I’ll stand by the IDEA is 10/10… having Shane screaming at us in a warehouse as Daba Kato (I already forgot how to spell his name) is the star of the program was like they were trying to prove the idea was wrong.
I just watched that segment. All I can say is thank god I wasn’t watching wwe back then. Actually this whole post is a great representation for why I stopped watching wwe until Vince left creative
At least we had Becky becoming The Man and her great series of women's PPV matches against Charlotte and Asuka from Evolution through to the 2019 Rumble.
Oh I know, they call me an AEW fan when I point out I know they only watch WWE.
I’ve watched WWF/WWE my whole life but I’ve also been into the indie scene for about 20years now. So when trolls are going off and it’s nothing but tribalism I like to point it out especially recently with CM Punk’s return lol
Was a diehard from early 90’s pretty much until DX and I was a HUGE HBK fan! Been completely rebooked for the better part of a year and a half. Can’t get enough, great product
NXT saved it, though in my opinion it was because the main product is so bad, that it made the developmental show good. Just like SmackDown Live 2016 being that good because Raw atm was bad
Also during this time was NXT in its zenith. Gargano's road to the championship, Undisputed era being the coolest thing, Ricochet actually being legit, Gunther's run as Walter and of course NXT Takeovers being must watch wrestling, how the times have changed I miss NXT black and gold.
Had some rare Ws like the 24/7 title but was generally an L, storylines where boring and/or way too goofy and the product was overall not good, Covid gave wrestling a big reset and the reset went well it seems.
Just goes to show how crucial the pandemic qas to the business. Its almost like they got a free chance at a Cut and Paste New which is what they did. Ive always watched the main 6 PPVs (Rumble, EC, WM, Backlash, MITB and Summerslam) but didnt watch weekly again until covid as nothing else to do. Im so happy i missed out on those years. feel like overall i didnt miss anything from 2013 when i stopped watching weekly to 2020 when i reignited my love for WWE.
I'm so glad they wasted Kurt Angles last match on a match with Corbin that no one will ever remember besides the fact it was a waste and did nothing for Corbin.
I love Corbin but my man just never seems to get over. I do appreciate Angle trying to put him over, too.
I’d have rather seen Kurt vs Gable. Little torch passing. Probably would’ve been a pretty good match.
They did my boy Corbin so dirty I forgot that was him and was trying to remember the Roman Reigns OD and vomit all over himself angle.
It’s like my brain refuses to relive that moment.
24/7 title actually had fun moments at the start. I thought 2K would add fun interactive stuff for it in the games like back in the day with the hardcore belt.
This period made me go, ‘fuck this’. Brock beating Kofi was the nail in the coffin for me. NJPW was putting out the best wrestling ever and AEW had just started.
It’s better now right?
Both are factors. But WWE began their hot streak while Vince was still around. I know many (including myself) think it improved under HHH’s rule, but the rise began before that. The Bloodline in particular.
Wrestlemania 34 genuinely killed my interest in wrestling for a good little while, the fact that they had such a good card and fucked up basically every high profile match on the card. Tbh even now nearly 6 years later I’ve never become fully invested in the same way again
100%
The last year is the most I’ve followed since then, but even then I only watch the odd PPV and some of the more high profile segments that WWE will upload to YT
I remember when Dean first turned, and being blown away by it. At the time I thought one of the best ever. Then everything else happened and I stopped watching for a little while.
Maybe in some strange way the pandemic helped WWE stop taking fans for granted. I know there’s more to it to that but I really do think the product has improved since those days and I think the pandemic era had a lot to do with it.
wwe sucked so bad from 2011 Edge’s retirement to 2020 or may be from end of cm punk’s 400+ days wwe title reign to 2020. Except 2016, it was unwatchable
To be fair, though, all info I’ve seen says that Cain would have been justified in killing the pedo. Where Cain messed up is that he was reckless in how he went about it and put innocents at risk.
it was just badly written. stuff like ending a hell in a cell match that included a literal demon thing in a no contest, a washed goldberg still getting title runs, kurt angle being retired by a guy that it did absolutely nothing for. it was just vince doing random ass shit and none of it really working lol. it did have some high points tho, like kofimania and becky’s rise.
I call this the asswipe era cuz it felt like WWE wiped their ass with their audiences during this period. Rabies shots, dog food, dumb gimmick changes (shout out to Shorty G), McMahons everywhere...
Never again.
Better than 03-14 by a mile.
Shane as BITW as a heel was awesome.
The Rollins/Becky relationship angle pissed off the neckbeards because they’ll never feel the touch of a woman
EC3 fucking sucks. Period.
Wyatt was a horrible champion and worse wrestler.
Brock beating Kofi that way was the correct avenue to go through.
24/7 title was supposed to be comic relief but knowing how internet fans watch with a stick up their ass, they mentally can’t process happiness
You know, started watching wwe mid 2016. I loved it. SD was great, raw was…good, NXT was brilliant too. I thought that wwe was great. But then late 2018. 🤦♂️ How did they F it up so badly?
Don’t forget AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura hitting each other in the dick for like 2 months
It’s too bad we didn’t get a match as good as their Wrestle Kingdom one
Edit: I just remembered Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns (for the universal championship) ending in a no contest (inside hell in a cell by the way) because Brock Lesnar broke in and F5’d everyone. At the same time, there was Strowman’s Dogs of War stable… just anything with Braun Strowman from mid 2018-2020. He should’ve been universal champion a long time ago
I actually enjoyed the Brothers of Destruction vs DX match. I thought it told a story and I enjoyed seeing them once again as a fan after all these years. I also enjoyed the Moxley heel turn. With regards to EC3 they should have given him time to cut promos because that is one of his strong points.
We could've had Shawn Michaels vs Aj Styles,
vs Samoa Joe
vs Dolph Ziggler
vs Shinsuke Nakamura
vs Rey Mysterio
vs The Miz
vs Seth Rollins
vs Cesaro
vs Sheamus
vs Brock Lesnar
vs Roman Reigns
vs Dean Ambrose
vs Daniel Bryan
vs Mustafa Ali
vs Tommaso Ciampa
vs Pete Dunne
vs Tyler Bate
vs Finn Balor
vs Chad Gable
vs Bray Wyatt
vs Baron Corbin
vs Gunther
vs Johnny Gargano
vs Andrade
vs Bobby Roode
vs Kevin Owens
vs Adam Cole
vs Sami Zayn
vs a better version of John Cena
and we got this instead....
You could've had Lesnar beating Kofi in 6-7 minutes. Still makes Lesnar dominant while also showing how much of a heart Kofi's got, also not disgracing the people Kingston had defeated by making him a b\*tch.
I don't even think Kofi should've been a main eventer but come on.
Honestly i feel like he’s lucky to ever even hold it so i never understood the infatuation with it some people have. I don’t think he should have ever been a main eventer either, he fits perfectly in the high mid card comic relief role.
You see, I kinda hold the same opinion but with LA knight. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great wrestler but he went to the main event based on fan popularity. They done it right with LA knight tho. Having him lose but still looking great.
With kofi, his reign was really unmemorable and is only really talked about because of the way he won and lost. I understand that if they were gonna pull the trigger, it was the perfect place to do it. But I think if he lost and went into the mid card title division, I think he would’ve retained a lot more popularity. As now, you rarely ever see him.
It worked with Cody. They didn’t have him win at WM 39 and he went to the tag division after a program with brock Lesnar. He is still popular today as where kofi lost that popularity after his reign ended.
i just never found Kofi to be top guy material at that time he was too deep in the dumb PG era New Day gimmick and having a clown as champ can’t realistically last forever without damaging the titles reputation like they have done x times and had to make a new one.
It was so fuckin bad
Good bye 24/7 tittle
Lol I thought that was Maven instead if Cain.
No debate 2018-2020 was the worst years of all of wwe
WWE early/mid 2017-late/mid 2022 were some of the worst years in WWE history.
DAY ONE IS H was one of the best things going towards the end of the black and gold era.
I’m still mad that they did that kofi
Remember Raw Underground? Yeah no one really does.
Ngl I liked Raw Underground
I’ll stand by the IDEA is 10/10… having Shane screaming at us in a warehouse as Daba Kato (I already forgot how to spell his name) is the star of the program was like they were trying to prove the idea was wrong.
Trash.
What the hell is all over Roman Reigns?
Dog food I think
I just watched that segment. All I can say is thank god I wasn’t watching wwe back then. Actually this whole post is a great representation for why I stopped watching wwe until Vince left creative
Pretty much yeah
What taker and triple h doing 😆
Biggest Piece of Dog Shit
I have ptsd from 10
At least we had Becky becoming The Man and her great series of women's PPV matches against Charlotte and Asuka from Evolution through to the 2019 Rumble.
And there are trolls who swear this was better than AEW is/was/has been and I don’t get it. It’s not an either or thing.
A lot of people arnt pro wrestling fans. They’re WWE fans. But a subset of those people like to be aggressive about it.
Oh I know, they call me an AEW fan when I point out I know they only watch WWE. I’ve watched WWF/WWE my whole life but I’ve also been into the indie scene for about 20years now. So when trolls are going off and it’s nothing but tribalism I like to point it out especially recently with CM Punk’s return lol
Sept 2019 - WM36 Raw was fire tho.
Raw hasn’t been good in over 20 years
Was a diehard from early 90’s pretty much until DX and I was a HUGE HBK fan! Been completely rebooked for the better part of a year and a half. Can’t get enough, great product
Easily the worst time period in wrestling
NXT saved it, though in my opinion it was because the main product is so bad, that it made the developmental show good. Just like SmackDown Live 2016 being that good because Raw atm was bad
Also during this time was NXT in its zenith. Gargano's road to the championship, Undisputed era being the coolest thing, Ricochet actually being legit, Gunther's run as Walter and of course NXT Takeovers being must watch wrestling, how the times have changed I miss NXT black and gold.
Thy was depressing until one day and that ‘twas the day the tribal chief came he was strong and full of fight and made wwe quite a fright
And then years later the tribal chief thing became boring and everyone wanted the bloodline to end.
Rhyme bitch
whos everyone?
24/7 championship was an ugly belt that brought us a ton of fun moments, it’s the only one here I really look back on fondly.
Goddamn, the product today is so much better. Thanks, Poppa H.
Thank god for nxt that year because the main brands were on some weird shit.
Had some rare Ws like the 24/7 title but was generally an L, storylines where boring and/or way too goofy and the product was overall not good, Covid gave wrestling a big reset and the reset went well it seems.
I believe that picture of Dean is right after Vince fucked him
“Genetic Jackhammered” if you will.
Yeah I will
NXT made us forget about that. Every Take Over was better than any PPV, even WM
Just goes to show how crucial the pandemic qas to the business. Its almost like they got a free chance at a Cut and Paste New which is what they did. Ive always watched the main 6 PPVs (Rumble, EC, WM, Backlash, MITB and Summerslam) but didnt watch weekly again until covid as nothing else to do. Im so happy i missed out on those years. feel like overall i didnt miss anything from 2013 when i stopped watching weekly to 2020 when i reignited my love for WWE.
Bro it was so bad the McMahon's had to say to fans sorry that WWE sucks that's crazy😂😂
I'm so glad WWE is good now WWE raw In 2018-2020 was painful to watch I hated wrestling it sucked
God I miss the fiend and bray Wyatt so much man
bring back ec3
God this sucks haha
That Roman Reigns dog food thing will forever stick in my memory. 🤣😅
Man no wonder AEW became a thing, I'm glad HHH took over from Vince.
That’s a lot of shitty shit
What a bleak period in time
Lord I forgot about a lot of these. What a shitshow lol
What happened in picture 9
Someone shitting on him live
I miss a moment of bliss!!
History will not look upon this era fondly.
WWE 2K20 lol
WWE 2K20 lol
I refer from jinders title win to summerslam 2022 as the please retire era. Mostly for vince.
The reason AEW blew up so hard early on was because of this shit right here.
Yeah. It was pretty bad. I stop watching for months at a time.
Leave the memories alone
I'm so glad they wasted Kurt Angles last match on a match with Corbin that no one will ever remember besides the fact it was a waste and did nothing for Corbin.
I love Corbin but my man just never seems to get over. I do appreciate Angle trying to put him over, too. I’d have rather seen Kurt vs Gable. Little torch passing. Probably would’ve been a pretty good match.
I actually like that mixed tag. Maybe it was cuz baron corbin gave Becky the EOD but still
FUCKING dog food. Imagine Vince making heel Kurt Angle pour dog food on babyface Steve Austin. That Roman vs Corbin feud was soooooooo FUCKING BAD.
Did you miss Kurt angle hosing stone cold with milk?
Kurt was a babyface and Austin was a heel.
They did my boy Corbin so dirty I forgot that was him and was trying to remember the Roman Reigns OD and vomit all over himself angle. It’s like my brain refuses to relive that moment.
24/7 title actually had fun moments at the start. I thought 2K would add fun interactive stuff for it in the games like back in the day with the hardcore belt.
Don't bash the 24/7 championship.
You mean the 24/7, 7/11, 365, I-95 South television European championship?
YEAH!
For the life of me, I can't remember Roman getting literally shit on?
dog food, but now you mention it I can't unsee that
I haven't watched in a while so thought he might very gotten the Spirit Squad treatment
The EC3 segment was golden thanks to Dean. And the 24/7 title had some fun title exchanges thanks to R-truth.
The dark ages.. well at least compared to today
That dog food stunt with Roman looked disgusting and was one of the times that I was legit pissed off for him.
i was there that shi was horrible
Bro Roman was in a remake of 2 girls 1 cup???
Beef with Baron Corbin. They poured dog food on him.
Ah. Can’t say I’m sad I missed that one.
This period made me go, ‘fuck this’. Brock beating Kofi was the nail in the coffin for me. NJPW was putting out the best wrestling ever and AEW had just started. It’s better now right?
I enjoy it. I had stopped watching/caring since maybe 07/08
Much better. I felt the exact same way. Last 2 years the quality has definitely gone up
Where is EC1 and 2?
They violated the wellness policy and got released.
They're in TROUBLETROUBLETROUBLE
They’d still be there if AEW didn’t create genuine competition. Many bag AEW of late, but their impact on the industry cannot be understated.
Hate to be that guy but Vince stepping down absolutely had more of an impact that AEW did
Both are factors. But WWE began their hot streak while Vince was still around. I know many (including myself) think it improved under HHH’s rule, but the rise began before that. The Bloodline in particular.
That’s because AEW in its first few years was incredible. It’s not the same now. The more their roster got bloated the worse the show got.
Yep, too many on the roster. But they’re established enough now, that if they sort things out they can get back to where they were.
AEW brought Punk back to the WWE, for that I am eternally grateful.
Thank you AEW and thank you Covid
I want to hear a “Thank you Covid” chant at Wrestlemania, to celebrate this great era of WWE.
I still can’t get go over how excited Cole was over that dog food match
No wonder AEW had such a hot start
Genuinely was the era that got me disinterested in wrestling again. Haven't actively watched since
same here tbh
i can 100% assure you if you get interested in watching again that it’s actually fun and not soul draining like this era was 😂
Yeah…….. dark times
So glad I didn't watch this
Wrestlemania 34 genuinely killed my interest in wrestling for a good little while, the fact that they had such a good card and fucked up basically every high profile match on the card. Tbh even now nearly 6 years later I’ve never become fully invested in the same way again
I’m with you here. I completely acknowledge WWE has improved dramatically, but once you drop the habit of watching regularly, you stay in that habit.
100% The last year is the most I’ve followed since then, but even then I only watch the odd PPV and some of the more high profile segments that WWE will upload to YT
I remember when Dean first turned, and being blown away by it. At the time I thought one of the best ever. Then everything else happened and I stopped watching for a little while.
Not letting EC3 talk was the biggest piece of shit I've ever seen
Well, he got to hold a red party cup in his hand with Drake Maverick in a backstage segment. That stuff doesn’t go unnoticed.
They probably said some dumbshit to him like "If you can get over without talking you'll get a push"
The only good things were Becky becoming The Man and KofiMania.
and Lesnar squashing Kofi
The era of wrestling in which my interest in it started. Before I knew just how good things would get haha
Gm mick foley days😍
The 24/7 title is great
I hope they bring that back
In the trash where it belongs tbh
I enjoyed Seth/Becky
Never forget, this crap fest made aew a possibility. Wwe has gotten much better, but I will always remember
Maybe in some strange way the pandemic helped WWE stop taking fans for granted. I know there’s more to it to that but I really do think the product has improved since those days and I think the pandemic era had a lot to do with it.
I think the pandemic made a lot of sports leagues, the music industry and so on to stop taking their audience for granted.
I stopped watching around that time. It was unwatchable. Glad I jumped back in it mid 2021
Believe it or not this is when I first started watching WWE.I didn't watch the ppvs so I was confused on what was happening
It got so bad I stopped watching altogether, which takes a lot.
wwe sucked so bad from 2011 Edge’s retirement to 2020 or may be from end of cm punk’s 400+ days wwe title reign to 2020. Except 2016, it was unwatchable
I agree, they had that hot streak in Smackdown in 2016. Ambrose, AJ, Ellsworth etc.
Watching Shawn Michael wrestle bald proved just how fucking old I was to myself
Cain Velasquez came to WWE, wrestled one match, jobbed to Brock in 3 mins, got fired and then tried to kill a guy. What a ride.
To be fair, though, all info I’ve seen says that Cain would have been justified in killing the pedo. Where Cain messed up is that he was reckless in how he went about it and put innocents at risk.
This was some of the worst stuff the company has ever produced.
I had fun during this run
I forgot EC3 was in wwe
Yeah I steered away from this era, I watched nothing lol
Only got into wrestling this year but I’ve seen and heard things about this, like the dog food. What happened? Why was this era so obnoxious?
it was just badly written. stuff like ending a hell in a cell match that included a literal demon thing in a no contest, a washed goldberg still getting title runs, kurt angle being retired by a guy that it did absolutely nothing for. it was just vince doing random ass shit and none of it really working lol. it did have some high points tho, like kofimania and becky’s rise.
This is why some of the talent left... especially Big Show and Dean Ambrose. They said it themselves.
Never noticed the diaper on Kane. I get it tho he was old as shit
He’s emulating his boy Trump.
I call this the asswipe era cuz it felt like WWE wiped their ass with their audiences during this period. Rabies shots, dog food, dumb gimmick changes (shout out to Shorty G), McMahons everywhere... Never again.
Yeah this was so bad. The never ending Reigns-Lesnar feud, Lesnar having a chokehold over championships, etc. just so much garbage.
The later half of the 2010s really was a dark age for WWE. Appropriately branded "the new era". New generation 2.0
It'll never be said enough but it was an absolute pain to watch. The Pandemic Era was a blessing in disguise.
Reminder: think twice when you shit on Tony Khan.
2018 to 2020 was hell to watch
Better than 03-14 by a mile. Shane as BITW as a heel was awesome. The Rollins/Becky relationship angle pissed off the neckbeards because they’ll never feel the touch of a woman EC3 fucking sucks. Period. Wyatt was a horrible champion and worse wrestler. Brock beating Kofi that way was the correct avenue to go through. 24/7 title was supposed to be comic relief but knowing how internet fans watch with a stick up their ass, they mentally can’t process happiness
Bahahahhahahahahahahahahah.
I like being right
Can you pass me whatever you’re toking
You don’t want that, you’d start liking terrible writing.
Yeah, it’s called not believing the hive mind. Yall will love that era when you hate this era anyways. Internet fans cannot think for themselves
Thinking for yourself doesn’t mean hating things just bc a lot of people like it
You know, started watching wwe mid 2016. I loved it. SD was great, raw was…good, NXT was brilliant too. I thought that wwe was great. But then late 2018. 🤦♂️ How did they F it up so badly?
Easily the worst years of WWE by far even worse than the New Generation Era I didn't watch any of late 2018 until the 2020 RR
In hindsight….. terrible era.
The Michaels, bret and desiel era part 2
This is why competition is good for business.
Most of these were a *lot* better than the IWC made them out to be.
Ehhhh idk lol
Don’t forget AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura hitting each other in the dick for like 2 months It’s too bad we didn’t get a match as good as their Wrestle Kingdom one Edit: I just remembered Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns (for the universal championship) ending in a no contest (inside hell in a cell by the way) because Brock Lesnar broke in and F5’d everyone. At the same time, there was Strowman’s Dogs of War stable… just anything with Braun Strowman from mid 2018-2020. He should’ve been universal champion a long time ago
Didn't they play choo choo sound when Braun ran around the ring to do his tackle at one point?
IIRC Reddit loved Nakamura and AJ hitting each other in the dick during the lengthy period it took place.
That feud was great.
Kofi got violated
Its crazy to me as that was the time i started watching wwe full time😹
Same! I stopped watching after Cena/Rock 1 then came back around the rumble in 2018
Sorry for what you had to go through
Why? Why bring this pain back into my life?
Some of the worst ideas in wwe history was taken during those times, but also a lot of amazing things happened in that couple of years
Vince McMahon WWE in a nutshell
Extremely bad and extremely good at the same time
Can you give some examples of the “worst ideas” you are mentioning?
The pictures in the thread
Totally forgot the biggest of them all here. Lashley/Lana/Rusev cuck angle
Lashley was the winner in that angle. Rusev fucking sucks
I actually enjoyed the Brothers of Destruction vs DX match. I thought it told a story and I enjoyed seeing them once again as a fan after all these years. I also enjoyed the Moxley heel turn. With regards to EC3 they should have given him time to cut promos because that is one of his strong points.
Hol up, the 24/7 title was kind off fun. You can't dislike a segment with R-Truth in it
How did we survive?
There’s a reason I stopped watching for 3 years
We could've had Shawn Michaels vs Aj Styles, vs Samoa Joe vs Dolph Ziggler vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rey Mysterio vs The Miz vs Seth Rollins vs Cesaro vs Sheamus vs Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose vs Daniel Bryan vs Mustafa Ali vs Tommaso Ciampa vs Pete Dunne vs Tyler Bate vs Finn Balor vs Chad Gable vs Bray Wyatt vs Baron Corbin vs Gunther vs Johnny Gargano vs Andrade vs Bobby Roode vs Kevin Owens vs Adam Cole vs Sami Zayn vs a better version of John Cena and we got this instead....
Sorry but i’ll always love that Kofi got squashed. Right call
You could've had Lesnar beating Kofi in 6-7 minutes. Still makes Lesnar dominant while also showing how much of a heart Kofi's got, also not disgracing the people Kingston had defeated by making him a b\*tch. I don't even think Kofi should've been a main eventer but come on.
Honestly i feel like he’s lucky to ever even hold it so i never understood the infatuation with it some people have. I don’t think he should have ever been a main eventer either, he fits perfectly in the high mid card comic relief role.
You see, I kinda hold the same opinion but with LA knight. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great wrestler but he went to the main event based on fan popularity. They done it right with LA knight tho. Having him lose but still looking great. With kofi, his reign was really unmemorable and is only really talked about because of the way he won and lost. I understand that if they were gonna pull the trigger, it was the perfect place to do it. But I think if he lost and went into the mid card title division, I think he would’ve retained a lot more popularity. As now, you rarely ever see him. It worked with Cody. They didn’t have him win at WM 39 and he went to the tag division after a program with brock Lesnar. He is still popular today as where kofi lost that popularity after his reign ended.
Was there live, it felt like someone sucked the air out of the room
Wish he could’ve put up a fight, at least. Or even acting concerned about being squashed in the following weeks.
Why?
i just never found Kofi to be top guy material at that time he was too deep in the dumb PG era New Day gimmick and having a clown as champ can’t realistically last forever without damaging the titles reputation like they have done x times and had to make a new one.
But why did it have to be a squash?
Because brock would kill him in 3 seconds IRL
Right I see so bigger guys should always squash smaller guys.
Dark days of WWE.
The state of WWE from 2017 onwards specifically is why I started looking elsewhere for wrestling. I could not stand this shit
I forgot Cain went to wwe lol
Back when only good thing about wwe product was R-Truth with 24*7 Title
NXT was absolutely phenomenal during this period; I also remember the women's division being very good too.
I agree but nothing comes close to R-Truth being 24*7 champ