9 Reasons Wrestling Got So Big In The 90s

Comparing the 1990s wrestling landscape with the modern day is a thoroughly depressing exercise. As exciting as today's WWE would have you believe their current product is, it falls incredibly flat when compared to the fare churned out by the WWF and WCW twenty years ago. Back then, the industry benefited from a large and incredibly rabid fanbase - but it didn't merely inherit such enthusiasm as part of a boom/bust cycle. A large chunk of wrestling's 90s popularity was earned, either through smart decisions by the two major promotions, the actions of the wrestlers themselves, and even turning a few happy accidents into clear positives. There's no single reason for the industry boom shortly before the turn of the century, but several key factors certainly played a major part. Here are the nine biggest reasons wrestling got big in the 90s.

9. Moving With The Times

Wrestling thrived towards the end of the 20th century by moulding itself to fit the trends of the day, and the 90s was a distinctly grittier decade than its predecessor. The 80s was an incredibly ostentatious time for pop culture, which thrived on glitz, glamour and spectacle. The wrestling industry reflected this with larger-than-life characters such as the bombastic Hulk Hogan and colourful Randy Savage ruling the WWF roost. The 90s saw glitter give way to grime, hair metal move aside for grunge, and the business adopt a distinctly darker tone. Arenas started to look less like grand coliseums and more like rough-edged urban environments, while the top stars of the day began to dress (and act) in a manner befitting the era. Both the WWF and WCW were slow to cotton on, and early-90s footage of both companies is often an embarrassing hodgepodge of outdated gimmicks, but one they'd both got with the times, the rewards were great. Wrestling was cool again.