People say I complain too much.
Sure,
WWE's
ratings are in the toilet, live event attendance is down, and
absolutely no one on the roster draws any mainstream interest, but I
complain too much. People are telling me that
WWE is about to break out, establish new stars and usher in a new boom period for the next generation of wrestling fans.
Fine, then let's compare it to the last
WWE boom period: The Attitude Era.
I'm not talking about the peak of the Attitude Era. I'm referring to 1997, the year that
WWE decided to change course once and for all and start battling against the evil Ted Turner and World Championship Wrestling.
For you newer fans who live under rocks,
WWE was getting absolutely destroyed in the ratings by
WCW due to its new New World Order storyline and high-flying
cruiserweight division.
WWE needed to change with the times or die, and
Vince McMahon
ushered in the Attitude Era, a "soap opera for men" where foul language
and gratuitous female nudity were not only present, but they were
encouraged.
So, since so many people seem to believe that
WWE
is headed for a boom period in 2012, let's set the way-back machine to
1997 and compare the ratings and rosters of the shows as of November.
Note:
Obviously, I can't include every single worker on the roster, and some
of these guys were not present for all of 1997. I just chose the guys
who best represented the time period in order to compare the two eras.
Raw Ratings
November 1997 - 3.15 (
source)
November 2012 - 2.95 (
source)
So
the ratings aren't that different if you average them out throughout
the month of November. The only difference is that in 1997,
WWE was on it's way up while
WWE in 2012 is on the way down. Another big difference is that in 1997, wrestling fans had an alternative in
WCW while 2012 fans are stuck with a three-hour
borefest which kills live crowds and causes people to tune out en
masse.
Main Event
1997 - Bret Hart (left in November), Shawn
Michaels, The Undertaker, Steve Austin (injured for part of the year)
2012 - CM Punk, John
Cena,
Sheamus, Big Show
Obviously,
the names of 1997 carry a little more star power than the ones of 2012,
and certainly, that could be part of the problem. Today's talent is
far overshadowed by the names of the past and is even made to look
second-rate when late-'90s stars return to television. Both Punk and
Cena
can absolutely bring it when it comes to ring work, but I don't think
anyone would argue that they are better than Bret Hart or Shawn
Michaels. Sure,
Cena moves merchandise, and Punk is (or was) an
internet darling, but I think it's very clear that 1997 had the combination of star power and wrestling ability.
Gallo Images/Getty Images
Advantage: 1997
Upper Mid-Card
1997 - British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Mick Foley, Hunter Hearst
Helmsley,
Faarooq,
Kane, The Rock, Marc
Mero, Vader
2012 - Daniel Bryan, Kane, Dolph
Ziggler,
Randy Orton, Alberto Del Rio, Rey
Mysterio, The
Miz,
Ryback,
Kofi Kingston
The 1997 upper mid-card was full of names who would go on to become big stars (The Rock, Mick Foley,
HHH)
but at the time, they were some young guys hoping that they didn't get
stuck with a loser gimmick. The Rock was on his way to immortality,
Mick Foley was a bump machine trying to find his niche, and
HHH hadn't started with Stephanie McMahon yet.
Today, the same class of workers are in the same situation. Daniel Bryan is the hottest act in the company right now, Dolph
Ziggler
seems poised to break out any day now (although we've been saying that
for two years), and Alberto Del Rio seems destined for push after push.
However, you could argue that the upper mid-card of 2012 is more
talented wrestling-wise and has bigger name value.
Advantage: 2012
Gallo Images/Getty Images
Tag Teams
1997: New Age Outlaws, Headbangers, The
Godwinns, Legion of Doom, The New Blackjacks, The Truth Commission, Disciples of Apocalypse,
Furnas and
Lafon, Los
Boricuas
2012: Rey
Mysterio & Sin Cara, Rhodes Scholars, Prime Time Players, The
Usos,
Primo and
Epico
Naturally,
there were more tag teams in 1997 because there was an actual emphasis
on the tag team division back then. Until recently,
WWE was fine sticking two upper mid-card guys together (The
Miz and R-Truth being one example) for a few weeks and having them win the tag titles just for fun. With
HHH
slowly moving into power, he has made an effort to revitalize the tag
division with teams like the Prime Time Players and the Rhodes
Scholars.
Back in 1997, tag teams were mostly made up of over-the-hill veterans (Hawk, Animal, Barry Windham) or guys no one cared about (
Godwinns, Truth Commission, DOA). It wasn't until the
Dudleys,
Hardys, and Edge and Christian broke out that the tag division really became important again, so we'll call this one a draw.
Advantage: Push
Lower Mid-Card
1997: Goldust,
D'Lo Brown, Brian Christopher,
Taka Michinoku, Kama
Mustafa, Mark Henry,
Savio Vega, Scott Taylor, Steve
Blackman, Flash Funk, Leif
Cassidy
2012: Antonio Cesaro,
Brodus Clay, David
Otunga, Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater,
Jinder Mahal,
JTG, R-Truth,
Santino Marella, Zack Ryder,
Tensai, Tyson Kidd
The
lower mid-card is certainly not what draws money, but it is the place
where future talent is supposed to pay their dues and learn how to draw a
house. Unfortunately, this has become somewhat of a lost art, and
really, none of the 1997 guys (outside of marginal success for Mark
Henry) ever became solid main-event talents.
2012 has a huge
roster of young talent who seem ready for a push, but creative just
can't figure out what to do with them. Slater, McIntyre and
Mahal
are stuck in the Three Man Band stable but might be able to cut out a
comedic niche for themselves. Cesaro seems to be in line for a big push
once his U.S. title reign is finished, but
WWE
is notorious for giving up on guys out of the blue. Honestly, 2012
gets the advantage here only because we know that most of the 1997 guys
fizzled out. We don't know about the present day roster.
Advantage: 2012
Non-Wrestling Roster
1997 - Jim Ross, Jerry
Lawler, Vince McMahon, Michael Cole,
Chyna, Paul Bearer, Rick Rude, Sable, Sgt. Slaughter, Howard
Finkel
Tom Hauck/Getty Images
2012 - Michael Cole, Josh Matthews, Booker T, AJ Lee, Vickie Guerrero, Jim Ross (part-time), William Regal, Lilian Garcia, Matt Striker
Honestly,
this is probably the category where 1997 wins in a landslide. Jim Ross
was at his absolute best as a play-by-play man and was so much better
than anyone else, it wasn't even funny. Vince McMahon was coming into
his own as a heel owner, and various managers were causing trouble for
everyone.
These days, Michael Cole annoys fans on a regular
basis, Jim Ross stopped caring a long time ago, managers of any form are
totally nonexistent, and the heel authority figure has been beaten to
death.
Advantage: 1997
So
the finally tally is two wins for 1997, two wins for 2012 and one tie,
which really resolves nothing. That's probably because 1997 and 2012
both represent a crossroads (and not the finishing move) for
WWE. In 1997, Vince saw the lagging ratings, boring product and stagnant main event and turned
WWE into
ECW. McMahon went on to become a billionaire, printing money off of the work of Steve Austin, The Rock and
HHH.
Today,
McMahon faces a very similar problem. Wrestling is no longer cool, and
the ratings aren't budging, no matter how many soap opera writers are
hired. Can
WWE actually recover, or is the empire that Vince McMahon created over the last 30 years crumbling all around him?
Only time will tell...
