The Facade of the WWE's "New Era"

The Facade of the WWE's "New Era"
April 14, 2017
By Ryan Porzl

In the past year, The WWE has begun announcing how they're in a "New Era". With a name like that, you would expect a company with new stars and new talent getting opportunities. While there have been some who have made it to the top, it's still the same old WWE that still relies on old part timers like crutches and not too much has changed. In this article, we'll pull back the curtain to show that WWE's "New Era" trying to repaint it's broken down old car with new paint but it's still the same broken down old car.



The best place to start looking and realizing how much this "New Era" is a lie is at Pay-Per-View main events and Title Histories. At the time of writing, half of the men's RAW championships are held by guys whose best days are behind them or will be as Brock Lesnar is the Universal Champion while The Hardy Boyz are the RAW Tag Team Champions. Lesnar is pushing 40 which isn't the oldest but it's getting there while Jeff Hardy is also going on 40 and Matt will be 43. While age or years in the business can be deceiving as some hit their peaks or get their big break later than others, they're ancient as far as "TV years" are concerned as all three have been on national TV for the past 15-19 years and the fact they peaked when they did (early 2000s) should say these are not "New Era" guys. Also, age can be a number to some but The Hardys are already showing their age and mileage in the ring these days. Meanwhile, the current WWE Champion is Randy Orton who doesn't fit the "New Era" as he's been on the main roster for 15 years while AJ Styles and John Cena have also held the championship in recent months. Both Styles and Cena have been on the national stage for fifteen years, had their primes from the mid 2000s to early 2010s, and both are near 40. Another thing to look at is the main events to the "big four" Pay-Per-Views and their main events over the past year. Wrestlemania 32 saw Triple H as the defending WWE Champion and while he lost to Roman Reigns in the end, it can easily be argued that Triple H has no business in a Wrestlemania main event anymore. The main event at Summerslam was Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton which featured two men who debuted on the main roster fifteen years ago, are pushing 40, and past their primes. Even worse is that it was chosen as the main event over the Finn Balor/Seth Rollins or Dean Ambrose/Dolph Ziggler title matches. Survivor Series featured Lesnar vs. Goldberg who was nearly 50 years old and hadn't wrestled since 2004. The Royal Rumble was main evented by the Rumble which the WWE made sure to highlight The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and Goldberg's participation while the second to last match was Styles vs. Cena for the WWE Championship. Wrestlemania 33 featured a New Era guy in Roman Reigns but he took on The Undertaker while the title matches saw a new era guy in Bray Wyatt lose to the WWE Championship to Orton while the Universal Title was fought between two aging part timers in Brock Lesnar and Goldberg.

Even some of the recent hirings have been puzzling. In the last two years, the company has brought in guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Eric Young, and rehired Kassius Ohno. The thing that makes these so weird is that these guys don't fit the New Era as all as they are in their late 30s/early 40s, have been in the business for 15+ years, and WWE could've got them 5-15 years ago but turned them down. So the big question is "Why Now?". AJ Styles did a few pre show and B show matches from 2001-2002. Samoa Joe did a B show appearance back in 2001. Bobby Roode wrestled around a dozen matches from 2001-2004 on B shows as enhancement talent. Eric Young did some matches in 2003-2004. Kassius Ohno was previously signed back in 2012. Even worse is that WWE made no serious attempt to lure Styles to the WWE during his time in TNA and they didn't appear interesting in him after he left in January 2014. Instead, they waited until 2016 when he was nearly 38 and coming off a back injury. Mick Foley actually went to bat for Joe back in 2005 shortly after Joe's 21 month ROH World Title reign ended and championed him to WWE management (Foley was making appearances in ROH at the time) but WWE wasn't interested and Joe went to TNA instead. Roode wrestled nearly a dozen matches from 2001-2004 but WWE decided not to sign him to a developmental contract and they made no attempt to steal him when his TNA contract accidentally expired under TNA's nose in early 2013. After Aries was released from ROH in 2010, he went so far as to audition for WWE's fifth season of Tough Enough but was not chosen nor was he signed to any deal and nearly retired from wrestling before TNA came calling. Ohno was in NXT from 2012 to 2013 but was resigned this past January which is three and a half years after his release. Nothing against any of these guys but again, why did WWE take so long to bring them in? They don't fit a "New Era" atmosphere when they were available 5-15 years ago and are more closer to the end of their careers then then beginning them as well as coming close to exiting their primes. Bringing them in now just comes off as WWE isn't interesting in a new era or isn't capable of building new stars so they have to take established ones as soon as they become available.

There's also the McMahons who are still there and still featured heavily as authority figures. Like the McMahons or not, Vince & Shane have been around since 1998 while Stephanie since 1999. There are fewer acts staler than The McMahons and they should've been retired from television more than a decade ago. There is absolutely no justification for The McMahons to still be regular characters in 2017. Even fans of them have to admit that their act was old 15 years ago and is only getting worse. Stephanie has become the same cartoon caricature that his father devolved into as she seems focused on chewing up the scenery and is too over the top especially in her promos. Shane, meanwhile, looks pathetic as he still wrestles with his jerseys while appearing in non wrestling appearances with his sneakers and doing his silly dance. Now, when Shane was in his late 20s and early 30s, this wasn't a problem. Now, he's 47 years old with three kids and gray hair. He comes off like someone going through a mid life crisis. Like someone desperately trying to show he's still "got it" or still cool.

You also need to look at Wrestlemania 33. There's very little about this show that makes me think "New Era". Out of the two world title matches (WWE Championship and Universal Championship), only one out of the four participants could qualify as a "New Era" wrestler which is Bray Wyatt while the others in Randy Orton, Goldberg, and Brock Lesnar are from previous eras whose primes were years or even decades ago. Compare Wrestlemania 33 with other Wrestlemanias. Wrestlemania X took place in 1994 and was the event that kicked off "The New Generation Era". Out of the entire main card, only one wrestler was over the age of 40 and that was "Macho Man" Randy Savage who was 41 when he wrestled Crush and that was also the third match on the show while being Savage's final televised match in his WWF career. No other wrestler on that show was 40 or even turned 40 in 1994 with the exception of The Bushwhackers but that was a pre show dark match that wasn't part of the televised main card. Wrestlemania XI was the first of "The New Generation Era" and again, it only featured one wrestler over the age of 40 in Bob Backlund (who wrestled Bret Hart) who was 45 at the time of the event. Nobody else was 40, over 40, or turned 40 in 1995. Wrestlemania XIV was in 1998 and kicked off "The Attitude Era" and almost every wrestler who was 40 or turning 40 in 1998 where put in the fifteen team battle royal which opened the show. Outside of that match, only one wrestler competed and was over 40 which was Terry Funk who was 53 at the time of the event and was teaming with Cactus Jack against The New Age Outlaws in a dumpster match for the WWF World Tag Team Championship. The only other wrestlers that were 40 or over were Hawk and Ricky Morton who were 40 and 41 respectively while Faarooq and Robert Gibson turned 40 later that year but again, they were all part of the opening fifteen team battle royal which consisted of fifteen teams and 30 wrestlers. Wrestlemania XV was the first official "Attitude Era" Wrestlemania and this time, there was no wrestlers 40 or up that competed on the main card. In fact, the only wrestlers who were 40 or older were on the Sunday Night Heat pre show leading up to the event in a battle royal with the last two participants competing for the Tag Team Titles at Wrestlemania. Even then, there were only three in Rocco Rock, Hawk, and Faarooq who were 40 or older. Now we come to Wrestlemania 33 which despite being the first of "The New Era", features not one, not two, not three, not even four, but five wrestlers over the age of 40. Even worse is that they're not only over 40 but over 45 with two either 50 and up all the while each having major matches. Chris Jericho is 46, Shane McMahon is 47, Triple H is 47, Goldberg is 50, and The Undertaker just turned 52. Meanwhile, John Cena, AJ Styles, and Brock Lesnar will all turn 40 by mid July. If this is a "New Era" than why were five guys who are over 45 as well as three who will be 40 in a few months getting big Wrestlemania matches especially when one isn't a wrestler (Shane McMahon), one has yet to show he can go five minutes (Goldberg), one who wrestles a handful of times a year (Triple H), one who also only wrestles a few times a year while doing lazy german suplexes (Brock Lesnar), and one who not only barely wrestles anymore but is so beat up that we hear he's beat up everytime he wrestles (Undertaker). Meanwhile, Sami Zayn, Kalisto, Luke Harper, Rich Swann, and Finn Balor to name some either had to settle for The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal or weren't on the show at all. While it is true that most of the older wrestlers lost at Wrestlemania, Randy Orton still beat Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship while the returning Hardy Boyz won the RAW Tag Team Championships. While it is true that The Hardyz are red hot at this point, the tag division is still weak and it still doesn't look good to be promoting a New Era while relying on two guys who are 40 or over as your tag champions all the while putting them in a match type they did many times which makes WWE come off as trying to turn the clock back to 2000. Meanwhile, The Universal Title went from one guy who hasn't done a full time schedule since 2004 to another guy who hasn't done a full time schedule since 2004.

In the end, I'm not saying get rid of every legend or anything but as the sayings go "Talk is cheap" and "Actions speak louder than words". While having experienced vets are still a good thing, you also have to make sure you're putting time into building the next generation especially if you continue to claim you're in a "New Era". You can't claim to be in a "New Era" and put a half a dozen 40-50+ year olds in big matches on the biggest show of the year or have the "big four" PPVs be constantly headlined by aging names who's time has come and gone. You can't have Goldberg squash Kevin Owens in 22 seconds or not have enough time for certain wrestlers while making sure that Triple H and Undertaker have a match at Wrestlemania despite both being well past their primes and not having worked full time in 6-7 years but still say this is a new era. If the WWE wants to talk the talk then they need to walk the walk and while that doesn't mean get rid of aging names but rather spend the time and energy to build the next generation before giving another aging legend a title or main event. The Legends have a place but not as a crutch or to still be main eventing shows anymore outside of the rare occasion.