D'ya remember all Vince's new 'eras' that went nowhere?
 

Yeah I'm bored at the moment and just kinda remembering/watching all these promos where Vince would attempt to move on into a new 'era' for the WWE, only for it to kinda go nowhere and fizzle out after a few days. I'm talking about 'Ruthless Agression', 'McMahonism' and the whole 'Perception is Reality' thing.

I remember when Vince first cut the RA promo back in 2002, I thought they were ushering in the 'new attitude era' or something, only that died down after a few weeks, with coincidently John Cena being the only one to quote it if I recall.

Anyways post anymore I missed or memories etc whatever.

Federation Years (before birth of Degeneration X)
Attitude Era (Birth of Degeneration X to Survivor Series 2001)
Post-War Era (Survivor Series 2001 to Bischoff kayfabe firing)
Current (PG Era?)

That is my take on it.

I remember the "Ruthless Aggression" era being mentioned. I don't understand why they would try to create an era rather than let it evolve and become what it may.

The New Generation was 1996 to early 1997

People tend not to remember them because they were unremarkable. Vince doesn't get the fact that he can't just tell people what they like.

:y:

Ruthless Aggression wasn't really an era it was more just a theme and it was used during a hot time for the company.

Pretty sure in like 2000 actually, wasn't it? I just remember Benoit having "toothless" agression.

I'd say he had pretty "ruthless" agression too.

WWF Golden Age (1984-1993)

• Beginning: Hulk Hogan's first title win (Jan 1984)
• End: Hulk Hogan's last WWF match (King of the Ring 1993)

New Generation (1994-1996)

• Beginning: Wrestlemania X (1994)
• End: King of the Ring 1996

Attitude Era (1997-2001)

• Beginning: Wrestlemania 13
• End: Wrestlemania 17

Notice obviously that the eras don't necessarily begin right where the other ones end. I think those 'gaps' are transitional periods that share 'traits' of both eras.

Dunno really how to designate the time from the beginning of the Invasion angle through the present day. Probably put the Invasion in it's own little transitional thing but I definitely don't know how to designate the time from the end of the Invasion to today.

Was his wife named ruth or something?

WWE?

Yea I guess you could call the last 8 years the WWE era. I was thinking 2002-2005 as the "Triple H era" and 2005-present as the "John Cena era" with the watershed moment being Cena beating HHH clean at Mania 22. I'm
not real comfortable with those labels though since an "era" shouldn't be defined solely by who's on top.

I guess it's too soon to really see if there's been a shift that represents a break in continuity over the last 8 years. Probably whenever WWE became more PG in nature will be where fans demarcate a shift between the early 2000's and the last half of the decade.

Agreed. But WWE PG would make for a lame title.

Yea and I don't think it's entirely fair or accurate either. I mean, WWE has been PG for more of it's existence than not. The Attitude Era is more of an exception than the norm. I guess it's just that alot of fans and people on here kinda got into wrestling during that time and remember that as the "Good ol days." I can understand that, as I kinda feel that way about WWF from around 1990-1994.

Now that I think about it, I guess the shift in the business model of WWE into integrating professional wrestling/sports entertainment into mainstream entertainment is the biggest shift over the last few years.

Obviously WWE has had a history of attempting to crossover into mainstream entertainment since the late 80s but not to this extent. Before, it seemed like indivdual wrestlers went out on their own to do movies, etc. Now, you have WWE actually producing movies for their wrestlers, etc.

And what I find ironic about all this is that even though WWE is attempting to extend itself into more media than just pro wrestling, pro wrestling currently doesn't have widespread popular appeal like it did in the past. So they're really expanding into a wider swath of media with only the support of "real" wrestling fans as opposed to casual fans that you'd think all of this crossover would bring in.

2002. Vince made a speech saying that WWE needed some "ruthless aggression" which lead to the debut of John Cena (answering the challenge of Kurt Angle) on the June 27th episode of SmackDown!

Also saw the debut of Randy Orton in the same time frame.

It was also aped by the announcers for a while, I'm pretty sure actually used by Cena, and was the subtitle of a WWE game. This is clearly something someone wanted to catch on, even though it didn't.

"Toothless Aggression" was one of those examples where the parody outshone the original. Probably because the original was so poorly done.

Batista as well.

Yeah, kinda.

It was the same kinda time but Batista didn't debut in the same way as Cena or Orton (who both debuted as young guys stepping up to the plate). Batista came in as a bodyguard to Reverend D-Von. Didn't have the same kind of feel to me.