I think calling it overrated based on the lack of pure wrestling is pretty misguided because you never hear anyone praising the AE for its quality of great wrestling, you hear them praising it for its characters, storylines, and the fact that the WWF were always putting on a must-see show every week that you knew you had to watch and couldn't afford to miss. And even then, there were still a long list of exciting matches, its just that many of them were gimmick matches and garbage brawls. But if it's entertaining fights that you want and not just technical masterpieces, they're there.
If we're being unbiased and putting aside all subjective preferences, there is no objective argument to calling the Attitude Era "overrated" that holds up. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and it certainly had its fair share of terrible moments that most people would prefer to forget about, but it also produced some of the biggest stars (Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Mick Foley, etc.), one of the biggest factions (D-Generation X), and some of the most historical and talked about rivalries that the industry has ever seen (Austin vs McMahon, Austin vs Rock, Rock vs HHH, Rock vs Foley, HHH vs Foley, etc.), and when you break it all down, the good far outweighs the bad.
You can't deny its impact. They've released two separate DVD sets and a large book about the AE, what other era or time period have they done that for? Hell, just look at next year's Wrestlemania - they have to sell 100,000 tickets to fill the AT&T Stadium, and right now what is their planned main event for accomplishing that? Oh, yeah - The Rock vs Triple H. Two Attitude Era stars looking to rekindle their feud from back then one last time. The prospect of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (another Attitude Era star) wrestling one final match is also an interesting talking point for many people in relation to next year's show as well. Parts of the AE still live on today, as you can see.
