Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The wait between major pay-per-view events is a familiar experience for every wrestling fan. Whether it is the build to WrestleMania, the weeks between Clash at the Castle and the next big show, or the gap following a Night of Champions that left you wanting more - there are stretches where the weekly TV is fine but you want something more substantial to engage with. The internet has made this wait easier to fill than ever before, and the options have expanded considerably beyond just rewatching classic matches on the Network.
This is a practical guide to what wrestling fans specifically tend to gravitate toward online during those between-PPV stretches - from community spaces and classic content to gaming and free interactive entertainment.
The most obvious starting point for any wrestling fan with time to fill is the back catalogue. WWE Network, now folded into Peacock in the US and remaining as a standalone service elsewhere, contains decades of content - PPVs, weekly shows, documentaries, and original programming. The depth here is genuinely staggering for newer fans who may have only been following for a few years.
The hidden gems are often not the most famous events but the ones in between - a random Summerslam from the mid-nineties, a King of the Ring from an era you never watched live, a house show tape that captures a different atmosphere from televised product. Championship history deep dives, following a specific title through its lineage, and watching the career arc of a favourite performer from debut to peak are all rabbit holes that can fill significant stretches of between-PPV time.
Wrestling has one of the most active fan communities of any entertainment genre online. Reddit's r/SquaredCircle is the largest general wrestling discussion community and maintains constant activity regardless of where we are in the event calendar. Specialised communities for AEW, NJPW, indie wrestling, and specific promotions are equally active and often go deeper on their subjects.
The wrestling podcast landscape is enormous. Grilling JR, Something to Wrestle, Talk is Jericho, and Bruce Prichard's show all produce regular content that fills hours with backstage stories, historical context, and performer perspectives that never make it onto television. For fans who prefer written content, sites like this one, Wrestling Observer, and PWTorch provide daily news that keeps the between-PPV period feeling like it has a continuous narrative.
The gaming side of wrestling fandom has had an interesting few years. WWE 2K has recovered from the disastrous 2K20 release with several solid entries, and the MyRise mode in particular offers substantial single-player content that can absorb dozens of hours. For fans who want something different, Fire Pro Wrestling World on Steam remains one of the deepest wrestling simulations ever made, with a booking mode that lets you run your own promotion.
Retro wrestling games have their own dedicated community. WWF No Mercy on the Nintendo 64 still has an active modding scene that keeps the game current with updated rosters. WrestleFest remains a beloved arcade experience. Emulation has made much of the pre-PlayStation 2 wrestling game library accessible for fans who want to understand where the genre came from.
A category that gets less attention but has a genuine audience among wrestling fans is free online gaming - specifically casino-style games that require no account registration and no real money. The appeal is low friction: you can open a browser tab, play for twenty minutes while the pre-show analysis is on, and close it without any commitment.
Free slot demo collections are particularly well-suited to this casual browsing mode. The Book of Slots free demo collection aggregates hundreds of slot game demos playable directly in browser with no registration required - useful for a wrestling fan who wants something interactive during a commercial break or while waiting for a post-show summary to go up. The demos use simulated credits, so there is no financial stake involved, and the range of themes and game formats covers everything from straightforward classic slots to mechanically complex modern titles with multiple bonus phases.
For the more analytically minded wrestling fan, fantasy wrestling has developed into a sophisticated hobby. Several dedicated platforms allow fans to draft rosters, book shows, and compete against others based on real match outcomes - essentially fantasy sports applied to wrestling. The weekly episodic nature of Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and the various AEW programmes provides a constant stream of results to feed these competitions.
Booking simulators take this further. Games like the Total Extreme Wrestling series let you run a fictional wrestling promotion from the ground up - signing talent, booking shows, managing finances, handling backstage dynamics. The depth here is considerable and the community around these games has been active for decades. For a fan who has opinions about how promotions should be run, it is a compelling format.
Beyond the official network content, wrestling has a thriving community of people who curate and recommend matches across all eras and promotions. YouTube channels dedicated to NJPW, ROH, and lucha libre introduce fans whose exposure has been primarily WWE to completely different wrestling philosophies. The Puroresu community in particular has produced extensive English-language resources for approaching Japanese wrestling.
Match recommendation threads on wrestling communities are consistently one of the most useful resources for filling between-PPV time. A well-curated list of must-see matches from a specific year, a breakdown of a specific worker's best performances, or a themed collection like great ladder matches or underrated title changes can provide structured viewing that feels different from just randomly browsing the archive.
Between-PPV periods are not dead time - they are an opportunity to go deeper into the parts of wrestling fandom that get crowded out when there is a major event coming up. The archive, the community, the gaming options, and the various forms of free online entertainment all provide ways to stay engaged with the hobby during the stretches when the television product alone is not quite enough.
The best approach is to treat it as an off-season in the same way sports fans treat their sport's downtime - exploring adjacent interests, catching up on content you missed, and discovering things that make the next major event feel more connected to the wider history and culture of professional wrestling.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
