WWE: The Content Years. Good, bad, eh?

[The Gaffer]

This is spawning from trauma specialist @Merzbow reminding me in the Raw thread about R-Truth's inexplicable push to B-Show main event status. I was writing a reply to this and then realised I was essentially getting at 10+ years of WWE so it more than merits its own thread. 

The thread title's indicative of my complete inability to wrap the years of 2009 - 2021 into an era name. There was resets and mini eras within this of course. If you're a nerd about that or just fancy having a loose context, here's what Wikipedia says they are:

PG Era: 2008 - 2014

Reality Era: 2014 - 2016

New Era: 2016 - 2021

Feel free to go a little before or a little after it but for me this was when WWE became listless, neverending line production of content. A theme park experience of itself hinged on overly slick production, a reliance on legends and the occasional sunny spell. These were the years you could no longer calculate which belts were in circulation. How many instances there had now been of previously sparsely used gimmick matches. Which month are we in? Which year are we in?

I'm hoping this thread will primarily remind/link us to instances of greatness in these years but feel free to do your worst, as well. Take some free biscuits, pull up a seat and make us remember. 

Anyway, I'll start with a bad and pick up where I was going to reply in the Raw thread:

As said, I'd completely forgotten about Truth getting a B-Show push for Capitol Punishment. 

Honestly, if you look up 'Nadir' in the dictionary it should just show this image:

The pipebomb was pretty much right after this. Not saying it was a direct reaction - or that it solved all the companies problems - but in that wrapping-everything-in-a-neat-narrative wrestling way that's how I'm choosing to read the timeline of it. 

Just look at this for a match card:

Bet you forgot all about Alex Riley. Wasn't he threatening to get one of those organic fan support pushes at one point? It feels like people were just desperate to get somebody - anybody - up to the glass ceiling in hindsight. He's like the whole era summed up in an image:

 

And to balance it out, here's our first slice of that good-good from the same year. When the Summer of Punk was getting most of the attention - and rightly so - this was WWE's other saving grace in 2011. Christian and Orton had fantastic chemistry. Great to see all these years later a chilled out Orton as a sort of lovable legend and Christian as one of the best heels in the entire industry. This match is great: 

 

[The King of Old School]

Wonder how may times Ziggler and Kingston had already faced off before that opening contest!

[HarmonicGenerator]

13 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Wonder how may times Ziggler and Kingston had already faced off before that opening contest!

26. 

I still have the list.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

On the subject of Alex Riley, I started watching NXT from the beginning a few weeks ago. Not the first 5 seasons, where you had veterans and rookies, but from the first proper black and gold episode in 2012. And Alex Riley pops up from time to time. Christ, he’s shit. I stopped watching WWE around 2006 and came back to it in whatever year Rock and Cena has their first Mania match. 2012 maybe? In these NXT episodes I’m watching, they often have main roster superstars popping over for a match and they usually have a brief Raw recap. I don’t know how the hell 2012 WWE didn’t put me off wrestling for life. It was so bad. Aside from the Shield and Wyatt Family, it was bleak. Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, Yoshi Tatsu, Primo & Epico, Justin Gabriel, Bo Dallas, Michael McGillicutty, Kofi, Dolph, awful divas, John Laurinitus, Vickie Guerrero, Brodus Clay, Camacho & Hunico, 3MB, Prime Time Players, most of the Nexus people (looking at you Otunga), Tensai, Tamina, Jake Carter (Vader’s useless son), Derrick Bateman, Richie Steamboat, an endless conveyor belt of generic wastes of a paycheck. 

None of this really answers your initial point. I just wanted to rant about 2012 WWE. Call it the Wasting My Goddamn Time Era.

[SuperBacon]

That poster for Capitol Punishment is wild.

[DavidB6937]

17 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

Camacho

Put some respect on this man. He just main evented a PPV.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

55 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Put some respect on this man. He just main evented a PPV.

It’s a shame he doesn’t mention his Mexican heritage anymore.

[Carbomb]

A real shame about Richie Steamboat, I think. He was fairly generic, but there were glimpses he could have developed into something memorable, if injury hadn't ended his career.

[Supremo]

Say whatever you want about Alex Riley, but he had an absolute banger of an entrance theme. They should give it to someone new. Too good to leave in the vault. Say it to his faaaace!

It was such a homogenised content farm of nothingness for so long, that it’s all the mad, bizarre stuff I remember the most. Like when they stopped doing normal promos and everyone had to pretend they were filming selfie promos. Arm stretched out like a wally, despite the picture quality being world class. Where did you get your phone from, Miz? Fucking NASA? 

It somehow got even worse though. That period of a couple of weeks when they had random words appearing on screen, synchronised to the promo. Feels like a  fever dream watching it back. This is a real thing that was actually aired on television.

PIANO!

PATH OF DESTRUCTION!

Anyone who thinks they’re a sicko for watching Collision needs to get some perspective. You’ve no idea. Those of us who were somehow still clinging on through this shit? Something actually wrong with us.

[d-d-d-dAz]

The one that always sticks out to me is when they decided the way to brand Raw was 'anything can happen on Monday Nights', and expressed that through Michael Cole saying it repeatedly, a light falling over in the middle of a backstage segment and a 'fan' interrupting a Batista promo by doing Big Dave's hand guns.

Absolutely absurd. Worst than that period when everyone had to wear suits.

[Chili]

I have vague memories of that wildcard thing where Vince or someone said three or four wrestlers from either show could pop over to the other and I think six did on the first show, rendering the entire idea moot.

[Gus Mears]

This time period was so awful it turned me off wrestling and that love has never really come back.  It was that bad. Fucking interminable shite.

The anonymous Raw GM. Heel Michael Cole. Hornswoggle having legitimate magical powers. Nexus. New Nexus. The CORRE. 

[Lorne Malvo]

I'd stopped watching by this point, but that period where Vince McMahon decided he didn't like wrestling through commercial breaks and to get around it they did loads of 2 out of 3 falls matches was absolutely insane. Real proof that the old ghoul was losing his mind.

Ritchie Steamboat was absolutely awful by the way and his feud against Kassius Ohno in early NXT was a true low point.

[RedTwoster]

I really don’t know what sustained my fandom during much of this time - I guess it was the hope, more than anything else.

I joined the UKFF in 2018 or 2019, I think - but before that literally none of my friends watched wrestling, so wrestling was essentially a guilty pleasure, minus the pleasure. 

WWE would have occasional bright spots, and that probably is what kept me hanging on. You had the pipe bomb promo, Daniel Bryan’s rise and Wrestlemania win, Sting debuting, the second brand split and fun era on Smackdown with AJ Styles on top - then an enormous dip up until after AEW formed. 

The UKFF probably kept me watching wrestling, although I’d probably have followed it from a distance either way. @WrestleMe! definitely helped too - it’s nice to have a wrestling podcast that approaches everything with a sense of fun - that filtered over to how I felt about wrestling too.

Edited December 6, 2024 by RedTwoster

[The Gaffer]

Primo & Epico! Yoshi Tatsu! That's what I'm talking about. Make me remember. Make me hurt again. I associate so many of these acts filling up Raw's overlong runtime at the cost of making half the show look and feel like Main Event/Superstars. Just awful, awful stuff.

I also had absolutely no memory of words coming up on screen for promos like they did for the Oompa Loompa songs in WIlly Wonka. Piano! Guzzling! Sweets! That's absolutely ludicrous. 

Another lowlight was vague, "Look we know we've sucked a bit, lately" LET'S SHAKE THINGS UP non-resets that went nowhere:

The comments on this video are like notes sent back home during a war. Desperation era. It's been two years and nothing has changed. Bring back pyro! 

Still, it wasn't all bad. To try and bring some more highlights to this, here we have an absolute classic tag match:

It's inescapable though. You find these gems and you can still feel the giant vacuum of nothing that they took place in. It's the fact that we had no faith. At least now if WWE's still not for you, you sort of have faith they'll work it out for their audience. Back then we were without any sort of grounding faith or hope. It was like supporting Everton.