Historically Speaking: End of an Era

“History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten.” – George Santayana

The Opening Chapter
It’s WrestleMania season in the wrestling industry, and whether you like to admit it or not, it is the biggest North American professional wrestling event of each year. In World Wrestling Entertainment, the event is often seen as the end of the year, and the “new year” starts in April. Because it is such a monumental event it has often signaled either the beginning or the end of an era. WrestleMania has such finality to it that a paradigm shift can occur because of what happened at the event or immediately preceding it.

Ring of Honor does a good job promoting a new era in their promotion every time they get a new World Champion. In WWE when a new era develops it’s not so much cut-and-dry in regards to who is the Champion, but rather the company’s entire climate will change. In twenty-four years of WrestleMania history a lot of changes and shifts have happened within the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, and this is how they’ve gone down.

The Hogan Era
In the “good old days” an era actually meant a years-long reign for a champion. They were the flagship of the company and their time on top defined the promotion. In the WWWF world Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund ruled the territory for years at a time, really cementing themselves as THE guy for the promotion. Hulk Hogan was the last man in WWE history to really have his own era in the way that men like Sammartino and Backlund had in the past.

The era of “Hulkamania” was born in December 1983 when he pinned the Iron Sheik for the WWWF Championship. This signaled a change in how the McMahon empire would be run. Gone were Vince, Sr.’s champions who could wrestle hours on end and legitimately shoot on opponents. Welcome to Vince, Jr.’s “sports entertainment” where big muscles, flashy colors and entertainment outweighed athletic ability.

With Hogan on top, Vince, Jr. could usher in his new concept of WrestleMania, a supercard to beat all supercards. Celebrity involvement and mainstream attention became more important than a five star match. During the initial few years of the Hogan Era, a sub-era called the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection” was created. WWF paired with MTV for television special. Rock star Cindy Lauper became a wrestling manager and actor Mr. T. became a part-time wrestler. The WWF and Hogan in general were the talk of Sports Illustrated, Saturday Night Live, and were even the subjects of their own Saturday morning cartoon.

Hogan’s winning formula of taking on “evil foreigners” and “big fat monsters” in alternating programs was a great combination for years. Hogan ripped through the ‘80s taking out big guys like King Kong Bundy, Andre the Giant, Big John Studd and others while also keeping America safe from “evil foreigners” like Nikolai Volkoff, Kamala and Iron Sheik. When Hogan dropped the WWF Championship in early 1988 it would seem like this era was over, but in reality his run would continue for another four years. Even when Randy Savage or Ultimate Warrior was WWF Champion they would always end up in the shadow of Hogan when he wasn’t off filming a movie. During Savage’s yearlong run, he spent over half of that working as Hogan’s tag partner and “little buddy,’ despite being the Champion.

The Hogan Era officially ended at WrestleMania VII when he “retired” from the WWF. Ultimate Warrior was brought back in and given a Hogan seal of approval while Savage was back on top as WWF Champion.

Transition Era
What followed after Hogan’s initial departure was a weird transitional era where Vince was kind of throwing sh!t against the wall to see what would work. Savage and Warrior were main guys before so they were given runs at the top, along with Ric Flair, who was a proven NWA commodity. Then on a whim it was decided that mid-carder Bret “Hit Man” Hart, who was quite over with the fans, would get the big belt. He pinned Flair for the WWF Championship and embarked on a run against mid-carders and unproven acts like Shawn Michaels, Papa Shango and Razor Ramon. When super heavyweight Yokozuna arrived on the scene, it was throwback to a ‘80s staple, the big fat guy, who also happened to be foreign. It was Vince’s dream heel. Yoko got the WWF Championship within months of his arrival, but was soon fed to a returning Hulk Hogan. Hogan couldn’t recapture the magic on his second run and didn’t last more than a few months before he was on his way out again.

The New Generation
At WrestleMania X, Bret Hart beat Yokozuna for his second WWF Championship. He was given a hero’s welcome from the babyface locker room. That victory ushered in The New Generation. Bret Hart, a small athletic babyface took over as the company’s ace. Super heavyweight brawls in the main event were replaced by technical wrestling exhibitions put on by Hart and his opponents. The New Generation was filled with colorful gimmicks and wild characters. Men like Razor Ramon, “Made in the U.S.A” Lex Luger, Doink the Clown, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Owen Hart, 1-2-3 Kid and others became the top stars. This period was very child-friendly, with easy to follow storylines and simplistic one-dimensional characters. A good composite view of the New Generation would be Royal Rumble 1995.

post-New Generation
When WCW introduced Monday Nitro in the fall of ’95 it was evident that WWF would need to change their ways of thinking and doing business. Ntiro’s realistic look and format combined with live action made the WWF look cartoon-ish and outdated. Goofy gimmicks like the wrestling plumber and the clown were phased out. RAW’s taped results were given away live on the air on Nitro and WWF Women’s Champion Madusa dropped her belt in the garbage can on the same program. WWF spent the end of ’95 and early ’96 finding their niche before their new ace was crowned at WrestleMania XII.

pre-Attitude Era
Shawn Michaels became the guy at WrestleMania XII, beating Bret Hart in an hour-long iron man match. Michaels took over Hart’s role as young, small, underdog babyface. While the rest of the promotion was trying to find their footing, Michaels was at the top of the card putting on Match of the Year candidates with a variety of opponents ranging from super heavyweights like Sid, Diesel and Vader, brawlers like Mankind and well-rounded guys like Davey Boy Smith and Goldust. Michaels essentially carried the pay per views with his main events while the undercard was continually fleshed out and adjusted.

Heel versus heel matches were becoming more prevalent while characters became more complex and jaded. A crop of young stars like Rocky Maivia, Steve Austin, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Marc Mero and others were being groomed for top spots. The WWF was sorely missing out on established top stars during this era so the timing was right for new stars to make their mark, so to speak. Virtually all the kid-friendly gimmicks and neon colors were phased out or pushed down the card to make room for more adult themed characters, situations and language. As 1997 dawned it was clear to see that things were changing, drastically.

The Attitude Era
Of all the new stars being groomed through 1996, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the one to truly break out as a superstar. His match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 has become a masterpiece, especially among WrestleMania matches. The match was also the key in successful pulling a double turn between Austin and Hart, as Hart came into the match promoted as a babyface while Austin was loud-mouthed, foul language spewing, hell-raising heel. By the end of the match the roles reversed. The fans viewed Hart as a whiny loser and Austin as an everyman’s working hero. The Attitude Era was officially under way.

Austin and Hart tore up the top of the card through 1997 while Shawn Michaels was reinventing himself as a cocky, brash “degenerate.” Austin, with his cursing and coarse language, beer-drinking and anti-authoritative attitude and Michaels with his sophomoric pranks, skits and new DeGneration X stable led in a new way of thinking and acting in the World Wrestling Federation. Undertaker, who initially seemed like a one-note gimmick, was constantly changing and evolving his schtick to stay current with the company’s landscape. Bret Hart, who was one of the company’s go-to-guys through the first half of the ’90s was slowly falling behind the times, as his Canadian hero schtick seemed archaic in this new climate. Thus this created a unique situation where Hart and his Hart Foundation stable were cheered as babyfaces all around the world, but were the top heels in America. This type of situation was incredibly unique for the time and is still something of a rarity. With Austin ruling as an anti-hero, Michaels and Hart captaining their own feuding heel stables and Undertaker’s burgeoning story arc involving his “brother” Kane, WWF was at an all-time creative peak during this era.

When Steve Austin won the Championship at WrestleMania XIV, he became THE face of the World Wrestling Federation and the Attitude Era. Hart and Michaels, bastions of the ‘90s, had moved away from the company while men like Triple H, Mankind and a reinvented “The Rock” Rocky Maivia took their main event level spots.

Another new concept was the idea of the “evil boss.” Vince McMahon reinvented himself into the evil “Mr. McMahon” corporate boss. Previously on-air authorities or figureheads were only used in straight man roles. The Mr. McMahon character created a new type of villain, one that has been duplicated ad nauseum over the past decade. The Austin-McMahon war waged for over a year and half in the late ‘90s and was the real centerpiece of the Attitude Era.

While Austin winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV was the official start of “Attitude,” when Austin won the same Championship again three years later at WrestleMania XVII the era officially ended. Thanks to interference from his old rival Mr. McMahon, Austin pinned The Rock to once again become champion. The image of Austin and McMahon embracing at the end of the show, combined with the fall of both WCW and ECW signified the end of the most popular and successful era in WWF history.

InVasion
By the time WrestleMania XVII had come to pass, Vince McMahon and the WWF had bought its biggest competition in World Championship Wrestling. The third-ranked promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling had also gone bankrupt and many of their top stars and their promoter had become absorbed into the WWF. Wrestling fans salivated at the dream match possibilities now that WCW and its stars were under the WWF umbrella. Unfortunately this WCW invasion angle, which should’ve been a license to print money, failed miserably. The WCW talent weren’t booked on the same level as WWF’s top stars. They were hastily paired with a band of former ECW talent to form an “Alliance.” WWF stars were turned heel and paired with this “Alliance” for no real reason. And all of the top WCW stars, guys like Goldberg, Ric Flair, the nWo and others, weren’t brought into the company during this angle, leaving the WCW quite lopsided talent-wise.

The Brand Expansion
By 2002, the Invasion angle was mercifully over. Top WCW mainstays like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash all came into the WWF after the invasion was over. The WCW brand had failed, but the WWF still had plans to create two separate touring rosters. So through a convoluted story, all the talent under the WWF umbrella were divided up into separate RAW and SmackDown! touring rosters and were exclusive to that specific show and brand. The logic behind that was that the top stars wouldn’t burn out by appearing on all main shows and it would allow for the creation of new stars in a quicker fashion.

In addition to the new touring set-up, the WWF lost a court battle that forced them to change their iconic name to World Wrestling Entertainment so as to not use the WWF initials. There hadn’t been this many physical and cosmetic changes to WWE in many years. Their whole touring schedule, television production and business practices changed during this. The process of the brand expansion is a constantly evolving and changing process. A third brand, bearing the Extreme Championship Wrestling moniker, was added in 2006 and has slowly absorbed itself into the SmackDown! brand. New championships have been removed and added to fit the current model of operation.

The one thing this current era has been successful at doing is creating new stars and talent. With the advent of two World Championships more wrestlers have been given the opportunity to work at a main event level. When the expansion was developed, WWE was at the feet of Brock Lesnar. He was built as the new star of WWE and could’ve been the main event for as long as he wanted. When he left in 2004 the field was wide open for the new top guy. Since then three men, Batista, John Cena and Randy Orton, have taken those top spots and ran with them.

Since WrestleMania XXI in 2005, we have really been kind of living in the era of Cena and Batista. Both Cena and Batista won the WWE and World Championships respectively at that show and have been linked to those Championships ever since. The WWE Championship has been refashioned into a “blinged-out” spinner belt originally designed for Cena, and is still used currently, even though he hasn’t been champion since October 2007. Both men have won their respective championships three times each, and even though neither man is champion currently they are always top contenders for their belts. It’s also worth noting that both men are kept on opposite brands, as they both seem to act as cornerstones for their respective shows. This is similar to how Triple H and Undertaker are used as the veteran “measuring sticks” for each show. The initial stage of the brand expansion was going to follow that formula with Rock and Austin, where each man would “captain” their respective brand.

This current era borrows some of the more successful trappings of the Attitude era, but also leans on some of the more traditional aspects of the earlier eras. There’s gratuitous sex and violence but mixed in with basic heel/face alignments and child-friendly acts. It’s a combination of all the successful aspects from previous years.

The Perspective
The old cliché line about changing with the times rings true with World Wrestling Entertainment. As society shifts so do the attitude and perspective of WWE. Each paradigm shift in WWE has brought about new stars, new concepts and new parts of the fanbase. Men like Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart who thrived during some eras, looked out of place or ill fitting in a different timeframe. It’s not always a hard and fast “break” that splits up the company’s different timelines but looking back over twenty-five years of history it’s now easy to see where the divisions fall, who the main players were and what the mood of the company was like. As we approach another WrestleMania the question looms whether the company is about enter another change in direction. Perhaps we could be seeing the era of Chuck Palumbo. Or perhaps not, but at least he has a better shot at it now than Jeff Hardy does. Then again at this point I think even Colin Delaney has a better chance at being the man than Hardy.

For this week the vault is closed…

Linked to the Pulse
The Top 100 Wrestlers feature is back! Here’s #47 and #48.

It’s not often I get to plug the boss, but he stopped in with a rare column lamenting the Cruiserweight Championship. It’s good stuff.

David B. reminds us all about Muhammad Hassan and his “death.”

This Day in History
I figured if we are talking history around here we should pay homage to what has happened on this very day in the years gone by. It will either make you long for the old days or be happy for what we have now.

1985 – Terry Taylor defeated Ted DiBiase for the Mid-South North American Heavyweight title
1995 – Bryan Adams (Crush) is arrested on drug and firearms charges in Kona, HI
1995 – PG-13 defeated Doug Gilbert & Tommy Rich for the USWA Tag Team title
2000 – ECW Living Dangerously was held at the O’Neill Center in Danbury, CT
2000 – Pete Gas defeated Crash Holly for the WWF Hardcore title
2000 – Crash Holly defeated Pete Gas for the WWF Hardcore title
2000 – Dean Malenko defeated Essa Rios for the WWF Light Heavyweight title
2001 – Crash Holly defeated Dean Malenko for the WWF Light Heavyweight title

1966 – Akira Nogami was born
1969 – Masakatsu Funaki was born
1969 – Yoshihiro Takayama was born
1999 – Karl Von Hess died of a heart attack at 56

The Assignment
It’s important to know your history to know where you have come from and where you are going. Back when Nova was in charge of the WWE developmental system he implemented mandatory history assignments for the students of the developmental territories so they would know pro wrestling’s history and they would learn just how many moves Nova created and apparently the best ways to get on-line prescriptions. I feel Nova had a great idea there and every week I will assign a book or DVD for you to check out and learn from. They are not only educational but very entertaining.

I recently saw RF Video’s “Life in the Fast Lane,” a highlight package of some of RF Video’s best shoot interviews. I’ve never seen any of the full length shoots that RF puts out fairly regularly, but after watching this DVD, I’m inclined to pick up a few. Basically this just takes some of the best bits from a variety of shoot interviews and puts them together in a great highlight preview package. Some spots are interesting and poignant, like Sid talking about the scissor incident, and others are just downright laugh-out-loud funny. Chris Candido tells a great story about getting drunk with Sandman and Tammy Sytch en route to a show where Candido and Sandman are the main event. It somehow ends up with them all back in the motel wearing matching strip club t-shirts, and none of them remember how they got them. Marty Jannetty brings up how many women he and Shawn used to get when they were at their Rockers heyday. Honkytonk Man shows off his giant handle of vodka he carries with him everywhere he goes. If you’re entertained at all by shoot interviews, this is an easy pick-up. The special features also include some bonus matches, including a comedy Super Crazy-Tajiri match and pretty good Low Ki-Eddy Guerrero match.