10 Reasons Why Your Friends Don't Watch Wrestling Anymore

It may be hard to remember, but there was a time when WWE was the underdog in the wrestling war. WCW dominated the Monday Night Wars (and every measure of profitability) from 1996 to early 1998, and WWE responded with vitriol.

Branding themselves originals, they lambasted WCW as talent-stealing imitators, taking routine potshots at Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff. They especially loved to remind fans that most of WCW's top stars -- Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall -- had spent the primes of their careers in WWE, and were now old, overexposed, and in many cases, physically unable to compete in high-level matches. Eventually, WWE turned the tide of the war by making new stars that outshone their predecessors.

Once WWE became the only game in town, though, something curious happened -- almost all of the wrestlers and personalities they had previously lambasted slowly returned to the company. While nostalgia made them popular in the short-term, fans had been conditioned not to take these men seriously, and thus, their interest waned.

The most glaring example came when Hulk Hogan -- whom WWE had called old with their "Huckster" skits in 1996 -- returned to the company in 2002. The Hogan-Rock dream match at WrestleMania XVIII was the stuff of legend, but when Hogan won the WWE title later in the year, fans tuned out in droves. During his month-long reign, ratings dropped a full percentage point, never to recover.