Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
If you actually go back and watch the wrestling in the Attitude Era it doesn't hold up very well--too reliant on swerves and foreign objects with a lot of bloated stiffs. Wrestlemania XIV-XVI were really shitty cards. There were a lot of awful, awful storylines, too. However, when they did hit, they often hit it out of the park. The best period for the in-ring aspect was the post-Attitude, pre-Cena era; it was probably the most balanced the wrestling product ever was.
Today's matches are just spot-to-spot with very little selling or psychology, which makes it more like a crossfit workout than a wrestling match.
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The Vince Russo stuff got REALLY silly towards the end.
But it's still 100x better than anything they write today. I remember when Smackdown was just as good as Raw, and better than any PPV WWE puts on today. I remember going to the very first Smackdown ever, taped in KC at Kemper, it was on my 16th bday. Rock was sweet chin music'd by HBK during a People's Elbow, who was special guest ref during title match vs HHH. Also was at the Owen Hart show Over the Edge PPV, and I'll never forget that. I had floor seats and he fell not too far away from where I was sitting.
And the guys are smaller and more athletic now...but they all look like a bunch of metro-sexuals who are getting ready for a night out on the town. Characters aren't believable anymore. The mystique factor is gone, too many cameras behind the curtain, reality shows etc etc.
With exception to Stroman and a couple others, gone are the days of the big powerful wrestler that wow'd everyone. And that's partly due to WWE wellness policy and their overall direction they chose to go in.