WhatCulture Wrestling

10 Things You Learn Binge Watching WWE's Ruthless Aggression Era - WWE Draft Problems! How Great Batista Was! WWE ECW Is Even Weirder! Better Women’s Wrestling Than You Remember?!

Out with WWE's 'Attitude' and in with "Ruthless Aggression", but...was it any good? Simon Miller presents 10 Things You Learn Binge Watching WWE's Ruthless Aggression Era...

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Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 10 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hi, this is Farneesh Tarabi, host of the Webby Winning podcast So Money. If you're aiming for a goal, be it saving for a house, growing your family or retiring, life makes it difficult to stay the course. But with a dedicated Merrill Advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. Having the bull at your back helps your whole financial life move with you. So when your plans change, Merrill's with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com/bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fennern and Smith Incorporated registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member S.I.P.C. This summer, Instacart presents famous summer flavors come into your front door, or pool, or hotel. Your grocery delivery has arrived, sir. That was faster than room service. No violence in the lobby. Seriously? Anyway, sit back, relax, and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes, starring your favorite snacks, drinks, and more. Download Instacart for free delivery on your first three orders, rated H for hungry audiences, offer valid for a limited time, minimum $10 per order excludes restaurants, additional terms, and fees apply. The ruthless aggression era was the very difficult follow-up album. The WWE had exploded with the ad-tude era, and that caught off the company rebranded, and from 2002 to 2008 tried again. There were ups and downs, obviously. If you went around though, or just want to walk down memory lane, my name is Simon Miller, and it's 10 things you learn when binge watching it today. 10. The Ad-tude Adjustment Sorry, I shouldn't have done it, I suck. It is just so obvious that when you do go through all this, WWE doesn't really know what to do. They were still doing well as a promotion, but compared to the ad-tude era, it was night and day. When you are a business, you don't want to compare the numbers and realize they're heading in the wrong direction. This is why some of the ruthless aggression days are way crazier than what came before, 'cause my word. In a desperate attempt to refine the magic, some of the stories are just offensive, even those involved came after and said the same. That is why you get the Katy Vic story that poorly ended Billy and Chuck angle, and hot lesbian action. That's not a figurative turn of phrase either. WWE just sent two women to the ring, and told them to kiss. Stupid wrestling. It comes mostly in 2002 and 2003 as WWE saw of adjusts, but even after that. Just so bad and as aged horribly. The Kane Triple H stuff especially, who thought Necrophilia was good for anyone. 9. The Very Difficult Single Brand Paper Views This was always going to happen. As soon as WWE split Rowan smacked down, the trial of single-brad paper views was going to start. Look at it this way, they don't do them today. Sums it up. While they were good and the sense more people got on the shows, it just took away the magic. These events seemed to happen every couple of weeks and after a while they all blurred into one. Go back to 2007 especially and check out some of the matches. You won't believe they actually existed. For example, Christopher Nowinski and Rodney Mack versus the Dudley Boys. It's not that this was bad either, but I feel the card it was rushed and it felt like something you would have just seen on Smackdown. Paper views can't feel that way, because the whole point is to get people to put their hand in their pocket. WWE persevered with this for 4 years, but yeah, it was most definitely not the answer. 8. The Good Women's Wrestling Do I get why you don't remember this? We just talked about hot lesbian action. It is such a shame though as there were a group of women who couldn't be bothered with these out-of-date stereotypes, so when out of their way to prove regardless of sex, we can work just as well as anybody else. Trish Strass reworked the whole division though, as did Mickey James. Plus, you've had Beth Phoenix and Victoria just smashing each other right in the face. It's wrestling. WWE was still very much into the diva look, but this lock didn't care. Melina eventually worked herself into this mix too, and her eye quit match with Beth Phoenix at one ninth stand 2008 is just a war. Eventually Michelle McCall would carry this one and she has been very vocal about it all. Management literally telling the women they're not allowed to wrestle like the men. I mean, that is just a stupid thing to say. 7. Don't Ignore the Sea Shows Today we have the likes of WWE main event and level up as our so-called sea shows. They mostly exist to fulfill quotas, but hey, you do get some good matches between some up-and-coming talent. Plus, you'll see some main raster guys to boot. This was the same joy the ruthless aggression here, except the passages of time have been super kind to the likes of velocity and Sunday night heat, because you can see the stars of tomorrow today. I mean, in August 2003, John Cena and Daniel Bryan just have a match, because why not? And you get Paul London vs. Accio, which you have to see. You could put that on any show right now and people would love it. William Regal often turns up on these as well and goes full-on technical wrestling, because there was less rules on these types of TV programs. It's almost like an alternative reality, WWE. Here's a right treat to watch. I'm sure the time people didn't get it, but that is the power of nostalgia. Think WWE has uploaded a few of these to their vault channel on YouTube? What's them all immediately? #6 WWE CW is just weird. If you do indeed watch every single show during the ruthless aggression era, it means you see the rebirth of ECW in WWE. It is so strange. It starts well because it is extreme champions in wrestling as much as it could be, after a while. Sheesh, talk about watering something down. Some people blame the fact that WWE went PG in 2008, but that is not true. Long before that ECW had become a cartoon, because some bees and vampires turned up. I don't think that was part of Paul Heyman's vision. The December 26th member pay-per-view is also widely regarded as a disaster, and there were so many issues with it behind the scenes. Paul and Vince McMahon fell out for years over it. Just a mess. Aside from the one-night stab pay-per-views, there's just nothing really to see here. And if you do remember the late 90s, my words will be sad. This was not it. #5 John Cena Puts In The Work John Cena from 2002 to 2008 is just a warrior. Sure, eventually he was going to become a divisive figure, but we do not give him his do's. He took advantage of every single opportunity. Then us be cleared too. While slightly unorthodox, Cena was always good on the ring, as he took on the likes of Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels, he raised the game. And even when he had to be the smaller man against the big show in Great Carly, he found a way. The man was damn perfect for WWE. The fours count anywhere about against Carly from one-night stand 2007 is proof of this, because John makes you believe he is actually in trouble. It's a baby-faced masterclass. Cena never deserved the hate he did receive, because most of that came from the way he was booked. And somehow translated into his overall work, but it's not accurate. There is a reason he changed the industry. That dude was ready. #4 The Greatness Of Batista It is a recurring thread Dave Batista does not get his do. This man was well better than we give him credit for. It took a while to get through the ridiculous Deacon Batista alongside Devon Dudley, but come 2005 when he's had his evolution run, and yeah. You can see why the powers that be picked him, not just because he's jacked. If nothing else, he gets megapops every single time, and the man looks like a star. I would imagine WWE breathed a huge sigh of relief when Brock Lesnar left in 2004, because they remember they had this guy. He steps in effortlessly. Big Dave is also a hero as he has spoken about even when he was on top of the world, he was suffering with feelings of self-doubt and even anxiety. Talk about giving us the green light to feel okay about our own struggles, if this dude went through it, surely we all do. When he finally does go into the hall of fame, it'll be so deserved, but yeah. Batista is excellent, and the ruthless aggression era sums that up. #3 The Issues With The Draft The WWE draft or brand split has always had problems. The idea of Ironclad rosters was never really enforced, so after a while the whole thing felt pointless. If they don't care, why should we? The ruthless aggression era underlines this from 2004 to 2008, because while big stars are drafted all of the time, or often the knot they'd end back on the same brand. So we were doing roster swerves, and it's utterly ridiculous. WWE would also use it to troll people like moving Jim Ross without telling him, and look at Triple H in 2004. We acted like evolution were done because the game was back on Smackdown, and he didn't even wrestle one match on the blue brand, and then he was back on Raw after the fact it was like nothing had happened. It just shows WWE was always worried about going all in the today. Forget about it. It exists in name only, but I actually prefer if you care, just let wrestlers go wherever the hell they want. #2 The Lack of Variety You could say this is still an issue in many ways, but during this time Vince McMahon was very much into the idea of minimum stats for men's wrestling being 6'2" and 225 pounds. You don't fit those numbers, he don't care. You could argue John Cena around your and sort of fit into this too, but it's much more the wider roster. There was Matt Morgan, Luther Reigns, no relation, Mark Jinjak-Trono. Yeah, it made it really hard to stand out, because the approach was very much a cookie-cutter one. You also had to have a tan, which is why Seamus got so much chat when he turned up. People could have believed he hadn't tanned his ass. That's because everybody did. The real issue was the overall presentation, because the music was all the same too. Honestly, you think it's bad today. Every theme is just generic rock track 8. Before long everyone looks like a creator wrestler too, and even Brock Lesnar got dragged into this early on. The difference was he had Paul Heyman, and the machine got super behind him. And yeah, that crazy, crazy athleticism. You could say others would have flown too if not for this, but hey, that's why we did go through so many bodies. At the end of the day, they all sort of felt replaceable. Number one, there is too much Mr. McMahon. And even he knew this. As controversial as it was, there's a reason he tried to kill his character off in 2007. There's nothing else to do. You can't take away what he did during the attitude era, as he was the perfect fall for Steve Austin. But much like a lot of the ruthless aggression period, it was just hoping lightning was going to strike twice. It did not. It's why Vince himself started to wear a do-rag and made himself ECW World Champion, because he felt like it would rile people up. And it did totally the wrong way. It was also all about nonsense with degeneration eggs, which wasn't all that good. It just featured so many poo gags by watching a child-right television. You really feel it during this run, because it almost feels forced. You really want Stone Cold had walked off into the sunset. McMahon should have done the same thing, but I can give you the headlines right now. He did not. Now if any other takeaways there should be from the WWE's roof of the aggression era, make sure you leave me a comment below before you like the video, share the video, and why not subscribe? Otherwise, though, my friends, make sure you have a terrific day. I look forward to talking to you on the next one. ♪♪ We all have dreams. Dream home renovations, dream vacations, ♪♪ or sending our kids to their dream colleges. [ Cheers and applause ] But finding straightforward ways to turn those dreams into realistic goals, that's where things get tricky. Meryl understands that. That's why, with a dedicated Meryl advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. And having the bullet you're back helps your whole financial life move with you. So when your plans change, Meryl is with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com/bullish to learn more. Meryl, a bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Meryl Lynch, Pierce Fenner and Smith Incorporated, registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC.