6. New Characters
Unfortunately we are all mortals, and the majority of guys from the 80's were already knocking on middle age when Wrestlemania first rolled up. It was always an inevitability that these guys were going to have to give way to younger talent and whilst at first this did create a slump in WWF's ratings (aka the Monday Night War) this did lead to a number of good things. Firstly our favourite characters of the 80's were given a fresh run in the newly re-launched WCW with guys they have never faced before, pour example Hulk Hogan the biggest good guy of all time turns his back on the fans and kids to join the nWo. ECW and WCW also brought in talent from nontraditional shores, the Lucha Libre styles of the Guerreros and Mysterios were brought to us through the channels of ECW then WCW, you also had talent such as Mick Foley, Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Ron Simmons and Dean Malenko to name a few having stints in both of these companies and, especially in ECW, showing us a new kind of wrestling art form both in ring and on mic. Eventually WWF snapped up a few of these names, one being Steve Austin, and then when thrown in with The Rock you had a chemical mix of successful television, from there they acquired more talent from WCW and ECW and had people fighting each other that had never crossed brands; The Radicalz vs. D-Generation X, Chris Jericho vs. The Rock. I think it was safe to say that by the end of the 90's people had forgotten how bent out of shape they were that their heroes of old were leaving WWF for WCW. Let's also face the truth, if it hadn't have been for Attitude, or more specifically ECW paving the way for shorter guys like the Benoits, Mysterios and Guerreros, or the unconventional guys like Steve Austin and Mick Foley, we may never had seen them on WWF television, give props where they are due and Paul Heyman should get some there.