10 Compelling Pieces Of Evidence That Prove Wrestling Is Worse Than It's Ever Been

For a company who claims to listen to their fans and work tirelessly to give them what they want, WWE is sure slow to change with the times. This should not come as a surprise actually, the wrestling business is notoriously stubborn, beating old tricks into the ground again and again until it becomes obvious they don't work anymore.

Wrestling was extremely popular in the 1980s but, by the turn of the decade, the business had become, as Paul Heyman would say, the equivalent of hair bands. Sure, they were popular at one time but now were uncool and lame. Wrestling went through that down period, playing to smaller and smaller crowds, until Heyman gave birth to ECW, a completely different take on professional wrestling.

Instead of muscle-bound superheroes who told you to train hard and take vitamins, Heyman presented wrestling as a battle between two tough men who just wanted to fight. He brought the 1990s attitude into wrestling, making wrestlers talk more realistically and presenting a level of violence not seen outside of Japan.

It didn't gain mainstream acceptance though until the WWF blatantly stole their ideas, toned down the violence and, as a result, experienced their best period in history.

In present day, WWE has gone back to the kid-friendly product from the mid-1990s that sells a lot of action figures and toys but doesn't equal television ratings. The rise of UFC and MMA in general has necessitated a change in how WWE, and wrestling in general, presents its product but the industry has yet to fully embrace that change and its hurting them financially.