WWF New Generation Vs WWE In 2020: Which Was Worse?
Looking back at the New Generation with 2020 hindsight.
2021 is a year with more pressure to overdeliver on expectations than Ronda Rousey when she was booked against Nia Jax in her second televised match.
A world in need of something - anything - to cling on to chose...calendars. 2020 was the real sentient enemy, not the ills that consumed the world during its 12 months. WWE even ran vignettes and sold t-shirts that positioned the year as a top heel, vanquished only by a Drew McIntyre Claymore and a little 2021 sprite with bigger muscles than half of the main roster. There was method in the madness - it's reasonable to believe (hope?) that a portion of this year may not be captured by the clutches of a global health crisis.
Wrestling will change alongside it, and almost definitely for the better. WWE's booking almost certainly won't improve, but the return of live crowds one day will briefly inject it with some desperately-needed energy.
'The Scottish Warrior' did his level best as the company's top star in the no-fans era, but time's stood still as result of the conditions. Andre The Giant famously told Hulk Hogan than three years was a "long time" when he teased challenging him for his WWE Championship at WrestleMania III. A once-in-a-generation global catastrophe splits McIntyre's Royal Rumble win from his title defence at the 2021 show. Long time? It's been a f*cking ice age. Is the annum the new low bar, or does WWE's financial nadir still stand as the company's true rock bottom?
12. Attendances
2020 proved true the lie English football clubs have been telling fans for years. Across all four major divisions in the game, matches continued through almost every lockdown incarnation despite the risks and, eventually, rising number of cases. Broadcasting rights trumped a*ses in seats in the stadiums.
"We are nothing without the supporters" has long been the platitude spouted by insincere mercenaries in a game now unrecognisable from its roots, but WWE - and wrestling at large - actually resembled that remark. And much of the year saw the industry leader trying and not always succeeding in tackling the problem during the ongoing global b*stard.
It's been a rare unifying force between a typically divided supporter base - every wrestling fan, no matter what type of wrestling they favour, really misses wrestling fans. It's a performance art. Though there aren't always many a*ses in the 1995 seats, every WWE event post-March 2020 would have been better with even half of them present.
Which Was Worse?: 2020