The WWE has changed, and it’s better than ever. If you’re thinking of the WWE from the late 2010’s era, you should give it another try. Chances are, with the changes that the new owners have brought, you’ll like it. They improved by giving better treatment to performers, creating better storylines, and listening to fans about the product.
WHY I CARE ABOUT THIS SO MUCH
WWE is a form of entertainment that has stood the test of time for more than 40 years, but throughout those years it certainly has had its ups and downs. If you are asking yourself what the WWE is, WWE (or World Wrestling Entertainment) is story-driven professional wrestling. Contrary to the UFC which is recognized as “professional fighting” (not that it isn’t), the WWE has nearly the same level of athleticism, but with levels of theatrics and lots of stories intertwined with it.
It’s hard to pin down every reason why I love the WWE, but I think I just enjoy it because it’s so cool. How can you sit there, watching muscular men do flips and things you would NOT expect 200+ pound muscular men to do, and not think it’s cool??
I enjoy UFC for that same reason. I like seeing the impressive technique, dexterity, and athleticism from both fighters as they do something I for sure could not do right now. But WWE has that technique and athleticism but adds something that UFC lacks: a story. It’s the story that elevated the WWE to a pedestal with some of my favorite content I enjoy watching.
I’ll give you a recent example WWE fans would know a lot about. While Harrison was at the Museum Center celebrating Prom in April of this year, an epic match was going on that would redefine the WWE.
CODY RHODES AND THE POWER OF A STORY
Dusty Rhodes is one of the most famous golden-era wrestlers out there (when I use eras, It just describes a period of years that the WWE changed something about itself; I’ll do my best to explain what they are/mean). From his famous “American Dream” promo to his comical fighting style, people really liked Dusty Rhodes. This extended to his sons, Dustin Rhodes (known as “Goldust”, but that character is weird so I won’t be talking about him), and Cody Rhodes. Although he tried for years, Dusty Rhodes retired not having obtained the championship, and thus his family never obtained the WWE championship.
Cody Rhodes entered the company his dad helped build in 2007. From there, he built himself up till 2016 when he exited the company. After a brief stint creating WWE’s current rival, AEW, Cody Rhodes returned to the WWE at Wrestlemania 38. From there, his main goal was to win the Undisputed WWE Championship.
For two years, Cody tried over and over again. He challenged Roman Reigns (the Champion for close to 4 years), to a match at Wrestlemania 39. Just as he was about to win the pinfall, the match was interrupted by another one of the Reigns faction (called the Bloodline) members, Solo Sikoa, and Cody lost.
After that, Cody spent another year trying over and over to build himself up again, fighting others lock Brock Lesnar, winning the tag team titles, and eventually going through the Royal Rumble to get another match at Wrestlemania 40.
His Wrestlemania 40 match was actually two matches, one being on the first night and one on the second. The first was a tag match with another babyface (terminology used for the good guys) Seth Rollins, against Roman Reigns and the Rock, the heels (terminology used for the bad guys). Rollins and Rhodes lost the first night.
Because they had agreed to it in advance, this loss meant that second night match would follow the Bloodlines rules. The rules they chose? They were brutal: meaning no disqualification. No disqualification means anyone can enter the match, and use any weapons. That means that this match could be interrupted and turn into a 5v1, fully legally.
On night 2 of Wrestlemania, Cody comes into the arena with a grand entrance and is ready for the hardest battle of the year for him. After a long, arduous match, the match finally is hit with the Bloodline rules stipulation when Jimmy Uso enters the match, making the match 2 vs. 1. Jimmy and Roman beat up Cody for a while, and the match looked like it was over. But it wasn’t, because Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso’s brother (and ex-bloodline member out to make his old faction pay) comes out, takes Jimmy out (how must their mother feel?), and leaves the match with his brother through a table (the table was literally in half), and the match was back on 1 vs. 1, Roman vs. Cody.
After more fighting, things got worse for Cody again when Solo Sikoa enters the match on the Bloodline side, making the fight uneven again. But just then when it looks like Cody won’t win, in comes John Cena to save Cody and take out Solo. This is significant because in an earlier Pay per View, Crown Jewel, Solo Sikoa beat John Cena in a match, putting him out of the WWE, and most fans thought he wouldn’t come back. But here he was, avenging the guy that humiliated him last year.
John Cena takes out Solo, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief, but just then the Rock’s music hits. The Rock was here to fight with his Bloodline family. And the Rock takes out John Cena and punishes Cody, like he has been doing the last few weeks on Monday Night Raw. 2 vs. 1 again for an exhausted Cody! And just as it looks like Cody will finally lose, the WWE universe hears the DONG of the Undertakers theme.
Out comes the Undertaker, who takes the Rock out, then leaves, as per his usual gimmick. As the WWE Universe is going wild that two legends have come out, something no one expected happened: Seth Rollins comes out as a member of the Shield–a group that hasn’t been in existence for 10 years! Some backstory: Seth famously betrayed Roman Reigns and the Shield faction about 10 years before, and fans were still not over it. So when Seth Rollins came out to the Shields theme and in the Shields gear with a THE SAME CHAIR he has used to hit Roman and betray the Shields, the audience lost their freaking minds.
I can’t even describe what a big deal this was. The years of waiting, the symmetry of the two matches–it was Shakespearean level interconnectivity! After some fighting, when Roman had both Seth and Cody down, he took the chair (THE CHAIR), and he had a choice. Hit Cody, and retain the belt, or hit Seth and get revenge. The crowd held their breath as he made his choice.
You’ve got to watch it.
This match was pure cinema. In every way that a storyline could be interconnected, this match hit all marks and then some. Dave Meltzer, a famous Wrestling journalist gave the match a 4.75 stars out of 5, which I think is lower than what it should’ve gotten, but that’s an argument for a different day. This match was, what I think, a key defining moment for WWE. And that would be that WWE is back.
Of both days for Wrestlemania 40, nearly 2.8 million accounts watched it both days on Peacock. In the aftermath of this epic match, the WWE is arguably at the highest it’s ever been in terms of ticket sales, weekly viewership, and approval of the product. If this was your first match, you might think it has always been this good, but there was a slump, and this was the beginning of a new era, post-slump.
NOT JUST FOR TAYLOR SWIFT: WWE’S ERAS
WWE is separated into many eras, usually depicting a major change, event, or storyline. Notable eras include the Golden Era (80’s, highlighted by people like Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart), the Attitude Era (highlighted by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, and the rivalry between WWE and WCW in the 90’s), and the PG era (when weekly shows like Raw and Smackdown switched from PG-14 to PG) in the 2010’s.
The era we’re currently in, some say, is something of a “Resurgence Era”, due to many events making it better. But why is it “better,” you may be asking yourself. When was it bad?
The PG era was the start of a downfall for the WWE. A major appeal of the Attitude (mid-late 90s through early 2000s) and Ruthless Aggression (mid-late 2000s) were the storylines, featuring things like Stone Cold versus the chairman of the WWE, Mr. McMahon, or the WCW vs. WWE battled in the peak of the Attitude Era with D’Generation X from WWE going head to head with the New World Order from WCW to see who would overtake whom.
A key defining feature of these storylines is that they were smartly written to the point they felt like cinema, watching your favorite good guys finally overtake the bad guys. The writing for the WWE from the 90s through to the 2000s was SO good, producing some of those great storylines.
But then, a change started to happen within the WWE that especially hit within the PG era.
If you don’t know much about professional wrestling, you may be confused why I’m talking about “writers” and “storylines.” I’m sorry to break it to you if you believed the opposite, but wrestling isn’t real. Although it isn’t real, there are still many positive reasons to enjoy it as entertainment.
WHAT AND WHY IS WRESTLING?
No, the people fighting don’t actually want to beat the snot out of each other (most of the time, sometimes there have been real fights backstage or wrestlers have chosen to not pull punches due to their own reasons). However, there still is a lot that goes into matches in the WWE.
Firstly, there is always a predetermined winner. In whatever match happens, there was a team of writers who thought about what active storyline the wrestler is in, and from there decided if this is a moment where the wrestler would win or not.
Next, from there, the actual match. This is where the impressive part of WWE comes in, in that the actual wrestling itself is still super impressive, and at times real. The punches aren’t real, and some of the kicks aren’t real, but there is one thing you can’t fake: gravity. If a wrestler jumps off a 40-foot ladder onto the ring (talking about people like Jeff Hardy), they’re going to feel every bit of that.
The wrestling ring is NOT padded, the only area padded is outside the ring (because if it wasn’t, wrestlers would be diving, fighting, or doing moves like a tornado DDT onto bare concrete, which would kill someone).
Most, to all of this is decided live. As the match is happening, unless a spot (like jumping off a ladder, requiring there to be a ladder somewhere) is predetermined, either by the wrestler or the writers, wrestlers are calling what to do then and there. That’s especially impressive for someone who has done choreography in theater, to just get on national TV live every week and perform without practicing, or maybe running a match once is insanely impressive.
This comes through the incredibly intensive training a wrestler takes to learn moves, learn how to take “bumps” (being the recipient of a move), and learn how to wrestle well. Training to be a wrestler is intensive, usually meaning you start a smaller company (an independent wrestling company, referred to as “the indies”), then work your way up to NXT (WWE’s developmental program), then eventually WWE.
It’s a lot of work that can take YEARS for someone to climb the ladder, but for so many wrestlers before, now, and in the future, it’s worth it. This is what they love doing.
WHAT CAUSED IT TO GO DOWNHILL?
Now that you understand all of that, you’ll understand that under Vincent McMahon for the last 10 years, the writing quality went down. Drastically. It was even worse from 2018 to 2023, struggling with the pandemic and even before then, a decrease in interest in the product. But why? McMahon had a problem with not trying anything new, and not listening to the people’s feedback on the product.
That was especially highlighted with McMahon bringing back wrestlers like Goldberg and Brock Lesnar back constantly to overtake whatever young star had just won the championship, and then have a 365+ day reign where everyone hated them.
That, and other notable things like pushing Roman Reigns as a babyface (a good guy) down everyone’s throats for 5 years made everyone despise him and the company, and towards the later half of the decade, everyone stopped watching WWE.
This is when WWE’s current rival, AEW, PEAKED with their content, having some former WWE wrestlers like Jon Moxley (known as Dean Ambrose in the WWE), Cesaro, and others join and get the pushes and correct writing they needed compared to WWE. And just when it looked grave for WWE, the savior who created the resurgence era stepped up.
Vincent McMahon had an ego. He also had many scandals throughout his time working as chairman of the WWE, to the point that 2 years ago, he was sued for a hush money scandal he had a few decades ago. Then, last year, he was sued again by a former WWE employee Janel Grant is suing McMahon for so many disgusting things that happened through her time of employment I don’t want to talk about here (however I would recommend reading the case, it gives a good perspective on how big this is), and all of this culminated into McMahon stepping down as chairman of the WWE in 2022.
Just a few months ago he stepped down from the board of TKO (the parent company of WWE and the UFC). To fill his spot, WWE had former wrestler and WWE hall of famer Paul “Triple H” Levesque become the head of creative (the writing team), and that has only boosted the company to be arguably in the best spot it has ever been.
Triple H did for this company what McMahon couldn’t have ever done, and that was not letting his ego get in the way of the company. He’s created a safe atmosphere and working environment for wrestlers and made sure he listens to the fans, wrestling has never been better.
WRESTLING IS BACK HOME AT THE WWE
My family stopped watching wrestling in 2017. We picked up again last year right before Wrestlemania 39, and the product has changed so much for the better, it’s been refreshing and honestly just so much fun to watch. There are so many details and reasons as to why it’s better, but some include better storylines, better and safer wrestling, and more inclusion of fan engagement.
For example, the Rock came back to WWE at the beginning of this year (four months before his participation in the Cody Rhodes fight) during Raw’s “Day 1” event, and fans LOVED him. They had been dreaming of a feud with Roman Reigns for years, considering they’re both part of the same large Samoan family that have been wrestlers since the sport became a sport around the 50s (big names being Rikishi, the Usos, the Rock, and Roman Reigns).
People wanted this feud to happen at Summerslam this year since that meant that Cody could have finished his story by winning the belt, and then Roman could fight the Rock just to see who is better, no championship involved. However, WWE jumped the gun early and decided to have Cody (who had just gone through his own tribulation winning the Royal Rumble two years in a row – first since Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1997 and 1998) give his guaranteed title shot to the Rock.
Fans were so mad, me included. We wanted Cody to beat Roman, not the Rock to beat Roman. Where was the satisfaction in that? We have been watching someone for almost two years go through so many challenges to try and do what his family couldn’t, and now you want to give it to a part-timer who pops in whenever the movie market isn’t doing well, then leaves for another few years?
#WeWantCody went wild on social media. It was the number one trending hashtag on Twitter for the entire weekend, from that Friday Night Smackdown all the way to that Monday Night Raw, and that’s something usually unheard of. WWE did something they would never have done under McMahon, and that was listening to the fans. They decided for Cody to renounce his decision, and from there the Rock turned heel and decided to team up with Reigns, setting up an amazing Wrestlemania match.
There had been times that the leadership of WWE had listened to the fans under McMahon, notably adding Daniel Bryan back into the main event of Wrestlemania 30, letting him finally win the titles at the height of the YES movement. However, that was so much rarer compared to what happens now, and the WWE is better because of this listening.
WWE PRODUCTION
That has made for better storylines, but what of production? What about the actual material you watch?
WWE’s producer for years was Kevin Dunn, who worked hand and hand with Vince McMahon for years, but after the Endeavor acquisition of WWE (Endeavor being the company owning TKO, aka owning UFC and WWE; that was something done with Triple H) he left the company.
This was a great decision, as Dunn’s production decisions such as an unnecessary amount of camera cuts and bad camera angles made watching the product hard at times.
And after he left, the WWE made different production decisions, making the product so much more interesting to watch.
Backstage walkout videos, with no camera cuts, make the world feel more interconnected with seamless transitions, and better audio quality; it’s so cool to watch. And the walkout video of Sami Zayn is one of the most hype things I’ve ever seen with WWE. It’s just so cool to see how well the product is being treated under Triple H now.
There is one more big change that has come with this resurgence, and one that’s still in progress: the product is becoming un-PG. It is still marked as PG on the TV ratings, but the WWE have been incorporating blood, swearing, and violence into the product like they did 20-30 years ago, making everything seem so much cooler.
Obviously, children still enjoy the product, so for some parents, this is not a welcome change. But, to be honest, if you’re watching guys jump off ladders into tables or hit people with chairs, you have to accept things like this would come naturally. Plus, the fanbase is starting to switch back to teens and adults, and now that they’re incorporating blood and swearing into the product, it will only make it feel more real. It’s hard to believe someone is in pain until you see their chest or face battered in blood.
That will potentially come with the move from FOX to Netflix, who now has the rights to air the weekly shows like Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown. Peacock still has rights to the Pay-Per-View, so we’ll see if the two align in violence and language standards.
If this article emphasizes anything, it’s that wrestling is cool again. The storylines, the products, the fighting, it’s gotten so much better. Maybe to someone who doesn’t watch, it seems weird, and that’s okay. Not everyone has to understand or like everyone else’s interests. But perhaps trying something new would be good for you, as I certainly know getting into the WWE is better than ever right now.
