Every WWE Era Since WrestleMania I - Ranked From Worst To Best
4. The New Era (2016-present)
From an in-ring perspective, The New Era is comfortably WWE’s greatest ever period, and it’s not even close. WWE’s roster is stacked at the moment, and while the promotion’s multi-talented rosters are often let down by poor booking, all-round match quality has never been so high. In the likes of AJ Styles, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Shinsuke Nakamura, WWE have some of the best wrestlers in the world at their disposal, and barely a pay-per-view or TakeOver live special passes without at least one Match Of The Year candidate.
Kicking-off after WrestleMania 32, what holds the New Era back is that it’s still less than a year old. The matches are great, SmackDown’s current incarnation is one of the best weekly shows in WWE history, and NXT is still soaring, but without the benefit of hindsight and context, it’s impossible to tell how the New Era will stack up historically.
Nonetheless, fans have rarely had it so good. WWE’s product has never been so diverse, and even if Raw and SmackDown aren’t to your taste, there’s still NXT and special events like the Cruiserweight Classic and UK Title Tournament to enjoy. Certain complaints (Roman Reigns’ push, for one) remain constant, but for the most part, modern day WWE is in great shape.
Business is in an interesting position at the moment. WWE announced record revenues last year, but TV ratings are lower than ever, with Raw hitting an all-time low last September. Changing viewer habits mean that such figures aren’t as pertinent as they used to be, but they still make it hard to deem the New Era an outright success.
We’re still in the period’s infancy, however, and WWE have plenty of time to shake these concerns off.