[Falkono]

Long ass post warning!

Recently i have been watching some of the WWE Vintage collection and it got me thinking about WWE as it is right now. Over the last 12 months or so in the RAW threads i have read quite a few people say that line "The best RAW ever!" or "One of the best PPV's ever!"

Some people seem to actually really prefer how it is right now in terms of its direction, its roster, its story lines, its champions and so on.
Now there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone is entitled to an opinion right.

But as mentioned looking back i myself can't help but think WWE right now is in a very bad place in comparison to the past.
I started wtaching WWF in the mid to late 80s. As it got more popular the stories became more varied. The boundries were broken and we got some really great entertainment. Of course mixed in with quite some bad! This carried on into the attitude era.

They constantly tried new things, tried anything and everything. Like for example the gimmicks. We had some fecking awful ones back in the day. But they were tried. Some work out and some don't. Today in my opinion there are very few wrestling personalities in the WWE now. You got either the monster/Big man look i.e Sheamus,Ezekiel,Reks,. You got the twisted can you trust him/nut job guy i.e Punk,Orton,Kidd,Barratt,DiBiase. Then you got the i love myself type guy Miz,Swagger,Del Rio,Rhodes,McIntyre,Ziggler. Then you got the no real gimmick guys who just want to win stuff i.e Morrison,Bryan,Kofi,Bourne and so on. I didn't include people who were around in the attitude era.

My point is the guys today when they come out don't tend to stray from these base gimmicks now. They are considered safe. But by being safe means we are just getting the same type guys come through. There are no stand out gimmicks or personalities to make you feel naturally interested. There is no real change.

Now as i said some people prefer today and that is fair enough. But what i don't get is why?

In nearly every aspect I THINK WWE is worse then it was.
Roster = A lot lot worse
Wrestling ability = The roster today in comparison to times from the past can't wrestle for shit. We used to have people like Benoit,Angle,Eddie,Hart,Malenko etc. I don't think anyone on the current roster is near those guys. Maybe Bryan.

Tag teams = What tage teams? The division is dead.

Star Power = Who really is a household name from wrestlers who came after the attitude era? Cena? I gurantee you most people would not have a clue who he is outside of people who watch wrestling now. Hogan, Rock,Austin,Macho man,Undertaker were all mainstream and thus people who didn't know wrestling would probably know them.

Stories = For a couple of RAW's over the past month we have seen an announcer stop a wrestler losing a title thus giving his co commentator championship matches. A computer acting as a GM. A new guy who is a champs side kick (Riley) being in the main events. Twins compeating with each other to see which girl can make a wrestler like her....Can you imagine if that story was used in the past...Now that is not saying that all the stories are bad because they are not. And it isn't saying all the stories from the past were good because jesus christ some were truely damn awful. But they were more risque. They would try anything.

Atmosphere = The atmosphere at the shows seems a miles times worse then they used to be. I watched the Invasion PPV for the first time since i saw it live the other day and when the intro was off and the fireworks were on the noise was insane and you could really feel the excitement in the crowd. Now days it seems the total opposite. One or two people might get a huge cheer but as the match goes on the noise will die until the finishers are applied. Very few times can i remember over the past few years not being able to hear the commentators because of the crowd.

Factions = This is obviously connected to the roster. But from having things like The Ministry,NWO,DX(real DX)all the way to Evolution absoloutly detsroys things like Nexus with Punk,McGillicutty,Husky Harris and Otunga..It is just no comparison.

GM = A computer, enough said.

Announcers = Cole and King, Josh matthews and Striker. Personally i think the days of King and JR on RAW and Cole and either JBL or Tazz were far better.

I honestly do not see one area where the current WWE beats the old WWE/F.

So the reason for this long ass post is to find out who really, truely, no joke prefers the shows today compared to back then? And back then means anytime in wrestlings past.
And if you do prefer todays shows then explain why! Remember this is just my opinion. A lot of you won't agree at all. So if you don't agree then say why!

 

[Ryan]

I like them both the same, either way the show has always entertained me, if it stopped doing so, I wouldn't watch. The sad thing is you will probably get a lot of people reminiscing about the attitude era.

 

[Notorious]

I like them both the same, either way the show has always entertained me, if it stopped doing so, I wouldn't watch. The sad thing is you will probably get a lot of people reminiscing about the attitude era.

This. Of course I like the AE a little more due to the fact that that's what I grew up on but I still like both.

 

[just1988]

I prefer the 2000-2001 era, mainly bcos there when i was at the height of my fandom and markdom.

 

[Carcass]

The past. It was so much more fun watching it as a kid, and I was way way way more into it. I miss the days of switch back and forth between RAW and Nitro, marking out like cray anytime Sting would be on, when RVD debuted in WWE the second time.

 

[%%%%2]

I agree that the old days were better.

But there's one area where the current WWE beats the old: Quantity.

In the old days, there was just "Raw is War" on Mondays and LiveWire - a recap show - on Saturdays.

Today, there are two shows - each two hours long.

So we're getting more wrestling today than in the old.

 

[Ryan]

I agree that the old days were better.

But there's one area where the current WWE beats the old: Quantity.

In the old days, there was just "Raw is War" on Mondays and LiveWire - a recap show - on Saturdays.

Today, there are two shows - each two hours long.

So we're getting more wrestling today than in the Attitude Era.

And Superstars/NXT/Tough Enough soon.

 

[muttgeiger]

I think the lack of gimmicks/characters is a big problem. You don't have to throw the mantaur and max moon out there, but I'm pretty much over the generic outfit, use your real name (or a fake normal name) guys. I'm kind of digging sheamus right now for that reason, at least he's unique. Granted he's naturally a pasty readheaded irish guy, but he plays it up, he's got the king thing going- its kind of old school and I like it. Same wit ADR, he is killing it out there by playing a great character. But those guys are in the minority today.

 

[Captain - Charisma]

I prefer the past by far, but that is possibly due to me being a kid and buying into it being real, the stars seemed to be bigger back then too and I miss wrestlers having managers.

 

[Falkono]

And Superstars/NXT/Tough Enough soon.

This is true there is a lot of shows on now. But i don't think those shows were up to the same level as the older spin off shows i.e Heat,Velocity and the old Superstars or Saturday Night's Main Event.

 

[Mr. 305 Blaze]

The past for obvious reasons and it’s not even close.

The only area that the current product got the previous era beat is their formula in the ring. No doubt that their actual wrestling is far better then the Attitude Era but that was like up until the year of 2000 that they brought their “A” game into the ring in my opinion. It wasn’t all THAT bad that some people make it out to be but still the PG era wrestling still owns in that specific department.

Everything else? Is just laughable in comparison. You know some people like to say to the older fans “Stop living in the past” or wonder why a lot of people will always kill for another type of era like the Attitude/Aggression Era’s to return is pretty simple, look at the comparison with titles, character identity, lack of passion for the mid-card, lack of passion of the tag team division, women division, lack of passion for the titles, character development etc.

It’s kind of common sense. No era is perfect, all of them have their bad and good but in comparison with the past wrestling? It’s not even a contest. WWE can do a WHOLE lot more right now but they are just lazy cause there is no competition and everyone will continue to watch their product no matter what.

 

[TheRock316]

austin rock era

 

[jimboystar24]

I honestly do not see one area where the current WWE beats the old WWE/F.

Thank you! I agree fully. Give me the Golden Era, New Generation, Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression era. All are better.

The only thing I can see now being better for is:

1) Ilogical storylines running rampant

Now, yes, the other eras had some storyline problems too but not as bad as right now.

2) Disappointment

When it sounds like they are going to do something cool, it ends being the worst way someone can book the storyline and ultimately a disappointment.

 

[189558]

While I can still be entertained by the current product. It's definitely not what it used to be and I'm not just basing around the Attitude Era. Names like Punk, Bryan, Rhodes, Barrett and some other names keep me coming back to the product. However, The New Generation is still my favorite era. Don't really care about a lot of the heat that era gets. The cartoon style gimmicks is something I liked as a kid. It keeps me coming back with a smile on my face. Along with some solid wrestling matches featuring stars like Owen, Bret, Michaels, Razor and Perfect to name a few. But as far as a personal choice of now or then goes. I'll go with then! I'd much rather watch episodes of Raw/Nitro from the mid-90s more.

Also, like The King of Blaze stated no era is perfect.

 

[dxbender]

Actual match wise ,now is way better, it only seemed better in the 80s and stuff because wwe was still real to so much ppl so a scoop slam was a huge move.

If WWE had storylines for all their matches for todays wrestling, it'd easily be able to compete with the older generations because that's all they're lacking.

Imagine if a match like Morrison-Bryan had build in it. Not only would we see a great match, we'd have lots of story and reasoning behind it.

 

[MojoRisin]

I started watching in 2004, but I've watched a large amount of 1997 onward. I gotta say... I miss the atmosphere. I would've really loved to be a fan back then. I missed what seems like the peak of the industry. Looking at it though, that was a peak for the United States in general. We had beaten the Soviets, and were THE top superpower in the world. Things like that affected the way people acted, leading to the perfect Attitude Era crowd. It tapped into culture and became a hotbed.

Now, WWE is going through a reinventing phase, I think. They're constantly tweaking and updating their style. Look at this time period as the new 1996. Great wrestling, but kid oriented. I'm not saying that we'll have edgier product in one or two years - I severely doubt it. We won't see top shelf quality output until a rival company (not TNA, lol) comes up and can play on Vince's level. Then we'll see another peak.

 

[Yeah1993]

I started watching in 2007 and still prefer the past by an unexplainably big mile.

 

[apokalypse]

i prefer back then for one big reason is over 97% of the guys from what i know have freedom with their characters and promos without restriction or not many restriction put on them, which is why so many guys got over with the crowd with small things. these days WWE put so many restriction and scripted promos which doesn't let them grow. Jim Cornette shoot promo live on WWF TV i guess around 98-99 on Shawn Micheals-NWO-WCW and others with vince approval and vince idea>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-jFWe5fFk and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmkb_OmsKOw ..you will never see anything like this anymore

 

[AroKaholic]

PG era SUCKS ! :cuss:

 

[Rated_RKO_2009]

Theres no way in a million years that the current WWE can compare or match up to the wwf/e of old. I started watching wwf/e wrestling in 1992 and have seen a lot of good periods and some dam bad periods. NOW is definitely a bad period. The product just dosent suprise me like the old wwf/e used to do. It seems to have lost its EDGE where the angles were aimed at a much older audience instead of now with this PG crap. Watching wrestling has now become a chore now instead of a hobby. I just watch it to barely keep up with whats going on and to keep up to date on here also.

Its not like before where I had to watch wwf/e no matter what. It was just totally unmissable back then. Now I can miss 2 years of smackdown and not be bothered one little bit.