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Biggest reason for decline of wrestling popularity in 2001?

  • Attitude Era ran for too long, people eventually had enough of it

    Votes: 3 6.3%
  • WCW and ECW went out of business...no more competition

    Votes: 28 58.3%
  • Failed to produce star bigger than The Rock and Stone Cold

    Votes: 12 25.0%
  • Rise of Internet...people found out everything they didn't need to know about wrestling

    Votes: 2 4.2%
  • Started to focus more on wrestling and less with crazy violence and nudity

    Votes: 3 6.3%

What is biggest reason for decline of wrestling popularity in 2001?

6K views 32 replies 32 participants last post by  evilshade 
#1 ·
The sharp decline of wrestling popularity began in 2001.

What do you think is the biggest reason for that?
 
#2 ·
It was truly a sad news the end of WCW.

WWE was for me really grotesque at that time, and lost interest to it until the comeback of HBK and the spotlight of Eddie, Angle, Lesnar, Benoit and Rey.
 
#31 ·
I've been rewatching 2001 over the past few days and I'm up to where WCW invaded Madison Square Garden and the way it was sold then, the angle had enormous potential. I know alot of people were let down by it but I still fucking loved it, it could have been infinitely better no doubt, lack of star power etc didn't help but it was still entertaining for me but you are right Vince fucked it up and it could have been one of the greatest angles in pro wrestling history.

I think everything listed in the poll has made the decline happen, the WCW and ECW competition died and in turn Vince has had free reign over whatever he wants since then seeing as there is no reasonable competition.

Failure to create stars as big as Rock and Austin, since their departures only Cena compares to them that's one guy. In the AE we had Rock and Austin but not far behind were Y2J, HHH, Benoit was rising, Taker, Kane was a maineventer, Kurt Angle all who were valid maineventers and there just a few off the top of my head. The WWE don't have that depth anymore and haven't since they all departed so the failure of making equally attractive stars hasn't helped.

The edginess of the product then kept sucking you in every fucking week Raw ended like a cliffhanger and had you wanting more. We don't get that anymore when was the last time anyone was dying for Raw the next week? But not for 2 weeks I'm talking months and years at a time every week Raw and even Smackdown always had us wanting more. Bryan's rise last year for some had them wanting more but not ENTIRELY EVERYBODY were super invested in it and that aswell pushes away viewers.
 
#7 ·
The Invasion Angle being sabotaged in epic(fail) fashion turned away Monday Night Wars fans...leading to a lot of the fans of WCW and ECW being mad at Vince.

The feud should have been a license to print money but WWE dropped the ball.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I think this is the correct answer. Wrestling is a star-driven business and with Austin a heel and Rock out of action, there was no one for the fans to rally behind.

They tried with HHH in 2002, with limited success. They tried with Brock in 2003, and it didn't work out. Eddie helped a bit for his time, but unfortunately his reign didn't last.

Yes, wrestling is cyclical, but the common thread in the up-cycle is star power.

It wasn't until Cena and Batista in 2005 that things turned around for WWE. No, they weren't as big as Austin and Rock, but you could see the difference between a WWE that had big stars and WWE with diminished star power.
 
#10 ·
I think it's WCW being bought by WWE.

There were a lot of people who's allegiance as wrestling fans lied with WCW, especially here in the south. I was one of them. Being a wrestling fan in Atlanta, WCW was basically the only thing we cared about. Really, I didn't watch WWE consistently until 2010. After WCW died I stopped watching for the most part. It's weird, but many wrestling fans down here view WWE as a northeast territory that destroyed wrestling in the south.
 
#13 ·
The competition falling. As we all know, competition usually brings the best out of a company, or at least the most creative part of it. WCW and ECW go under, WWE doesn't feel the need to go balls to the wall with their storylines, matches, etc. that people fell in love with, so they stopped watching.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Some of these choices are silly. Internet rose years before with the dotcom boom already over.

WWE went for more over the top stuff in 2001-03 to no avail ie hot lesbian action, kissing vinces ass, Billy and Chuck, necrophilia on air, elimination chamber match, guy dying during sex

The answer to the question is what happens at the end of mania 17, just as that program made WWE redhot, its conclusion saw the company fall away.
 
#18 ·
Even though I prefer the era after the AE, I have to face the facts. The Buying of WCW definitely turned away people who only watched wrestling for WCW. The whole Invasion fuck up didnt help either. lol at the last option RA had plenty of violent and sex filled segments and fueds
 
#19 ·
The answer is not in the poll..

The didn't decline they just dropped back to the normal wrestling program ratings numbers. The "Attitude Era" was a brief aberration in the history of pro wrestling.

A boom-time of trash/shock TV that caught on with the young males in America and all over the world. When that ran it's course, those "Attitude Era fans" left and they moved on to something else like they always do..
 
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#20 ·
A combination of things already mentioned. Adding to the list, the fact that the WWF product was so edgy. They kept raising the bar more and more to the point where they startes regressing in that aspect.

Speaking for those who I know personally, that was a huge turnoff and I'm sure that was a large contributing factor. They didn't need to keep doing raising the bar with edgy content after they won the ratings war, understandably. Guys killing themselves in gimmick matches on a regular basis, type stuff.

But yeah. Casuals tuned out.
 
#21 ·
Killing off one of the biggest promotions in the world WCW is one of the reasons, and ECW went under around that time as well. People love competition and there was none of that after 2001.
 
#22 ·
Nothing lasts forever. The boom of the 80s went away after a few years, and it was bound to happen again. For all the people shitting on the Austin heel turn, the Invasion story it's a hell of a lot better than the stuff we've endured over the last 10 years.
 
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#25 ·
WWE's monopoly thanks to no competition and disregard of things in pop culture that have genuinely hooked major audiences (compelling writing such as Breaking Bad, for example).

WWE became very popular because it was written for an 80's audience and then a 90's audience. The current product is in no way being written for a 2015 audience because look at what is popular now and 'popping ratings' and then look at WWE churning out nonsense like tame gimmick matches with no blood-feud to build them, grown men running around in Bunny costumes etc.
 
#27 ·
The Steve Austin heel turn and Invasion angle i would say had the biggest impact on the downfall of WWF, but with the poll choices i would say the bankrupt's of WCW and ECW played a big role also in the downfall of the wrestling business as you were now forced to watch WWF to watch wrestling on TV causing downfall of popularity.
 
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