| JWeinCom said: I've been rewatching old WWE stuff starting with Mania 20. Mainly while I'm on the treadmill, but sometimes just when I'm high and want to do something not too mentally demanding. I'm in the mid 2000s now, and I gotta say, it's kind of rough. |
Yeah, I think that’s when the show really went downhill, but I don’t have a huge memory from that era. It was in that era that I went from watching the show regularly to only watching Velocity or something with any kind of regularity.
It’s kind of like the show lost momentum and energy almost immediately after the “Get the F Out” campaign. Maybe it was just the brand name brainwashing on my part, but going from WWF Attitude to World Wrestling Entertainment seemed to snap something off. The era wasn’t without its highlights (Lesnar, rapping Cena, and such); it might just be me, but I went from being invested in all the storylines around that time, to finding most of the show being filler (like back in 97/early 98… maybe not quite that bad).
Tag team stuff really fell off around this time. It went from being Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boyz, the Dudleyz, DX, even T&A to the teams they could put together to feed to the bigger singles stars collectives (Benoit/Jericho, Evolution, etc…). Edge and Christian were an highlight with their promo and in-ring cowardly antics and chair shots, the Hardy Boyz were a highlight with their high flying stuff, the Dudleys putting people through tables. They were characters as a team. When they met in the ring, it was the potential for the most high intensity match of the night. By the mid 00s, it was jobber filler.
Around that time was when the next big thing became the next big disappointment.
And so on.
I’ve spoken with people who have a lot of great memories from that era. But I think the whole Benoit/Eddie heights, and even the short lived Kerwin White dark comedy gimmick, were the exceptions to the rule.
I can’t speak for anything between about the murder suicide and the pipe-bomb promo. I quit, and didn’t pay any attention to the brand. The murder-suicide was the piano that broke the camels back.
That said, I think the two biggest improvement they made were NXT and the Mae Young Classic. Both of those built the foundation for the current era. Opening up all sorts of new avenues that reversed WWE’s declining fortunes. The WWE Network played a big role, and Netflix is the next big step. I’m hoping that it’ll eventually become the new home for the WWE Network library - simplifying everything.
On a side note, I’m also a fan of the cannabis + WWE mix. Although, I’ve started watching Mad Men on Netflix as well under the same influence.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
