Attitude Era vs Ruthless Aggression Era

[HunterHearstJericho]

Debate time! what era do you guys like more? The Attitude Era or the Ruthless Aggression Era, both were great, although I was around for the Ruthless Aggression Era therefore being my favorite. If I had been around for the Attitude Era I would probably like it more, although I did watch alot of the Attitude Era on the internet over the years. Why I like the Ruthless Aggression Era more? Brand extension, it created more competition especially between the two brands, the general managers had a huge purpose during large parts of the Ruthless Aggression Era, ECW was pretty good up until the PG era. Also we saw the rise of many stars we watch today and back then they were enjoyable and a majority of the fans liked them, it seems today that fans in the arena choose to boo the faces more than the heels, although years ago, regardless of how they were liked the heels were booed and the faces were cheered, anyways back to the topic. Ruthless Aggression also gave many stars chances at the main event as we had Stone Cold and Rocky make their exit's. So guys, what do you like better, why do you like it better?

 

[Roadster]

AE was cool
RAE was full of cheap pleas to get fans back (i.e lots of sexual stuff)

 

[Prince Bálor]

The AE, baybay!

 

[Majour]

AE was cool
RAE was full of cheap pleas to get fans back (i.e lots of sexual stuff)

In fairness, AE was also full of sexual stuff- bra and panties, stink face match etc.

I didn't watch a lot of RAE, as a kid I didn't like the roster split- ironic as now I wouldn't mind it so much.

 

[Roadster]

I loved the brand split.

SMACKDOWN 4 LYFE

 

[The GOAT]

Attitude Era by far. Ruthless Aggression had the much better wrestling (at least compared to 98-99 AE), but great wrestling isn't enough to keep me entertained over things like great characters, promos, storylines, memorable moments, etc., and the AE has the RA beat by a country mile on all of those other things. Plus, the AE was one-half of the Monday Night Wars, the most unique and intense period in wrestling history. On any given week, you might see someone from the rival promotion jump ship to the other company and that was part of the must-see appeal the shows had to them every week.

People (some of who were even working in the company at the time... See: Edge) like to say the Attitude Era was overrated, but I think the Ruthless Aggression is, personally. Not that it wasn't a good era, but people act like it was the mecca of great in-ring action, but it's been severely over-hyped. Today's era is more talented in that aspect, and yet why do so many people still complain about the quality of the shows today? Because the characters/promos/storylines/etc. aren't as good as they used to be or could be.

 

[Roadster]

Attitude Era is overrated because people act like it was the greatest thing ever, every week. If I remember correctly, just about 90% of the Attitude Era was cringe-worthy and unwatchable (i.e Val Venis' pee pee cut, Sable's promos, Gang Warfare, 3 incarnations of DX in a span of 3 years etc.)

 

[The GOAT]

Attitude Era is overrated because people act like it was the greatest thing ever, every week. If I remember correctly, just about 90% of the Attitude Era was cringe-worthy and unwatchable (i.e Val Venis' pee pee cut, Sable's promos, Gang Warfare, 3 incarnations of DX in a span of 3 years etc.)

The positives still far outweighed the negatives and was more entertaining as a whole for most people than any other era in WWE history. All you've done is highlight a few of its low points and tried to dismiss the era as a whole based off of those things (typical of an AE critic.) Every era has it's highs and lows.

I don't even find a couple of the things you mentioned that awful. The "I choppy your pee-pee" was funny stuff. Sure, Sable sucked on the mic, but that doesn't separate her from the grand majority of Divas and it's not like anyone was tuning in to see her tremendous verbal skills on display anyway. She was hot, and was the first Diva they really marketed in an overly-sexual manner (horny teenagers were one of the main demos back then, of course.)

AE had some of the most iconic and entertaining feuds in history - Austin vs Vince, Austin vs Rock, Rock vs HHH (great feuds over both the Intercontinental and World Championships), Rock vs Foley, Undertaker vs Kane (the original chapter of their feud is one of the greatest storylines in history), HHH vs Foley, etc. - as well as some of the most charismatic personalities in history as well. Stone Cold, The Rock, "The Game" Triple H, D-X, Mr. McMahon, the three faces of Foley, Undertaker's American Badass persona, Kane, a few of the greatest debuts in history (Jericho, Kane, etc.), one of the strongest tag team divisions in history, etc.

 

[Roadster]

The positives still far outweighed the negatives and was more entertaining as a whole for most people than any other era in WWE history. All you've done is highlight a few of its low points and tried to dismiss the era as a whole based off of those things (typical of an AE critic.) Every era has it's highs and lows.

I don't even find a couple of the things you mentioned that awful. The "I choppy your pee-pee" was funny stuff. Sure, Sable sucked on the mic, but that doesn't separate her from the grand majority of Divas and it's not like anyone was tuning in to see her tremendous verbal skills on display anyway. She was hot, and was the first Diva they really marketed in an overly-sexual manner (horny teenagers were one of the main demos back then, of course.)

AE had some of the most iconic and entertaining feuds in history - Austin vs Vince, Austin vs Rock, Rock vs HHH (great feuds over both the Intercontinental and World Championships), Rock vs Foley, Undertaker vs Kane (the original chapter of their feud is one of the greatest storylines in history), HHH vs Foley, etc. - as well as some of the most charismatic personalities in history as well. Stone Cold, The Rock, "The Game" Triple H, D-X, Mr. McMahon, the three faces of Foley, Undertaker's American Badass persona, Kane, a few of the greatest debuts in history (Jericho, Kane, etc.), one of the strongest tag team divisions in history, etc.

Taking the highlights of a 5 year span, and saying the time was good. Typical of a AE mark.

There's a reason no one remember anything from the midcard ranks of the era. You always hear about Edge vs. Guerrero, Benoit vs. Angle, Guerrero vs. Mysterio etc, but nothing about AE's feuds. AE had an awesome ME scene but a horrible mid-card, lightweight and tag team scene.

 

[Rogue]

Ruthless Aggression gave us one of the best WrestleManias, some of the best feuds, some of the best characters, and John Cena. So yeah, I choose that.

 

[Zany Clowny]

See here's the thing, SmackDown during that period was the best wrestling I've watched. I just loved it so much.

But Raw, man...yeah, you had some decent feud, but every single fucking episode, you'd see Triple H doing what Rollins does now and is cut a promo for 20 minutes to start the show.

The attitude era was mostly RAW anyway, SmackDown came into it later on in 1999, and to me the attitude era ended around 2001.

I'm going with Ruthless Aggression.

 

[The GOAT]

Taking the highlights of a 5 year span, and saying the time was good. Typical of a AE mark.

There's a reason no one remember anything from the midcard ranks of the era. You always hear about Edge vs. Guerrero, Benoit vs. Angle, Guerrero vs. Mysterio etc, but nothing about AE's feuds. AE had an awesome ME scene but a horrible mid-card, lightweight and tag team scene.

lol And those highlights cover literally about 90% of the entire period as far as the main event picture goes. If the main highlights of an era aren't as least mostly comprised of stuff that went on in the main event scene, then it's probably a bad sign, since the main event is always the main thing that carries the show (hence why it's called 'The Main Event.')

And it's not entirely true that no one remembers anything from the midcard but I can't be arsed listing all of the things that would prove you wrong on that point. I did already mention a couple of things though, namely the epic rivalry between Rock and Hunter for the IC Champion in '98 that culminated in two great consecutive matches (one a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match, the other a Ladder Match), etc.

 

[Swift]

Attitude Era.

 

[Pop Tatari]

1995 era

 

[Rogue]

AE was cool
RAE was full of cheap pleas to get fans back (i.e lots of sexual stuff)

Attitude Era is overrated because people act like it was the greatest thing ever, every week. If I remember correctly, just about 90% of the Attitude Era was cringe-worthy and unwatchable (i.e Val Venis' pee pee cut, Sable's promos, Gang Warfare, 3 incarnations of DX in a span of 3 years etc.)

Flip flopped fast af, haha.