This era

[Circled Square]

Could you make a case that this is the worst the WWE has been since 1994?

[PorkChop]

I can only assume you weren't around in 2007.

[Circled Square]

I can only assume you weren't around in 2007.

I was born in 2009. Bit before my time.

[Hanley!]

2010 was as bad as now in many of the creative ways, but we didn't have the same level of wrestling talent. We didn't have the great NXT takeover shows. More of the aging Attitude Era guys were still being heavily pushed despite how boring they had become. So I think there's a few more positives now than there was five years ago. Though from purely a booking standpoint, it's probably never been worse than right now.

[Circled Square]

2010 was as bad as now in many of the creative ways, but we didn't have the same level of wrestling talent. We didn't have the great NXT takeover shows. More of the aging Attitude Era guys were still being heavily pushed despite how boring they had become. So I think there's a few more positives now than there was five years ago. Though from purely a booking standpoint, it's probably never been worse than right now.

Yeah, these DQ finishes, shitty start-and-stop pushes, it's a very frustrating era for WWE fans, but the future looks bright to me with the NxT talent.

[Locke]

It's been garbage since I started watching it again.

I started watching again in 2007. Before that it was 98 and 99. DEM YEARS

However, I only stopped in 98/99 because WCW shut down. I was young and newb and internet didn't tell you things.. so I didn't have faith WWF would have WCW guys, I just assumed WCW guys would go work at Petco or some shit. Had I known.. omg.. had I known..

I started watching in 2007 because my wife wanted to watch a show I loved, and I hated television, so.. one day I was like "Ah! I used to love pro wrestling," and she said "Let's watch it!" and we did. And it was ok. That was CM Punk's long haired days, and he was instantly our favorite wrestler. Knew nothing about his indy days or shit like that, thought he was a really goofy baby face (lol) and stuck with it. When he turned heel, my wife lost interest in the show (I think she just wanted to shag him, honestly). I didn't.

I have watched all this time, until about a year ago, I stopped recording RAW and SD! and gave up. So I would say it's worse than ever because it made ME quit watching and I survived thru 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and every other "epic year of fail" but not this one, fuck dat.

[Circled Square]

It's been garbage since I started watching it again.

I started watching again in 2007. Before that it was 98 and 99. DEM YEARS

Summerslam 2007 was one of the worst PPVs I ever watched.

[Locke]

Whups, edited my post as you posted

[Str8Shooter]

I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it was in the late 00's and into the early 2010's. If nothing else we get solid matches every week on Raw and PPV's with occasional fantastic ones. Maybe you could argue creatively the shows are more boring and paint by numbers than ever. But in ring it might be the best it's been in over a decade. That alone for me prevents it from being that bad. Plus we have NXT now which didn't exist back then as a WWE owned alternative to their own television product.

Go watch some Attitude Era golden years Raws and get back to me. Those shows were exciting back then yes, but watch them now and tell me that those Raws are really better than the ones we get now. Times change and people's opinions on things change over that time.

[KaiserGlider]

In terms of booking, this is one of the worst years in a while. Just the amount of effort put into storylines is at a bare minimum. We all know that this year had the worst Road to Wrestlemania in a while, with the entire Royal Rumble match designed to make almost nobody but Reigns look good (and failing to do so). Reigns and Lesnar had basically no interaction until the shitty closing segment of the Raw before Wrestlemania. Then later on, randomly announcing the Cena/Owens rematch with nothing behind it. Booking 3 PPV main events in a row where neither guy can lose so we end up getting a non-finish. Rollins could have been booked a lot better too, it seems half the time he's stuck in the same Authority storyline, and has had barely any title defenses that he won by himself. Most Raws are really boring. Outside of a couple people, it doesn't seem like there's a plan for anybody. By the way, remember how over Damien Sandow was? Perfect storyline on a platter, was completely dropped. This is just stuff I could list off the top of my head right now.

I also think there's a lot of positives that make 2015 better than 07//09/10 (I liked 2008). The quality of wrestling is definitely way better, the roster is better, and there's just more consistency when it comes to memorable moments and exciting matches. Brock Lesnar is also a massive plus.

2007-2010 was a dull time overall. The epitome of the "PG Era" really, where everything felt watered down and closer to a family friendly program than a wrestling show. John Cena ruled the empire with an iron fist, and it was a more cartoonish Cena than the one we have now. Raw in 2009 was kind of a hellhole actually. Cena/Orton main eventing a bunch of times in a row, and even worse, the guest hosts. But then Smackdown was pretty good at the same time. So I don't know, If I had to pick the worst year I've watched, I'd flip a coin between 2009 or 2010.

I think 2007 could have been a good year if all those top guys didn't get injured. That was what really fucked it over the most, the fact that the top guys got hurt and they didn't want to build new talent to take their spots, even though it would've been really easy to do it.

[Hanley!]

2008 wasn't so bad actually. We got a very good Wrestlemania that year, and there were a couple of cool, patiently booked feuds like Undertaker vs Edge. That was the last time that the company made any effort to book lengthy feuds in any kind of creative way. Usually guys just wrestle at 3 straight pay per views and then it ends. Back in 2008 they were at least putting some thought into the long term storyline, and thinking of ways to shake things up a little.

I feel like in terms of booking, probably the show has been on a slow decline. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine that it's ever been worse than this in the past in terms of sheer laziness. They've had worse stories before, but I'm not sure they've ever had less stories. Certainly not less stories per hour of television per week. And even the very few stories they do give us are so half hearted and phoned in.

More than once this year, I realised that WWE were barely running with any storylines and yet were still managing to repeat themselves. Like during the Road to Wrestlemania where Miz was the heel leader that was annoyed that his face servant Mizdow was upstaging him. And Adam Rose and the Bunny were doing the exact same angle at that exact same time. It showed a shocking lack of creativity that they were so proud of their basic idea that they decided to do it twice and hoped nobody would notice.

[SortaCreative]

This year has been pretty bad so far. But we've had some nice moments here and there. I feel like Brock Lesnar is still a highlight for last and this year.

Summer of 07 was abysmal.

[KaiserGlider]

Summer of 07 was abysmal.

The Summer of Khali

[VaderBomb]

Summer of 07 was abysmal.

The Summer of Khali

BEST SUMMER EVER.

[Daz]

I still have nightmares about RAW 2005.

[Viazon]

It hasn't been great lately. But I have a feeling we are on the verge of another purge of greatness. With all the great talent coming up from NXT, the future is looking pretty good.

[Hanley!]

I don't think there's been any real concern about the talent on offer lately. But star power has been a major concern, and that's as much down to the booking and writing as the wrestlers themselves. They need to be booked a certain way in order to look like stars.

The awesome wrestlers coming up aren't going to be able to turn the product around on their own. That's only half the equation. While the roster has been improving, we haven't been seeing any correlation in terms of the creative team. That desperately needs freshening up too. A new head of creative (one that was given some real authority too) could do the company a world of good.

[Everlong]

Go watch some Attitude Era golden years Raws and get back to me.

I actually did this recently. Watched a bunch of RAWs from 98/99. I'd take them over what I see from today's product 100 times out of 100.

While the technical wrestling ability of today's roster is as good as it's ever been, nothing ever means anything. The stakes never feel high. Moments of true excitement are few and far between. While the attitude era can't compete as well in terms of technical wrestling ability and while it was more likely to have some occasionally over-the-top ridiculous moments that just didn't really hit, It was leagues above the current era in terms of:

-Storytelling (the most important aspect of WWE wrestling)
-Character development and growth
-Creating original characters that people could identify with, and having most every character on the roster feel actually different
-Promo cutting ability
-Giving the audience what it wanted to see
-Having heels and faces that people actually hated and loved, respectively

I'm happy that today's WWE is providing outstanding wrestling and is taking women's wrestling far more seriously than the Attitude Era and afterward did. But it's not looking through rose-tinted glasses to say the attitude era produced significantly better shows on a weekly basis than this one. I don't even think it's close.

[Messiah]

Yea, weekly shows were the bread and butter of the Attitude Era.

The pay-per-views, at least in 1998 and 1999, were pretty bad though due to the mostly terrible mid-card.