If you guys haven’t noticed, I am in a great writing mood today. The Attitude Era is long regarded as not only the most entertaining era in the history of WWE, but in the history of “sports entertainment” itself. But at the same time, the Attitude Era did not last forever, as a new breed of superstars came in to pick up the slack and continue to give it their all. But was John Cena’s claim to Kurt Angle better than Attitude? Ruthless Aggression? Here’s its case.
For me, the Attitude Era was on the shoulders of only a few select men. If you ask me, I only see a handful of names at the top of my head when it comes to leaders on a consistent basis. These names would be The Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H and the Undertaker. WWE completely revolved around those four men in my opinion. I think there was a lack of consistent main-eventers who can be counted on to carry the company. Now the Atttiude Era is by all means a great era in WWE and I enjoyed watching all of the debauchery that took place during the time. However, I can’t help but shake the feeling that the Ruthless Aggression had something more to it that could have given it that edge over the afromentioned Attitude Era. Let me explain.
Remember those four names I mentioned? I literally mean that those four guys were the ones that mattered the most. The Ruthless Aggression had much more flexibility in their roster, not to imply that the roster wasn’t deep already in the Attitude Era. It’s safe to say that the Ruthless Aggression period ended in 2008, because that’s the first time we saw the dreaded PG sign on the top left corner on our TV screen. In terms of main eventing PPV’s WWE had a plethora of guys they can go to. I’m talking John Cena, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Edge, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, Brock Lesnar, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrerro (R.I.P), Brock Lesnar, Batista, JBL, Booker T/King Booker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Goldberg. With this the mid-card was still deep and had entertaining matches on a consistent basis. And the WOMEN”S DIVISION! This so called Divas division is put to shame by the likes of Sable, Lita, Trish Stratus and even Molly Holly!
It is a tough call to say that any era in WWE was better than Attitude but I think that the Ruthless Aggression Era has a case for being the dominant era in WWE. Not only introducing the new age like they did at WrestleMania 21 with Cena and Batista holding their first world titles, but introducing us to entertainment in a broader form. this isn’t a knock on the Attitude Era and I wouldn’t dare question its greatness. But think there is a decent case for the Ruthless Aggression Era to be remembered as being better than the Attitude Era.
