Then And Now 1980's-2016

[Zardnaar]

Back in my day, get off my lawn.

For the last couple of months I have been using the WWE network to watch the main events and bits of Smackdown/RAW. Apparently the hardcore wrestling fan is 40 years old and has been watching since Hulkamania. Ha I am 38. I missed the Ruthless Aggression Era and started pating attention to wrestling again when I heard The Ultimate Warrior died (I was a fan of him back in the 80's and he beat Hogan at WM VI yay).

Generally I find older wrestling hard to watch even if I was there at the time, 1980's wrestling in particular. The 1990's is not so bad if you look at the best of it (Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Attitude Era) but overall it was crap with until the Monday Night Wars with 1995 being a low point along with most of 1996. 1980's was mostly squash matches with the stars coming out at the main events, WCW at least changed that.

And now we have the PG era although it is now the new era apparently. For me the best parts of the Attitude Era was the storylines and star power with some of the violence (Foley/Taker Hell in a Cell 1998) but I can live without bra and panty type matches and I never really liked Sable. Put simply there are bits and pieces each decade/era whatever has done well and I will make a pro's list highlighting what I like from then and now. I will more or less exclude the 1980's as see previous comment about 80's wrestling being hard to watch or look at best and worst Wrestlemania's.

Things They Do Better

2016
Overall Quality of the Wrestling Matches.
The in ring skills are better and I find it easier to watch and I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of 2016. As I understand things 2014/15 were not so great but as I said I was around in 1995 and 1996 which had some of the worst main events WWF has ever made. Or Wrestlemania IX as well.

Womens Wrestling
Never really liked womens wrestling because it was booked bad, mostly came across as pointless/gimmick and in the Atitudee Era it was sexist/stupid. Don't get me wrong I do not minfd looking at naked and near naked women but if I want to do that there are other mediums as opposed to Wrestling.

Natural Look
I think the wrestlers look better now than say the 1980's/90's. John Cena is comparable in weight to Stone Cold Steve Austin and the 300 pounders like Rusev look like weight lifters and not steroid junkies. The big over weight monster heel type characters are mostly gone as well (Yokozuna, Earthquake, Tugboat etc).

Overall Quality of the Roster
There are multiple wrestlers on the brand split who are viable contenders for the titles between the two brands. They might be lacking a bit on each individual show but back in the day you might be lucky to have 3 or 4 main event types. For example watch the 1996 Royal Rumble it was all about Shawn Michaels and the roster was very thin at the time although a lot of them 2 or 3 years later were very hot. Some dude called The Ringmaster did alright so I have heard.

90's

Star Power.
The highlights of the 1990's were mostly carried by a relative handful of wrestlers. Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and say Austin/Rock/Foley/Kane/Triple H/Undertaker in the late 90's. Hogan in the 1980s/early 90's and his heel run in WCW and Nash and Hall as well. The modern era has no Hogan/Austin/Rock equivalent who are a once in a generation type star. AJ Styles might be able to get to the level of Shawn/Bret and Cena is the closest thing I can think of to Hogan.

Storylines.
Partly related to star power but there was an element of must see TV with the Attitude Era. Stone Cold Austins feud with Vince, the early NWO, Undertaker and Kanes storyline. These storytlines were carried by the star power of the wrestlers involved and the quality of the booking and creative team. Even in the pre Monday Night Wars you had things like Owen and Bret feud.

Easier to Follow
Watching old RAW or Monday Night Nitro you could get your wrestling fix with 2 hours of TV. Two hours is not two hard to digest and you got to see your favourite wrestlers. RAW is 3 hours now but what if you like AJ Styles that is another 2 hours of Smackdown. I watch the highlights and main events I do not want to watch 5 hours of wrestling a week. At least 5 hours of modern wrestling I can handle 3 or 4 episodes of RAW from 1998/99 even if I know how a lot of the storylines play out.

 

[The Phenom]

The attitude era was the greatest it can never be duplicated however The "New" era brings something different to the table as you said the quality Is much better no sexist bra & panties matches (I did enjoy watching tho have to admit) I mean charlotte and Sasha are going to be in a cell that's groundbreaking, the cruiserweights are back, Aj styles is the WWE Champion this is stuff I didnt see coming from the WWE.....as far as wrestling is concerned this is the most and best wrestling I've ever seen..... some of these guys and now gals are truly talented

 

[Jacob Fox]

I dunno, I have been watching wrestling since the Rock n Wrestling era. I definitely like watching old wrestling from the 80s, wrestling from the 90's, 2000's and now in the 2010's.

The wrestling is different, yes. It's evolved. But just because it has evolved doesn't mean the older stuff didn't have merit in its own entertainment value.

If you simply look at WWF matches, then I think you have a better point. Generally the matches in the Hogan times were kept very short and somewhat routine. You would occasionally get a gem like the WrestleMania 3 match between Savage and Steamboat. But in the NWA and the AWA, I strongly disagree. There were many, many excellent matches on a consistent basis in both. There wasn't as much aerial stuff, but that doesn't necessarily make a match even today.

I dunno. I love wrestling today, but I tend to prefer Japanese wrestling over American. But there's very little today that I would prefer to watch over a classic Flair match, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Rick Martel... the list goes on.

The current product has a problem of oversaturation, in my opinion. There is so much programming and so many matches that are just recycled over and over and over.

 

[Zardnaar]

I dunno, I have been watching wrestling since the Rock n Wrestling era. I definitely like watching old wrestling from the 80s, wrestling from the 90's, 2000's and now in the 2010's.

The wrestling is different, yes. It's evolved. But just because it has evolved doesn't mean the older stuff didn't have merit in its own entertainment value.

If you simply look at WWF matches, then I think you have a better point. Generally the matches in the Hogan times were kept very short and somewhat routine. You would occasionally get a gem like the WrestleMania 3 match between Savage and Steamboat. But in the NWA and the AWA, I strongly disagree. There were many, many excellent matches on a consistent basis in both. There wasn't as much aerial stuff, but that doesn't necessarily make a match even today.

I dunno. I love wrestling today, but I tend to prefer Japanese wrestling over American. But there's very little today that I would prefer to watch over a classic Flair match, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Rick Martel... the list goes on.

The current product has a problem of oversaturation, in my opinion. There is so much programming and so many matches that are just recycled over and over and over.

AFAIK AWA and NWA was not broadcast here but you could find the occasional VHS of it. They were the only other wrestling companies I knew that existed back in the 80's.

I knew nothing about the territory system at the time, we just assumed they were other smaller wrestling companies and I think I saw 1-2 NWA tapes and maybe 1 AWA tape.

We had WWF superstars of wrestling late on a friday night that was around 6 months out of date and you could get the main events on VHS. I find a lot of the older WWF main events hard to watch say WM I-VI, the early rumbles etc.

 

[Solidus1]

Good read, I enjoy your writing.
I share the same opinions as you, mostly.

 

[Jacob Fox]

AFAIK AWA and NWA was not broadcast here but you could find the occasional VHS of it. They were the only other wrestling companies I knew that existed back in the 80's.

I knew nothing about the territory system at the time, we just assumed they were other smaller wrestling companies and I think I saw 1-2 NWA tapes and maybe 1 AWA tape.

We had WWF superstars of wrestling late on a friday night that was around 6 months out of date and you could get the main events on VHS. I find a lot of the older WWF main events hard to watch say WM I-VI, the early rumbles etc.

Ah, well that makes sense. If you haven't watched much of it and have access to it nowadays, I'd say you should watch some of those old NWA and AWA matches to see if you feel the same way about them as the WWF stuff.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ah, well that makes sense. If you haven't watched much of it and have access to it nowadays, I'd say you should watch some of those old NWA and AWA matches to see if you feel the same way about them as the WWF stuff.

I remember at the time some of he hipsters liked AWA/NWA better. I remember some people talking about barbed wire matches but I never saw one until the mid 90's IIRC. Wrestling here was popular 1988/89 apparently you could see it in the mid 80's but I do not remember it from then although I remember other TV shows from the early 80's (some of which screened in the US in the 1970's). THere was a grand total of 2 TV channels, we got a 3rd in 89, a 4th in 96/97 and satelite TV with 3 channels in 1989.

Being kids we all ran around clothes lining each other and the Bushwhackers were very popular because they were from New Zealand.