10 Times WWE Didn't Deserve To Be Unpopular
9. 1994
'Deserve' is probably a misnomer.
The very premise of a wrestling promotion is to effectively promote its stars to the public. WWF wasn't lacking for exposure, nor had its creative ideas been lifted by a more prominent company. This was no hard-luck tale: the WWF simply did not boast the star power nor product to reclaim its commercial glory. The stark tale told by this Wednesday Night War - NXT and AEW together can't reach RAW's numbers, poor as they are in themselves - is that critically-acclaimed art has little bearing on popularity.
And the WWF of 1994 was critically-acclaimed art.
The sprawling Bret Vs. Owen Hart feud was as authentic and as good as pro wrestling gets, delivering all-time classic matches, tremendous, heart-wrenching selling, and of course, a legendary meme. Owen and the 1-2-3 Kid contested at least two electric bangers that hold up, genuinely, to 2019's standards of athleticism. The storytelling was experimental and attuned to the wavelength of fans: Bret and Lex Luger's famed double-elimination Rumble spot created a new strain of drama and restored the Hitman as a headliner. Diesel was a bust in 1995, but in '94, his ice-cool, badass presence was marketed and pushed perfectly. RAW remained a very good and vital-feeling driver of storylines.
The How-much-does-dis-guy-weigh memes paint an inaccurate picture: 1994 was as tumultuous offscreen as it was perfectly controlled on it.