I noticed there was a Wrestlemania thread so I thought I’d start a general WWE thread seeing as there’s a few fans on here.

I can remember when I first started watching WWE although it was known as WWF at the time. I was 6 years old and it was in 1997. Bret Hart was the champion and Shawn Michaels was his rival. We didn’t have Sky Sports channel in my house, however. My grandparents did so they’d tape it for me to watch when I went there. Then me, my school friends and friends around my neighbourhood basically built up a library of taped episodes of Raw, Smackdown and Pay-per-views. We’d lend each other the VHS cassettes, go round to each other’s houses and watch WWF. This was how we kept up to date with the events.

My Dad bought an ITV digital box (props to any Brits reading who remember ITV digital). He got it chipped (because all working class dads in England know that one guy who is a bit dodgy who can sort you out with pirated cable television) and we had access to Sky Sports. I think this was around the year 2000. So I had full access to WWF and could watch it religiously. Friday nights at 9pm on Sky Sports 3 was that Monday night’s Raw episode. The next morning on Sky One at 10am was that Thursday night’s Smackdown. I hardly ever missed a weekend for over 4 years after that. Still had to get someone else to tape the pay-per-views though as we didn’t have Sky Box Office and they were expensive to purchase – think they used to be around £18, which was pricey back then. Channel 4 used to air some PPVs on terrestrial – that’s weird looking back.

Long story short, I witnessed the entirety of the attitude era. When the WWF/WCW/ECW merger happened (Invasion storyline probably best thing in wrestling history ever) there was uncertainty about the direction. But it was still highly entertaining. Around 2004 was when I started to fade out. They split Raw/SD into ‘’brands’’, this I didn’t appreciate. My favourite superstars were leaving or changed too much (i.e. Kane unmasking). When I was 14 I think I stopped altogether and this remained for years. I’d check in now and again over the years and they had ended up infantilizing the product. Seemed like they wanted the younger kid audience to make it a family oriented thing – this is where the money was though so I can’t really blame them but it had lost me.

After this I’d watch it once a year for Wrestlemania or something like if an attitude era star returned for a bit. In 2011 I was dragged back into it because of CM Punk shaking things up but after MITB vs Cena in Chicago, I went back into disinterest – just Wrestlemania once a year, and the following Raw episode.

The last few weeks have brought me back into it properly. Holy ****, the WWE has not been like this in about 15 years. Is it as good as the attitude era? No, and it might never be. We’ll see when HHH takes over the business though. Yet the talent on the roster is incredible. I watched WM32 and it was unimpressive on the whole – this was just bad booking though. Something happened at WM32 that re-energized my interest. It wasn’t Roman Reigns. It wasn’t Dean Ambrose. It wasn’t AJ Styles. It was Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks. This was the match of the night by far. Yes, a triple threat 16 minute women’s match.

When I was a young boy I watched Chyna, Ivory, Jacqueline, Trish Stratus and Lita. They could perform in-ring and had some good storylines and stables – the division was somewhat decent. Then they rebranded the women as ‘’divas’’ and wrestling ability declined to almost complete negation. Women’s wrestling turned into wannabe models that would strut around the ring doing 4 minute matches where they’d slap each other, pull hair and take a bump to the canvas if they could. Or they’d do bra and panties matches that, now looking back, were pretty degrading. These didn’t care about wrestling, they didn’t last long in the company and in my opinion came close to damaging womens wrestling to the point of being unable to revive it.

I watched Charlotte vs Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks and was enthralled by it. I then discovered NXT properly and was hooked. The technical abilities and characters of the men and women even eclipsed those on the main roster. I hadn’t even mentioned Bayley yet who is probably more over than anyone on the main roster, and she’s in NXT.

I went to watch some more NXT matches. Sasha Banks vs Bayley at NXT Brooklyn that started the revolution in women’s wrestling. The rematch at NXT Respect, that was the first ever time 2 women main evented a PPV and 2 women fought a 30-min Iron Man match. If you’d had told me in 2014 that 2 women would go on to perform 2 match of the year candidates I’d have laughed you away. 4 women – Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte and Becky Lynch – brought me back. One is Ric Flair’s daughter, one has wrestled since she was 15 in Ireland, UK, France, Japan and Canada, one has done the indie circuit and one has wanted to be a WWE champion since she was 11. They care about the industry and they are getting the credit they deserve. The women are no longer a laughing stock and the ‘’divas’’ who are still there running out their contracts should feel embarrassed.

NXT Brooklyn, NXT Respect and NXT London are 3 of the best PPVs WWE has ever done. The talent HHH and his NXT team have developed is the best thing to ever happen to WWE. Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin, Enzo and Cass, Gable and Jordan, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Asuka all make the future bright. And me a fan again.

So with Payback on Sunday night, let’s start the WWE discussion. What do you think of NXT’s impact? When does Bayley get brought up? Why is Roman Reigns god-awful?

Also, make your predictions.My guesses are in bold.
Roman Reigns (c) vs. AJ Styles
The Miz (c) (with Maryse) vs. Cesaro
Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens
Charlotte (c) (with Ric Flair) vs. Natalya (with Bret Hart)
Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. The Vaudevillains
Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin