Coming off the cusp of the Attitude Era, WWE was the biggest remaining promotion in America after they bought out their competitions WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) in 2001. However, as the times change, the culture changes and WWE was in need of a change within their superstars.
After the buyout, WWE was able to scoop up some of the top free agents on the market that were ex-WCW and ex-ECW wrestlers. However, some of those big names were aging, while some of the fresh faces were stepping in and striving to be on top.
In this column, we will dive into what some including myself call the greatest era in professional wrestling history. An era that lasted an upwards of 6 years. The last era as of this moment to have been broadcasted at the TV-14 rating.
This era was a changing of the guard and showcased the younger stars that would become some of the biggest stars in WWE history. Stars like John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, Brock Lesnar, Edge, Eddie Guerrero and many more.
We also will delve into the first brand expansion and its importance to this era in professional wrestling. The first brand expansion created and impacted the scene of WWE leading to the development of future talents on each brand.
I got into wrestling around 2003 and now for over 15 years, I have sat in front of my television every Monday night for Raw and from Thursday, Friday and now Tuesday for SmackDown. Before I was connected to wrestling on social media, I had to wait for the next episode of Raw or SmackDown to continue the story.
In the era before DVR and online streaming became a part of households worldwide, you had to watch Raw and SmackDown or you would miss a key part of the ongoing storylines.
I am not saying the Ruthless Aggression was perfect because no era in wrestling ever was perfect. However, the amount of stars and future world champions that came from this era is astronomical.
The way WWE transitioned from the “Attitude Era” to the “Ruthless Aggression Era” changed the way most people view professional wrestling to this day. There was no era that brought more importance to the in-ring ability of the wrestler.
In professional wrestling, you have to talk a big game, however, in this era it brought the importance back to storytelling in the ring. Meaning using what you do in the ring tells the story between you two without words.
So, let us go through piece by piece to truly understand why people other than myself label the “Ruthless Aggression Era” was the great era in professional wrestling history.
As a sidenote: We cannot deny the impact that Chris Benoit made during the Ruthless Aggression Era. However, in this series there will only be brief mentions of him because of his deplorable actions in 2007 that forever changed the world of wrestling. We are not celebrating nor forgetting his significance in this era.
David Jacobus
Intern