10 Things You Hate About Modern Wrestling (Thanks To The Attitude Era)
3. One Track Storytelling
The Attitude Era is often held up as the holy grail of wrestling storytelling. At best, this is a big exaggeration. Much of the period was booked around hokey nonsense like The Undertaker crucifying people and Mae Young birthing a hand, but while Attitude's storytelling isn't quite the sacred cow its biggest fans claim, stories certainly panned out with greater fluidity back then.
The modern era is all about building towards the pay-per-view. Stories develop and unfold in an increasingly samey and formulaic way, making each one feel like a predictable slog, and removing the 'anything can happen' vibe that used to make WWE so compelling.
There's no longer any scope for stories to begin and end in the same night. In-show storytelling is dead, making nights like the Raw on which Chris Jericho started a feud with Triple H, became WWE Champion, then lost it through a reversal of Earl Hebner's fast count impossible. There's no balance, no variety, and when a wrestler gets locked into a story, it's the only thing they'll be doing for months.
Attitude's storylines didn't all succeed, but most at least developed in a way that kept the audience engaged. Sadly, this appears to be a dead art.