Jack-Hammer
YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!!!!
From an overall perspective, I don't see anything wrong with WWE. Sure, there are bits and pieces here and there that I think could be better or, at least, wish they could be better in. That's perfectly natural but I'm a pretty realistic person and tend to look at the world that way. I know that the WWE is never going to be "perfect" because nothing else in this world ever is. Do I wish the Divas & tag team scene in WWE were better and generally more relevant? Sure I do but there's more than enough other good stuff that goes on to make me quite satisfied with WWE as a whole. They still have good wrestling matches, talented wrestlers inside the ring & on the mic, interesting feuds, interesting angles & storylines. At the end of the day, that's what I care about and want to see.
I've read a couple of the posts going on and on about blood & the Attitude Era. The Attitude Era was great for its time but the cold hard truth is that wrestling was a fad once again in the late 90s & very early 2000s. Wrestling was being portrayed on a "mainstream" scale in a way that people had never seen before. It was completely different and it did change the way people looked at wrestling. However, the Attitude Era as a whole wasn't nearly as good as some try to make it out to be or "remember" as it being. Not every match was a classic. Most of the time, wrestling content on Raw during the AE was pretty weak. I wasn't able to watch SD! during that time period as my cable provider at the time didn't have UPN. Not every promo was the stuff that legends were made of by any stretch and there was also a lot of just plain, outright shit that made it onto television. For instance, how often did we see such wastes of time as lingerie matches or pillow fight matches or bikini contests during the Attitude Era between the Divas? It might have been titilating at the time but with the ready availability of internet pornography these days, it wouldn't have a fraction of that sort of impact today. And what about all the other crap that a lot of people seem to conveniently forget to bring up? What about stuff like Al Snow running around with the head of a mannequin tucked under his arm? What about Kaientai "chopping off" Val Venis' dick with a katana backstage? What about all the lousy angles, feuds & matches with the likes of Ken Shamrock, Steve Blackman, the Big Bossman, the Headbangers, Val Venis, Vince McMahon winning the 1999 Royal Rumble, Vince winning the WWF Championship the same year, Chyna becoming Intercontinental Champion, and many many others? Not everything was Austin vs. McMahon or Austin vs. The Rock.
I know a lot of people want to blame WWE's declined ratings compared to a decade or so ago to the PG Era. It's another convenient method of completely ignoring history and looking at the facts. In 2000, the yearly average ratings for Raw & SD! were 5.88 & 4.73 respectively. In 2001, the yearly average dropped to a 4.64 & 4.03. In 2002, they dropped to a 4.01 & 3.52. Finally, in 2003, they dropped to a 3.76 & a 3.30. Raw has been consistently pulling an average in the 3s since that time. When WWF bought WCW in March 2001, the Monday Night Wars came to an end and the ratings began to drop immediately afterward. During these years, WWF was still very much doing the same stuff it'd done during the height of the Attitude Era. We had the cursing in the promos, we had hardcore matches with blood in them, we had Divas running around as nothing more than tits & ass content, we had people being tossed off the top of cages, etc. In a nutshell, all the same stuff that people loved about the Attitude Era in his peak was still in full swing at this time, yet WWF continued to lose viewers. The WWF burned white hot there for a few years before the heat started to steadily dwindle down. That's what happens with fads. They're white hot for a while but the heat eventually dies down.
As for the use of blood, I think people really need to get over this kick. Think of blood as the role of ketchup in a meal of burgers & fries. Everything that makes people interested in seeing the match, the content of the match, the wrestlers involved, etc. that's what the burgers & fries are. The ketchup can potentially add a little spice to the meal but ketchup isn't very filling nor is it a necessary addition to have an ejoyable meal. The WWE has shown time & time again that they can have great hardcore/no holds barred/no DQ matches without the use of blood. The latest example was this past Friday night on SD!. Sheamus & Randy Orton worked their asses off in a physical, competitive no disqualification match. It was a great match because you had two guys in the ring that are good at what they do and can make people want to see them do what they do.
In this day and age where the health & general safety of wrestlers have become prominent discussion tools, especially when you look at how many wrestlers have died prematurely of one thing or another during this past decade, it makes the use of blood kind of unnecessary. Wrestlers in the WWE are often on the road for the vast majority of the year putting their bodies through a rigorous schedule to entertain fans. They endure concussions, torn muscles, severe sprains, broken bones, cuts, bruises and a broad variety of aches & pains that they generally just have to work through. Basically, they put themselves through a lot so the fact that they're not taking shots with steel chairs to the skull or ripping the flesh of their foreheads open with razor blades aren't bad things.
I've read a couple of the posts going on and on about blood & the Attitude Era. The Attitude Era was great for its time but the cold hard truth is that wrestling was a fad once again in the late 90s & very early 2000s. Wrestling was being portrayed on a "mainstream" scale in a way that people had never seen before. It was completely different and it did change the way people looked at wrestling. However, the Attitude Era as a whole wasn't nearly as good as some try to make it out to be or "remember" as it being. Not every match was a classic. Most of the time, wrestling content on Raw during the AE was pretty weak. I wasn't able to watch SD! during that time period as my cable provider at the time didn't have UPN. Not every promo was the stuff that legends were made of by any stretch and there was also a lot of just plain, outright shit that made it onto television. For instance, how often did we see such wastes of time as lingerie matches or pillow fight matches or bikini contests during the Attitude Era between the Divas? It might have been titilating at the time but with the ready availability of internet pornography these days, it wouldn't have a fraction of that sort of impact today. And what about all the other crap that a lot of people seem to conveniently forget to bring up? What about stuff like Al Snow running around with the head of a mannequin tucked under his arm? What about Kaientai "chopping off" Val Venis' dick with a katana backstage? What about all the lousy angles, feuds & matches with the likes of Ken Shamrock, Steve Blackman, the Big Bossman, the Headbangers, Val Venis, Vince McMahon winning the 1999 Royal Rumble, Vince winning the WWF Championship the same year, Chyna becoming Intercontinental Champion, and many many others? Not everything was Austin vs. McMahon or Austin vs. The Rock.
I know a lot of people want to blame WWE's declined ratings compared to a decade or so ago to the PG Era. It's another convenient method of completely ignoring history and looking at the facts. In 2000, the yearly average ratings for Raw & SD! were 5.88 & 4.73 respectively. In 2001, the yearly average dropped to a 4.64 & 4.03. In 2002, they dropped to a 4.01 & 3.52. Finally, in 2003, they dropped to a 3.76 & a 3.30. Raw has been consistently pulling an average in the 3s since that time. When WWF bought WCW in March 2001, the Monday Night Wars came to an end and the ratings began to drop immediately afterward. During these years, WWF was still very much doing the same stuff it'd done during the height of the Attitude Era. We had the cursing in the promos, we had hardcore matches with blood in them, we had Divas running around as nothing more than tits & ass content, we had people being tossed off the top of cages, etc. In a nutshell, all the same stuff that people loved about the Attitude Era in his peak was still in full swing at this time, yet WWF continued to lose viewers. The WWF burned white hot there for a few years before the heat started to steadily dwindle down. That's what happens with fads. They're white hot for a while but the heat eventually dies down.
As for the use of blood, I think people really need to get over this kick. Think of blood as the role of ketchup in a meal of burgers & fries. Everything that makes people interested in seeing the match, the content of the match, the wrestlers involved, etc. that's what the burgers & fries are. The ketchup can potentially add a little spice to the meal but ketchup isn't very filling nor is it a necessary addition to have an ejoyable meal. The WWE has shown time & time again that they can have great hardcore/no holds barred/no DQ matches without the use of blood. The latest example was this past Friday night on SD!. Sheamus & Randy Orton worked their asses off in a physical, competitive no disqualification match. It was a great match because you had two guys in the ring that are good at what they do and can make people want to see them do what they do.
In this day and age where the health & general safety of wrestlers have become prominent discussion tools, especially when you look at how many wrestlers have died prematurely of one thing or another during this past decade, it makes the use of blood kind of unnecessary. Wrestlers in the WWE are often on the road for the vast majority of the year putting their bodies through a rigorous schedule to entertain fans. They endure concussions, torn muscles, severe sprains, broken bones, cuts, bruises and a broad variety of aches & pains that they generally just have to work through. Basically, they put themselves through a lot so the fact that they're not taking shots with steel chairs to the skull or ripping the flesh of their foreheads open with razor blades aren't bad things.
