10 Times Wrestling Promotions Came Back From The Dead
2. WWF - 1998
It's dead.
For a measure of just how far WWE has fallen, the ageing audience was and remains incredibly protective over the New Generation and the period that led to it. The wrestling was better! You can still go back and drool over the minutiae of Bret Hart's work in 2020! Those matches were arrived at via expert slow-burn builds or white-hot heat angles! Owen Hart and the 123 Kid had a better match on RAW than they did at King Of The Ring! Doink was a sinister character and superb worker!
Yes yes Mantaur yes yes business was in the sh*tter and yes yes WWF was as awful on an ethical level as ever and this was even sold by the outside world, but my dude, did you ever see that all-Kliq Action Zone tag team banger?
It's alive!
Despite how easy and pleasing it is to minimise Vince Russo's influence - particularly since he, before entering total irrelevance, tried to take all the credit - he was crucial to the great comeback. An holistic success story, Russo created a new episodic storytelling formula and tone that grabbed the edgy '90s zeitgeist. This was the perfect cultural framework to push Stone Cold Steve Austin as the hilarious ass-kicking antihero.
The youthful WWF audience was given the outlet they needed - t*tties, nu-metal and violence - and Austin et al. delivered the working substance Russo was absolutely knackered without.