[YunisTaker]

I think between 2002 and like 2003/04, it was called the Ruthless Aggression Era.

 

[unionx]

I think between 2002 and like 2003/04, it was called the Ruthless Aggression Era.

I agree that this was a concept WWE were trying to put out there. But I didn't think it was something worthy of mention. It was all about the brand's during this time and trying to get it over to the fans who were reluctant to accept the changes WWE had made

 

[189558]

I've always liked The New Generation era myself. It had some of the cartoon type of characters, but they made me laugh. But inside that era also had the rise of stars like Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart and others. This era seems to be one of the less popular ones, from what I've noticed.

The 2000 McMahon-Helmsley era was a great one too, probably tied for first with The New Generation. The Rock & Wrestling era was another one, that I will give a shout out to. It really took wrestling from pretty much a nothing sport to the mainstream.

 

[Souper Dragon]

"The reason WWE is doing this 'PG' product is solely because they can"
Eddie died and Benoit did what he did, they didnt really have a choice either way.

Are the main events today any worse than the main events in the early 90s/80s? I would probably be just as bored watching Hogan / Ultimate Warrior as I would be watching another generic Cena / Orton match, though I would say the midcard is superior back then, than what it is today.

 

[The Main Headliner]

Let me start by saying i'm not in favour of WWE's current product. Now thats over let me talk about something that annoys me. A lot of members of the IWC constantly bash the current 'PG Era' and talk about the 'Attitude Era' as if it were the best thing in Pro-Wrestling. Whats more, many IWC members are under the impression that the 'Attitude Era' ended as the 'PG Era' began, this is not true. Below I'll explain

1984-1993: The WWE 'Cartoon Era'. An almost exclusive 'PG' environment filled with colorful and larger than life characters such as Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior. In my opinion, the current 'PG' era is superior in every way to this period.

1993-1995: The 'Post Cartoon Era'. With Hulk Hogan and many of the other 'Cartoon Wrestlers' either defecting to WCW or retiring, WWE sets about pushing new talent and modernising their product with such performers as Undertaker, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. During this time edgier storylines are brought forth, however the product is barely 'TV14'.

1996-1998: The 'Monday Night Wars' Era. Diesel and Razor Ramon defect to WCW, Bret Hart turns Heel, gets screwed over and leaves the WWE for WCW and Steve Austin becomes the new top babyface of the company. WWE, following their continuous defeat in the ratings by WCW, completely reinvents their product with edgier storylines, sexual content, hardcore wrestling and angles that often blur reality and fantasy.

1998-2001: The 'Attitude Era'. A new era in where WWE has finally overtaken WCW and is constantly battling to keep themselves the leading brand. New stars such as The Rock and Degeneration X are at the top of the card, behind only the brilliant feud between Vince McMahon and Stone Cold.

2001-2002: The 'Invasion'. The 'Attitude Era' ends with Stone Cold, turning Heel and aligning himself with his former enemy, Vince McMahon. The Rock takes a hiatus to pursue his movie career. During this time, the WWE starts an angle with the recently acquired WCW. Although it originally had potential, the angle pretty much bombs. WCW talent is either promoted to the main roster, or sent to development to learn to work the 'WWE Way'. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall join WWE and revive the NWO stable, Ric Flair joins WWE and is revealed as part owner. The WWE then splits into two seperate brands with seperate championships and rosters.

2002-2008: The 'Smackdown Vs Raw' Era. An era where the WWE is making stars out of new talent. The split in rosters allows two seperate shows where new guys have a chance to work the top of the card. During this time, WWE adopts a 'Wellness Policy' and stars to clean up its act, following several controversial events in the industry. This era concludes with WWE deciding to adopt a 'PG' rated product in order to score a major merchandise deal with Mattel.


So there we have it, a brief rundown of each 'WWE Era'. Hopefully it will give some members of the IWC reasons to stop bashing the current format. While it isn't great, it could be a heck of a lot worse. I know i'd rather watch John Cena and Randy Orton, etc than sit through Hulk Hogan and various cartoon wrestlers spending 15 minutes performing rubbish punches and rest holds.

The reason WWE is doing this 'PG' product is solely because they can. They are a company that wants to make money, they have no direct competition and therefore don't have to worry about being overtaken while dropping the 'Edginess' of their product to suit their sponsors. If you look at the motivations for WWE changing their product in the past. You'll see that most of the time it was due to competition from WCW and the talent they were losing to them.

TNA is the 2nd biggest Wrestling Promotion in the USA, behind WWE. They cannot hope to just go straight to competing. Look at what happened back in January 2010? It was a colossal failure.

The only way WWE will make a change to the 'PG' era, is if they either find themselves in direct competition with another promotion, If they start losing PPV Buyrates and TV ratings, because of the content of their product or if their money making talent starts to retire, jump ship, move into movies or they just stop being interesting (in which case they usually end up with a 'Future Endeavours').

But back to the thread. Out of all the Eras in WWE history, which of them have been your favourite overall? And it would be interesting to hear from people on ways in which TNA could supply an alternative to WWE, whilst not directly trying to compete or emulate the 'Attitude Era' and WCW.

Nice thread, just wanted to touch on the names of the eras, if I'm not mistaken:

84 - 93 Is pretty much considered the Golden Era/Rock N Wrestling in the 80's (especially 85 to like 91)

93 to 1997 is the New Generation

(I consider Attitude truly starting in 97, and some argue it starts with Austin 3:16 at KOTR 96, but really by as early as Bret's rant on Raw in Winter 97, up to the birth of DX in the Fall, and Mr. McMahon being born the WWF truly was pretty much in full Attitude mode by December 97; there was even Attitude promos with Bret and Ken Shamrock, you can find them on Youtube. I guess it just officially began at WM 14)

 

[-SAW-]

As cliché and repetitive as it sounds, I will always be fond of the Attitude Era. From late 97 to mid 01, I was absolutely in love with the WWF. Don't get me wrong, I still love the WWE and always will, but if it wasn't for guys like Austin, Rocky, Kane, Taker and Foley, I wouldn't be typing this right now.

 

[Human Error]

1996 - 02 was what made me love WWE for what it is today.

 

[acracker]

So there we have it, a brief rundown of each 'WWE Era'. Hopefully it will give some members of the IWC reasons to stop bashing the current format. While it isn't great, it could be a heck of a lot worse. I know i'd rather watch John Cena and Randy Orton, etc than sit through Hulk Hogan and various cartoon wrestlers spending 15 minutes performing rubbish punches and rest holds.

The reason WWE is doing this 'PG' product is solely because they can. They are a company that wants to make money, they have no direct competition and therefore don't have to worry about being overtaken while dropping the 'Edginess' of their product to suit their sponsors. If you look at the motivations for WWE changing their product in the past. You'll see that most of the time it was due to competition from WCW and the talent they were losing to them.

TNA is the 2nd biggest Wrestling Promotion in the USA, behind WWE. They cannot hope to just go straight to competing. Look at what happened back in January 2010? It was a colossal failure.

The only way WWE will make a change to the 'PG' era, is if they either find themselves in direct competition with another promotion, If they start losing PPV Buyrates and TV ratings, because of the content of their product or if their money making talent starts to retire, jump ship, move into movies or they just stop being interesting (in which case they usually end up with a 'Future Endeavours').

But back to the thread. Out of all the Eras in WWE history, which of them have been your favourite overall? And it would be interesting to hear from people on ways in which TNA could supply an alternative to WWE, whilst not directly trying to compete or emulate the 'Attitude Era' and WCW.

it could have been a lot worse :no: it could also have been ten times better and you f***ing know it!

we know that wwe are about quantity or quality, so why bring this up? if this is an unintentional way of admitting to us that you belive that numbers mean more than people then you've already failed whatever mission you were trying at

so basically you are admitting that pg era sucks?

then maybe you should have made this a campain to get ROH or TNA or Chikara or EVOLVE or ASW or AWR or 100%Lucha or DDT to step their game up more than saying that we should accept WWEs piss poor reperesentation of this business to the common man

their "wellness policy" only applys to guys that arent important in the grand scheme of things

my favourite era? Smackdown vs Raw belive it or not, before 2003 specifically before WWE got boring and before i discovered the indies. Starpower out of every orophiss, cruiserweights, competant booking, ECW and WCW guys sharing the spotlight, the best the womens division has ever been in a long time, Brock Lesnar evolutionising The Hoss, something to look forward to every show before Evolution started, eliminationchamber, raw roulette and some level of brand comptition

apart from the smatterings of good as the years past, WWe i 2005 practically admitted that the brand split has gone on long enough, Eddies death followed by lunchtime suicide and the continuous insult that was 2006
__________________

 

[Ronstera]

New generation era is what I grew up with so I'd go with that.. Plus I like Razor, HBK and Bret Hart..

 

[Olympus]

Nice thread, just wanted to touch on the names of the eras, if I'm not mistaken:

84 - 93 Is pretty much considered the Golden Era/Rock N Wrestling in the 80's (especially 85 to like 91)

93 to 1997 is the New Generation

(I consider Attitude truly starting in 97, and some argue it starts with Austin 3:16 at KOTR 96, but really by as early as Bret's rant on Raw in Winter 97, up to the birth of DX in the Fall, and Mr. McMahon being born the WWF truly was pretty much in full Attitude mode by December 97; there was even Attitude promos with Bret and Ken Shamrock, you can find them on Youtube. I guess it just officially began at WM 14)

The Attitude Era started when the WWF started to brand itself, "WWF Attitude".

And to the OP, 84-93 is the Golden Age Era. 93-98 was the New Generation Era. I would consider the start of the MNW to be when WCW launched Nitro in '95 all the way until it ended.

 

[NoLeafClover]

The New Generation was when I was young and really started watching wrestling, so I will always appreciate that time in WWF. Some of my long time favorites began when I started watching them during this time, like Taker and HBK and Razor Ramon.

Looking at the Attitude Era...the whole thing...from 1997-2001, it was pretty incredible to witness the way that the product evolved and sky rocketed pro wrestling to it's height. The sheer mass that the WWF gained during this time was unbelievable. Seeing the rise of stars like Austin, Rock, Triple H, Jericho Angle, was what made the product so intriguing as great feuds were built around these stars.

But as great as those era's were, I think that my top favorite time period in WWE would be 2000-2004. I suppose that kind of crosses over the eras listed by the OP...but whatever. Those four years gave us some of the most incredible matches, rivalries and really...moments, we've ever seen in WWE. Sure there were some low points with The Invasion, but as a whole so many incredible things happened in that time.

Just looking in chronological order in that time period, we saw: The taking over by Rock as the top babyface while Austin was out, the rise of Triple H as one of the greatest heels ever, Angle's quick rise to the top, Austin's return to the ring and feud with Triple H, arguably the greatest Mania ever (X-Seven), the Unification of the World Titles by Jericho, the return of Hulk Hogan to face The Rock at WM X8, the return of HBK, the rise of Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit's World Title reigns and the creation of Evolution. Those are just the big things that came to my mind, and there are of course so many more, but just looking at that list...that was a lot of monumental stuff that went down.

 

[Chosen]

Your eras need some reworking.

People will always be fond of the era that they grew up with or the era that got them into wrestling. Is and will always be the case

 

[Mr. Rager]

Started watching during the height of the Attitude Era, so I gotta go with that. 2002 to 2007 were also good. 2007 was where WWE started to fall off imo...

 

[Cpt. Charisma]

As much as the PG may not appeal to a lot of us older fans, it means that the product is a lot safer for the wrestlers involved with less blood and high flying manoeuvres, it also makes it more attractive to advertisers because who do you want to pitch a product to? 4-5 members of a family with disposable income? Or one 20/30-something guy and possibly a couple of his buddies who's money will mainly go onto beer and junk (Not a bad thing btw!). Just sayin'

 

[Rasslin' Fan]

so, to counter this, the late 70s, early 80s and possibly running into 88 is when professional wrestling had a genuine "golden era" because the accepted legends of the sport were on top of the cards, main eventing in WWWF, NWA and the AWA

guys like Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, "Superstar" Billy Graham and Ric Flair were all wrestling in the 70s and early 80s in fantastic regional/territorial feuds in the various promotions that made up the NWA - that is what you consider a "golden era", not the Rock N Wrestling era of the cartoon WWF - that time is when Vince McMahon began to turn professional wrestling into the sports entertainment that we see today - flamboyant characters, entrance themes, the Hulk Hogan "icon" for the kids of the 80s to look up to and follow against the "evil" characters like Sgt Slaughter, Million Dollar Man and Andre The Giant, and having "friendships" on TV with 80s TV celebrities like Mr T and bringing the likes of Cyndi Lauper in to capture the MTV generation - this is isn't a "golden era" of wrestling, it's when wrestling became sports entertainment, and I feel that it this time should be called the Rock N Wrestling era, because it's what McMahon was trying to bring together - sports and entertainment genres like TV and music

 

[DethDropLockSplash]

Personally I enjoyed the Rock N Wrestling Era the best. That was when the wrestlers were huge and actually looked badass. They also took wrestling a little more serious then, not so much comedy stuff or really unbelievable choreographed moves. It actually looked somewhat like a fight.

All the big men in WWE today are jokes, Kane(hasn't been intimidating in a long time, and dancing like santino last week put the nail in coffin to him ever being scary again), Big Show, Mark Henry, and Great Khali. None of which creates any intimidating atmosphere. Most of the rest of the roster is really not all the big and I can't take those guys serious when they are in matches or on the mic (exceptions- HHH, Undertaker but both are pretty old, Wade Barrett)

Compare those guys to Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Sid Justice, Old School Undertaker, Andre the Giant, Earthquake, Typhoon, LOD, King Kong Bundy, Bam Bam Bigelow, Yokazuna, British Bulldog, Jake the Snake, Jim Niedhardt and many others. Steroids may have helped this cause although they were probably all pretty naturally big as well.

 

[Do Your Fcking Job]

Of course most people love the attitude era on here, and in general, because its what we were brought up on.

Most of us on here are attitude era kids/teenagers.

The kids today will look back on this era with similer fondness (poor sods).

WWE up to 2005-06 was actually a very entertaining product IMO, its just the past 4 years or so which have mostly been pretty crappy.

 

[Zanvic]

People just have a tendency only to remember the good things, and forget about the bad. If you really think back to the attitude era, past Stone Cold, The Rock and DX, what did you have? A bunch of stupid gimmicks and characters (Like the cartoon era, just more modern), where wrestling was as poor as it had ever been. It was all about big bumps and blood and sticking it to the man. The attitude era was great in many ways, but it had just as many flaws as any other era of the WWE.

I prefer the time from around 02-06. You had a mix of the remnants of the attitude era, and good technical wrestling. And it wasnt PG yet, so John Cena didnt have to use the word "Poopy" in a promo.

 

[ILL_Mckenzie]

This is something I am discussing on my show tomorrow, but The Rock and Stone Cold era is probably the best run the wwe had, if they are able to generate the same type of superstars or story line to some of these currents, it could be interesting again.