Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz discussed the state of WWE in 2023 in comparison to the Attitude Era during an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Show. Gewirtz discussed three reasons why WWE has gotten “way better” since the Attitude Era.
Gewirtz said, “One is obviously the money it’s bringing in, you know, the rights deals for the television shows. It benefited from the fact that even though viewing is just so much more segmented now with streaming platforms and social media, video games, everything else. And not just in terms of television and rights fees but the live events, two nights of WrestleMania, Everything that you know they wanted, they be in WWE wanted when I was there is now a reality in real life.”
“The respectability that WWE has… PG coinciding with the guest host era and detractors of that era. But it really planted the roots and the groundwork towards WWE gaining respectability again with the advertisers and Hollywood in general because it made it safe, ‘for moms and dads to watch with their kids.’ Coming off an era where kids are getting suspended for wearing suck it shirts to school and raising middle fingers and all that, it opened the doors and gained them a lot of respectability.”
“The women’s division, it’s not even comparable to the way it was treated and presented in the Attitude Era versus what it is now. 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 does not want to see them in a ladder match… And that mindset has been a complete 180. Now it’s night and day different and for the better.”
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