Yeah, this is the true dark ages of the WWF.. excuse me, WWE. The mid 90's they thought it was bad coming off the successful 80's/early 90's gigs. The thing is, every generation had something to cherish. The good, the bad, and the cheesy. 80's golden age had Hogan, Warrior, Jake the Snake, Andre, Undertaker. Plus all the other corny personas. But the good vs. bad world just worked beautifully at it's best. It was just a colerful, likeable federation. With some kick ass tag teams might I add. The mid 90's meanwhile had a ton of good wrestling. Bret Hart and HBK were some of the best. They had their bad too, and they lost a little of the 80's flare, but it was still damn good and likeable. I find myself missing a lot of things from both of those eras.
Then 97 on, rocked too. A new era likeable in how different and bold it was. Of course, the NWO was going on too. Another time wrestling was rockin'. In fact, I thought the WWF was better than WCW's NWO era even, with the Harts, Davey Boy, and The Anvil representing Canada and playing the heel role. Austin was still raw, and fresh, and creating his legend. DX had a stage of insane popularity. Of course they still were doing some things wrong. WMXIII's main event being Sid vs. Undertaker. Yikes. But the same event had an amazing Austin/Hart bout, that became a reused image for many many years. Then they went into the mass popularity of 98 and above, still putting up some fantastic matches, images, and storylines. Really memorable stuff. I really loved those times where the wrestlers started gaining popularity or heat. Like The Rock's heel turn. Just so amazing how well he played it. And following his Summerslam fued with DX, HHH, and Farooq, he came into his own as an anti-face. Much the same as Austin. Still the same character, but a subtle play of heart and a cool attitude had the crowds completely behind him for that Survivor Series.
Now, there's just nothing. Nothing you think you're missing on Mondays. No memorable images or moods from these past few years. The 'Attitude" era supposedly was successful in McMahon's opinion, because everything went to a shade of grey. The good guys, the bad.. And that was true to an extent. But now it's just a dull grey, with weak momentum to nearly any character. I almost think it'd just be a lot smarter for the WWE to make a change to the 80's, early 90's colorful style. At least you'd get strong characters. It's much harder to mess up a total babyface that's really over vs. a villain with a lot of heat. And you can always play off the really successful villains with a face turn. Everyone wants those ones they really hate to turn over, and their support decideds that. Look at Undertaker, post-Hogan/Warrior fueds. Just put him against someone hated, that's not got his heat, and the crowd goes nuts for the more over heel. It's a lot easier way to work a federation that needs to stay consistent. The 'Attitude' era has become concerned with storylines meanwhile, which really aren't as important as character strength. That's their downfall. You have to play the shades of grey a lot smarter and they lost any momentum they've ever had with their characters, and come to a screeching halt.
