WWE/Wrestling fans today are luckier than they've ever been.

[AegonTargaryen]

Note to the Mod:- I've accidentally created this thread in the PPV section, when I meant to do so in the WWE main section.

I vividly remember merely 5 yrs ago how atrocious the WWE had become, following the departures of Edge, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Undertaker, and HHH either into retirement or as full-time wrestlers.

Also prior to that, it was too much of the same, as there's only N number of times John Cena could wrestle Batista or Randy Orton, or Taker could wrestle Edge, and so on.

In fact, owing to the brand extension I remember how awful Raw would be with the wrestling quality. At one point John Cena would cut the same promo every Monday, defend the title against the likes of Umaga and Khali.

Even in 2011, things didn't look bright because not only did I loathe John Cena's character and wrestling style, but found the Miz to be as bland and boring overall as a superstar can be, and that was the year when we saw R-truth as the number one contender for the WWE championship.

Also, numerous guys were pushed and none of them really became stars, and a few of them were good in the ring- Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus come to mind- Numerous pushes led to nowhere- Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Miz.

Eventually CM Punk would rise but they would simultaneously have the focus would sooner or later be big guys like Ryback, Cena, Orton.

Basically, WWE straddled between established performers like Orton, Cena, Punk and a rising Daniel Bryan, and midcard acts like Ryback, Swagger, Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, and Miz.

Just 5 yrs later,

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns are the modern-day equivalents of Shawn Michaels and Undertaker, athletically speaking(without the same gimmick, obviously) and IMO, the two biggest stars in the company.

We saw a tag-team mainevent on Raw featuring Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens.

Roman Reigns, like him or not, is a treat to watch, just like Undertaker was.

AJ Styles has had incredible matches with Reigns, Cena, and Chris Jericho.

AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura are on SD Live! As is Randy Orton.

One can't help but think- WWE fans have never been luckier.

I'm a fan of diversity so I've always enjoyed watching mix of styles. Undertaker vs Bret Hart is different than Bret vs Shawn or Shawn vs Taker.

Some day, we may see Roman Reigns go one on one against Shinsuke Nakamura. Or Seth Rollins against Shinsuke Nakamura.

I can't wait.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I mean sure but 2009/2010 was a pretty low bar to compare if I recall. The problem that period is that WWE was still anti-Indie and a lot of their talents were home grown meaning almost every new guy (or girl) in their roster were pretty much the same. In the end most of their "future stars" like Wade Barrett, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, Ted Debiase and others were busts in the main event scene.

I think the recent popularity of Bryan and Punk opened a lot of doors for guys like Styles, Owens, Rollins, Nakamura, to come to the company.

I am almost 100% sure the next few months is going to be pretty exciting as a fan but this was the same as last year. But like how WM32 was flat so was WM33, it just feels like after WM you think WWE goes in the right direction but once WM comes along the momentum built the prior months are pushed to the background so the part time or older stars can be featured.

So yeah comparing now and 5 or 6 years ago things are probably better, like I said, that's a pretty low bar.

If you want to compare eras I would think the Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era is probably the standard to set. I mean compare WM14 to WM33. WM33 was not a bad PPV but one where I didn't feel invested on most of the feuds and then we have WM14 where all but 2 matches were built up for months leading to the event and the night after really felt like a new chapter.

I mean if there's one thing fans should be lucky about today its the WWE Network, PPV's, old shows, archives, and original programming all for $9.99 a month. But even that is all controlled in this corporate environment, I mean WWE discontinues Stone Cold Podcast which was the best original programming in the Network because Vince McMahon doesn't like Austin being too honest in the podcast. Of course that's what people loved about Austin the first place but whatever.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'd say around 2009 or so was the worst I've ever seen. It got so bad at one point that you'd have a grand total of maybe 10 to 12 minutes of wrestling on the show while the rest were skits, often starring Triple H and Shawn Micahels acting like a couple of middle aged frat boys.

In the grand scheme of things, from an overall perspective, I agree however. Things aren't perfect but, then again, they never were perfect no matter how many warm and fuzzy feelings are brought about through nostalgia and things will never be perfect because it's impossible to please and cater to every single one of us. For all the complaints, pissing, moaning and general bitching about what WWE does and how they do it, the ones doing the complaining are still watching and reading about what's happening via the dirt sheets.

There's nothing wrong with criticizing what you don't like, the thing is that it's always more fashionable to do exactly than giving praise for what you do like. I dunno, it just seems like there's this pervasive, nihilistic perspective that forever dominates the internet whether it's forums like this, social media or what have you.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I'm not putting Seth Rollins near Shawn Michaels and Undertaker and Reigns are not in the same category at all but I do agree that WWE has two strong rosters of energetic talent that are far better at keeping your attention in the ring than they ever have. The AE was more enjoyable for other reasons but this line up is superior to any other.

 

[ShinChan]

We are lucky indeed both as WWE and wrestling fans.

You have great talents in WWE, but that's not the end either. There are plenty of talented wrestlers out of WWE as well. And I don't think that the talent has been so widespread in wrestling until now. I might be wrong but it's like a great time to be a wrestling fan. You have good wrestling in even women wrestling. Like at Wrestlemania 32, arguably the biggest Wrestlemania of all time, the show was stolen by three women. That's quite or rather very good.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

It all depends on what your looking for really. Yes, you're right that you got great talents now more then you ever been, but at the same time, i always said that wrestling is more then having a 5 star match because your doing a lot of moves. you have to be able to tell a story and sadly, their not alot of wrestlers that are able to do that in today's wwe. I look at the wwe roster right now and at best, i can see maybe 10 that are able to do that right now and that's stretching it.

Everybody is going to look at a certain era of wrestling and say that they we're lucky with what they got. Some fans will think they we're lucky during the attitude era, some will like the current era more. I For one think that i was lucky as a wwe/wrestling fans during the late 80'S mid 90 era. When wrestling was still keyfabe and you didn't have all that tv times, so i meant that everybody felt special compare to today when you've seen pretty much every match they can do before the ppv so nobody fell special in the end.

WWE and for that matter, The NWA and AWA had a great rosters back in that period and when you saw a big match it really felt special compare to what we see today.

WWE might have a great talent roster and wrestling in general may have more exposure then ever before but i think that this overexposure of the product might be the downfall of the wrestling business in the future because if you don'T create stars that fell special to the audience at some point all you got left is guys that are doing more dangerous high spot to get fans to notice them which means that their career will be shorten because of it.

In the end, are we really lucky right now or do we just think we are?

 

[JJohns]

For me, the best Eras for WWF/E would be from 88-92 and then again from 98-03. The WWE of today doesn't touch those two eras. It comes close, but look at what we get in those eras. 88-92, you have Savage/DiBiase, Hogan/Savage, Rockers/Harts, Demolition/LOD, Flair/Savage, Hart/Hennig, Warrior/Rude. These were some amazing feuds and stories. Yes, one of the worst Wrestlemanias happened during this period, but you also got in this period the first Royal Rumble, the first Summer Slam, the Debut of the Undertaker, Ric Flair making the jump, Shawn Michaels starting his long run with WWE.

98-03, just look at the talent that joined WWE at that time. You have HALL OF FAMERS Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Lita, Trish Stratus, Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page all join during this period. On top of that, you have Christian, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Rey Mysterio, Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Batista, Mark Henry and the Big Show all make their WWE Debuts. On top of that, you have RVD make his return to the main Roster, the Dudleyz, Tazz and Tommy Dreamer all appear in a WWE ring for the first time since the ECW invasion. Oh, and Stone Cold, the Rock and Triple H all ascending to become World Champions.

So no, this era isn't the luckiest for fans to be in, just the luckiest for the fans to be in during the last decade.