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**The CyNick** · 12-10-2003, 01:32 PM

Ive been watching wrestling for a long time, so unlike some people I actually remember a time before Scott Hall showed up on Nitro for the first time and said "Hey Yo".

As a result I recognize that wrestling will have its ups and downs, just like a pro sports team rarely stays on top for decades at a time.

So yeah the Attitude era was really good, and business was hot. But it wasn't just the angles and crazy gimmicks, for me the best year in WWE history was 2000. That year they didn't rely on the pimps and porn stars to get ratings, instead they had established a core group of superstars, and almost all of them could work like crazy. The result was week after week, and PPV after PPV of great wrestling. Not only that but we got to see new stars like HHH and Rocky start to take their place on top of the roster (after seeing them rise through the mid card for years) and at the same time I had hope that guys like Angle, Benoit and Jericho would get their chance to step up as well.

Somewhere after Wrestlemania XVII they stopped elevating people. And for me, thats when wrestling started to SUCK. Chris Benoit never got his chance to run with the ball. Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho's title runs were pathetic and did nothing for either guy except devalue the importance of the WWE/WCW titles. Then to make matters worse the much anticipated WCW vs WWF war designed for nothing more than to stroke Vince McMahon's ego, instead of to put on entertaining television and PPV. And within that we got more and more potential superstars who would get puches teased only to be taken away with no payoff (ie RVD, Tazz, Booker T, and others).

To add to all of those problems the WWE slowly became a vehicle for the McMahon family to have their own TV soap opera. Unfortunately fewer and fewer wrestling fans actually wanted to see that. The we had the horrible angles like handing HHH the World title (also killing Brock as a draw) necrophilia, HLA, and of course Al Wilson. More and more as a long time wrestling fan I felt insulted.

Fast forward to today, and yeah I can see that they are making some strides to improve the product. However the same mistakes are still being made. None of the guys who clearly are the next generation of superstars are being protected. Orton has yet to get a decisive win over HBK, but has done a clean JOB for him. Cena has done the same with Taker. Eddie Guerrero was the most over guy on either roster in the summer, but he lost to the Big Show, and now he's lost nearly all his steam. Matt Hardy was a cult favorite despite not getting any type of push, and yet he never got any PPV time or decent fueds to work with. Even Brock Lesnar, who had a special aura for rarely losing, had that stripped away when he was doing a series of pointless JOBs on TV. And of course we had the mishandling of Goldberg right from the start.

At the same time look at some of the guys who have been protected: HHH (cant work anymore and doesn't draw), Taker (decent but also has seen his drawing days pass him by), Kevin Nash (sucks on every level you can think of except being a master politician), Big Show (clearly didn't deserve a top spot, although his fued with Lesnar was entertaining), and of course the McMahon's (never been a draw on PPV, and yet they headlined a number of PPVs of the last few months).

Then we have the continuing problem of angles not meaning anything. Its a dangerous practise to con people into paying for a PPV with the promise that something very important is going to happen, only to reneg on that promise a few weeks later. The WWE has done this so many times that its lost all menaing. Steph got fired, but we all know she'll be back soon enough. JR and King lost their jobs, only to have thats tip reversed what two weeks later? And now Austin who had an emotional "end" to his career at Survivor Series, will back back within a matter of weeks. So how as a fan am I supposed to take seriously the next time the WWE promotes that 'someone will end their career this Sunday'?

So you see none of these problems have anything to do with specific gimmicks needed to make wrestling better or finding the next "Rock or Austin", its just about basic wrestling booking that doesn't insult my intelligence as a fan. Until the WWE rights all of these wrongs will I be able to enjoy wrestling like I did not only in the "Attitude Era" but also in other times in the history of the WWE. We'll see if they can do it, I know I have my doubts.

12-10-2003, 01:32 PM	#10
The CyNick Make the IWC Great Again Posts: 8,922	Ive been watching wrestling for a long time, so unlike some people I actually remember a time before Scott Hall showed up on Nitro for the first time and said "Hey Yo". As a result I recognize that wrestling will have its ups and downs, just like a pro sports team rarely stays on top for decades at a time. So yeah the Attitude era was really good, and business was hot. But it wasn't just the angles and crazy gimmicks, for me the best year in WWE history was 2000. That year they didn't rely on the pimps and porn stars to get ratings, instead they had established a core group of superstars, and almost all of them could work like crazy. The result was week after week, and PPV after PPV of great wrestling. Not only that but we got to see new stars like HHH and Rocky start to take their place on top of the roster (after seeing them rise through the mid card for years) and at the same time I had hope that guys like Angle, Benoit and Jericho would get their chance to step up as well. Somewhere after Wrestlemania XVII they stopped elevating people. And for me, thats when wrestling started to SUCK. Chris Benoit never got his chance to run with the ball. Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho's title runs were pathetic and did nothing for either guy except devalue the importance of the WWE/WCW titles. Then to make matters worse the much anticipated WCW vs WWF war designed for nothing more than to stroke Vince McMahon's ego, instead of to put on entertaining television and PPV. And within that we got more and more potential superstars who would get puches teased only to be taken away with no payoff (ie RVD, Tazz, Booker T, and others). To add to all of those problems the WWE slowly became a vehicle for the McMahon family to have their own TV soap opera. Unfortunately fewer and fewer wrestling fans actually wanted to see that. The we had the horrible angles like handing HHH the World title (also killing Brock as a draw) necrophilia, HLA, and of course Al Wilson. More and more as a long time wrestling fan I felt insulted. Fast forward to today, and yeah I can see that they are making some strides to improve the product. However the same mistakes are still being made. None of the guys who clearly are the next generation of superstars are being protected. Orton has yet to get a decisive win over HBK, but has done a clean JOB for him. Cena has done the same with Taker. Eddie Guerrero was the most over guy on either roster in the summer, but he lost to the Big Show, and now he's lost nearly all his steam. Matt Hardy was a cult favorite despite not getting any type of push, and yet he never got any PPV time or decent fueds to work with. Even Brock Lesnar, who had a special aura for rarely losing, had that stripped away when he was doing a series of pointless JOBs on TV. And of course we had the mishandling of Goldberg right from the start. At the same time look at some of the guys who have been protected: HHH (cant work anymore and doesn't draw), Taker (decent but also has seen his drawing days pass him by), Kevin Nash (sucks on every level you can think of except being a master politician), Big Show (clearly didn't deserve a top spot, although his fued with Lesnar was entertaining), and of course the McMahon's (never been a draw on PPV, and yet they headlined a number of PPVs of the last few months). Then we have the continuing problem of angles not meaning anything. Its a dangerous practise to con people into paying for a PPV with the promise that something very important is going to happen, only to reneg on that promise a few weeks later. The WWE has done this so many times that its lost all menaing. Steph got fired, but we all know she'll be back soon enough. JR and King lost their jobs, only to have thats tip reversed what two weeks later? And now Austin who had an emotional "end" to his career at Survivor Series, will back back within a matter of weeks. So how as a fan am I supposed to take seriously the next time the WWE promotes that 'someone will end their career this Sunday'? So you see none of these problems have anything to do with specific gimmicks needed to make wrestling better or finding the next "Rock or Austin", its just about basic wrestling booking that doesn't insult my intelligence as a fan. Until the WWE rights all of these wrongs will I be able to enjoy wrestling like I did not only in the "Attitude Era" but also in other times in the history of the WWE. We'll see if they can do it, I know I have my doubts.