There are a lot of people who complain that things were better back in the good old days. This complaint is true more often than not when it comes to professional wrestling. People say it was better in the Attitude Era. People say it was better in the '80s with the Hulk Hogan Rock and Wrestling Connection. Some even say it was better in the days of Bruno Sammartino and Haystacks Calhoun.
It is all, at the end of the day, personal preference. Today's wrestling is not always better than it was 20, 30, or 40 years ago. However, in some ways, it is superior to anything that was on display in the good old days. Here are five great things about modern wrestling and five things we want back from the old school.
8 BETTER ATHLETES - GREAT
With a few notable exceptions, the athletes in professional wrestling today are miles above anyone who wrestled even as far back as the Attitude Era. Of course, in professional wrestling, a person who can pull off awe-inspiring moves is second to their character.
However, those wrestlers who can combine the amazing moves in the ring -- whether they are aerial or technical -- with a great character is a true star. These people existed back in the old school days, but on a much smaller level. Most wrestlers from the past had great characters but put people to sleep during their matches.
7 BETER CHARACTERS - WANT BACK
There are wrestlers in modern wrestling who have great characters. However, there are not many whose unique characters make people buy into them and want more. Guys like Bray Wyatt, who is knocking it out of the park right now as The Fiend, are few and far between.
While The Fiend is a modern-day Mankind, the Attitude Era alone had The Undertaker, Mankind, Stone Cold, The Rock, and so many more. In the '80s, names like Jake The Snake Roberts, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and The Honky Tonk Man remain legends because of who they were, not because of what moves they could pull off in the ring.
6 SAFER ACTION - GREAT
How many people remember watching the Attitude Era when The Rock was feuding with Mick Foley and smashed him in the head with a chair over and over without Foley lifting an arm to defend himself? Shockingly, Foley isn't a vegetable today.
A large group of former wrestlers sued WWE due to the massive amount of concussion issues and permanent damage they suffered while working for the company. There are a lot of safeguards in place now to protect wrestlers, and hopefully, this means most of them will live long productive lives after they retire.
5 MORE APPARENT DANGER - WANT BACK
The protection wrestlers get now in preventing serious injuries is great. However, there is a tendency for WWE to go overboard and the protection offered gets to a point where there is no sense of danger. Sure, there are matches where they throw this out the window, but they usually involve names like Shane McMahon.
WWE used to be a company where anything could happen, and no one was safe. Now, it seems even the monsters like Braun Strowman would rather chase someone around and shoulder tackle them than try to take them out. Luckily, recently this has started to change thanks to men like Randy Orton.
4 WOMEN'S EVOLUTION - GREAT
In the Attitude Era, guys loved to watch the women wrestle. This love was because most of the women competed in bra and panty matches, evening gown matches where the winner stripped their opponent, or matches in giant vats of oil. It was all about sex.
Now, the women are true athletes who can do what the men can do, and some of the women can do more than the men a lot of the time. There were exceptions to the rule in the old school, but for every Trish Stratus or Lita, there was a Kat or Teri Runnels. Today, the women can legitimately work the main event, and fans can take them seriously.
3 MANAGERS - WANT BACK
One reason that many wrestlers got over in the past was that they had a great manager by their side doing the talking. Yes, Ravishing Rick Rude could have done a great job talking on his own. However, adding Bobby "The Brain" Heenan helped make him a hated heel.
The same is true for Demolition and Yokozuna with Mr. Fuji, The British Bulldogs with Lou Albano, One Man Gang with Slick, and almost the entire Heenan Family. Too many stars today can't get over because they can't cut promos. Managers meant they only had to go in the ring and that made bigger and better stars.
2 MORE COMPETITION - GREAT
AEW has just started rolling and in October will go live on TNT as the biggest competition to WWE since WCW was in business. WWE seems so concerned that they brought NXT to Wednesday nights to go head-to-head with the company. AEW isn't alone, either.
Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling have both been in business for almost 20 years, and they are still going. New Japan Pro Wrestling is also stepping into America more and more. Even EVOLVE has a new life thanks to WWE, while companies like MLW is on the rise. It is a resurgence in professional wrestling.
THE TERRITORIES - WANT BACK
While all the new promotions are great for competition and bringing fans more varied wrestling, nothing will ever compare to the territory days. Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling had some of the best stories and wrestling in the world. Watts new he had to push the boundaries and it forced World Class Championship Wrestling down in Texas to up their game as well.
Jerry Lawler's Memphis wrestling was groundbreaking and remains beloved to this day. Jim Crockett Promotions created some of the biggest stars in wrestling history. Add in the WWF and AWA to the territories, and there plenty of wrestling on TV for everyone. Indie wrestling is nothing like the territory days, where stars could move around the country to develop in a structured system.
NXT - GREAT
With there being no system for indie wrestlers to learn the best ways to work matches, NXT has been the biggest boon to wrestling. It started as a developmental system where WWE brought in people who wanted to learn wrestling and teach them to see if they had what it took. It was the logical next step to their former developmental territories in Ohio and Florida.
Now, NXT is a promotion that mixes these developmental talents with top indie stars signing on with WWE. Adam Cole, Tomasso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, and Matt Riddle are just a few of the names that deliver a product that destroys Raw and SmackDown every day of the week.
1 UNSCRIPTED PROMOS - WANT BACK
The biggest problem with modern professional wrestling is that wrestlers are given written promos to memorize and go out and regurgitate. These men and women are not actors. They are wrestling entertainers, and no matter how great they are in the ring, if they sound unnatural cutting promos, people won't care.
In the old days, Roddy Piper or Jake Roberts would be given a direction to lead their promo and told to go out and reach that point in character. Wrestlers sunk or swam on whether they could deliver promos. Now, writers tell wrestlers what to say, and if they sink, it is because of the writers and not the wrestlers because they can't find their characters on their own.