Article: It Feels a Lot Like 1995

It Feels a lot like 1995

It feels a lot like 1995 for the wrestling community, minus the booming of new competitions like ECW & WCW for the mainstay sports entertainment company that is WWE. Before the official start of the “Attitude Era” it was the beginning of something new to heighten the social relevance of wrestling to pop culture. It was live tapings with colorful characters that you either wanted to be like or be with. This was a first in wrestling, prior to televised wrestling good looking and desirable men (and now slowly introducing more women) were far and few between. While most of the wrestlers of the 80’s looked more like Dusty Rhodes, their weren’t many that looked like Flair and the Four Horsemen, but that was a time when it was mainly just about the sport of wrestling with most women being valets or eye candy.

Live televised wrestling changed a lot of the traditions, they were competing with everything on TV not just other wrestling companies. Jumping into the sports entertainment world you have to be ready for the vapidity of the industry, and they with such pretty faces and attractive bodies that front-lined for the their company like DX, NWO, Sting, Flair, etc. Like controversy, sex sells (that’s something that needs to be added to the Laws of Attraction) and during the late 90’s and early 2000’s there was a lot of it, possibly more than necessary. But we’re neither here nor there, this is about the comparisons between now and the months before WWE transition into the Attitude and the appearance of WCW and NWO. If there was no NWO there would be no Monday Night Wars and/or DX. Now for nothing more than conversation I offer the hypothetical of: If there had not been a striving competitor like the WCW where would WWE had gone next if there wasn’t a strong enough competition? Possibly straight to the PG Era that we are in now.

WWE once had a striving competitor in TNA, and with recognition they were able to change itself for a signature look. In it’s most popular life form they had the UFC styled, six-sided ring and the star power for the video game (only after the first), but that ship may have sailed as they continue with the lackluster gimmicks. The non-believable, but very athletic talent doesn’t quite even itself out in the game of Pros vs. Cons. TNA had a lot of star power, but didn’t showcase it, nor did they capitalized off of it to the best of their ability. If either TNA shapes up enough to compete with the mainstream visibility and likability of the WWE since they already have some great talent. Or another company that’s under the NWA umbrella looks to compete with the powerhouse that is WWE.

A lot can be done with televised wrestling to be catapulted into the mainstream like it once was, just as much that can be done with the WWE to send them into the next era of wrestling for better or worst. Life is a cycle and until we see something new again from televised wrestling whether from WWE or elsewhere we’ll stay in this stagnant, slow moving PG era and keep seeing everything that we’ve seen before that may not have been able to work before.