Wrestling Forum banner

15 Years Ago Today: The Ruthless Aggression Era was Born

2K views 19 replies 20 participants last post by  Lesnar Turtle 
#1 ·


On June 24 2002, the Vince McMahon cut his promo on Raw demanding "Ruthless Aggression" from his talents going forward. This area would go on to see the rise of talents like Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Eddie Guerrero & JBL to main event status. Shortly into this time period, we also saw the departures of Steve Austin & The Rock. And we also got the introduction of brand specific PPVs. It's crazy to think that it's already been 15 years.
 
#6 ·
Be careful what you wish for. Three days after McMahon demanded Ruthless Aggression he got it:
 
#9 ·
GOAT era. Better pure wrestling that the PG Era while maintaining a decent level of storyline and character development that we experienced in the Attitude era. It wasn't perfect but man 2002-2003 SD was incredible in itself.

Shame it went to shit by 2004.
 
#12 · (Edited)
You people trashing this era(many of you probably didn't even watch any of it back then), you honestly think the last 4 years was as good or better than 2002-2006? From a viewing standpoint? In terms of storylines, starpower, presentation, in-ring, etc.?

And no, the botched InVasion started the decline. You can even argue the end of WCW/ECW.
 
#14 · (Edited)
We also saw the deaths of Big Boss Man, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Earthquake, Sherri Martel, The Fabulous Moolah, Hawk, Stu Hart, Mr. Perfect, Freddie Blassie and Killer Kowalski.

AKA the decline and slow painful death of wrestling begins.

Hated this era with a passion at the time.
Better than this current stupid ass era.
 
#15 ·
Ruthless Aggression was definitely a poor man's version of Attitude. This was especially obvious after Brock Lesnar left. JBL was booked like a cheap knock off of HHH from 2000 (right down to the 40 minute promos and factions). But Bradshaw didn't have the talent and credibility to pull it off.

If Lesnar stayed, the Ruthless Aggression era could have been great. They also had all that talent from WCW/ECW. Instead Vince and HHH drove 99.99% of them away by 2004.
 
#5 · (Edited)
It was a mixed bag for me. On one hand you have some awesome storylines, matches and stars. On the other you have the disgusting storylines and ego trips starring that motherfucker Vince Mcmahon, Diva Searches, Bikini Contests, pathetic weekly sex jokes. The sex and naked women in this era are 100 times worse than the Attitude Era, they were trying hard to involve this shit to be "EDGY". Overall the good of course outweighs the bad, good times.
 
#8 · (Edited)
The start of the Ruthless Aggression Era was good, but when 2004 hit, and Austin and Rock left I lost all interest in the product and by the summer of 2004 I was pretty much gone from wrestling altogether. Didn't watch WWE again until 2009

I always look upon the Ruthless Aggression Era as the era that made me lose interest in wrestling, and considering some of the shit I have put up with over the last few years that says a lot. :p
 
#13 ·
i started watching during this time


being honest here, it was obviously a lot weaker than the Attitude era from the second they split the brands up.

2002 after the brand split and the creation of the WHC RAW turned to complete shit

2003 ratings on Smackdown continued to plummet with Lesnar's title run and the McMahons / Zack Gowen bullshit, and RAW was unbearable

2004 Eddie's run was a disaster, so was Benoit's, JBL and Orton didn't draw, and we got the weaponised boredom that was Evolution

2005 was an anomaly, actually a great year for both shows (but that's when the LOLCENAWINS bullshit began)

2006 was abysmal on both shows because Batista got injured, Angle, Mysterio and Booker were all awful champions, and the DX/ McMahon angle was go away heat.

2007 was OK for the first 6 months then everyone got injured, suspended or died

2008 Smackdown was horrific and RAW only had the HBK/ Jericho feud, plus one of the worst ever PPvs in Survivor Series

and then the PG bullshit took over and we got the guest host / anonymous RAW GM / Michael Cole vs Lawler crap for the next few years.


WWE will never again be where is was in 2001 and it has been getting steadily worse since then.
 
#16 ·
It was a mixed bag for me, it was still very entertaining to watch and did help produce some legit future stars(Orton, Batista, Cena and Lesnar). Smackdown was at it's very best during the RA era, you also had JBL's main event run which I liked, Guerrero and Benoit's big moments, Hollywood Rock, Orton/Foley, Angle on fire, Bischoff as GM etc.

However, it was also the beginning of the end for the company. It stagnated each year that passed, RAW was mostly horrible during HHH's reign of terror, buried virtually all of the WCW stars at that time which only Booker recovered from, gave us Cena(both a pro and con) who while a solid hand has brought the standard of the product severely down as the face of the company, Diva searches and Tough Enough which both flopped, Goldberg's poorly booked run, wasted Austin as Sheriff, wasted likes of Jericho, Kane and others for the most part.

Saying that it is still a hundred times more entertaining than today's product in both storylines and wrestling.
 
#18 ·
GOAT years of WWE.

So much talent, matches were good, crowds were hot, story lines were fresh...

It'll never be as good again.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top