Rate an Era: The New Generation Era

[FootyJunkie]

Preceded the Attitude Era. Vince had the younger group talent to go to the next level following the departure of Hogan, with Bret, HBK, Diesel (Nash), Razor Ramon (Hall), to join already established main eventers such as the Undertaker and Yokozuna, but he was still stuck to a Saturday morning kiddie market 80s mentality. With the whole steroid trial, it made pro-wrestling more of a joke in the public eye, yet Vince was still pretty much throwing crap on the wall and going with whatever stuck on his programming. Gimmick wrestlers like the Godwinns, Duke the Dumpster Droese, and Doink filled up our screens, but aside from that, how could he make Mabel King of the Ring in '95, which was probably one of the worst PPVs ever.

Luckily for him he got a kick in the butt from WCW and Nitro and Vince had to respond by slowly introducing "Attitude Era" elements to his programming, but it wasn't an over night thing. The introduction of Austin was a big deal and was pushed heavily. Mid '96 up until the Montreal Screwjob has to be one of the most interesting times in the company as you could see a real clash in terms of how the company used to do business vs. what they were planning to go ahead with.

 

[Bretski]

Well i dont remember this era, but was it the one where Sgt Slaughter, bushwakers, doink and sunny were basically the top guys? cos that era sucked. All that happend in this era (towards the end of it) was the ladder match (razor/shawn) and well... that was it wasnt it?

 

[FootyJunkie]

Well i dont remember this era, but was it the one where Sgt Slaughter, bushwakers, doink and sunny were basically the top guys? cos that era sucked. All that happend in this era (towards the end of it) was the ladder match (razor/shawn) and well... that was it wasnt it?

You are mostly right. Slaughter was more of a remnant of the 80s that managed to win the title in 1991. Bushwakers were from the 80s too but were around until the mid 90s. Doink was around then too, played by about 5different wrestlers. Sunny was a true product from the NGE...she was the WWF Girl at the time and not only was she easy on the eyes but was very likeable back stage. Triple H started off in '95 with his blue blood gimmick, although who would have thought that he would be practically running the company a decade later?

There were some good matches, Shawn/Razor Ladder Match and the Bret vs. Owen Cage Match from Summerslam '94, but there was no hype surrounding the product as there is even now to some extent. Vince was still using the old formula from Golden Age of the 80s...good guy vs. bad guy and holding events in small arenas which held only like 2K people during the early years of RAW. 1995 when Nash held the title for a whole year was a very low year for the company in terms of ratings and they were in a rut big time.

Thank WCW, Nitro, and the nWo for giving Vince a good kick in the pants to finally turn things around.

 

[Dagless]

Better than the attitude era simply because of Diesel and Ramon

 

[Dagless]

The Clique was also an interesting development... I remember HHH getting all the blame for Nash's and Hall's final WWF show... Michaels, Nash, Hall and HHH were all in the ring together and, despite being variations of Heels and Faces, hugged each other to end the show... McMahon was pised

HBK was the superstar of the time and since Nash and hall were leaving, he couldn't punish any of them.... So he punished HHH, degrading him to a jobber...

 

[Parabola]

Hunter got punished for years for that incident.

 

[The Night Shift]

Hunter got punished for years for that incident.

..and yet, now he punishes Stephanie and gets to call Vince Dad........... The irony

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Considering a proper watch of 1993-97 WWF with my Attitude Era (re)watch coming toward the end. Anyone done it? Every Raw might be unrealistic judging by critical consensus but going through all the PPVs could be a fun way to appreciate what it was before and see what it would be in the Attitude Era creep in. 45 PPVs from Royal Rumble 1993 through Survivor Series 1997.

 

[miggs]

Yeah I did 94-97 there’s a few highlights but not a heap. Mania X, Canadian Stampede and SS95 are the loaded cards. You’ll find the odd great match on others but a lot of rubbish. Mania 13 is solid. There’s a podcast called “the new generation podcast” that I highly recommend. It’s great

 

[Cleavy]

I think the nostalgia would make some of the crap watchable. Plus the RAWs aren't 3 hours long.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Yeah 45 minute Raws and no Smackdowns would make it pretty easy to get through. I caught the last 3 or so years of the Hulkamania era as a kid and then watched the New Gen era until about mid-98. There's a lot of crap in the undercard but the main event scene is pretty decent headlined by Bret, Shawn, Diesel, UT, Yoko as the monster heel. The Lex Express at the start could be a bit of a chore to get through though 1997 is a must watch for mine. One of WWF's greatest ever years.

 

[Nugett]

For me the new generation era, was refreshing. After the Hogan ego era, the product became more simplistic in its approach, and became more wrestling/sports based than just entering on Hogan. Bret Hart was a great underdog champion. Had some great matches in this era, Bret vs Owen in WM10 and Summerslam, Bret vs Bulldog at Summerslam and In Your House, Razor vs Micheals ladder match, the Ironman match between Bret vs Shawn, Owen vs Ken Shamrock, Bret vs Austin in the infamous I quit match. In this era, you started to see the emergence of guys like HHH, The Rock, Austin, Brian Pillman, The Undertaker, Scott Hall and to a lesser extent Yokozuna.

Without the New generation era, there would of been no attitude era, this was the era, where they set themselves up. Hogan was well and truly past his WWF use your date, which is probably evident in his early WCW run, until he turned heel and became Hollywood Hogan, something I strongly doubt would have happened if he stayed in the WWF.

 

[Exhalted One]