Eras of WWE

Unsurprisingly, the era where Trump owned WWE was easily the worst.
Everything Trump touches turns to shit

The WWE should just change the rating of all their programming back to TV-14 already (As a former viewer of WWE programming, I would be very happy if they was to do that.). The reason why I said that is because AEW is kicking their ass and as we all know, AEW's programming is rated TV-14. I know we are living in socially conscious times now compared to when the WWE's programming was rated TV-14 but I believe a socially conscious version of rated TV-14 WWE programming can work.

seeds are starting to grow rn of the backlash in a society sense, in a fashion and pop culture sense it happened in mid 2020 with Cheugy tag lines

Astropoug, you might be telling the truth. It looks like things are going in the direction where social conscious will receive a severe backlash soon with how the media has been constantly asking the question "Has Cancel Culture gone too far?" lately. I wouldn't be surprised if social consciousness was to experience a severe backlash soon.

WWF Golden Age: 1982ish-early 1994 (in its entirety)
WWF New Generation era: 1990/1991-early 1998 (in its entirety)
WWF Attitude era: mid 1996-early 2003 (in its entirety)
WWE Ruthless Aggression era: 2001-early 2010 (in its entirety)
WWE PG era: 2007-2014 (in its entirety)
WWE indie darling era: 2013-present (in its entirety)

The indie darling era is kind of how I define the current product btw.

Transitional years: 1982 (or whenever the Hulk Hogan character was born in the NWA) to pre-WrestleMania 1



Core Golden Age (a.k.a. Rock 'N Wrestling/Hulkamania era): WrestleMania 1 to WrestleMania VI (March 31, 1985 to April 1, 1990) or just sometime in 1990



Transitional years: sometime in 1990 (or maybe 1991, not really sure when the shift into the transition happened exactly, but it might have happened sometime in 1990 or 1991, a good marker might be The Undertaker's debut at Survivor Series 1990) to WrestleMania X (up to March 20, 1994)



Core New Generation era: RAW after WrestleMania X to RAW before King of the Ring 1996 (March 21, 1994 to June 17, 1996)



Transitional years: King of the Ring 1996 to WrestleMania XIV (June 23, 1996 to March 29, 1998; one could debate that the start of the Monday Night Wars in late 1995 was the beginning of the transition, although, based on the WWF alone, disregarding other companies such as WCW, 1995 was safely a New Generation year for the company)



Core Attitude era: RAW after WrestleMania XIV to WrestleMania X-Seven (March 30, 1998 to April 1, 2001)



Transitional years: RAW after WrestleMania X-Seven to WrestleMania XIX (April 2, 2001 to March 30, 2003)



Core Ruthless Aggression era: RAW after WrestleMania XIX to Vengeance 2007 (March 31, 2003 to June 24, 2007)



Transitional years: RAW after Vengeance 2007 to WrestleMania XXVI (June 25, 2007 to March 28, 2010)



Core PG era (any era after this is hard to define for me): RAW after WrestleMania XXVI to SummerSlam 2013 (March 29, 2010 to August 18, 2013)



Transitional years: RAW after SummerSlam 2013 to SummerSlam 2014 (August 19, 2013 to August 17, 2014)



Beginning of the indie darling era: August 18, 2014 to July 19, 2016 (earliest seeds: June 27, 2011)



Core indie darling era: July 25, 2016 onward




Ultimate Shifts (the official start)

Shift to Golden Age (for me): sometime in 1984



Shift to New Generation era (for me): sometime in the first half of 1993; either January 11, 1993 with the debut of RAW, WrestleMania IX, or King of the Ring 1993 (the latter being the most likely for me, so King of the Ring 1993 is my answer)



Shift to Attitude era (for me): Survivor Series 1997, or probably the RAW where Vince McMahon mentioned the start of the Attitude era in late 1997





Shift to Ruthless Aggression era (for me): either when the company got the "F" out in May 2002 or in June 2002 with the birth of the term "Ruthless Aggression"





Shift to PG era (for me): When the WWE officially went PG on July 22, 2008 (can't really think of any other perfect time to start it than here)



Shift to indie darling era (for me): WrestleMania 30 when Daniel Bryan won the title






So.......



Golden Age: 1984 to 1993




First half: 1984 to 1990 (the absolute peak of the '80s wrestling boom during the mid-late 80s, pretty much before the early 90s steroids trials; main stars: Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Wendy Richter, Cindi Lauper, Paul Orndorff, Cowboy Bob Orton, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Rick Rude, etc.)



Second half: 1990 to 1993 (the downturn period; main stars: Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Shawn Michaels, Tatanka, Mr. Perfect, Big Bossman, Papa Shango, etc.)



New Generation era: 1993 to 1997



First half: 1993 to 1995 (the prime cartoony era with a bunch of characters who had job gimmicks like the IRS man, New York Brawler, etc.; the absolute worst period in WWF history, that would be surpassed by the current product; main stars: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Bret "The Hitman Hart", Yokozuna, Razor Ramon, Diesel, The Undertaker, King Kong Bundy, Lex Luger, Doink the Clown, etc.)



Second half: 1996 to 1997 (the edgy side of this mid 90's wrestling downturn, that would start getting eyes on the product again and rival WCW on Monday nights; main stars: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, Psycho Sid, Vader, British Bulldog, Owen Hart, The Undertaker, The Rock, etc.)



Attitude era: 1997 to 2002



First half: 1997 to 1999 (pretty much the peak of the era in terms of ratings and popularity and just the second wrestling boom period of the late 90s/early 2000s; the Stone Cold/Vince Russo era; main stars: Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Ken Shamrock, The Undertaker, Kane, Mankind (as well as the three faces of Mick Foley), Mr. McMahon, D-Generation X (as a stable), etc.)



Second half: 1999 to 2002 (the peak of the Attitude era in terms of quality, specifically the year 2000; The Rock/Chris Kreski era; main stars: The Rock, Triple H, the McMahons, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Rikishi, The Undertaker (ABA version), Kane, D-Generation X (as a stable), X-Pac, Trish Stratus, Lita, the Hardy Boyz, the Dudley Boyz, Edge & Christian, etc.)



Ruthless Aggression era: 2002 to 2008



First half: 2002 to 2005 (the rise of new stars but mainly the Brock Lesnar SmackDown Six/Triple H "Reign Of Terror" era; the peak of the RA era tbh; main stars: Triple H, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, John Cena, The Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Randy Orton, Batista, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, Christian, Trish Stratus, Lita, Victoria, Molly Holly, Dudley Boyz, Matt Hardy (v1/Mattitude), Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Chris Benoit, JBL, Shawn Michaels, Eric Bischoff, Stephanie McMahon, etc.)



Second half: 2005 to 2008 (the John Cena/Batista era, which sometimes doesn't even get lumped into the RA era; main stars: John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, The Undertaker, Edge, Booker T, Chris Benoit, Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, Mark Henry, Umaga, The Great Khali, Johnny Nitro/John Morrison, The Miz, Chris Masters, Rey Mysterio, Mr. Kennedy, JBL, Bobby Lashley, Matt Hardy, Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, Carlito, Trish Stratus, Lita, Melina, Jeff Hardy, MVP, etc.)



PG era: 2008 to 2014 (dominated entirely by John Cena)



First half: 2008 to 2011 (John Cena/Randy Orton era; main stars: John Cena, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase Jr. Triple H, Batista, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, CM Punk, The Miz, Sheamus, Kelly Kelly, Eve, Beth Pheonix, R-Truth, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, Drew McIntyre, Christian, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Big Show, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett, Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, MVP, etc.)



Second half: 2011 to 2014 (John Cena/CM Punk era era; main stars: John Cena, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, Christian, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Kane, Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater, Zack Ryder, R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, Brock Lesnar, Ryback, The Shield (as a faction), Wyatt Family (as a faction), etc.)




Indie darling era: 2014 to now



First wave: 2014 to 2016 (main stars: Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, New Day, The Usos, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Wyatt Family (as a faction), John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Sheamus, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Finn Balor, etc.)



Second wave: 2016 to 2019 (main stars: Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Jinder Mahal, Alexa Bliss, Ronda Rousey, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamara, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, New Day, The Usos, Hardy Boyz, etc.)



Third wave: 2019 to now (main stars: Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, The Miz, New Day, The Usos, Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Bobby Lashley, Edge, Randy Orton, Matt Riddle, Dominik Mysterio, Austin Theory, etc.)

I was going by the last real influence of each era, when I meant by “entirety”. Let’s be honest, none of these eras’ starting points are definitive. There’s a lot of debate with it. March 1997, just because the WWE says it was the start of the Attitude era does not exactly mean that it was the actual start. Early 1997 was still pretty much New Generation. The Mr. McMahon character did not exist yet, neither did DX, Bret Hart was still one of the top stars, there was no Kane. I’m not saying that your starting point doesn’t make sense as that is a great starting point but just because the stage changed and “the WWE said so” does not make it gospel. To me, late 1997 was when the real shift to that era began.

I end the RA-PG transition in early 2010 because of the last obvious signs: this was around the last time that Triple H & Undertaker we’re full time wrestlers, Shawn Michaels was still in the company, and so was Batista.

I totally can agree with the RA era starting with the brand split being born in April 2002. I just picked May/June as that was more symbolic for me of a new era, but somewhere around Q2 2002 makes sense. I totally agree that 2001 was still definitely the Attitude era, even the Invasion angle was a sub-era of the Attitude era.

July 22, 2008 was the most symbolic time for me of the PG era start. But yes, when they went HD in 2008, it was a noticeable sign as well.