I’ve been trying to hype this site little by little, by taking part in discussions in the comment fields of the posts on popular WWE Facebook pages. It hasn’t been too successful, and I think I may have lost some intelligence as a result. A lot of WWE fans seem to be hell-bent on reliving the so-called glory days of the ‘attitude era,’ a term used to describe the view years of trash-TV many of us grew up on in the late 90s to early 00s.

You know, the same era that brought the McMahons $50 million they blew on their failed attempt at a spot in the US Senate. The same era that made them even more than that $50 million, and made them enough money to even be able to be prosperous after failing to get an alternative football league off the ground past a single season. The same era that the McMahons seem to be ashamed of being associated with; an era that bridged the gap between WWF, the pro-wrestling company and WWE the multimedia juggernaut, specializing in ‘sports entertainment.’

Gone are the days of ‘bra and panties matches’ and beer baths on weekly television broadcasts, and the fans are up in arms about it. I for one am glad.

Randy Savage: the perfect example of why TV-14, blood, and T&A are not the 'solution.'

Now, let me first tell you that I became a fan of professional wrestling in the late 90s. 1998, to be exact. I used to rush home from school every Tuesday to watch taped episodes of WCW Monday Nitro from the night before. Sometimes, I’d be lucky enough to watch it live, and one of my fondest memories to this day, still, is Bill Goldberg pinning Hulk Hogan for the world title, live on Nitro in Atlanta, Georgia. I followed WWF, too, but not as closely. A lot of the programming either bored me or was too off the wall for me to enjoy, and it didn’t have as much appeal as WCW. At least in my opinion at the time.

Slowly, that changed, however. All of my favorites began to ‘jump ship’ and show up on WWF’s programming. This was an exciting time, as a kid, because it truly felt like anything could happen. This was a time of disgruntled employees leaving to hopefully seek better opportunity in the rival promotion, but I didn’t realize that at the time. I loved WCW, but I loved following my favorites even more.

This being said, I’ll also say that I never got a pay-per-view. I can’t recall ever being amped up for a WWF event, but there were a few WCW shows I was really excited to see on VHS, thanks to a friend with a “hotbox.” I do recall seeing WrestleMania 2000 through that method, though, and it did feel like a big deal.

I think the reason WCW appealed to me more was that I liked WRESTLING. I knew from day one it was ‘fake,’ and I was OK with that. If anything, I liked it because I knew these guys could make it believable without really getting hurt–for the most part. I never liked the hardcore stuff, and I was more likely to cringe than cheer when I’d see a hard chairshot to the head. A part of me knew that that was more real than fake. People asked me why I liked ‘that fake stuff,’ and I’d always say, ‘well why would I want to see someone beat someone up for real? That would be pretty sick.’ Given the slang of today, I should point out that I didn’t mean ‘awesome’ when I said ‘sick.’

I followed WWF straight through its transition to WWE, because it was all that was left to watch after WCW closed. Eventually, I got bored. Life happened, high school happened, and I outgrew wrestling without realizing it. A few years later, I felt nostalgic and decided to get back into it. Two thousand bootleg DVDs later (I kid you not) I was a bigger fan than ever before, and a walking tome of wrestling knowledge of past and present.

My interest slowed down again, however, as the ‘PG’ era began. I initially thought that the problem was a lack of middle fingers and profanity, but it isn’t that simple. I recently watched WWE’s Randy Savage collection, and had an epiphany. (more…)