Interesting topic.
I didn't go through and read everyone's responses, so my post isn't necessarily a response to the posts that have been posted in this thread, but it's kind of a response to what I feel is sort of the general IWC opinion about the next boom period.
It seems that most fans believe that the next boom period will occur once the new younger fans grow up and then want an edgier product and will thus get it. Thus we need an edgy product reminscent of the Attitude Era to get our next wrestling boom period. I think that's what a lot of fans think, and for those fans, they're wrong.
While I'm sure an edgy product might help, that isn't solely what's going to do it. Remember, the two other big boom periods in modern wrestling history didn't result out of a raunchy product.
While Gorgeous George playing a gay wrestler was very controversial in the early 1950's and could've been considered edgy and raunchy for that time, overall wrestling didn't hit it big in that time because the product was edgy and raunchy. It had to do with one big draw (Gorgeous George) and the advent of television. Television was a brand new thing, and anything that was on TV was going to become a phenomenon. Wrestling happened to get on at the right time. And walah! You've got a wrestling boom period.
Fast forward to the mid 1980's. The WWF was very much how it is now. It was geared towards kids. It was PG, especially in the mid to late '80s. Hulk Hogan was leading the charge with Andre, Piper, Savage, JYD, and later on the Million Dollar Man, the Ultimate Warrior, etc. The product was definitely not edgy and raunchy, and wrestling was huge in that time (just as big as it was in the Attitude Era, from a pop culture standpoint, and the TV ratings were bigger too). It was PG, just how it is now.
So if the product wasn't edgy and raunchy, how were they so successful. Simple. There are three key ingredients that it takes for a boom period in wrestling to occur.
1. A huge name draw that hardcore wrestling fans, and semi-wrestling fans, and people that aren't fans can relate to, or at least want to watch. It also helps for this big draw to be somewhat unique and different from the norm, which adds extra attention and interest to them.
Gorgeous George wasn't really relatable, but he was new and different. There had never been such a flamboyant and charismatic wrestler. The fans didn't relate to him and root for him. Instead they paid in droves to watch him get his ass kicked. Aka: he was the classic heel.
Hulk Hogan while somewhat reminiscent of previous wrestling heroes (Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Jimmy Snuka), he was still new and different as while those guys were more of your common man type of guys the fans could get behind, Hogan was very super-hero like and larger than life. He was perfect for the kids and easily likable. He brought a whole super-hero, comic book feel to pro wrestling which really hadn't been done before in American pro wrestling.
Stone Cold Steve Austin was revolutionary as he was your first major anti-hero in the modern era (besides the Road Warriors and Jake Roberts). He was the common man that every fan could relate to. He was also a very skilled worker and wrestler (contrary to popular IWC belief), so the smarks loved him, and the marks or outside viewers who became fans loved him. He was perfect.
2. Some kind of new medium of pop culture and/or technology that brings extra attention and interest to wrestling.
In the early 1950's boom period it was the advent of television. Television was a whole new medium of entertainment for society and anything on it became popular and loved. With pro wrestling on TV, everyone in the country was watching it. Remember that at that time, there was little choice in channels, so once wrestling was on, that's what you pretty much had to watch, and thus anyone that had a TV at the time watched wrestling.
In the 1980's it was MTV and the Rock N' Wrestling Connection and the advent of cable television. Cyndi Lauper's crossover storylines with Roddy Piper and Capt. Lou Albano was a vital key to the 1980's wrestling boom. Even moreso than Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper's feud and Mr. T's involvement. Cyndi Lauper was the biggest female pop star of that time (this was just before Madonna hit it big), and thus if she's involved, anyone that gives a crap about pop culture at the time is gonna check wrestling out. And that's what happened. Cyndi Lauper brought in viewers. And when they saw the likes of people like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka, and of course Andre who most people at the time already knew they were instantly entertained and kept watching. Then when Mr. T got involved things really grew. MTV was new and exciting at the time and was also the spearhead for the crossover of wrestling and the music stars of the time.
In addition to MTV and celebrity involvement, the new cable television industry helped to increase the exposure of pro wrestling ten fold. Just as television did in the 1950's, cable TV brought wrestling to an even bigger audience. Finally, fans in New York could watch Mid-Atlantic wrestling on TBS, or fans in Minneapolis (AWA territory) could watch the WWF on USA. Or fans in Texas could watch the AWA on ESPN. And if you had enough local channels fans across the country could watch smaller territories like World Class Championship Wrestling, or Memphis Wrestling, or Florida Championship Wrestling.
Then by the late 1980's, you had ppv develop which revolutionzed the pro wrestling industry itself.
As for the late 1990's boom, television helped again, and of course the Monday Night Wars. TNT and USA which were (and still are) two of the biggest channels on cable were at war to gain wrestling viewers thanks to the WCW and WWF feud, which only increased interest and eventually led to a full scale boom.
Also the advent of the internet I'm sure played a role in bringing more exposure and interest to pro wrestling.
3. The product must reflect and represent the values and interests of society at that time.
This may be the hardest element to achieve.
In the 1950's we as a country were in our "traditionalist/American dream" period. The middle class family living in the suburbs, your Leave it to Beaver type all-American families. We were also in our first decade after World War II and also at the beginning of the Cold War. Men were supposed to be tough, strong human beings, and that was what wrestling represented. Hence why wrestling was still considered a sport. Your biggest draws were still your tough guy wrestlers like Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Dick the Bruiser. And on the other side you had your sneaky cowardly heels that weren't "real men" and thus should get their asses kicked by the real men. Your guys like Buddy Rogers, Gorgeous George, Dr. Jerry Graham. If a wrestler was flashy, flamboyant, or different, then he was usually a heel, and the traditional "macho" type of guy would beat him up. That was kind of how society was then.
In the 1980's we were at the end of the Cold War, and everything in America was bigger and flashy and larger than life. That was the era of greed. Huge mansions, huge skyscrapers and buildings being built, tons of money, fast jets, flashy cars, etc. Aka: the Ric Flair lifestyle lol. Thus why larger than life, flashy characters were the top draws. From Ric Flair, to Dusty Rhodes, to Hulk Hogan, to Andre the Giant, to Macho Man, to the Ultiamte Warrior, to Ted Dibiase. These guys were larger than life characters. Flashy and flamboyant. Super heroes or super villains. On the other side, there was a heightened sense of nationalism at the time. Hence why you had larger than life all american heroes like Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter, and cowardly foreign heels like the Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Mr. Fuji, etc. The WWF product at its height was representative of 1980's culture and society.
Fast forward to the late 1990's, American culture is the complete opposite, we're in the era of "the lost generation" Gen-X. This generation for the most part isn't flashy, living the high life, fun and good times, like the era that was the 1980's. This was an era where people didn't know their role in the world, where people realized they weren't going to get a chance at the American dream like previous generations. This was an era of rebellion against the mainstream and the norm. We had our first President that acknowleded that he took drugs and smoked pot in his younger days. We had gang wars across the country and the drug epidimic. We had alternative music and indie films come to prominence. This was the edgy and rebellious era for American culture. Hence why we got the rise of ECW and the NWO storyline in WCW, and the Attitude Era of the WWF. All of these things worked so well because they reprsented life and culture of 1990's America. Stone Cold Steve Austin and the NWO would've been dastardly heels in the 1980's and 1950's. But in the 1990's where we loved rebellion and those that went against the norm, they were cool heroes.
So, with all of that said, I don't really see any of those things happening in the near future. I don't see any wrestler presently in WWE who can take the world by storm in the way that Gorgeous George, Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin did in their eras. CM Punk is an incredible talent, the best in the world today, but as great as he is, I don't see him being the guy that will take the world by storm and bring in non-wrestling fans and appeal to the majority. CM Punk to me doesn't represent some kind of ideal or characterisitc that the majority of the country can relate to and get behind or even go against. I don't really think John Cena does either although he comes closer than anyone. But until some big draw comes along that the world can get behind or go against, we're not gonna have our boom period.
I do think we have a technological advent that can help increase the attention and awareness and even interest of pro wrestling. What is that? Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr (I would've said Myspace a few years ago but it's pretty much dead). I also think that a potential WWE channel could help increase interest as well and further gain it's exposure. Also WWE's foothold across the world is only helping their cause as they are truly becoming a global phenomenon.
As for having a product that represents the values of our culture and society today, I'm not really sure if that's happening. Frankly I'm not really sure how you can create a product that represents us now. I'm not really sure how you can define our culture now. It's not as simple as it was in the '90s and '80s. Things are much more complicated now.
Either way, I don't think we're upon a boom period yet. As for when it'll happen? I can't really say. We need a huge draw name that will draw in everyone. We don't have that guy (or girl?) yet. I don't feel we do anyway.
