History AudienceAlienatingEra / ProfessionalWrestling

* Combine the two previous entries and it's no shock that most people in the business consider the period between mid-1992 and the summer of 1996 to be one huge AAE for American wrestling in general. The crowds were small, the payoffs even smaller, and a wrestling industry that had a couple dozen promotions that one could earn good a living in a decade prior was reduced to 2. If you were an American wrestler making good money during this time period it's because you were working for [[Wrestling/{{NJPW}} Inoki]] or [[Wrestling/{{AJPW}} Baba]], not [=McMahon=] or Turner. The WWF actually lost money in 1994 in 1995[[note]]Though finishing 1994 in the red was more due to the WWF losing a couple big lawsuits rather than bad gates and buyrates. 1995 however lost money because everything not involving Shawn Michaels or one of the Hart brothers stunk out loud[[/note]], WCW meanwhile had been in the red for their entire existence and wouldn't have a profitable year until ''1997''. Many consider Wrestling/{{ECW}} to be the bright spot, but while they were drawing a lot of attention (though not as much as revisionist history wants you to believe) they weren't drawing a lot of money. The start of the Wrestling/NewWorldOrder in 1996 finally started pulling wrestling out of the hole, and the rise of Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and the other major figures of the Wrestling/AttitudeEra through 1997 and 1998 would kick off the biggest boom period the business had ever seen.

* And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999, at which point things got much, ''much'' worse. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of his duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back[[note]]Bischoff was canned for general poor performance a couple months before Russo came in, though because of [=WCW's=] guaranteed contracts "canned" in this case means "sent home but still paid his full salary"[[/note]] in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets. More details can be read on [=WCW's=] [[Horrible/{{WCW}} So Bad it's Horrible]] page.

The most emblematic show of ROH's flop era was 2019's ''G1 Supercard'', co-promoted by ROH and NJPW. ROH's matches were largely ignored, while NJPW's matches were highly praised. The ROH Tag Team Championship match suffered from some baffling and dangerous booking: Wrestling/EnzoAndCass made their ROH debut by doing a run-in, but ''no one in the match'' was informed of the spot, so they legitimately thought some fans had jumped the rail and fought back. The match caused immense fan backlash, match co-winner Tama Tonga viciously insulted the promotion on [=YouTube=] the next day, and there were reports that NJPW was reconsidering their working relationship with ROH. Those reports would be accurate, NJPW ended the agreement and started promoting shows themselves. Add in the Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, and Kenny Omega leaving to form Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling and the COVID-19 pandemic and ROH would collapse and finally be sold to AEW financial backer Tony Khan in 2022.

** And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999, at which point things got much, ''much'' worse. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of his duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back[[note]]Bischoff was canned for general poor performance a couple months before Russo came in, though because of [=WCW's=] guaranteed contracts "canned" in this case means "sent home but still paid his full salary"[[/note]] in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets. More details can be read on [=WCW's=] [[Horrible/{{WCW}} So Bad it's Horrible]] page.

* In the early '90s, Wrestling/HulkHogan had retired to try acting -- then came back to wrestling for the competition, The Wrestling/UltimateWarrior had decided that he was bigger than wrestling and disappeared, and Wrestling/VinceMcMahon was on trial for steroid trafficking. Given all of this, one could forgive the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] for dropping the ball a bit -- but with a failure of the scope of the "New Generation" era (1993-1997), which gave us Wrestling/LexLuger as a main-event {{Face}}, [[MonsterClown Doink the Clown's]] misguided HeelFaceTurn, WrestlingDoesntPay in full effect, the incredibly tasteless {{Take That}}s at Wrestling/{{WCW}} in the form of the "Billionaire Ted" skits, and some of the worst pay-per-view events on record (even if you were guaranteed a great Wrestling/BretHart and/or Wrestling/ShawnMichaels match every show), there's an awful lot to forgive. 1995 would be the nadir of the A.A.E., since that was supposedly the year the company was at its lowest in losing money. For most of the year, Wrestling/KevinNash was WWF Champion, who arguably one of the most limited champions in the ring that they ever had and was unquestionably one of the worst money draws (JBL was worse at the box office). It wasn't entirely his fault, though; he really didn't have much to work with as far as main event feuds went[[note]]After beating Michaels at ''Wrestlemania'' he worked with [[Wrestling/SidEudy Sid]] and then Mabel, with predictable results. Having to work around an elbow surgery he had in May didn't help[[/note]], since the only three wrestlers people wanted to see challenge Diesel were Shawn Michaels, [[Wrestling/ScottHall Razor Ramon]], and Bret Hart. Problem is, Diesel-Bret III didn't occur until November (after being subjected to the Diesel-Wrestling/{{Sid|Eudy}} and Diesel-Mabel feuds), Razor was saddled with Wrestling/JeffJarrett (and then, the [[Wrestling/SeanWaltman 1-2-3 Kid]]), and Diesel-Shawn II was held off until April 1996. Not to mention that, as a face, they ruined Nash's character by turning him from a badass into yet another [[LighterAndSofter overgrown boy scout goody two shoes babyface]] when audiences had already grown tired of them. These days, this era only gets brought up for its few bright spots (usually involving the likes of Hart or Michaels) if somebody wants to mock or embarrass Vince and/or the WWE.

** If there's any reason besides the PG rating that people have complained about present day WWE, it's people feeling the company is far too formulaic and predictable, pointing partially to WWE's suffocatingly tiny main event scene (especially when it comes to faces), especially their insistence on placing Wrestling/JohnCena on a tier far above the rest of the roster for most of his 13+ year career, even when whatever he's doing is comparatively unimportant, and even years after large portions of the audience had gotten sick of him. The controversial departure/firing of Wrestling/CMPunk, the career-ending injuries of [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] (almost immediately after they had ''finally'' pulled the trigger on him as a main event talent) and seeming going out of their way to demote and bury anyone the audience actually wants to see, typically at the hands of the InvincibleVillain faction Wrestling/TheAuthority, did nothing to help this. Some have even drawn comparisons to the aforementioned 1993-1997 era (even drawing humorous parallels between that era's Diesel and present day's Wrestling/RomanReigns, whose main event push has been notoriously controversial), as staring in 2014, WWE's ratings have been in steady decline. WWE's main roster has even been consistently overshadowed by their own developmental brand, NXT, since about 2014, carried by great indie talents.

** Another issue is the production and formatting of shows. While [=WWE's=] shaky camera work and annoying announcers have been drawing criticism even as far back as the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, the bigger problem in the 2010s was the Creator/USANetwork throwing a truckload of cash at WWE to extend ''Monday Night Raw'' to three hours, while at the same time adding another hour to the "Big 4" [=PPVs=]. Unfortunately this extra time has only resulted in a heavy amount of Main/Padding and shows that are just a slog to watch.[[note]]Older fans may remember ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'' going to 3 hours and running into the same problems, i.e. that 3 hours (plus overrun) is too damn long for a weekly wrestling program.[[/note]] Going into the 2020s one of the bigger complaints is overwhelming amount of commercials and the fact that they are usually shown during the matches, in other words a lot of the wrestling on a wrestling TV show isn't actually on TV. The problem has got even worse with the [=PPVs=] (now referred to as "Premium Live Events") since the WWE Network was folded into Creator/{{NBC}}'s Peacock service, now that they're no longer bound to time constraints ''every'' PLE is at minimum four hours and the Big 4 will often run over five (or in the case of Wrestling/WrestleMania, two 5+ hour shows on back-to-back nights).

** Another issue is the production and formatting of shows. While [=WWE's=] shaky camera work and annoying announcers have been drawing criticism even as far back as the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, the bigger problem in the 2010s was the Creator/USANetwork throwing a truckload of cash at WWE to extend ''Monday Night Raw'' to three hours, while at the same time adding another hour to the "Big 4" [=PPVs=]. Unfortunately this extra time has only resulted in a heavy amount of Main/Padding and shows that are just a slog to watch[[note]]Older fans may remember ''Wrestling/WCWMondayNitro'' going to 3 hours and running into the same problems, i.e. that 3 hours (plus overrun) is too damn long for a weekly wrestling program.[[/note]] Going into the 2020's one of the bigger complaints is overwhelming amount of commercials and the fact that they are usually shown during the matches, in other words a lot of the wrestling on a wrestling TV show isn't actually on TV. The problem has got even worse with the [=PPVs=] (now referred to as "Premium Live Events") since the WWE Network was folded into Creator/{{NBC}}'s Peacock service, now that they're no longer bound to time constraints ''every'' PLE is at minimum four hours and the Big 4 will often run over five (or in the case of Wrestling/WrestleMania, two 5+ hour shows on back-to-back nights).

** And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999, at which point things got much, *much* worse. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of his duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back[[note]]Bischoff was canned for general poor performance a couple months before Russo came in, though because of [=WCW's=] guaranteed contracts "canned" in this case means "sent home but still paid his full salary"[[/note]] in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets. More details can be read on [=WCW's=] [[Horrible/{{WCW}} So Bad it's Horrible]] page.

** And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of his duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back[[note]]Bischoff was canned for general poor performance a couple months before Russo came in, though because of [=WCW's=] guaranteed contracts "canned" in this case means "sent home but still paid his full salary"[[/note]] in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets. More details can be read on [=WCW's=] [[Horrible/{{WCW}} So Bad it's Horrible]] page.

** And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets. More details can be read on [=WCW's=] [[Horrible/{{WCW}} So Bad it's Horrible]] page.

** And then there was [=WCW's=] bigger AAE, which ended up being its [[Main/CreatorKiller Company Killing Era]]. Exactly when it began is debatable, most fans will point to the Main/FingerpokeOfDoom (there's a reason it has its own page) but a pretty good argument can be made for it starting a year earlier when WCW badly botched the booking of the match between Wrestling/{{Sting}} and Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''Starrcade'' 1997, and it was only hot-shotting Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} through the entire roster that kept ratings and buyrates afloat. Shortly after the Fingerpoke the booking was taken over by a committee led by Wrestling/KevinNash, which did a great job of boosting the ratings... of ''Wrestling/MondayNightRaw''. Nash was sacked (as booker, he stayed on as a wrestler) in favor of the freshly poached Vince Russo in October 1999. Ratings nosedived even faster and Russo was relieved of duties and replaced by Wrestling/KevinSullivan[[note]]Which caused Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/EddieGuerrero, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, and Wrestling/PerrySaturn to demand - and get - their unconditional releases, they would make their debut on ''Raw'' a week later. WCW actually gave Benoit the world championship to convince him to stay, it obviously didn't work. This was after Wrestling/ChrisJericho and Wrestling/PaulWight (Giant/Big Show) had already decided to jump off the ship before it sank and bolted up north[[/note]], revenues did not improve so the Turner braintrust went with the insane plan of bringing Russo ''and'' Wrestling/EricBischoff back in April of 2000. Six weeks later came the final bullet in the form of Creator/DavidArquette '''winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship'''. While things were falling apart on camera they weren't much better on the business side, spending was completely out of control and combine that with plummeting revenue (PPV buyrates fell '''90%''' between ''Starrcade'' 1998 and ''Starrcade'' 2000, house show crowds were back down in the mid 3 digit range) and WCW lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ''$120 million'' over the last 18 months of its life. Russo and Bischoff would be gone by October, WCW itself would be gone the following March after new Turner head Jamie Kellner cancelled all their shows and WWE (then still the WWF) purchased the promotion's assets.