What ruined Wrestling ?

Were they the flip flop smarks

Or the Muuuh Size , Muuuuh ChArIsMa , Muuuh InDy BaD Type Anti Smarks

Wrestling was something not designed to last past the 80s, like Roller Derby.

It still persists though.

But the best era came in late 90s , post 96 to be specific

I guess me getting older ruined my ability to enjoy it.

I always argue that is because the culture of that time. In the late 90s edgy, "car crash tv" was what was popular and pro wrestling at the time offered all the things synonymous with that sort of stuff...real chair shots, crazy stunts, foul language, half naked women etc. It's really the only time wrestling was really popular after the mid 80 to late 80s.

I think (WWE) taking it public and getting it censored, all at the wrong time, based on how abruptly it happened. I agree, pre-1996 was a great era and post-1996 was a reinvented era that was a somewhat permanent fixture that ended too abruptly, starting around early 2005. And, trying to dance around censorship for too long and too stridently may have done some long-term, if not permanent damage. Stephanie, from 1998-2004 (surprising, seems to have largely been removed from all known outlets; but, can rerecord and extend it); should have taken it further, but, abruptly changed it and ended it. Just, try bringing it back slowly and gradually; separate public censorship from creative, if possible, and it might come back. I have a few ideas; just let me and Hayman talk a little and I can reinvent; that's how I work best.

Nostalgia at its finest. Ruthless aggression era was by far the best period in wrestling.

Ruthless agression was terrible for the most part , the nostalgia victim are you , the mid card / lower card died in ruthless agression , the world heavyweight title felt like some Mid card title when benoit was the champion , HHH's reign of terror was terrible full of bad matches . Ruthless agression was terrific in 2003 and early 2004 , it sucked after that

Theres no way you can make a legitimate argument for that without admitting the AE was twice as bad. Would you like me to start naming mid careers that thrived? Benoit winning was legitimately one of the best feel good moments of all time especially with Eddie winning too. Still not as bad as wcw tanking every week. It was great even before then and great afterwards. There was nothing comparable to the smackdown 6 or the rise of great workers in the AE

Eddie died a year later

Benoit was a blank slate of a character and screamed mid carder whose entire reign was mid carder type , The entire kane feud felt almost as irrelevant as Kofi Kingstone's championship reign and that speak volumes .

2000 was the greatest year in history of professional wrestling , we had top tier heel promos from rock in 99 , the AE single handedly revived tag team wrestling , D GenerationX e.t.c.

Now compare that to Ruthless agression , name two good things about RA after Eddie's death with exception of batista vs Taker and Taker vs Orton

They did away with most of the female wrestlers...

I stopped following about 9 years ago, but if it's on TV I'll watch it.

I did see Raw and SmackDown live before

it is still on USA network

With ratings going to the less then a million territory

So ????

Kofis reign wasn't irrelevant and Benoit wasn't a blank slate

Debatable. one of if not the greatest matches if not the greatest match of all time happened during wrestlemania 18. Rock arguably put on better promos during his Hollywood gimmick, how exactly? Most of the legendary teams like the LOD , midnight express, fabulous freebirds, the bulldogs, and others were still around , which was playing second fiddle to the nwo

King Booker hell booker t in general , Rvd winning the title , Kurt Angle having possibly the greatest run of his career , Edges legendary heel run, rated rko

Seeing how both Kofi and Benoit become tag team/low mid carders after their championship reign.....

the match was a great spectacle and had the fans bamboozled but it have nothing over Bret vs Austin . The tag divisions were dead in the water until the hardyz vs E and C tables match .

RVD lost it in a month

Rated RKO was broken for no real reason

Edge one is a good point but Edge's rise began in 2002 when he had great matches the entire year with kurt angle

How does any of this compare to taker vs mankind or rock vs austin or Rock vs HHH or the two man power strip vs Brothers of Destruction or Bret vs Austin or taker vs michaels or taker vs kane and the list is endless .

Wrestling has had its ups and downs. I enjoy AEW and NXT. I think the greatest detriment to WWE right now is Vince McMahon's booking. He should be more hands off.

Meltzer ruined wrestling, kids used to look up to wrestlers as real life super heroes but now all they see is flippy manlets close to their size cutting cringe promos and doing ridiculous spots all to get higher star ratings from a old man whos probably on the spectrum

PG!!!!

Not only that but they don’t really have stars anymore.

@aryansingh: idk, I catch it on basic TV.

I hate the whole set up they got now without a real audience so I haven't been tuning in recently

I still say it's less to do with Vince and more to do with how WWE went corporate/public. It sanitized the industry, put it in a little box and killed anything that would go out of it.

We don't really know the what's true with Vince but the Vince we have now is corporate Vince and his decisions are coming from there. Who knows how he would do things different if WWE didn't go there..

@just_sayin: if he goes hands off WWE will become all flippy crap with manlets having the top titles for like a month and trading it with each other to appease the marks since they lose interest in wrestlers as soon as they get their way

When Linda McMahon wanted to run for Governor or something and wanted to change it to PG. That plus Cena getting over with the kids. Kids+Merch=Money. It ultimately led to some goofy storylines and moments.

Not building up their stars is another factor. Partially blame Cena/HHH for being a one trick pony and burying upcoming talent.

Oh and they don't care about their womens wrestling

Calling them Divas at some point...

Bayley and Sasha Banks were gonna revamp that sector but I heard once they were on the roster they were placed in boring 2v2 matches and mini diva royale rumbles
I mean Santino Marella won the Womens Royal Rumble, what a joke

What ruined wrestling? Imo?

No competition

No reason 2 innovate

No innovation= stale products

Stale product= less & less relevancy

It's so predictable.

Bad stink in the ring

Just found out about The Fiend and Goldberg stunt, what a shitshow

Wrestling is still pretty good, you just gotta look around for it. I've actually been spending a good while with AJPW's King's Road content, the pacing is far better and it doesn't feel like a kid on a sugar high edited it.

I don't think wrestling is ruined. If anything, I'd argue wrestling outside of WWE (other than NXT) is fine. The problem is oldheads who think that WWE is the only thing that exists and that Vince McMahon is still good at booking.

Let's not play like wrestling back then was some flawless masterpiece. I mean, it was edgy as shit and treated its females like garbage.

Fake fights thats all

@nerise: watch Sasha Banks vs Bayley at Hell in a Cell

The same Kofi that only became a main eventer and got over because of his tag team ????

It doesnt matter. All that workrate nonsense doesn't matter even some of the greatest workers of all time say its one of their favorite matches. Some of the best matches of all time barely even have any wrestling in it. They weren't dead. The hardyz were doing never before seen stuff

What shallow criticisms. You cannot say they weren't great as they happened

02 was still RA era ?

Rock vs Austin also happened in the RA era debatablywas their best matches too, and 2 man power trip existed into the RA era that barely even counts also during one of Austins worst runs. Do you want great RA era matches? I can give you them like Cena vs michaels , angle vs lesnar , wm 20 main event , rock vs Hogan, hardy vs Taker, taker vs batista, Orton vs taker , kane and rvd , Cena vs angle . I can also give you a long list of bad attitude era matches because people love to live in nostalgia

Kofi Kingstone got over for his fun personality and amazing performance at Elimination Chamber 2019

You are the quantity and numbers over quality type of guy . Hart and Austin is the most important match in HISTORY of proffesional Wrestling! It led to one of the greatest rivalaries of all time in Heel Hart Foundation vs D generation X , it also led to the most important moment in history of wrestling , the montreal Screwjob, it also led to the most important and greatest face run in wrestling history in Stone Cold , IT CREATED ATTITUDE ERA , That match turned the wheel and the results of the monday night wars

Those were great moments , not like it holds a candle to Hulk Hogan's heel turn or Mick Foley winning the WWF Championship or Many many mick foley moments

Ruthless Agression began when Stone Cold retired , thats common sense .

How does any of that holds a candle to taker vs Mankind , Taker vs kane , Taker vs Bret , Taker vs Michaels , Taker vs Austin , Foley vs Austin , Rock vs Austin , Rock vs HHH , Benoit vs Angle , HHH vs Mick Foley , Two man power strip vs Brothers of Destruction e.t.c. , Hogan vs Rock was Attitude era

Rock vs Austin at Wrestlemania 17 takes a massive shit on their wrestlemania 19 match

You can scream nostalgia all you want , the only reason you think Ruthless Agression is better then Late 90s and 80s is because of your pathetic nostalgia

90's was a short magical period in American History.

That's when the time the influence of Religious Puritans on the media was starting to grow weak.

And right before the Millennials matured and started to ruin everything with their rabid political correctness censorship.

I stopped watching WWF/WWE after the Attitude Era.

It was the best in my opinion considering that most of the legends were at their peak.

For me, wrestling is something that you out grew once your favorite childhood wrestlers idols died out or became too old for the show.