WWE: 8 Ways WrestleMania 30 Is A Modern Day WrestleMania 13
By the mid-1990s the days of the All American Hero "kissing babies and hugging fat girls" (kudos Batista) had well and truly passed. Once their winning formula, the WWE and Vince McMahon were initially reluctant to accept change and move with the times. A victim of their own stubbornness, the WWE would soon find themselves an increasingly distant #2 behind the more relevant WCW. Ratings and ticket sales began to suffer resulting in one of the worst financial periods in the companys history. Heading into 1997 with business at an all-time low Vince McMahon finally admitted defeat and began to rebuild. Wrestlemania 13 is where the pieces would all fall into place. That years installment of Wrestlemania would prove to be the spark that ignited the biggest boom period in wrestling history The Attitude Era.
In the current day WWE is among the strongest financially it has ever been, stocks have recently risen to all new highs, and Vince McMahon is once again a Billionaire.
On the surface you would think the business is far removed from the dark days of early 1997. Going into the 30 year anniversary of Wrestlemania however, a sense of Déjà vu fills the air. The closer we get the more this years annual showcase starts to resemble a modern day Wrestlemania 13.
The comparisons are striking. HBK bailed out on his '13 match just like CM Punk did this year. There's a thrown together title match for both. Creative are in a mess with fans worldwide having spent the past year rebelling. Technological innovations like the WWE network are taking the company in an all new direction, just as the Internet did seventeen years ago.
In this article I take a look at 8 ways history is repeating itself and why this years Wrestlemania could once again prove to be the catalyst for the next boom period in professional wrestling.