Negatives of the Attitude Era

[Dolph'sZiggler]

People honestly knew wrestling was 'fake' at least since 1989 when Vince admitted it for the first time. It even made major news (there might be a Youtube video of it floating aorund) when he did it.

Many people knew it was fake long before this shit, and plenty of kids/ignoramuses thought it was still real after. Vince admitting wrestling was fake in 1989 didn't mean every person from coast to coast got a text message on their smart phone that said "Breaking: wrestling is fake"

Just because this hearing happened doesn't mean kayfabe needed to be cast aside. When you are watching TV, say it's Breaking Bad, would you like for someone to come up to Walter White and be like "Hey, you're that guy from Malcolm in the Middle!" ofc not, because when you watch Breaking Bad you look at Bryan Cranston as Walter White, because you are suspending your disbelief. Same with wrestling. Yea, most watching know it is fake, doesn't mean I want to be constantly reminded of it while I'm trying to enjoy the programming.

 

[Snowman1]

Here's another one: It really put an end to jobber matches. Ever since then it's been two guys both trying to get over at the same time, and the actual jobber matches simply don't do the same thing that they used to unless it's an impressive wrestler (Ryback/Henry)

Would be a lot easier to see Sheamus squash jobbers every week instead of promising young talent

 

[Lockard 23]

Many people knew it was fake long before this shit, and plenty of kids/ignoramuses thought it was still real after. Vince admitting wrestling was fake in 1989 didn't mean every person from coast to coast got a text message on their smart phone that said "Breaking: wrestling is fake"

Just because this hearing happened doesn't mean kayfabe needed to be cast aside. When you are watching TV, say it's Breaking Bad, would you like for someone to come up to Walter White and be like "Hey, you're that guy from Malcolm in the Middle!" ofc not, because when you watch Breaking Bad you look at Bryan Cranston as Walter White, because you are suspending your disbelief. Same with wrestling. Yea, most watching know it is fake, doesn't mean I want to be constantly reminded of it while I'm trying to enjoy the programming.

I already agreed with the point you've made in that regard in my first post of the thread. There is a difference between knowing you have to suspend disbelief and people breaking character in the middle of the show itself, I agree this is obvious. As I pointed out though, I don't think WWF abused this in the same way that WCW did, except for maybe Beaver Cleavage or whatever. If I remember, he said "I can't do this anymore" during a live promo on Raw but even that wasn't that bad as it just showed that he (the person) was just trying to put on a character for entertainment purposes. We all knew that guy was Mosh beforehand anyway. It's much different in WCW when they were acting as if the whole show was real but then suddenly saying it wasn't in the middle of the show and pretending they were being controversial in doing so, and then seconds later going back to pretending the show as all real again. I've always compared the stupidity to someone like John McClane in the middle of a firefight in Die Hard and then quickly looking to the camera and saying/asking the audience in a joking way how he is he gonna get himself out of this one.

Anyway, the post of mine you quoted was mainly responding to Dat Kid's comment (though I didn't quote his post, it was right above my previous comment) about "people were just starting to realize wrestling was pre-determined." I was just throwing out a bit of trivia for the hell of it.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

It seems to me you are more or less giving WWF a pass just because WCW was a worse offender. I can't find a video but I can recall Al Snow coming out dressed as Shinobi and started saying "what the hell am I doing this again for? I'll never get over with this gimmick!"

I get that Russo-WCW took it to the extreme, but WWF shouldn't get a pass for this stupidity.

I was thinking about it though and the worst part is definitely the constant flipping from heel to face, as well as the rapid fire way they burned through all the big match ups (which is a very unfortunate long term result of the AE on today's WWE).

 

[Lockard 23]

Actually, I honestly couldn't think of an example other than Beaver Cleveage. I wouldn't be willing to give them a pass just because WCW took it to other extremes as I'm easily critical of several things in the AE as it is anyway. I've even pointed out to people that criticizing WCW for things like them giving away too many big matches or big things on TV (like Hogan/Goldberg) is silly since WWF did the same thing, and arguably did it worse. The WWF Title switched hands eight times (twice more if you count post-Attitude Era later in the year 2001) on free TV. They also gave away plenty of big things on TV that could have been saved for PPV. They were both guilty of this since they were burning candles at both ends (as Vince himself put it) to try and compete with each other.

I think WWF gets a slight pass from some people for the 'breaking of kayfabe' thing because the positives of their show still outweighed the negatives in other areas. You can get away with shit so long as it isn't all shit. Same couldn't be said about WCW in 2000.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Burning candles at both ends is such a great way to put it. I guess too much of a good thing really is a bad thing, as it turned out in the long run.