[Lm2]

Im not talking about just one era i mean back when the late 80's 90;s started everybody was watching wrestling, you brought kids up with it, the wrestlers had so much passion and could really connect with the fans, now it just seems no one cares about the wrestling its all soap opera, and seems like the crowds will never be that into again,

What does everyone else think?

 

[MachoMadness 4lyfe]

I started watching in early 1984 when i got my first home & cable...was a huge fan through the late 80`s and early 90`s...stopped watching in the mid 90`s but started again in 97/98 with the onset of the Attitude Era.. again stopped about 10 years ago but started YET again about 3 years back (my youngest son is to blame )..at 45 im enjoying it as much now as i ever did

 

[manjiimortal]

The wrestling bussiness works like a cycle. Wrestling was HUGE, but really huge in the 50's when TV first started, with Gourgeous George (not the Randy Savage girlfriend) was the top star. Then it went in decline still in the 50's, and in the next decades it had a process of rebuild, which culminated on the 80's, when the you had all the various regional promotions making very good bussiness. The second half of the 80's was the ascent of the WWE as a national promotion, the second Golden Era of wrestling.

Then it went down really bad in the 90's, until the Monday Night Wars revitalized it. It went down in late 2000, the decline went even faster in late 2001, 2002. And in the past years it got to a position of somewhat stability with a tendecy to decrease.
Eventually it should go up again, it just might take a good number of years.

 

[Stekeo1990]

yes i think it will its just needs to have a bad patch to have a good patch.

 

[thethunder]

It will never be as big as it was.

 

[Lm2]

i want to believe it will but with UFC coming up and everything most wrestling fans i believe are turning to UFC because of brock and its more about the sport rather then a soap opera

 

[manjiimortal]

I don't believe the UFC hype really. The bussiness model can only be maintained while they have interesting matches and somewhat charismatic fighters. In wrestling you have a number of plot devices to make the same match more interesting, in MMA you don't. You also have the UFC fighters saying that they are given instructions to stage their interviews in order to make the fights more appealing, which is what you do in wrestling, and because the fights are real, it's very easy to have fights that go to uninteresting results, or very anti-climatic (Lesnar's title loss for example).

Also, MMA is already kinda death in Japan since Pride closed up doors, and much like in wrestling when you think MMA, you think UFC, so if anything happens to UFC (even a lack of interest from the fans) will have a major impact in the thing as a whole.
Wrestling and MMA are actually very much alike in my view.

 

[Lm2]

well thats true what you said but the same time, UFC is the fastest growing sport i guess you really cant compare the two ones sports entertainment the other is real, both have great multiple fan bases all over the world, thats what i like you can still watch wrestling and ufc and you wont be bored or any competition

 

[Deacon of Demons]

I really don't know, like already stated, UFC has really been on the rise lately and they are probaly WWE's biggest competition.

What I think needs to happen for WWE to get huge again is get rid of the family friendly crap. Nobody wants to hear wrestlers run around talking about poopy or midgets running around getting kissed on the cheek by 12 year old girls and are obsesseds with candy.

Look at the attitude era, the WWE and all of their characters had an edge to them. I really can't remember one wrestler that was a cookie cutter goody goody face like we have now. All of the top faces had some type of edge to them (Austin, Rock, Foley, Jericho are examples) and all of the top heels were portrayed as evil sons of bitches (Triple H, Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, MOD Undertaker, Kane are examples) that you could not wait to see get destroyed by the faces.

Today, most of the top faces are portrayed as goody goody, family friendly, smiley faces such as Cena, Big Show, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston and a lot of the fans hate them because of that.

WWE needs more oomph to their product, they need to add more shock value and edge to their product in order to get people to care once again.

 

[Issues_Sunshyne]

I believe it can, yes. It's not THAT far away from how big it was, it's just aimed at a different class of fans.

 

[just1988]

Wrestling is constantly moving forwards along with the times, it will never move backwards so no wrestling will ever be like it was in the 90's.

 

[666_The_Game_666]

no wrestling or WWE in general will never reach the heights it did in the late 90s during the Attitude Era. Wrestling was just a huge thing then we had two major companies going head to head each week on primetime TV in a long running ratings war. Wrestlers became megastars and broke through to the mainstream media. Now WWE only cares for business deals and corporate sponsors more so than there product. The WWE will always be a big deal within Wrestling cos they are the biggest company and that wont change but MMA has overtaken wrestling in the last few years and reached or is reaching the level Wrestling was back in the late 90s.

 

[dave 1981]

For the wrestling industry to go through another boom period we need to see TNA become a serious rival to WWE so that WWE ups their game, competition is really what made wrestling so popular again in the latter stages of the 90's. I'm afraid that until that happens then wrestling will stay as it is because a lot of people don't see TNA as anymore than a indy company with a mainstream tv slot which is a shame seeing how TNA has attempted to portray themselves as the alternative to WWE.

What made wrestling so big in the 80's was the amount of mainstream appeal it had once it had brought in major celebrities from that era like Muhammed Ali, Cyndi Lauper, Mr T and Liberace to name a few which added to Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant saw wrestling become popular. Then in the latter stages of the 90's there was three companies all trying to outdo each other in WWE, WCW and ECW so it made each company up their game and we saw arguably the most popular period ever in wrestling.

At the minute the closest we have to that is WWE, TNA and ROH and the gap in between each of them is a HUGE one as TNA are nowhere near WWE's level and ROH is nowhere near TNA's level so the gap needs to be closed between all three companies which i don't see happening anytime soon if ever at all. I would be very surprised if we saw another boom period in wrestling in our time of watching unless someone comes along like Ted Turner did and throws a lot of money at building another company to rival WWE.

 

[ShiftyLWO]

oh man.. with the way things are going right now I don't see it.

 

[RobbinBanks]

Fire all the idiots in creative and get out of the PG era and well go from there

 

[dangreenday]

i dont think it will be as big as it was, god back in the day it was SOOOO SOOO HUGE!!! it needs a big revamp if it were to get to that stage again

 

[Issues_Sunshyne]

Fire all the idiots in creative and get out of the PG era and well go from there

Maybe we could get Russo back, too?

 

[Riddle101]

Unless you find a Megastar like Rock, Austin or Hogan were. Then I don't know if it will ever been as big as the 90's. Also the product is pretty stale as well. But, nobody can predict the future so who knows.

 

[Terra]

WWE needs more oomph to their product, they need to add more shock value and edge to their product in order to get people to care once again.

This.

They don't even need shock value, really, nor do they need to take it off the PG rating. They just need to give it something special. What it is, I can't put my finger on. But they need more ''oomph'', as you say.

 

[Big Wiggle]

Im not talking about just one era i mean back when the late 80's 90;s started everybody was watching wrestling, you brought kids up with it, the wrestlers had so much passion and could really connect with the fans, now it just seems no one cares about the wrestling its all soap opera, and seems like the crowds will never be that into again,

What does everyone else think?

You have a few major setbacks:

1. No competition for the WWE= Lazy product.
2. New fans (and some old ones) who accept the rubbish standard.
3. Terrible writers.

Fix these 3 and there might be a hope, especially with Wrestling still being explored and spoken about the the general media (i.e. "The Wrestler" Movie, The Rocks Return, The Miz on countless talk shows etc).