The New Generation: Was It Really That Bad?

[Kenny Powers]

I honestly enjoyed the era of the New Generation. I was too young to care or know about PPV buys or ratings. At the end of the day all that matters is if you were entertained. I first watched WWF around the late 80s/ early 90s. My favorite performers after the Hogan era were Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Diesel, and Mr. Perfect. Monday Night Raw started out and Jim Ross along with Jerry The King Lawler made their debut. I was really into the Hart and Lawler feud. I always cracked up watching Lawler make fun of Bret's family.

I also couldn't wait to see Hitman get his revenge. Undertaker was getting big and Bam Bam Bigelow around that time. Ric Flair was there in the early 90s and had a great feud with Savage. Razor Ramon had a great ladder match with Shawn Michaels. It may have not been a golden era in terms of ratings or earning money, but I enjoyed it growing up. I enjoyed the sage between Owen Hart and Bret. We got to see a real transition from that era into the attitude era with Goldust, Mankind, Triple H, and Steve Austin.

 

[Gabbo]

Sure, we had Owen, Bulldog, Bret, Shawn, Diesel and Razor...but they (up until that point at least) were not able to draw, they just weren't. It was only when the "attitude" era came in that any of them actually drew money, and to be honest, that's confined to Shawn and Bret from that list.

Even though this topic (rightfully) isn't about who drew what Diesel in the NWO almost certainly outdrew HBK or Hart probably at any point in their career.

HBK never drew, although no-one really drew in the New Generation. As shocking as it may seem HBK in 1996 was the Cena of today: - loathed by anyone that isn't female or under 12.

 

[manstis1804]

I agree 100%. You don't judge art by numbers.. According to that logic Ace of Base and Kenny G are better than Nirvana, Tom Petty and Johnny Cash..... Ace Ventura 2: when nature calls is better than A Clockwork Orange... ect.

The New Generation time was very underrated... The only problem was that even with the brilliance of what HBK and Bret were putting out there there was a lot of filler. But just the impact that this era made to the entire direction of wrestling makes this era important... without it "attitude" would have never happened...

LOL I dont have the numbers in front of me but I'm gonna go ahead and say that Nirvana, THE BIGGEST FUCKING BAND OF THE 90S, outsold Kenny G pretty handily. But, your point is correct, pro wrestling is an artform as much as it is a business, so you really can't judge "good" or "bad" based solely on revenue.

 

[MisterMondayNight]

As someone who likes good matches, I love looking back on the New Generation. I'm a huge Bret Hart fan, and he was the face of the era.

Sure you had the worst gimmicks ever during the period (T.L. Hopper anyone?), but the WWE's best matches came out during this time. Bret vs. Owen at WM10 and the steel cage match between them, the Iron-Man Match at WM12, the Ladder Match,the first HIAC, HBK vs.Mankind, and many others. Plus, it produced some of the BEST gimmicks ever, such as the maturation of The Undertaker character, Razor Ramon, Mankind, andStone Cold (started during the New Generation).

When you take a look at the Attitude Era, most of the wrestling is shit. And lest we forget we're watching WRESTLING,first and foremost.

When it comes to drawing during the NG, Kevin Nash's title reign nearly put the company out of business. As Diesel he couldn't draw a dime, as he could only draw with good writing (such as the nWo.)

 

[ejc8710]

I Think The Generation era had its good points and bad.Good was Bret Hart Razor Ramon HBK Undertaker Kevin Nash Bulldog Owen etc.. Bad was Yokozuna as Champ im sorry but he just sucked as champ dare i say one of the most boring champs.Wrestlemania 11 and 12 both sucked.Razor Ramon should have had at least one championship run during this time Same With Owen.Hakushi should have got a way bigger push.The In your house ppv's should have had more matches i can recall one having only 4 matches. Having A fake Bill Clinton Razor And Nash Stupid Idea.And of Course All The Stupid Gimmicks but what can i say this era is way way better than the pg era .

 

[mrbrownstone]

No it wasn't that bad overall, it just seems bad by comparison. I mean when you look at other era's you have the likes of Hogan, Stone Cold and Cena all of which were/are insanely popular and drew pretty big ratings, this era didn't have that so they had to rely on what in any other era would have been upper-midcarders to carry their company. The result was a lot of great matches but also but poor ratings, crowd responses and merchandise sales.

The matches for the most part truly were great though, I mean in this era you have two of the greatest in the ring of all time in Shawn and Bret carrying the company with ample support being provided by Owen, Bulldog, Razor Ramon and Diesel. As a result you get a string of amazing matches including some of the best of all time in the Owen vs Bret and Shawn vs Ramon series.

For this reason I am baffled as to why the IWC shits on this era so much, for the most part we are worried about having amazing technically sound matches first and everything else last. We get that in this era and it is considered the worst ever by the IWC, amazing the hypocrisy that goes on sometimes isn't it.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

There are two reasons why the New Generation era is looked down upon by the fans. The first of those two reasons is apparent from the OP.

For every Doink, Mantuar, and Dumpster we had a Razor, Owen, and Bulldog.

Yes, for every Dumpster we had an Owen but the problem was that Dumpster and Doink was given as much of a push as Owen( barring a title match at Summerslam) and Bulldog. Guys like Dumpster, Mable and Doink who would not have found a place on the lower midcard in any other era were upper midcarders and, at times, even main eventers. Some of the most mind boggling booking decisions were taken during this era, like Mable winning the KOTR over Undertaker and HBK. There was enough talent in this era and we could have done without seeing the likes of Dumpster and Mable. There was not much of an explanation behind their pushes.

The second reason I feel why the New Generation era never took off amongst the fans is that the leaders of the New Generation era ie Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels did not have a really appealing gimmick. Bret was merely a great wrestler and while that is a great quality to have, its just not an entertaining gimmick. HBK had a great gimmick as a heel, that of a cocky ladies man but when he turned face, he became a ladies man minus the cockiness that made him so great in the first place. Diesel, to name another main eventer, was just a generic big guy. Nothing too flash about his gimmick either. Compare these to gimmicks like the " The working class American Hero" and " The Texas Rattlesnake" and you will see what I mean. The gimmicks of the main eventers in the New Generation era were not larger than life and that is why they did not get as over with the fans as the main eventers of the other eras.

 

[The Idiot]

This is what I can tell you...and the easiest way for me to look at it:

I grew up with wrestling, just like wrestling grew up with me.

I'm 30 years old right now. 20-25 years ago during the "cartoon" era (when I first started watching) I was a young boy that enjoyed wrestling for what it was because it fit.

As I got older (into my teen years) things becoming a little more risque. The new generation was the true start of the Monday night competition between the two organizations. We saw smaller guys taken more seriously...but the same cheezy gimmicks still lingered from the cartoon era (something I don't think will ever go away).

Then as I got into high school with hormones raging and a rebellious attitude towards everything....the WWF did the same. The Attitude era. Half naked girls running around, middle fingers, bad language, blood and overall violence. This kept things new and interesting for me and my demographic.

Now as I am older and married....the WWE has come full circle. Some may not like it, but as I've mellowed out over the years...so has the WWE. I appreciate what they are trying to do and cater to the younger audience.

So in the end...I like ALL the eras because it fit during that time of my life. Looking back...the New generation may not have been seen as the best from other fans, but I was still taping ALL the WWF/WCW shows on my VCR and breathed wrestling 24/7. I was just as into it then as I ever was.

I feel lucky that I was able to grow up with wrestling, and vice-versa.

 

[wrestling89]

The New Generation was not THAT bad, I think it had a lot to do with the time period.

Most fans at the time were in their teens, and grew up as Hulkamaniacs in the late 80's. But since it was now the early 90's, most fans wanted more sex, action, violence, etc, etc. Also most of their interests were building elsewhere.

In my case, getting a license, meant getting a life, and since most wrestling at that time was still on weekends (slowly going into monday nights), it went grossly unwatched. Now I had my VCR recording all kinds of stuff at the time, so I never really missed shows. But now I was fast forwarding a lot and not actually watching the product, so my interests went down. Also at this time, I could truly say that WCW had a truly superior product (93 - 95) as far as wrestling talent went.

People tend to overlook that some of the greatest, most underrated gimmicks also happened. Yeah there were the forgettable crap, Mantaur, TL Hopper, Skip and Zip (really, no one cared unless Sunny was around.) But people forget that Evil Doink, Waylon Mercy, Goldust, and Razor Ramon all came out of that era. They had some of the best gimmicks, that could still dominate in today's game.

There were a few main reasons why that era looked like garbage.

1. It was sandwiched in between the Golden Hulkamania Era and the Attitude Austin Eras. You could have put a marathon of Flair-Steamboat matches or DX-nWo skits in between all of that, and they would have looked like garbage as well.

2. It was all during Vince's steroid trial. I'm pretty sure that Vince had other stuff to worry about that was more important than watching Lex on the USS Intrepid or worrying about Camp Cornette.

3. There was no go-to guy. There was no Hogan, No Austin, No Rock, No Flair. Not one guy could carry the company at the time. Shawn wasn't ready. Bret had no charisma (not until the whole US-Canada schtick anjyway.) Diesel didn't have the quick wit yet. Razor was a candidate, but not enough to carry the WWF. The Undertaker had no equal rival at the time. They just kept throwing freaks of nature at him and not making him a complete bad-ass, welll they did, then they killed that whole UW feud.

The point is, no the era was NOT the worst. The current "WWE" is. The New Era could have been a lot better, but it was what it was. And besides no one can complain, because it was all help to set up the Austin Attitude Era.

 

[byrnside]

A fair question indeed Brain. I for one truly grew up during the New Generation and that and Blockbuster Video giving me the ability to rent stuff from the late 80s on, made me the wrestling fan I am today. Personally, I am with you Brain. Like you, it isn't my favorite era of wrestling [that title goes to the late 80s-early 90s], but there are tons of great memories.

Aside from all that the Brain mentioned, we saw Triple H and Mankind and a host of other characters debut and begin to take shape.

Anyone else remember the Undertaker and Mankind feuds? Thought so. Granted, you could argue that that was a lot later in the new generation, but none the less.

Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett had a good feud over the IC title through most of '95.

Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler was memorable for me as well. Remember the Kiss My Foot match?

Personally, I always liked Doink, though I preferred him as a heel, and even though as a face, he garners lots of heat. I liked his feuds with Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawler and I'll never forget Dink. The Survivor Series '93 sticks out in my mind. Or when he turned face in the first place and splashed Bobby Heenan with the water bucket.

The New Generation spawnd the re-birth of the King of the Ring.

Jerry the King was hiding under the ring at the Rumble long before Santino.

Oh, and I still want to ride on the Lex Express.

 

[apokalypse]

i say no, under PG product-scripted promo-restrictions make them look bad and unable to grow. alot of them have talent unfortunately not able live under TV-14 like attitude era where they freedom with their promos-characters-matches. remember Too Cool dance? they got huge over with that, how about Edge and christian glasses and photography 5 second thing? doing small things like that they able to get over. look at kurt angle, with small creative things that about his Olympics and he got massive over in short period of time and on Main event scene after few month on his debut. right now its impossible to do that, alot restrictions these days which makes tough for talent get over and on top over long period of time not just on top and went down to the bottom which nobody cares.

 

[DeathClutch]

I became a wrestling fan in 1994 in the mix of the New Generation was in full swing. In fairness looking back on it we can disect the worst parts of it but in fairness it wasn't as bad as people think, we had Iron man matches, we had two Ladder matches with HBK/Razor, we had two brothers win KOTR (Never been replicated or a person win it twice) we had someone winning back to back rumbles who entered 1 and 18 (first person to win it entering first and the only person to win it between the numbers 10-19) you had Goldust who's persona was around at this time was pushing boundaries 3 YEARS before the Attitude Era.

I look at them years as the time the WWE had been in hot water and were trying to appeal to the younger kids so they had the cartoony type characters. Some of the PPV's lacked like WrestleMania 11 and King of the ring 95 (which I know Razor was injured and I think the finals was meant to be HBK/Razor leading to their Summerslam rematch) actually I bought a bunch of DVD's from around the 1994-1996 era and I must say i marvaled at this era, the positives totally out weigh the negitives.

 

[jkenyon81]

it wasn't bad. the problem was for every brett hart there waws a bastion booger. for every razor ramone, a max Moon. for every HBK, a goon....and a mantaur, and TL Hopper, and Skinner, and so on....
it's a glass is half empty logic. I could say did you see that Razzor/Shawn ladders match? and a buzzkill will say remember shockmaster?
lots of bad gimmicks watered down the good stuff.
hell, the first Raw says it all. HBK (yay) fought Max Moon (?.... konnan, btw),Undertaker (yay) fought Damien DiMento (??), and Yokozuna (yay, in my book) fought Virgil (boo in my book)
but everyone counts the bad double and the good gets dismissed