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.
