I was exactly the same, haha. Someone said that finding out I used to hate pro wrestling was the biggest plot twist in my level 60 thread. I went from hating it to being totally obsessed with it practically overnight, thanks to discovering pro wrestling’s greatest gay love story in 2019. The story is half in Japanese, half in English, with only limited translation (for both sides), so that’s why I started learning Japanese.
It took the Golden Lovers so long to get back together (there was a whole global pandemic keeping them geographically separated, and some messy company politics, and when those things finally weren’t obstacles anymore, they both got injured and then suffered a bunch of additional misfortune on top of that…), by the time they did, I’d reached level 60 in WaniKani and my Japanese was intermediate level, and I had taken over for the fan translation of a totally different Japanese pro wrestling company (Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, which is women’s wrestling), and I could actually read Kota Ibushi’s tweets on my own now 
(just in time for him to be mostly active in an American promotion instead, ahaha!).
Ah, yeah, Rhea Ripley… unfortunately I can never get behind her because she said the F slur on stream once and then gave a total non-apology for it… but I don’t blame people for finding her hot or her style compelling.
I’ve actually never watched WWE (for so many reasons), haha. I got into wrestling when All Elite Wrestling was just getting started in America, and the industry as a whole was undergoing dramatic change (for the better). I’ve followed AEW ever since, through all the highs and lows. It’s really been quite the trip.
For the most part, AEW is the only American wrestling I watch, though I watch some American indie stuff too, occasionally. Though AEW has a truly incredible amount of partnerships with Japanese promotions, so there’s quite a bit of crossover with a bunch of the Japanese wrestling that I watch.
That’s nice to hear, thank you! 
2023 has in many ways sort of been a golden age of collaboration in the Japanese pro wrestling world. So it’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet if you’re someone like me and you’re already deeply invested, haha, but it’s probably a bit overwhelming to new fans. 
If you’re really curious, I’ve written about a lot of stuff in my (perpetually behind) wrestling journal, and I try to always include enough context for things to make sense. There’s American and Mexican wrestling in there in addition to Japanese, though my bias is pretty clear, lol. A lot of this stuff also makes it into my study log, though my journal includes my favorite fan photos and the writing is a bit more polished.