Ruthless Aggression Era

[Thomas Bugg]

This is an era that'll probably never get the attention of the Attitude Era, much less a full DVD and it's mainly due to Benoit, but in my opinion some of the best matches in WWE history took place during this time period from 2002-2007 or 08ish. Never mind that some of the most wretched storylines took place around this time, the in-ring product often times made up for it. For example, a storyline that was so fucking horrible that I'll leave it up to someone else to describe it took place in October of 2002, and I hated myself for sitting through it and watching it, and to make matters worse there was no Nitro to switch channels to and the Steelers-Colts game sucked balls. But then WWE goes and makes it up to us wrestling fans by having Angle/Benoit vs. Rey/Edge in one of the best matches of the year, and later in the night Brock Lesnar defends the WWE title against The Undertaker in his Hell's Angels days in a Hell In A Cell match that still gives me nightmares from how violent it was.

 

I'd like opinions of this, but I think Summerslam 2002 was the PPV that defined or at least kicked off the Ruthless Aggression Era, and it's certainly one of the best PPV's of the modern era. Angle and Rey had an outstanding technical wrestling opener, Flair and Jericho had a great brawl that showed that Flair around that time could still hang with the young'ns, RVD defeated Benoit in another great match to win the Intercontinental title, The Un-Americans taking on Booker T & Goldust, Shawn Michaels and HHH having a bloody and emotional street fight that reminded me a lot of the old NWA bunkhouse matches, and Brock Lesnar defeating the Rock for the WWE title. Even the worst match on the card, The Undertaker vs. Test, wasn't really that bad as Test actually acted motivated for once. And the New York crowd was hot all night- I kinda like how they turned on the Rock during the main event and the Rock's reactions during the match.

 

So many great matches and moments from this era, but I'll let you all take it from here as I'm going back to watching Summerslam.

[Antacular]

I didn't know "Ruthless Aggression" was the actual canon name for those years, I just thought it was some catch phrase they tried using a few times to no success.

[Hollywood Cibernetico]

Vince made a big speech on Raw one night and kept using the pharse throughout.I guess Vince really wanted to get it over because it wasn't isolated to his speech that night, but became something the commentators and superstars began saying ad nauseam. Ruthless Aggression served as the transition from Attitude (which started to see cracks and in some cases just felt out wasn't working from 2000-2002) into the current PG era. This era is fondly remembered for producing The Smackdown Six, the cage match that ended Smackdown with Mysterio, Edge, and Cena (considered the new guard at-the-time) ending the show, Hogan being over as hell in 2002, The Brand Split, the revival of ECW, and the mirculous comeback of HBK.

 

Attitude is remembered for good angles and bad matches. Ruthless Aggression is remembered for good matches and equally bad/tastless angles ( Oct. 2002 Raw as mentioned, Dawn killing Torrie's father, HHH's comments to Booker T in the build up to their Mania match, Lita having a mis-carriage, etc.). My favorite years during this was 2002-2004 (take away a lot of the HHH stuff and it was pretty fucking amazing) and 2007 WWE (in retrospect).

[Antacular]

One can't help but admire the transformation from an "unmerciful violence" era to "please ask your parents." That's Senator McMahon to you~~!

[Niners Fan in CT]

There was a lot of nostalgia acts during this time as well. Some feel it's a dark period for WWE but I felt the positives outweighed the negatives.

[BatistaWasRight]

Triple H was a terrible ace for this era, but a lot of Chris Jericho's MVP stuff is in it.  So is 95 percent of Angle's good stuff.

 

I personally love this era.  It seemed to blend in the more athletic styles found outside of the promotion with a lot of the "storytelling" it had been pushing for decades. .

[Go2Sleep]

I always thought it was the brand split era. To me, that was defining characteristic between the Invasion and PG eras. It's a divisive time with some of the best and worst efforts from WWE this century, characterized by one brand being pretty good while the other was terrible. I don't recall both brands ever being good top to bottom at the same time. 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

I always thought it was the brand split era. To me, that was defining characteristic between the Invasion and PG eras. It's a divisive time with some of the best and worst efforts from WWE this century, characterized by one brand being pretty good while the other was terrible. I don't recall both brands ever being good top to bottom at the same time. 

 

The "brand split" was 9 years long though, which feels like too long for 1 era - though with that comes the issue of naming the 2nd era.

 

I think Ruthless Aggression ends in mid-2007 with the end of the split-brand PPVs and the death of Benoit. Later that year Punk wins the ECW Title, Jeff Hardy feuds with Umaga and emerges as a player. Fat like Lashley and Masters (he sucked then) were trimmed. RVD left too, thanks to Orton who became 'The Viper' and actually a proper main-eventer, Edge became #1 heel on SD, HHH goes on his first proper face singles run, Jericho returns. Lots of people dropped weight, and the style became a little quicker as a result. I'm not sure what I'd call this era, but I think 2002-2007 and 2007-2011 deserve separate treatment.

[cwoy2j]

What about the Toothless Aggression Era?

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

What about the Toothless Aggression Era?

 

Wellness Violation era or 'Smiles on faces' if you're being particularly snarky.

[Thomas Bugg]

Hollywood Cibernetico mentioned it in his post, but this was really the era where we got arguably the best matches of Shawn Michaels' career. It's almost like everytime he stepped in the ring he wound up stealing the show. The first and second Elimination Chamber, his awesome return vs. HHH at Summerslam, 3 stages of hell vs. HHH at Armageddon 2002, his WM 19 match against Jericho, His performances at the Survivor Series, the Last Man Standing match against HHH, the Hell In A Cell (which I'm about to watch right now), him putting over Shelton Benjamin on RAW but getting the victory, the 60 minute match with Cena on RAW- this era is really what made me a Michaels fan.

 

Also, Edge really came into his own during this period, whether it was his face run with Mysterio or his psychotic asshole heel run later in the era. Him cashing in the Money In The Bank against an already-bloodied Cena was one of the happiest nights of my life!

[Brian Fowler]

Uh..........

In not sure I have ever disagreed with a post more. Christ that HIAC might be the worst 40 minutes in wwe history.

[Antacular]

RVD left too, thanks to Orton who became 'The Viper' and actually a proper main-eventer,

 

 

I'm pretty sure RVD pulled a Ricky Williams, had nothing to do with young Randall.

[Go2Sleep]

 

I always thought it was the brand split era. To me, that was defining characteristic between the Invasion and PG eras. It's a divisive time with some of the best and worst efforts from WWE this century, characterized by one brand being pretty good while the other was terrible. I don't recall both brands ever being good top to bottom at the same time. 

 

The "brand split" was 9 years long though, which feels like too long for 1 era - though with that comes the issue of naming the 2nd era.

 

I think Ruthless Aggression ends in mid-2007 with the end of the split-brand PPVs and the death of Benoit. Later that year Punk wins the ECW Title, Jeff Hardy feuds with Umaga and emerges as a player. Fat like Lashley and Masters (he sucked then) were trimmed. RVD left too, thanks to Orton who became 'The Viper' and actually a proper main-eventer, Edge became #1 heel on SD, HHH goes on his first proper face singles run, Jericho returns. Lots of people dropped weight, and the style became a little quicker as a result. I'm not sure what I'd call this era, but I think 2002-2007 and 2007-2011 deserve separate treatment.

 

 

 

When I break up "eras" in my mind, I think the Brand Split runs from 2002 to 2008. It starts to fade out when the re-introudce joint ppvs all year, and guys start appearing on both shows more and more in 2007. Yes it's a long stretch, but really the differences between WWE in 2002 and 2007 are pretty non-existant outside of the expected roster turnover. The next massive change in the presentation of WWE was when they went PG in the summer of 08. Eras are pretty fluid, though, so of course you still have remnants of the brand split after 2008, but it's less and less important and PG has a much more dramatic influence on the direction and presentation in WWE. The difference between the unprotected head-shot and blade-fests of the HHH/Michaels influence and the PG style is actually pretty stark if you watch some shows from that time frame.

 

It's hard to determine when eras begin and end until well after they're over, but I'm thinking PG might have been on the way out as the driving influence since 2011 or so as everyone got acclimated to it and more guys started inside of it. We may or may not have officially entered the indy era at some point. 

 

But regardless of what you want to call that mid-2000s time frame, it was a very up and down era. Not surprising given how much time it covers and how thin the roster was spread.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

I think 02-05 is it's own era, ending with Dave and Cena winning the titles at Mania 21

[MORELOCK]

Hollywood Cibernetico mentioned it in his post, but this was really the era where we got arguably the best matches of Shawn Michaels' career. It's almost like everytime he stepped in the ring he wound up stealing the show. The first and second Elimination Chamber, his awesome return vs. HHH at Summerslam, 3 stages of hell vs. HHH at Armageddon 2002, his WM 19 match against Jericho, His performances at the Survivor Series, the Last Man Standing match against HHH, the Hell In A Cell (which I'm about to watch right now), him putting over Shelton Benjamin on RAW but getting the victory, the 60 minute match with Cena on RAW- this era is really what made me a Michaels fan.

Have you seen any of Shawn's matches from before his return?

[Thomas Bugg]

 

Hollywood Cibernetico mentioned it in his post, but this was really the era where we got arguably the best matches of Shawn Michaels' career. It's almost like everytime he stepped in the ring he wound up stealing the show. The first and second Elimination Chamber, his awesome return vs. HHH at Summerslam, 3 stages of hell vs. HHH at Armageddon 2002, his WM 19 match against Jericho, His performances at the Survivor Series, the Last Man Standing match against HHH, the Hell In A Cell (which I'm about to watch right now), him putting over Shelton Benjamin on RAW but getting the victory, the 60 minute match with Cena on RAW- this era is really what made me a Michaels fan.

Have you seen any of Shawn's matches from before his return?

 

 

Yes, and I loved the Iron Man match, the ladder matches, vs. Diesel at WM11, the first ever Hell In A Cell and others. Just a personal preference I suppose.

[Ultimo Necro]

It gave us the "Mr America" lie detector segment.  Possibly my favourite Hogan moment of all time (if it was indeed the Hulkster).

 

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

It gave us the "Mr America" lie detector segment.  Possibly my favourite Hogan moment of all time (if it was indeed the Hulkster).

"NO NO NO NO NO."

*DING DING DING DING DING*

 

magic.

[J.H.]

 

James

[Thomas Bugg]

I miss the old Smackdown stage

[Thomas Bugg]

 

James

 

"At least I don't fantasize about the Mae Youngs of the world!" BUZZZZZZ

[The Nature Boy]

It's a shame that Mr. America disappeared off the face of the Earth, such a talented youngster with a bright future. I can only hope that he and Zach Gowen are tearing up the indy circuit in the Heartland. 

[Brian Fowler]

Someone who has on camera seats needs a Being Back Mr. America sign.

[ultimoDANK]

Up until last year I'd say the Smackdown 6 era was the peak of WWE in ring quality. So what '01 is still the attitude era? The Benoit vs Austin matches that year were fucking awesome.