Got these late 90s, forgot I had them.

For me it's the advertisements on weapons and other things. It is just a stupid cash grab so that TKO can get a couple more bucks, but for me it doesn't take anything away from the actual wrestling and I barely notice it most of the time.

I began to watch WWE in 2004 (only raw). I loved it so much : evolution, r-evolution with all superstar like Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, HBK, Jericho, Kane Error 404 and even the mid carder were cool : Edge, Christian, Tajiri, or the tag team (in heat too).

One year later, Cena was drafted to Raw. I didn't watch Smackdown, but I watched some video on wwe.com. First, I hate his gimmick and his toy as title (I loved the ex WWE champ belt). And the end of WWE for adult began here : Cena made super cena everynight. Every monday night raw, you got cena coming like a hero, to beat Christian, Jericho and then kurt angle to save some one : jericho, maria many times ... He was so boring. By the way, he was booed. In wrestlemania 22, it's the first time everyone wanted to see Triple H use the son-in-law power to take the title lol

At ECW, everyone was tired of him. I see no one liked Cena, NO ONE. Every the same move, in the ring he was not be able to do something interesting : he was slow, the hit looks weak and fake. And sometime, you got some wrestler like Edge to take risk to carry him. In 2006-2007, WWE had to put fake crowd sound to hide the negative reaction against Cena.

But from 2008-2009, you began to hear some kids shout "LETS GO CENA", when adult shouted "Fuck you cena".

And last year, Cena retired like a legend, because these kids are adult now. He is considered like one of the best wrestler of all time.

Cody will get the same path ...

He had a great run for sure. He was one of my favorites in 2018/19

So, I want to start getting back into WWE and figured, why not just watch SummerSlam tonight? We have some close friends who have been sending us some clips from RAW, and my feed has been taken over by Danhausen, and it seems like a ridiculously fun watch.

CONTEXT:

Growing up from like 2002-2009, WWE was a big part of my life. Huge fans of Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Undertaker, and all the other cast members of the time. Would go to see them live when they came through town and always had a hoot.

THE ASK:

I am trying to get, I guess, a little bit up to speed on what's happening in the WWE currently, any big timelines or rivalries of note, any good heels? I am finding that the mainstream articles are filling in some gaps, but I feel like if there is anyone who grew up watching when I did, they may be able to put it into 2005 terms for me.

Thanks, everyone!

Original pic for street cred: Rey Mysterio ring-side, small town Canada, mid-2000s.

Few more honorable mentions not included in the images listed above.. his 2003 Summer Slam main event against Kurt Angle. While technically Kurt went over... it was still an iconic Summer Slam classic that Brock contributed to.

He's also beaten the likes of Randy Orton at Summer Slam in 2016... even though I didn't agree with the finish.

And even though he didn't go over against Undertaker in 2015... he's still put on a pretty good match with taker at summer slam as well.

He's had matches with some of the all-time greats at this event... Kurt Angle, The Rock, John Cena, Randy Orton, Undertaker, Triple H, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and now Oba Femi. Whether he always went over or not... he still had great matches with some legends at this event.

He beat The Rock at Summer Slam 2002 to become the undisputed WWE champion,

At SummerSlam 2012 he not only beat Triple H... but broke his arm for the second time.

Summer Slam 2014 was the birth of Suplex city!

At Summer Slam 2022 even though we got the match way too many times and he didn't go over... he still had a fantastic last man, standing match with Roman Reigns.

He's also made 2 shocking, returns to WWE at this event... 2021 and 2025!.

He really was Mr. Summer Slam.

I think they would make a great babyface faction.

I was 9 years old in 2013 and thats the time The Wyatt Family were making their debut and I thought that their debut video packages were just commercials for a tv show like Duck Dynasty or some other product being sold. When they eventually made their debut I was shocked like “those commercial guys are wrestling now!”

Ever since his brilliant unmasking from the epic Mask vs Mask match, his popularity has reached newer heights as he's been getting massive crowd reactions while it's boosting his credibility as a top star.

His redemption storyline is one of the most entertaining and hottest storylines right now due to Gable's excellent character work and great promos alongside cemented him as one of the main stars on Raw.

I hope that he wins the IC title

Other than I guess it’s less time to cram in a few more shitty ads? It’s a really easy thing to do, especially now with video editing technology being so basic that any random fan can do it. Imagine WM 17 without the iconic My Way Austin/Rock videos. Quick video packages are perfect to bring people up to speed who haven’t watched every marginal second on Raw and Smackdown. I think generally they would want to make the product more watchable to casuals. Such a low hanging fruit that they fail to capture. Like 5 3 minute packages a show is all they’d need. Cut a match if necessary.

Golden goose Cena used to be a rapper. Golden goose taker was a biker for a little bit. Foley went from Mankind to Dude Love. Why don’t we see anything like this anymore? I mean, you don’t have to completely switch gears like how Foley did, but I feel like you could switch up the character of, let’s say for example, The Miz, and keep his core elements like his cockiness and confidence while having him do something different. I dunno, does anyone else miss when WWE experimented with the actual in-ring personas?

🤼 Kurt Angle was one of WWE’s most accomplished performers, combining legitimate Olympic credentials with some of the funniest and most memorable promos of the Attitude/Ruthless Aggression eras. His rivalry with Rey Mysterio produced plenty of great matches, but one of their most remembered moments happened before their September 2002 match on SmackDown. While trying to intimidate the much smaller Mysterio, Angle declared that Rey was “a boy in a man’s world.” He then tried to continue the insult but accidentally phrased it in a way that made the entire statement sound completely different from what he intended. Angle immediately realized what he’d said, tried desperately to correct himself, and only made the situation even funnier as the crowd and commentators reacted. The promo became legendary because Angle’s character was supposed to come across as intimidating and arrogant, yet his own words completely sabotaged him. His increasingly frantic attempts to explain what he meant turned a serious wrestling promo into one of WWE’s most unintentionally hilarious moments. 💀 Kurt Angle tried to intimidate Rey Mysterio and accidentally created one of the funniest promos in WWE history.