The Secret History Of WWE’s Ruthless Aggression Era | Wrestling Timelines

May 9, 2002 - Batista Debuts

Batista becomes one of the biggest stars of the 2000s. You’d never believe that when you first saw him.

Batista, a member of the OWV Class of 2002, was repackaged from a sea monster and into a deacon backing up an evil reverend. This man of the cloth is Reverend D-Von Dudley, whose old catchphrase of “Testify!” is seemingly enough to launch a doomed-to-fail ‘90s retread gimmick based entirely on it. It does indeed fail; naturally, so does Batista initially.

It’s a short-lived bit of midcard experimentation - hardly a damning disgrace, but unfathomably stupid. Batista is a cool, handsome guy with the sort of jacked body not witnessed in WWE in years. Give him some one-liners, have him kick ass: it doesn’t seem especially difficult.

WWE makes it difficult by presenting Batista as a creep whose rippling torso is covered by a suit. Incidentally, Batista wasn’t told that the arms were to be ripped off, and bought a very expensive suit to make a good impression on TV.

In WWE’s defence, Batista’s rise to mega stardom catches everybody by surprise. He isn’t presented as a young prodigy because he definitionally isn’t; he’s limited in the ring, and first appears on national TV at 33 years old. His physique is simply too impressive not to try the guy out.

June 24, 2002 - Ruthless Aggression Speech

This isn’t an emphatic declaration of a new era.

Vince McMahon, looking very pissed off, grabs a microphone as various members of the WWE roster stand on the ring apron. The blocking of this angle is immediately suspect. The wrestlers could not look less like stars. They look like and are told that they are failures. Vince says that he destroyed WCW by displaying “ruthless aggression”. He also says that the wrestlers are standing on “his ring”. The megalomania oozes from him.

“Ruthless Aggression” here is code for “Who is going to grab the brass ring?”, and more than one WWE wrestler has stated that this simply isn’t how it works. CM Punk infamously said this in a promo.

The basic thrust here is that Vince is telling his roster that they need to get over on their own, and he is giving them license to do so.

But look at who Vince speaks to. Bubba Day Dudley, pre-JBL Bradshaw, Spike Dudley. There are bigger stars on that apron, but nobody Vince has any real intention of pushing. This ‘Ruthless Aggression’ phrase only begins to make sense when…