE. How it wasn’t that big of a deal and actually awesome. How being disgusted by it is somehow diminishing how Alex Windsor might have felt and if she was fine with it then it’s okay.

And then it got to the point where Andrew, who I like, decided to make it about Hangman Adam Page fans? And how Page hung out with Marty Scurll? And I responded about Ospreay and Paul Robinson and how similar it is and how it’s something Ospreay absolutely doesn’t regret like Page who regretted the Scurll photo. And here’s the thing: I wasn’t doing a gotcha to Andrew. I don’t think he knew.

But that’s how we talk about wrestling now. I’m in that we. We don’t say we like something and someone says they don’t and then talk it out. It always has to be about how problematic the wrestlers people like are compared to the wrestler they are calling problematic. If someone says someone did something problematic? We have to counter it. We can’t just listen. Even if you don’t agree with it. It has to be countered.

There’s a lyric from The Naked and Famous’ song Grow Old it makes me think immediately of: “Keeping count as if the hurt could balance“

That’s what we do now. We keep count of all the things wrestlers have done that suck and then we try to enjoy pro wrestling and the moment someone is unhappy with someone or wants to argue about someone? We gotta pull out the count.

I’m sick of this. I’m sick of any time someone wants to criticize All Elite Wrestling (something I’ve done since they started in 2019) they have to be accused of an agenda. I don’t want to hate this thing I’ve been watching consistently for 7 years. I want it to be good. I talk about the good and bad, and when I talk the good I barely get traction. When I talk about the bad? I get people either mad at me for not liking something or subtweeting me.

We’ve officially reached stan culture to a point where the way some (a lot) of you talk about AEW? You don’t actually want to talk about the show. You only want to influence people to love it as much as you do. I started GrapPro partially because so many people complained about how there wasn’t anyone talking about AEW on a higher level. It was always just dirtsheet talk and whiny podcasts. So here I’ve provided weekly articles breaking down AEW and doing PPV previews. But it’s not cheerleady enough apparently.

Okay.

All of this makes me not want to talk about pro wrestling at all. Every discussion boiling down to, “Why are you supporting this problematic person?” or, “Why are you saying negative stuff about AEW when there’s negative stuff elsewhere? You should just appreciate what you get.” I don’t want to paint everyone with this brush but it feels like the hole I’m in. And yes I’m well aware this is just an online discussion problem but fuck I interact with pro wrestling every single day so I have been dealing with this every day and this hurts my soul.

This is why I’m less and less inclined to write about AEW.

AEW isn’t bad (it’s still really good) but I’m not engaged in it the way I wish I was

Do I have some problems with the AEW product right now? Yes.

And let me be clear because I always have to… I’m not saying in any way shape or form that the AEW product is currently bad. Any year any month you ask me this question I’m going to be able to give you my problems with the promotion. That’s what a critic does. It’s not bad mouth. It’s not agenda. It’s critically looking at something, from all angles, and coming out with your observations. Analysis, evaluation, and appreciation. It’s all part of it.

I hate seeing Kazuchika Okada as just a guy in the Don Callis Family. Standing around, waiting for MJF to call his name. No real program. I feel like if you don’t know what to do with Kazuchika Okada (especially before FORBIDDEN DOOR) you took a wrong turn as a booker. That’s something you need to fix.

I miss Hangman Adam Page, but it was a good idea for him to take a break.

I don’t think AEW is doing enough to build up women’s contenders for Thekla. She’s having a great title reign and running into the same problem essentially every woman runs into when they become champion. After the first two or three contenders? They got nothing. I say this while also acknowledging they are working hard to make Maya World an underdog contender. I hope it works and this isn’t just the next Action Andretti.

I was really excited for the AEW Men’s Tag Team Division at one point and that’s now frozen to a halt due to the Cope and Cage run. I knew it was inevitable but it doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it. I’m not even some crazy Young Bucks fan but the way they are used in 2026 is just a waste of a great asset. No wonder they have more fun asking what da dawg doin’?

I also can see where the AEW Men’s World Championship is going with The Inevitable King and while I’m sure the pay per view title defences are going to be incredible? I’m not looking forward to the mediocre promos and the attempts everyone will have in ignoring Ospreay’s weaknesses as a babyface. I hope he proves me wrong and steps up. So far the build up to him getting to this point has not engaged me.

These elements have outweighed the good, which hasn’t happened to me in a long time. I have really enjoyed Hikaru Shida’s heel turn. Her and Thekla have been great in the women’s division. Mark Davis getting a shine has been great television. I like the return of Andrade. I loved Darby’s title reign for being must watch TV. Clark Connor always entertains me. The return of Mercedes Moné was a breath of fresh air. Hazuki showed just how great the women’s division could be if AEW properly embraced Joshi wrestlers.

There’s a lot of stuff people have hated that I honestly don’t. I’m fine with Lio Rush. I don’t care what your gimmick is. Just be a good wrestler. He is. While I’m disappointed at some of the choices for Forbidden Door (and I don’t buy the VISA concerns, why wasn’t it a concern in 2022 or 2023 or 2024 when they had a dozen NJPW people those years on the show?) I still think AEW is formulating a strong card that will be worth the money.

The product itself is strong. They have the best roster ever assembled in the history of pro wrestling when it comes to average wrestling input. There’s some good things happening and some plans in place. I’m just not engaged. I’m not feeling it the way you might be. I’m not feeling the way someone should be feeling about AEW.

I hope to be back soon

I hope this isn’t the last of GrapPro. Or my enjoyment of pro wrestling.

I’ve had moments like this before. I just didn’t have GrapPro at the time. Funny enough when I was an editor at Last Word on Sports and helped launch the wrestling department I was at the lowest I had been on pro wrestling since the mid 90s. I was really close to just quitting wrestling forever. Then Lucha Underground and Kazuchika Okada crying at Wrestle Kingdom 9 happened.

Taking a break doesn’t mean not watching it completely but this feeling like a requirement to my life is over. After I decided I needed to take a break I saw someone post the Dynamite card and I was honestly glad to not feel like I had to watch it. So that’s why GrapPro will be on hiatus and I won’t be writing. Not until something gets the passion flowing again. Who knows. Maybe in a week I’m right back to it. Maybe in a month when Redemption is in Montreal. Maybe All In London knocks me on my ass. I’d love for that to happen. I just can’t predict the future.

I’ll still be on social media (Twitter, BlueSky) but I’ll be talking less wrestling.

Been a good two years. Time to take a break. See you later.