Is WWE actually bad?

[Living Legend]

I'm torn over this.

Is WWE actually bad? Well, badass-wise? Oh, no, to me, not anymore, friendo. Terrible, you mean? Well, I've thought it's been terrible over the past couple of years, but I'm willing to change my mindset and I'm about to explain why.

I started watching wrestling when I was about 8-years-old. The very first PPV I watched was Wrestlemania 15. My favorite wrestlers? Stone Cold and The Rock! And they were headlining that WM. I was instantly hooked. I was practically 'born again' into the Attitude Era, and in my biased opinion I believe it's the greatest era of wrestling ever, and there's no way that any wrestling of the future could ever change that stubborn opinion of mine. Too many good memories, I guess.

Hell, I still remember back in December '99 -- Armageddon -- when Miss Kitty took off her top and her bare breasts were exposed in front of my 8 year old eyes beaming in front of the television set!

Juxtapose that moment with John Cena writing "JBL is poopy" on JBL's limo a couple of years ago, and that symbolizes the HUGE difference between the wrestling I knew and loved compared to today's wrestling that appears foreign to me.

As the years ensued, I kept watching. 2002 and 2003 happened, and I kept watching. I actually enjoyed watching wrestling in those two years, for the most part, because even though The Rock sporadically appeared in 2002 and for a brief month or two in 2003, my other favorite wrestlers were still lacin' up their boots (Triple H, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit), giving me all the more reason to watch.

I used to watch every Monday Night Raw with my father. He never did like Triple H, but in 2002 and 2003, The Game was on a complete power trip with winning the title, keeping the title and Evolution, dominating the WWE. I used to aggravate my father every time Triple H wrestled. Good memories.

Then my father passed away in 2003, just when I was getting into watching sports like football, basketball and baseball. Three months later in March 2004, after Wrestlemania, I stopped watching wrestling altogether. I lost interest, point blank. I guess that moment made me a nominal wrestling fan, but I never did claim to be a 'true' fan, only a hardcore fan for a couple of years.

Two years later, in June 2006, I'd heard rumors all around the net from some of my old friends from years before on the web, that Triple H and Shawn Michaels were going to rekindle Degeneration-X.

I watched Raw for the most part of that summer, but never did regenerate the old fan that is still trapped somewhere inside of me. The Spirit Squad? Are you kiddin' me?

I barely watched at all in 2007 and 2008. A minuscule little bit in 2009.

But this summer, I've watched Raw every single week, and to be quite honest, I've enjoyed it. Maybe it's because of the Nexus angle. Maybe it's because it's cool to still see Jericho wrestling. Hell, maybe it's even because I actually respect John Cena, compared to absolutely despising him over the past couple of years, getting over the childish disdain for him. I only disliked him in the past because of the fact that I never saw anything special in his wrestling. But in hindsight, he's been 110% loyal to the company and is merely doing his job, not even blinking an eye at those who hate him just to join the consensus of Cena hatred.

So, to me, while WWE isn't what it used to be, it's watchable and I'm enjoying the product they've been putting on TV recently. Hoping for a continuance.

By the way, somebody wrote earlier that the WWE in its Attitude Era pretty much only focused on the main eventers. Well, that's the biggest bunch of bull I've heard in a while. Funny, too, because that's the way I think about today's WWE. Back then you had intercontinental champions like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. Today you get two guys by the names of Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler facing each other five thousand times in a row. Not to mention back then you had a formidable tag team division between the Hardys, Dudleys, Too Cool and Edge & Christian. Who in the world do you have today? The WWE's mid-carders today have bored me to near-death. I loved the show all-around back then, but hey, I'm a biased Attitude Era lover.

 

[Dave]

I think people who do not like the WWE for what it is right now, need to get the fuck over themselves and just accept that they mean absolutely nothing in the world of the WWE. Seriously, over the last few years on this board, it always comes back to what you have said, Pippen. It always seems to be that “the WWE are too driven towards entertaining kids” or “the PG-Era sucks”. Whilst everyone is definitely entitled to their opinions, it is the fact that people like to think that they should have the final say on what the WWE do.

The sooner they realise that the Attitude Era is finished and gone, the sooner we can all move on. Honestly, I have seen people protest on here and beyond because the Attitude Era is finished and it is actually pathetic. The WWE is what it is and we cannot fault them for being that way. It is much more stable than it was during the Attitude Era and seems like a much better place to work from the outside. Have we had the controversy that came along with the Attitude Era? Absolutely not and I, for one, am glad of that. We don’t have to fear that the WWE is going to go out of business tomorrow and they can plan for the future by bringing in superstars of tomorrow… Today!

The WWE is not “bad” at all. That idea is just fuelled by people who over-analyse every little thing that the WWE pull off. They look at the product far too hard and think that their voice needs to be heard. I guarantee that if these people just watched as fans and not as critics, they would enjoy what they are seeing. The WWE would not be doing the business that it is if it was a terrible show and there is a reason that we all keep coming back to it. Maybe we have been spoiled by the Attitude Era but that is absolutely no reason to hate what we have. Just watch the show and enjoy it…

 

[Living Legend]

I think people who do not like the WWE for what it is right now, need to get the fuck over themselves and just accept that they mean absolutely nothing in the world of the WWE. Seriously, over the last few years on this board, it always comes back to what you have said, Pippen. It always seems to be that “the WWE are too driven towards entertaining kids” or “the PG-Era sucks”. Whilst everyone is definitely entitled to their opinions, it is the fact that people like to think that they should have the final say on what the WWE do.

The sooner they realise that the Attitude Era is finished and gone, the sooner we can all move on. Honestly, I have seen people protest on here and beyond because the Attitude Era is finished and it is actually pathetic. The WWE is what it is and we cannot fault them for being that way. It is much more stable than it was during the Attitude Era and seems like a much better place to work from the outside. Have we had the controversy that came along with the Attitude Era? Absolutely not and I, for one, am glad of that. We don’t have to fear that the WWE is going to go out of business tomorrow and they can plan for the future by bringing in superstars of tomorrow… Today!

The WWE is not “bad” at all. That idea is just fuelled by people who over-analyse every little thing that the WWE pull off. They look at the product far too hard and think that their voice needs to be heard. I guarantee that if these people just watched as fans and not as critics, they would enjoy what they are seeing. The WWE would not be doing the business that it is if it was a terrible show and there is a reason that we all keep coming back to it. Maybe we have been spoiled by the Attitude Era but that is absolutely no reason to hat what we have. Just watch the show and enjoy it…

The thing is, you just described the type of 'fan' I was a couple of years ago. I despised the WWE and every iota of its minutiaes.

Now? I'm merely a fan, attempting to ease back into watching Raw and Smackdown! regularly, mitigating the raging critic inside of me.

Used to despise Cena. Not anymore. Over the past month I've only began to truly realize the valuable asset he is to the WWE and to appreciate his work ethic. I still don't like Orton, but y'know what? He's been able to incur love and fans, and if you're able to do that in the WWE, hats off to ya!

Despite all that I've said, I still miss the Attitude era dearly and that will never change, but today's wrestling isn't as bad as I previously thought. Hell, it's actually not bad at all -- pretty good. I've only blinded myself from seeing the latent undercover of the quality product they've been delivering week in and week out. It's all about acceptance.

 

[Dave]

The thing is, you just described the type of 'fan' I was a couple of years ago. I despised the WWE and every iota of its minutiaes.

Now? I'm merely a fan, attempting to ease back into watching Raw and Smackdown! regularly, mitigating the raging critic inside of me.

Used to despise Cena. Not anymore. Over the past month I've only began to truly realize the valuable asset he is to the WWE and to appreciate his work ethic. I still don't like Orton, but y'know what? He's been able to incur love and fans, and if you're able to do that in the WWE, hats off to ya!

Despite all that I've said, I still miss the Attitude era dearly and that will never change, but today's wrestling isn't as bad as I previously thought. Hell, it's actually not bad at all -- pretty good. I've only blinded myself from seeing the latent undercover of the quality product they've been delivering week in and week out. It's all about acceptance.

Absolutely!

I am of the mindset that people who watch the WWE to point out flaws and bad points in the product and wasting their time and ours. If you are watching something to be miserable, just don’t watch it anymore… It is actually that simple. When you go into something expecting to be disappointed and disgruntled, then the chances are that you are going to feel that way when it is all said and done.

I, on the other hand, am a WWE fan first and foremost. Of course we are allowed to cheer for heels and boo a face, which is all a part of being a fan. However, for those 2 hours when Raw is being broadcast, I do not over-analyse anything. I simply watch the show and enjoy what I am taking in. Fans these days do not want to enjoy the product and will continually point out the negatives in blatant disregard of the positives. I am not saying that the WWE is perfect, not by a long shot.

However, for the purposes of this thread, all I will say is that the people who ignite these situations by saying the WWE is bad because it is not the Attitude Era anymore are killing the enjoyment of wrestling for themselves and that makes it very sad for me to see. I love wrestling and I certainly would not regard the WWE as being “bad”.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

I think it depends on the way you look at it. Wrestling isn't cool anymore, it isn't hip it isn't trendy, it's just there. It has it's fan bases who have stayed loyal to it but it isn't nearly as popular as it was back in the late 90's early 00's. The ratings are down because wrestling is out of fashion at the moment. The WWE is waiting, simply waiting for it's turn to once again be popular. Wrestling's popularity, like a lot of other things, runs in cycles. Wrestling was popular back in the mid to late 80's and then became unpopular, in the late 90's, it became popular again. Wrestling will be popular again one day but for now, it relies upon it's hardcore fan base. Right now, the WWE is putting out good quality programming as well as some good shows and matches. Let's take SummerSlam as an example, that main event had everything we could have hoped for. It had drama, shock value and was downright entertaining & well booked. That's showing off the bright side of this product. Sure it had weak points but WWE will focus upon the positives and see what worked and attempt to use those points in other areas as well as try and better it's already good storylines.

 

[EffinSaySo]

The thing is, you just described the type of 'fan' I was a couple of years ago. I despised the WWE and every iota of its minutiaes.

Now? I'm merely a fan, attempting to ease back into watching Raw and Smackdown! regularly, mitigating the raging critic inside of me.

Used to despise Cena. Not anymore. Over the past month I've only began to truly realize the valuable asset he is to the WWE and to appreciate his work ethic. I still don't like Orton, but y'know what? He's been able to incur love and fans, and if you're able to do that in the WWE, hats off to ya!

Despite all that I've said, I still miss the Attitude era dearly and that will never change, but today's wrestling isn't as bad as I previously thought. Hell, it's actually not bad at all -- pretty good. I've only blinded myself from seeing the latent undercover of the quality product they've been delivering week in and week out. It's all about acceptance.

I remember despising him in 2005 because it seemed like the cool thing to do in the IWC. However that changed in 2006 / 2007. Now i despise those in the IWC that do. Cena has been pushed for a reason by guys who are professionals, by a company of 20+ experience and know the meaning evolution. Not the amateurs you see on the IWC who couldn't even get a job as a bookerman. In that time, business has been good despite those haters trying to ruin it for the people that actually enjoy the product.

The WWE isn't bad. What is bad are the ones who wouldn't go away. But it probably feels good to be bitter for those folks.

 

[nbda1997]

I think you hit the nail right on the head. The WWE boom period had more to do with the actual cast of talent than it did with there being more adult content. Remember that the early 2000's brought us such "gems" as Katie Vick and Al Wilson; definitely not PG stuff, but definitely 100% crap-ola.

Guys like Rock, Austin & Foley are each one in several million, and its just amazing that they were all around and in their prime at the same time. I don't know if something like that will ever happen again, but if it does, great talent will make the show content work (in most cases).