The Attitude Era

[King Pitcos]

Albert, Godfather and Val Venis all had other jobs. Kane and Undertaker were completely ridiculous. The current era of wrestling has the most realistic roster of characters since the old, boring, black-and-white days.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The whole "wrestlers with the day job" thing, is played out now. It was great when you were an ignorant fan and it wasn't exposed to buggery. I remember when I was growing up, I thought they did their real job through the week and occasionally wrestled. Like how my brother worked as a electrician, but played footy on a Sunday. I'd have this whole world mapped out. Having those visions of what they did in their spare time was mind blowing. "You watching the Norwich match on Sunday, Ray?" "Don't think I can mate. I'm wrestling the Mountie. Might have to spend a night in the cells, like". Seeing the Royal Rumble 91 picture with wrestlers wearing normal clothes just hyped the shit out of my little brain. My mind now had outfits to match my thoughts of how these people knocked about. Boss Man in a leather jacket and shades patrolling the streets. Hogan in red trousers and yellow wellies. Warrior in his cowboy boots and brown waistcoat.

[Vamp]

I dunno, kayfabe's so overwhelmingly dead that maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to have WWE exist in its own universe as it were, akin to a comic book thingy. Maybe. People seem to like these comic books things. You've got Twitter, YouTube, downloadable book thingys and all sorts to sustain that world. It might put a bit more colour into things. WWE as a universe where wrestling happens.

 

Although saying that there's probably a good proportion of the audience who would shit all over it so maybe not.

[ShortOrderCook]

I agree with that assessment Vamp. Actually I've said that on here a bunch of times. That's exactly how I think WWE should treat and portray themselves and it's how I see and view it myself. And it's all the more fun that way. WWE and wrestling in general definitely falls into the same bracket as DC Comics and Marvel for me. They're essentially presented as real-life super-heroes anyway and they have rules which exist purely within their own universe. Honestly, it's so much more fun treating it that way, it doesn't mean you can't have any realistic characters or gritty realism either. That's great too. A nice blend of both is where it's at. But I want these guys i'm watching to be larger than life, fascinating super-human specimens. WWE and other wrestling outfits should definitely be all over things like ComicCon and appealing to those audiences. The two big boom periods were pure comic book. And so is most awesome Jap and Lucha stuff as far as I've seen.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

They will never ever do that, unfortunately. They are setting up a network at the minute. Their big dream is to turn their wrestlers in to talking heads on low budget TV shows. You can totally see Dolph Ziggler or the Miz going "I remember Care Bears. I had the video and ironic references were born". WWE wants their wrestlers to be similar to the exaggerated but quite common characters you see on reality shows like Jersey Shore and that show with the lass who brought the porn video out. They want their stuff to go viral and have their own version of the Harlem Shake and stuff like that now. Like the Fandango thing or the "Yes" chants. They want the average channel flipper to go "oh, I know a bloke like him. He's zany". Its why Ryback is on life support. Nobody can take him seriously. He's got the mannerisms of one of Ken Dodd's Diddy Men. He was super over and they failed to protect him. Now he's exposed and he's fucked forever.

[ShortOrderCook]

Ryback is on life support because the booking has ruined him. People were lapping him up when he was presented as a real life Super-hero Terminator. Zack Ryder, Fandangoing and any other little craze are totally short-term and don't remain over strong for long (unless you're as fantastic as Danny Bry). That mentality and thinking from WWE won't last forever. Wrestling always goes back to what has always worked. And comic book and fantasy worlds are always over, more so than ever right now.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The characters have more layers these days. To do that, it would take wrestlers sticking to their characters and gimmicks and not dropping from it. And with Kevin Dunn's philosophy and all these mediums like twitter around, they won't have their wrestlers stick to living in their own worlds and to promote just the characters. Christ, just from the staff overturn alone it would be solid. WWE hires and fires television writers by the truck load each year. They can't stick to the one direction when it comes to who the COO is, let alone pretend the characters are solely living in the world known as WWE. They were selling shirts with "heel" and "kayfabe" on them last year.Also, wrestlers are the biggest marks for themselves. They couldn't stick to tweeting about their characters in every day life. Not when Kofi has wrestling trunks to put in a frame. The genie is out the lamp now.

[Arch Stanton]

Fantasy and supernatural stuff is big right now and had been for a few years, but WWE don't seem to want to touch it. I find that pretty weird. It's not exactly my thing but I'd appreciate the variety in the shows. I'm digging Connor O'Brien's cheesy Ascension gimmick in NXT, hopefully they will throw some weight behind that character when he comes to the main shows.

[Endorphin]

I think the characters around now are about the most boring in wrestling history. Cookie cutter types with the same look, same style, same scripted promos, all with perfect bodies, clean cut.The Attitude Era had a lot of characters who stood out in terms of style and look and character despite not having 'jobs'. 2-Cool, The Hardy Boys, The Dudleyz, even the Mean Street Posse - all guys with distinct looks and personalities that didn't revolve around being a dustman or a dentist in their spare time.

[ShortOrderCook]

Yeah, I don't think they will treat the 'WWE Universe' like a DC Universe or in the way I described anytime soon, but I do wish they would and think it's a direction they should take. I can't blame them for being all over the social media thing in the way they are or wanting things to catch on in a Jersey Shore type way because that's what popular in todays society for some reason and everyone lives their lives through their phones. People always give WWE are hard time for being so out of touch with society and not knowing what's hot but they are giving it a go. I'm not so keen on that myself, some elements of social media can be great for progressing angles but as I say, Fandangoing or Zack Ryder and all that shit is only ever a short-term buzz and can't blame them for trying to make the most of that to bring people to their product and stay for everything else that is going on. We won't lose all the larger than life big characters completely though, that's wrestlings bread and butter.On this subject and what Pitocs said earlier of wrestling being essentially trash TV like reality TV and should only really be viewed once. There's certainly truth to that but, going on a similar presentation to what I've already mentioned I've long thought a wrestling outfit should present itself in seasons, with episodic angles and stories building to a big payoff at their big show/season finale. Be story and character heavy, with a clear end plan being worked towards throughout. That people will discover and want to watch in blocks of episodes, get the DVDs etc, and be gagging for more and to know what's going to happen next. I thought that Wrestling Revolution Project was going to take this approach but nothing ever seem to come of it. Either way, i'd love to see a wrestling organisation attempt to take this approach. It will never happen, unless you've got someone with a shit load of money who fancies creating for their own amusement.

[Arch Stanton]

I do love that idea SOC. Although WWE would understandably never adopt it as their primary TV model, they could certainly experiment with that sort of thing with a C-Show or other show once their own network gets underway (is that ever happening?). It's not a million miles away from what they did with NXT originally- that ran continuously, but was broken up into 'Seasons', with a different cast of characters each time. Of course, it wasn't heavy on storylines but as a fresh approach to WWE TV, it was great.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I thought that Wrestling Revolution Project was going to take this approach but nothing ever seem to come of it.

Jeff Katz (the bloke running it) lost his arse. He invested in this business deal along with a load of other celebs and got ripped off and lost all his money. He was one of the few who sank all his money in. He had a nervous breakdown and never left the house for ages. He wrote about it last year on twitter. Real shame for him. So that doesn't look like it'll ever see the light of day. Even bigger shame for those who donated to the kickstarter account to get it done.

[Vamp]

They can't stick to the one direction

This is their biggest problem really. Say what you like about previous 'eras', they had a clear idea of what they were and what they wanted to be. They just don't seem to have that now. They seem obsessed with identifying what they're not (the Attitude Era) and not what they are now. I wonder if that's a result of them trying to make their brand ubiquitous now. The WWE now means wrestling, TV shows, movies, live events, network (they wish) and so on and so forth, they don't want to be defined by a certain style of product. At the same time as they've made the brand the star, they seem to have lost any sense of branding when it comes to their shows. This isn't a "they're not a wrestling show" rant because they are, and I can get why they want to be more than that, but there has to be somewhere you can dvide it so that you have a wrestling brand and your overall brand.

[Loki]

I think the WWE's public distaste for its own roots speaks volumes about a fundamental division within the company as to what their product is, or should be.

 

On the one hand you have the efforts to sanitrise the product of traces of its old roots as a worked sport. It's not wrestling, it's sport entertainment; they're not wrestlers, they are entertainers; not fans but "WWE universe" and so on. As someone who watches WWE about twice a year, it's shocking how little the commentators call actual moves nowadays - in the Lesnar/HHH match from WM, COle referred to every different suplex as "a throw". I know he knows the difference between a belly to belly and a back suplex or a fishermans, so he's obviously been told to not use those terms.

 

I guess the thinking behind that is that wrestling terminology puts casual fans off, and the less of it there is, the more like reality tv the show feels. I don't actually think that's correct, but there must be an overriding effort behind all of this noticeable change. It's one of the reasons all the matches feel the same, I think.

 

But at the same time, the roster has never been more "real" as people have said - practically everyone's gimmick is "athlete" or just an enhanced version of themselves. To me, this smacks of the long-term influence of UFC on the WWE - the success of two legit fighters bashing away at each other, and the toning down of the in-ring product (removing most of the dangerous headshots etc) has made the show feel more like a real fight card than it did back in the attitude era. The Rock-Cena feud is a classic example of this - it was all built around who was the best sports entertainer, effectively.

 

The result is a really weird mix that I find very difficult to watch. I like a good "serious" wrestling match, but I also like the comedy and the characters and the pageant. I think that's why week on week Impact is a more entertaining product; it's not embarrassed about what it is, and its stars are much more varied and interesting.

[PowerButchi]

In all fairness, WWE/WWF has always shied from calling the actual moves. Just look at Vince "WHADDAMANOUVER" McMahon for proof positive of it. It's been their house style since I care to remember. Their house style of announcing is more focused on the big picture than the match itself. I don't mind it too much to be honest. I know what the moves are, so I don't need Matt Striker to tell me.