Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialIt's Time for WWE to Ignite: The Takeover Era

It’s Time for WWE to Ignite: The Takeover Era

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The transition. The golden. The New Generation. The Attitude. Ruthless. The PG. The Reality. The NEW. The generation eras that sparked change, attitude, vision, and talent of the future for WWE spanning over 50 years since McMahon’s personal takeover from his father.

These were the eras that revolutionized a social and economic impact on the company’s progression toward the world-dominating entertainment company it proves to be today. As we begin to see a shift in wrestling and sports entertainment in the new decade, wrestling fans yearn for a spark that will revitalize the current platform and launch itself into uncharted territory.

From the rise of fresh talent to the growth of new organizations, the challenge to fight against the sole dominance of wrestling in America is among us. And for the first time, we are starting to notice a real shift in the way fans watch, enjoy, and follow American professional wrestling. For the largest professional wrestling company in the world to compete, it must adapt to its ever-changing progression. Four years since the last landscape change now is the time. It’s time to reinvent, reemerge, and reimagine the future of WWE. It’s time for a new era in professional wrestling.

The Lockup

If you’re like me, you might start to notice change happening already. Hopefully, you have already started watching WWE Network’s documentary of Ruthless Aggression and are seeing changes in the attitude of WWE from years past. There are clues all over live TV tapings, from week to week, the new era has slowly been transforming. When will it emerge? What would it be called? Who will take over the reins of this new period of wrestling? That remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain, history has repeated time and time again; it’s awfully close to its historical restart.

I won’t have to explain each era in detail, as a lot of us already know of its rich history; we lived through at least 3 or 4 of them. We have our favorites, we have ones we care never to remember. There are eras we forgot existed, and ones we wish we had back. Some eras were part of our childhood, and some during a period where we left wrestling to find something else interesting. Some of us grew out of wrestling because of a particular era, and some of us stayed through every one of them. Through the good, the bad, the ugly, and the awkward, each era had a profound impact on not only WWE but the entire landscape of American professional wrestling as a whole.

The Story

In order to understand what lies ahead, we must understand what has come before us, eras that shaped the industry, eras that made wrestling the entertainment spectacle we love and hate today. Wrestlers from every era share a similar bond, a bond to entertain kids, teens, adults, and the young at heart. This process repeats with each generation, leaving a special place in our heart for the cycle to continue forever, and we can eternally be entertained by our love for a sport that originated hundreds of years prior.

A few things to consider as you understand the eras we’ve been part of, and what lies ahead. Each generational era is solidified by the core principles of professional wrestling. I call these the Core Declarations of Wrestling Eras. Not all of these declarations are used during each era, however, we can study how these factors spark change. They may seem perplexing or weird at first, but I promise you, you can apply these to any era in WWF and WWE from 1972 to today.

Core Declarations (A new era is proclaimed after …)

    1. Substantial industrial decline, either by viewership, revenues, attendance, stock price, or a combination of any or all. While mostly for financial reasons, a new era is needed to break free from such past performance uncertainty.
    2. Talent, once a top star of the company, is either gone or can no longer keep being the top guy, and no such top star has yet to be defined or showcased (i.e., Who is willing to grab that coveted Brass Ring).
    3. Long term socioeconomic changes that exist outside the wrestling industry which are drastically changing how society acts, lives, and transacts with the rest of the world.
    4. Competition forces behavior changes on historical views of the current wrestling product.

In the beginning, generational changes, or new eras, would just organically appear. And we’d go back and name them years later. Typically new eras in WWE would happen shortly before or after WrestleMania. And recently, eras would be chosen, appropriately named for us and ran with for the foreseeable future as a signal of a major change in the company’s future direction.

WWE has an official list of what they call their 6 eras of WWE history: The 80s Boom (‘82-’85); The Dawn of WrestleMania (‘85-’90); The New Generation (‘90-’96); The Attitude Era (‘96-’01); The Postwar Era (‘01-’05); and The Modern Era (‘05-Present)

Unofficially, fans and wrestling historians have divided WWE’s history, post-WWWF timeline, into 7 uniquely defined eras: The Golden Era (‘82-’93); The New Generation Era (‘93-’97); The Attitude Era (‘97-’02); Ruthless Aggression (‘02-’08); The PG Era (‘08-’13); The Reality Era (‘14-’16); The NEW Era/Women’s Revolution (‘16-Present).

The Golden Era

History has shown us that wrestling eras are born organically, but also because the business forced changed upon itself. When McMahon purchased Capitol Sports from his father, it rejuvenated a what-if world of professional wrestling. The old days of traveling from city to city in search of that new territory of wrestling were about to be gone, and McMahon knew that in order to differentiate itself, it needed to bring in well-established stars and change everything we knew about them to the masses.

McMahon’s vision set apart the mentality of the old and reinvented professional wrestling, making it mainstream. Television networks, Pay-Per-View, closed-circuit, all exploited the entertainment aspect, challenging the decades-old way of doing business. This explosion is changing the way we understand wrestling in North America set up Vince’s first and most risky era. It was appropriately named years later to the Golden Era.

The big boom

It was almost the big bust when McMahon’s focus on entertainment set up his most endearing venture, a wrestling extravaganza, WrestleMania. The show was a hit because of the change it needed and focused more on entertainment rather than sport. Using MTV as an added platform, the company challenged itself to reimagine promotion and attracting worldwide appeal. Its success can be measured by the formation of quarterly special events on Pay-Per-View, and the influx of mainstream appeal of its larger stars such as Hogan, Piper, Savage, and Warrior.

But its course had run dry, and by the early 90s, what had worked in the 70s and 80s was losing its touch for a new generation of fans. Declining live event sales hiccuped with steroid scandals, and financial turmoil, the company set out for a fresh restart, one the company desperately needed.

The New Generation Era  

By 1993, Hogan, Warrior, Savage and the likes were all starting to be out of touch with fans, and McMahon knew that the pressure was mounting for a new crop of talent to take over. Bret Hart took over as champion of this new generation, but it wasn’t at the height of champions before. Hart had a secondary cast that helped build a new culture for the World Wrestling Federation. Children who were growing up with Hogan, now in their teens or older, looked to Hart, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Yokozuna, Razor Ramon. There was more to entertainment than just one man carrying the company. 

This era opened the door to a flood of stars to appeal to the masses, rather than relying on just one or two main attractions. By the early to mid-90s, cartoonish characters filled the roster of young talent, all eyeing for a spot on TV. From a clown and a dentist to a trashman and repo man, the New Generation was more than just a gimmicky named era, it tested the waters of a much larger brand. The company, in many eyes, would fail during this era, mostly due to its outrageous and cartoon-like presentation. But this era showed a positive progression toward a future where young talent can draw, and it wasn’t all about just one man to carry the torch.

Blood bath

By the mid-90s, WCW had lured the eyes of many, showcasing the older talent from McMahon’s past and telling newer, edgier stories. The rise of the nWo, and the upstart of ECW set up a major shift in the way fans wanted their entertainment. Children drawn from the allure of Hogan in the 80s were now fascinated by his heel turn as they were in their young adult life. This counterculture decade of the 90s, fueled by the change in society’s shift in American pop-culture and politics, challenged how the world viewed entertainment. Gone were the days of just good vs evil. Hardcore was now a household term. Society, grown tired of war, sought alternative forms of entertainment. The 1990s were characterized by the newfound interest in alternative media, and so brought a completely reimagined era of the wrestling industry, just like how the rest of pop culture was too changing. It was a change of times, and McMahon knew it had to learn to adapt. 

The New Generation was a failure and success at the same time. It proved the company’s potential and talent possibilities, but learned from it, that the demand for a darker side of entertainment was much more powerful in the company’s success for them to ignore. 

The Attitude Era

As noted throughout each era thus far, the change stems from the decline in revenues or a decline in viewership, and in particular, The New Generation had both. By the end of 1996, the shift toward WCW and ECW was monumental, eradicated by the shift of young audiences, and entertainment coming from new mediums with the rise of the World Wide Web and the internet. McMahon needed to respond to these societal changes in a colossal way. Otherwise, the company was going to fail. The introduction of DX, the rise of Stone Cold, the villainous Mr. McMahon, the Ministry of Darkness, all set up a unique path for younger stars to shape the company’s future. The success of this era has always been the discussion amongst fans and talent for years since, and the much-needed adjustment put professional wrestling back on the map.

The Attitude Era was less about cheering the hero, but rather cheering the anti-hero and challenging the belief of what good and evil really looked like. It was the counter to how professional wrestling was built for decades and marked the paramount shift in entertainment for its future.

The Purchase

This era’s story is highlighted by The Rock, Steve Austin, DX, The Undertaker, but it also introduced real characters and stories. As WCW folded and purchased by McMahon, in order to sustain dominance as the sole major promotion in America and in some cases, the world, it needed to compete against itself. The alliance invasion angle, the newly reunited nWo, and the eventual brand split with the draft signaled that a new direction for the company was starting to take shape.

Crucial in its presentation to its fans and long term sustainability, the hardcore violence and edgier storylines of the 90s were fading and needed to be slowed down in order to keep continued interest alive. As the crowd who once favored the Attitude Era started families of their own, a new generation of children watched on. With declining viewership and revenues once again, top stars The Rock and Stone Cold leaving the company around the same time, and WCW talent not adapting well with McMahon’s fanbase, the company knew it needed a fiery glimmer of hope for someone to take over in the new decade ahead. 

Ruthless Aggression Era

In years past, McMahon and Co. grew inspiration from its competition and historical successes. Now rebranded as one, World Wrestling Entertainment, with not having a major promotion as competition, looked within itself to find that next big star.  More than a year after the Monday Night Wars had ended, it found itself with an identity crisis, one where it would need its young stars to once step up in the limelight.

The brand split had worked and allowed the company to provide more TV time and exposure to talent where they once might not have been given. Storylines were less unrealistic and over the top, and by the summer of 2002, the much-anticipated change was finally happening.

The success of the Attitude Era was centered around Austin the supporting cast and that supporting cast was a wide variety of talent. Once Austin left and faded away from the company, there wasn’t a new star to take that place. HHH and The Undertaker might have been the faces of the company at this time, few others showed they could lead the company throughout the new decade. 

The Prototype

The Ruthless Aggression Era put John Cena on the map, albeit taking some time, but it also opened the door to new stars to take the highly regarded brass ring. Randy Orton, Edge, Christian, Brock Lesnar, and Batista all changed how wrestling and entertainment can reemerge and again coexist. 

Ruthless Aggression was part Attitude, part PG. It is a huge milestone for the company, and put WWE back at the forefront of entertainment. But for the company to compete in the ever-changing entertainment landscape, it had to learn to adapt with not only new, younger audiences but also with loyal fans who’ve essentially “grown-up”. Ruthless Aggression had the identity of being edgy without being the Attitude Era. But WWE needed to distance themselves entirely.

The PG Era

The PG era, in response to changing visions of sponsors, forced the hand of WWE to make radical changes. It was less about profanity and blood, and more about storytelling. Revenues were down for the company, and newer stars were emerging for that top spot. The PG Era opened the door for the company to be different than its competitors in other organizations. It also launched a new platform for developing stars and marketing their success from the very beginning of their career. NXT launching in 2010 showed subtle hints of the direction for the company. NXT helped with the PG Era distract fans who were still clinging to the Attitude Era, it also introduced a novel challenge for the new decade ahead.

To some, the PG Era is still going (I am one of them), but two not so distinct eras formed. 

The Reality Era was about the fans and their insight into the wrestling business. At this time that McMahon laid out his infamous “listening to the fans” line. “Best for Business” was the phrase of the era, and you start noticing a subtle shift, again, in professional wrestling. Wrestling started to become less of the big stars, and more about the young talent. 

Global Phenomenon

The reality era could also be connected with the growing interest in reality TV, the shows Tough Enough, Total Divas, Total Bellas, The Miz & Mrs, Austin and Jericho’s podcast, helped usher in a new wave of wrestling entertainment. The WWE Network is the hottest thing going for the company, and the company makes full use of its library, its legends, their physical and intellectual property.

During this time, John Cena is still the top star for the company, at least for the time being. Focusing on health and wellness, the company centered its attention on homegrown entertainers. The new company formula helped WWE produce a long-term profitable and marketable product of manufactured stars. While the company searches for that next star, the Performance Center opens, paving way for a breeding center for new homegrown talent. This presents WWE with an interesting and unique proposition. WWE would continue to use Cena as their face. Even though fans would not agree.

Following WrestleMania 32, the company would set up its newest era, looking forward to the future and less emphasis on its past. The NEW Era would begin, bringing forth NXT talent, its homegrown stars to the main stage in search of the next top star. And even in 2020, from a women’s revolution to a true third brand in NXT. The company continues to evolve and in search of its new era.

Outside the ring

But a lot has happened over the last 4 or so years. Competition has been fierce, adding NWA and AEW Wrestling. Even Impact has developed its own changes over the years, adding pressure on WWE to reinvent. The company isn’t looking for that next star to pursue at another company, yet, instead, from within its own system. NXT has even developed its own facelift and has potentially uncovered its first organic generational era.

WWE is certainly changing with the times. Ratings aren’t like they once were, and probably never will be again. Competition is forcing change. The WWE Network is seeing a rapid decline in subscribers. Talent looking elsewhere since they don’t need to stick with the only one available. New network productions are forcing a culture change, a presentation that expands on their heightened entertainment growth. And even at the top, executives who were once dominant, are leaving, they too noticing shifts within the company.

The Takeover Era

There has been one movement above all that has either remained constant or excelled – NXT. Talent who were once excited to find their spot on the main roster is returning. Some of them are just now finding their strides, some are returning to their grassroots and reinventing themselves. The Takeover Era is much more than NXT. Takeover events are highly guarded as the new quarterly WWF PPVs of the past. The simplistic presentation style mimics successful moments of wrestling’s yesteryear. However, this new era, speaking metaphorically, has defined the progression of WWE and the industry of American professional wrestling.

This era exemplifies the spirit of wrestling that is trapped between the past, the present, and the future.

Combining the nostalgia of what once was, the journey of today’s enjoyment, and the pursuit of the next big thing.

As we see the progression of NXT over the years, we notice how the Takeover moniker is coming to life. NXT stars are becoming their own, and those who do make it on the main roster are proving their worth. If you’ve been paying close attention to the story of NXT vs RAW & SMACKDOWN, NXT is getting more and more attention on the main screen. NXT is less about moving product up, and more about challenging the norm. I compare this takeover of NXT a lot like a revamped and modern grasp on the invasion angle of 2001.

We started to see this during the summer of 2019. By the fall, NXT had become a major storyline battle with the main roster at Survivor Series. Now in 2020, the NXT takeover has spilled onto the biggest stage at WrestleMania. Charlotte Flair versus Rhea Ripley, a first for NXT and WrestleMania, in their quest to take over brand supremacy.

If this is a sign of things for the future of WWE, it may be one to really consider. As NXT continues to build, the success of the company might rely on the third brands’ literal takeover.

But this era has so much more to it. The PG era was important, as the company’s revenue was dependent on network and sponsorship revenues. The Reality Era looked at how Hollywood and the silver screen impacted wrestling and the culture surrounding it. 

The Future of the Takeover Era

If you revisit the Core Declarations, it can be clear that WWE’s stock is declining rapidly. WWE Network revenues and subscriptions are also at a stagnant downward spiral. The majority of WWE’s current revenue stream comes from network rights. With this, number 1 has proved already that the current era is coming to an end.

If we had to choose the top star, most would say it’s Roman Reigns. But is he like a Cena, Austin, or Hogan? Or is he Bret Hart from The New Generation? The New Generation might be considered the in-between era. Where we didn’t have that Hogan star power that brought viewership into the mainstream. Nor did we have the Austin authoritativeness that brought in the generation that left in the early 90s.

Ruthless Aggression did its job in finding that next star, but the PG/Reality/NEW era left us waiting. That is where we are today. Reigns is a great wrestler. We can’t take that away from him. But he has to be compared to stars of the past, and the company isn’t growing based on him alone. In fact, the company isn’t growing with his supporting cast as well.

The False Finish

We’re also noticing a change in direction for the company within its leadership. Last month two major executives were fired amid disputes on the network success. McMahon’s attention to his own product has also been shown to be distant. Rumors of a Hunter/Shane takeover or even the questionable sale to Disney/FOX opens the floodgates for the inevitable. The point is, this new decade might put a spotlight on where we see the company is headed toward. 

And that leaves us with the competition. AEW is making it difficult for WWE to prosper in the current era. Change is showing to be crucial for not only its own success but the entire industry. WWE has the power to ignite a global revolution. AEW is helping make that happen. Without it, WWE would not need the push with NXT. But NXT is giving the company hope. A true takeover, one McMahon envisioned in 2010, is finally ready for the real generational era the company desperately needs.

Go Home

Who is WWE’s next star? I don’t know. I leave that up to the readers to decide. But I believe the Takeover Era will begin very soon. It may have shown itself last year, but this may be the beginning of a much bigger revolution. WrestleMania 36 and the RAW after, might very well be the best time to start this new era in WWE.

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