I think that this is a very true statement, if you look back at the attitude era in the WWE it had a variety of superstars that all seemed to get the proverbial pop, unlike now where some of the crowd reactions can be Luke- warm at best. If you watch any PPV from 1999 – 2001 the fans go crazy for the European title matches, the Godfather got more of a crowd reaction then a good bulk of the superstars that the current roster has. Let’s take a look into the current WWE roster =
Your main event stars
1. John Cena
2. Randy Orton
3. CM Punk
Your other main eventers
1. Big Show
2. Dolph Ziggler
3. Daniel Bryan
4. Mark Henry
5. The Miz
6. Kane (only due to recent Cena feud)
7. Alberto Del Rio (When not injured)
Up and comer main eventers
1. Wade Barrett
2. Cody Rhodes
3. Sheamus ( his previous main event runs never did it for me)
4. Zack Ryder
5. Kofi Kingston (only due to elimination chamber entry)
6. R-Truth
Part time main eventers
1. Triple H
2. Undertaker
My personal choices for up and comers
1. Ted Dibiase
2. Hunico
3. David Otunga (yeah I said it)
It looks like one hell of a list there, not counting your jobbers or people who simply didn’t deserve any spaces on the list... like Great Khali or Heath Slater.
However even with the talent pool the WWE have at their disposal they seem unable to move away onto newer guys, I don’t think that leaving Cena out of the MAIN events hurts him in any manner; he will still be over as ever regardless. They have allowed Punk to elevate to the same level as Orton and Cena, but due to the cluster-fuck that was the “summer of Punk 2” his rise has kind of declined immensely. You have some over superstars that get a good reaction like Santino Marella, but he only gets a comedy reaction, not a real “he could be huge” reaction, so I’m not even sure he counts.
The question is what are the new breed missing? What could help them to attain the same level of notoriety that the superstars of the “attitude era” enjoyed. Many people are put off by the current PG era that WWE have entered into in an attempt to keep a young audience and also avoid certain taxes, the lack of hardcore violence like chair shots and smashing people through tables was what brought a lot of people to the show. There is also the banning of certain moves or at least the warning away of certain moves, I imagine that being mainly due to the WWE not wanting to pay medical bills when these moves go wrong. If you go watch ROH or TNA’s X-division you get to see some really good wrestling matches that incorporate a story into them (unless your TNA), so is it the overuse of promos and storylines that put people off WWE?
However, is it their fault at all?
The rise of MMA as a major sport has certainly had an impact on wrestling PPV buy rates and ratings. Could it be that people don’t want to “pretend” anymore? Is seeing guys “fake” beating each other up as fun as watching two guys actually beating each other up? Since the rise of UFC as a major global fighting promotion a lot of buy rates have gone down not only for wrestling but also boxing. It seems that MMA is truly the way forward; it combines wrestling, boxing and a good bulk of other fighting styles into one truly awesome format. It does help that both genres have cross promoted on many occasions, from Ken Shamrock going from MMA to wrestling to Brock Lesnar going from wrestling to MMA, the later being a major draw for the UFC.
A surge of MMA themed computer games such as the UFC Unleashed games or EA’s MMA have certainly given the sport a huge platform to market the genre, these games may not have the legacy that wrestling games have but given time the UFC games could easily be on par with the WWE games. Also the release of movies such as Never Back Down 1 & 2, Fighting or Warrior also helps promote MMA and other than the Wrestler or Read to Rumble I don’t know of any other wrestling based films. The following video I dug up from YouTube is a comparative of both genres.
The comparisons of both genres result in a similar style of entertainment, however with MMA becoming more popular all over the world the question is, will wrestling become obsolete or can the new breed of wrestlers pull it back and revitalise the business?
BIG BOSS
# This was written before the ELININATION CHAMBER PPV happened, so before Santino did so well in the chamber match and before he won the US title.
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