Has the War on Terrorism changed the direction of the business?

[Shocky]

Just watching the UnReal Story of professional wrestling on A&E, it's been the first time in a while since I saw it. this was a documentary made during the attitude era, and featured a ton on WCW and WWF. Obviously, the business was different.

A key note of the alst segment was Vince tyring to explain the edginess of the business at that point. His comments invovled that in the culture today (90's), no one knew just good guys and bad guys. Now, that's a pretty sad indicment on society as a whole in my opinion, but it seems like a fair assessment.

Now a lot has happened since the ten years have passed for that documentary. Obviously WCW is gone. But the culture of the business has changed. While TNA seems like it wants to go in a Tweener heavy direction, the WWE has gone in the direction of strong faces and strong heels. Very rarely do you see the multiple shades of gray that littered the Attitude Era. Sure, there were faces and heels in teh attitude era, but really no respectable characters came from that era.

So has the real life war made us a less cynical society, and is that reflected in the business today? Did we get so sad that we hated the good guys and cheered the bad, but now that we've had our eyes open once again, we've switched back to clear lines of good and bad?

 

[Blue Chipper]

That is a plausible theory. Professional wrestling, like other programs, changes adequately to what the majority of the fans want to see. The society was altering at that time. Things uncommon and unusual became "cool" (I.E Rap music). The fans, then, started cheering the entertainers/wrestlers that had heelish mannerisms. Heels got labeled as cool. WWE observed this trend in society/fans, and froliced all over it. Wah Lah, the attitude was created. Most superstars that had heel attributes became fan favorites, such as legendary guys like Stone Cold and The Rock.

The wrestling buisness reflects on what society, thus fans, want to see. So, IMO, the war on terrisms had, to some extent, a role in the wrestling buisness switching back to classic, real heels and faces. But, there were other contributions to that as well, that effected the society on a smaller scale.

But, in short, I believe your correct. That event shook society to its core. The terriost were definately filled by millions with extreme hatred. Therefore, fans naturally wanted to see the good triumph the bad. WWE seen this, and other smaller factors, and slowly changed the buisness around, or back.

 

[Slyfox696]

Just watching the UnReal Story of professional wrestling on A&E, it's been the first time in a while since I saw it. this was a documentary made during the attitude era, and featured a ton on WCW and WWF. Obviously, the business was different.

A key note of the alst segment was Vince tyring to explain the edginess of the business at that point. His comments invovled that in the culture today (90's), no one knew just good guys and bad guys. Now, that's a pretty sad indicment on society as a whole in my opinion, but it seems like a fair assessment.

Now a lot has happened since the ten years have passed for that documentary. Obviously WCW is gone. But the culture of the business has changed. While TNA seems like it wants to go in a Tweener heavy direction, the WWE has gone in the direction of strong faces and strong heels. Very rarely do you see the multiple shades of gray that littered the Attitude Era. Sure, there were faces and heels in teh attitude era, but really no respectable characters came from that era.

So has the real life war made us a less cynical society, and is that reflected in the business today? Did we get so sad that we hated the good guys and cheered the bad, but now that we've had our eyes open once again, we've switched back to clear lines of good and bad?

I don't think it was a war that changed how the WWE promoted, I think it was the WWE wanting to re-train fans back into traditional wrestling promotion. I think the WWE understood that, at the end of the day, the biggest draw in entertainment is "Good" vs. "Evil". When you don't have an Evil, you can't have a Good for people to rally behind. The tweener role worked well because it was new and fresh, but that same tweener role also led to a tremendous downturn in business as well. So, I think the WWE, in an effort to get back to what wrestling SHOULD be about, simply took the initiative to try and undo all the harm they and WCW did to the business during the Attitude Era.