On a recent edition of “The Masked Man Show” podcast, former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz offered his thoughts on WWE’s recent success, noting that the company has more “buzz” surrounding it now than it did during the Attitude Era.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the current success of WWE: “Obviously, the money it’s bringing in [through] rights deals to television shows — it benefitted from the fact that even though viewing is just so much more segmented now, … WWE, like most live sports, is a show that you need to watch live … And not just in terms of television and rights fees, but the live events, [the] two nights of WrestleMania, [and] everything that they wanted … when I was there, is now a reality.”
On the women’s division: “It’s not even comparable to the way it was treated — and presented — in the Attitude Era. It’s not that the women in the Attitude Era … couldn’t do the things that the women today are doing … but the mindset at the time was the audience does not want to see the women in a cage match or … a ladder match … And that mindset has been a complete 180 now.”
On how the mindset is different now: “[Current] WWE’s progression has been very gradual, … whereas [the differences between] Attitude Era vs. [the] Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, Doink the Clown, [and] TL Hopper era that preceded it, … was astronomical … And it’s the fact that you had between ‘Nitro’ and ‘Raw,’ an average, whatever it is, [of] 10 million people not only watching, but all watching at the same time … I don’t think [that mindset] can be replicated.”
