Lost Generation?

[Cronant]

A post in the "Cena interview" thread about something Cena said really brought this to my attention, and its a pretty interesting observation.

Mar 22, 2012 20:32:07 GMT -5 Slanted and Enchanted said:

Pretty startling now when I look back on 2002 and realize that it is indeed only John and Randy around. There are a lot more Attitude Era guys around than are Ruthless Aggression ones.

Literally, EVERYONE who debuted from 2002-2004 other than Cena and Orton is gone. You might be able to stretch it to 2005 until Ziggler debuted as the caddy. I just looked through the WWE superstars page, and it does seem that everyone was either before that era, or after it, with the exception of Cena and Orton.

Lesnar, Batista, Morrison, Shelton, Haas, Bashams, Carlito, Masters, Kennedy, Lashley, Dupree, Conway, Sylvan, etc. all gone. This was the Beginning of the brand-split era, and alot of new guys were getting chances with there being two brands. And most, if not all of them, were OVW guys.

There's like this weird dynamic where its "attitude era guys", "up and coming new talent", and "Cena and Orton" who aren't quite either, although Punk is probably in that category now, and he still debuted a good 4 years after those two. Its amusing to think the "Dying breed" promo fits Cena/Orton more than HHH/Undertaker.

[Deleted]

I think its because thats when the WWE started getting impatient and releasing wrestlers a short time after they failed to get over instead of giving them time to develop. it was different in the attitude era as the WWF were less reluctant of releasing talent in fear of them going to WCW and due to the business being in a boom period most the roster were getting over.

[Jimmy]

Mar 22, 2012 21:44:26 GMT -5 @graant said:

I think its because thats when the WWE started getting impatient and releasing wrestlers a short time after they failed to get over instead of giving them time to develop. it was different in the attitude era as the WWF were less reluctant of releasing talent in fear of them going to WCW and due to the business being in a boom period most the roster were getting over.

Exactly. WWE has been much quicker to cut bait on a talented guy since WCW and ECW went under, whereas they used to keep the same talent for years and simply repackage them (cf: Bob Holly, Mideon, Godfather).

[boolz]

I wonder if that also has anything to do with more scripted promos and 'produced' wrestlers. Cena and Orton were both shoved down everyone's throats and pushed hard.

And there are some obvious glaring losses that couldn't have been foreseen. Lesnar, Batista, Morrison, and Lashley were all over then they left. Not released or retired but left with plenty in the tank. Then looking at Kennedy and Carlito, one was supposedly dangerous in the ring the other supposedly didn't care enough to be there. And missed boats like Masters and Shelton/Haas who could have been a player if there was ever a tag team division to speak of.

[Deleted]

Cena is F. Scott Fitzgerald
Orton is Ernest Hemingway

["American Dragon"]

Wasn't Jericho the one who cut the promo about being part of a dying breed?

[Deleted]

Mar 22, 2012 21:52:44 GMT -5 "American Dragon" said:

Wasn't Jericho the one who cut the promo about being part of a dying breed?

Glam metal is beyond dying, its been dead for like 20 years

[Deleted]

Mar 22, 2012 21:52:44 GMT -5 "American Dragon" said:

Wasn't Jericho the one who cut the promo about being part of a dying breed?

He was referring to being a guy who wrestled all over the world for tons of different companies before signing with WWE. That's becoming less true with WWE's focus on international talent, however.

[Ryanar]

Well you could say Rey Mysterio is one of them, he did debut in wwe in 2002.

[percymania]

If you want to watch the next lost generation in action, just watch an episode on NXT Redemption.

[Bub (BLM)]

Now if we could just get rid of Orton.

[greeby]

Aye, it really hit home how shallow the pool of active, on-the-road talent is when I went to the Autumn house show in London.

With Cena, Kofi and Ryder v Miz, Truth and Nash in a six-man tag, the first half of the show was pretty much the Superstars crew, topped off by Ziggler beating a soon to depart Morrison.

[rnrk supports BLM]

The same thing happened to the New Generation, to a large extent. The guys from boom periods have a certain degree of recognition (even the ones who weren't huge draws themselves, but who were regulars during the periods when interest in wrestling was high) that gives them some marque value even when they're past their prime, whereas the guys without that recognition tend to move on once they've pasted their physical peak.

[Andrew is Good]

A lot of it had to do with patience as said above. Nick Dinsmore for instance was bossing around Cena and Orton and was their senior in OVW. He was the guy they'd ask for advice, he was the one working with them a lot. The Bashams were senior guys as well, both great talents. Some guys really didn't get opportunities.

I wouldn't consider Mysterio one of those guys as he was a WCW guy and Truth was a TNA guy who was also in at the tail end of the attitude era.

Then there's around the 2008 time where you had guys like Manu, Goldman, Braddock, Spears, who just debut and that's the end of them. It's no wonder they don't have any stars. I think it's for the best that they're really waiting on bringing up guys from FCW, especially when the roster is just bursting at the seams. 2012 on is gonna have some good call ups.

[chazraps]

I recently watched a Best of OVW compilation made shortly before Deacon Batista debuted, and it's heartbreaking to see how outstanding each of the Bashams were as solo wrestlers.

I've gone on in the past about how Rico is the biggest fumble of the past decade in terms of what he could do vs what he could have done, but I honestly think either of the Bashams could be as big as Orton right now. They were equally as good, if not better, in the ring and oozed charisma.

Also, while Lesnar and Shelton had pretty great careers, I'm absolutely stunned at how amazing their tag team "The Minneapolis Stretching Crew" was. Great stuff.

[rapidfire187]

I think it's got a lot to do with wrestlers leaving on their own accord because they already made plenty of money and didn't want to waste the prime of their career doing jobber duty. Batista (the exception to that theory), Morrison, MVP, Shelton, and several others just left on their own.

What I find more interesting is that Edge and Christian are the only wrestler to debut in 1998 (one of WWE's hottest years) and win a world title. That's nuts. And I don't think any of those '98 guys are even still there besides Christian.

[Junkenstein]

2002-05 or thereabouts seems to be a lost era in general. They barely mention anything from that period anymore, and they'll only show clips from around then unless they really have to.

[mainsupreme]

If only WWE got rid of Cena and Orton, life would be good.

[Spearmint*]

Mar 23, 2012 13:39:36 GMT -5 Junkenstein said:

2002-05 or thereabouts seems to be a lost era in general. They barely mention anything from that period anymore, and they'll only show clips from around then unless they really have to.

It's such a shame as well as the product was red hot at a lot of points around then. But I do understand why:

- A majority of the clips would involved Kurt Angle, who is the Don't Mention list for a while.
- Same with a lot of the mainevent/upper-mid-card talent around then: Chris Benoit, Goldberg, Brock, Scott Steiner, RVD, Ric Flair, Batista, Bischoff, Dudley Boys, Hardy Boys, MVP, Carlito, Masters, Rikishi, London/Kendrick, etc etc

-Some had gimmicks that WWE like to pretend didn't happen: Rapper Cena (although that's become a lot more relaxed recently), Old Masked Kane (again slightly more relaxed), Biker Taker, King Booker, Happy-Y2J, Eugene, Zach Gowen,

-Plus there are some things like JBL and Triple H's long title reigns which worked at the title to establish the faces that beat them but don't work too well on remembering and showing old video highlights for.

-Then there's the Eddie Guerrero issue, where it seems sometimes WWE are more than happy to mention him and praise him, but then theres other times when they go completely silent on the whole issue.


Just overall a very messy era in terms of how WWE is to remember it really.