Mark Savage's First WWR Column

After been at the o2 for the WWE Raw house show I was taken aback at the amount of kids that where there, OK so the WWE is now PC and aiming the Wrestling product at kids and that's all thanks to John Cena, also taken into fact that it was 4 years since the WWE last came to Dublin due to the rebuilding of the o2 (formally the Point Depot)

When I like many others around my age now got into wrestling when it was fun, and interesting, we had WWE Superstars and WWE Wrestling Challenge, at the time there was only 4  PPVs Royal Rumble in January, Wrestlemania in March/April Summer Slam in August and Survivor Series in November,

Both Challenge and Superstars mainly comprise in wrestlers facing jobbers, from time to time we would be treated to superstar vs superstar and while it didn't happen that often we had a few title changes. That's what got the fans going, also not to forget in interview segments  Jake the Snake with the Snake Pit, Rowdy Roddy Piper's pit, Funeral parlour with Paul Bearer and not forgetting the infamous Brother Love Show, at these segments is where quite a few feuds have started for example, Jake the Snake vs Undertaker which lead to a match at Wrestlemania, Roddy Piper vs Superfly Jimmy Snuka, Big Boss Man vs Akeem, Hulk Hogan vs Earthquake, Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jennetty (this was after Shawn Michaels superkicked Jennetty and threw him into the glass on the Barber Shop on Challenge,

And as for the commentators on both Superstars and Challenge they where entertaining further more there was a heel and face commentary the matches, when superstars started back in 86 Vince McMahon was on commentary (little did we know at the time he owned the company) up to byond 1995 it started out with Vince and Ventura then Vince would share the commentary team along with Piper, Savage, Hony Tonk, Mr Perfect, Jerry The King Lawlor, while on Challenge it was Gorilla Monsoon and Judo Al Hayes, Ted DiBiase, Dok Hendrix, and Jim Ross just to name a few,

Even back then the PPV's where better as it had a better feuds and it seem to last longer considering the was only 4 PPV’s  and an extra PPV called King of the Ring which arrived in 93. in May of 1995 WWE start it’s PPV every month starting with In Your house after IYH 6 WWE started having theme PPV’s first one being Good Friends Better Enemies ,

New Generation

WWF promoted itself under the banner of "The New WWF Generation," featuring Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker. In an effort to promote them and other young talent as the new superstars of the ring, these guys where getting great pushes, I felt even at the time WWE relied to much on the likes of Hulk Hogan and Macho Man, who both worked for rival company WCW, even Vince McMahon decided to reveal that he owns the company further more he had become a heel, and he played it well, and he proved how much of a heel he was by getting himself involved in the infamous “Montreal Screwjob” at the Survivor Series in 1997 involving  Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, Bret left the company to join rival company WCW, the Monday Night wars began between WWE and WCW, during that time the WWE had done well to up it’s game with Degeneration X being involved in part of the attitude era, which became bit more violence, swearing and more edgy angles and the fans enjoyed and the monthly PPV’s where just as good,

By January 1998, the WWF began broadcasting more violence, swearing, and more edgy angles in its attempt to compete with WCW. After Bret Hart left for WCW following the Montreal Screwjob incident, Vince McMahon used the resulting backlash in the creation of his "Mr. McMahon" character, a dictatorial and fierce ruler who favored heels who were "good for business" over "misfit" faces like Austin. This, in turn, led to the Austin vs. McMahon feud, which, along with D-Generation X, officially began the Attitude Era. It also featured the established Monday Night Wars, where both WCW and the WWF had Monday night shows that competed against each other in the ratings. Many new wrestlers came into the WWF such as Chris Jericho, The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Dean Malenko) and the 1996 Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle, whilst the characters of The Rock (renamed from Rocky Maivia), and Mick Foley (as Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love) were successfully re-invented to compete at the main event level. This era also saw the evolution of more brutal matches with different stipulations to increase viewership, mainly the furthering of Hell in a Cell (notably its second appearance featuring The Undertaker vs. Mankind) and the Inferno match (introduced by Kane against The Undertaker)

So where did it go wrong? 2 words, John Cena, when he came into the WWE in 2002 he was a heel and came in as a rapper, we never really had a problem with Cena until he became the United States champion where he pimped the belt, the WWE thought it was a good idea on the back of “Pimp my ride” which was popular in the states, this sends shivers up my spine as it disrespects other United States champions and to make matter worse, when he became the WWE champion he pimped the belt which disrespected other former WWE champions like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Bret Hit Man Hart and Shawn Michaels just to name a few. Even yours truly contacted WWE to get rid of that spinning belt but to day this it’s still in action, further more, some of the story line in the WWE are finishing quick and some of the wresting action (with the no blood and gone PC also thanks to Cena) the WWE is slowly dying.