5 Reasons why Ruthless Aggression Era was better than the Attitude Era

Nowadays, it’s hard to discuss WWE without someone saying “Boy, Attitude Era was the best and this PG Era sucks. WWE should bring back The Attitude Era”. But Ruthless Aggression Era is hardly ever mentioned and is often overlooked.To me, the Ruthless Aggression Era was professional wrestling at its purest form. Why? Because it was fresh, aggression was the new breed, Divas matches were entertaining, new stars were rising up. Overall Ruthless Aggression Era was more about professional wrestling than anything else. The Ruthless Aggression Era gave us some of the greatest wrestling and stories in the WWE history, but it is not as celebrated a period as it deserves to be.Here is a look at the reasons why the Ruthless Aggression Era was better than The Attitude Era.

#1 Brand Split

With an excess of talent employed as a result of having purchased WCW and ECW, WWE needed a way to provide exposure for all of its talent. This problem was solved with the roster split in half and the talent assigned to either Raw or Smackdown in a draft lottery.

Vince McMahon wanted competition within WWE as which brand (Raw or Smackdown) was better. Eric Bischoff was hired by WWE to be the general manager of Raw. Bischoff’s wrestling innovation in WWE included the “Raw Roulette” and the Elimination Chamber.

Paul Heyman was the head writer for Smackdown and later served as the general manager as well. He is credited with being the creative force behind the successful so-called “Smackdown! Six”.

With minds like Bischoff and Heyman not only the booking was great but, the string of high-calibre matches over the Ruthless Aggression Era were great.

#2 Smackdown Six

Heyman served as the Head Writer and is credited for the successful “Smackdown! Six” These six superstars were Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero.

He placed them in a “triple threat tag team feud” (Angle and Benoit, Edge and Mysterio, Los Guerreros) over the WWE Tag Team Championship. This resulted in a string of high-calibre matches over several months. One of their matches was awarded 2002 Match of the Year.

This feud pushed the Smackdown! Six as a ‘Singles’ main event superstar. All of them went on to become World Champions. Later, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, and Kurt Angle were also awarded a place in the WWE Hall of Fame.

#3 Divas Division

The Divas roster during the Ruthless Aggression Era was much deeper and featured many athletic women, such as Lita, Trish Stratus, Melina, Mickie James and Victoria.

While the Attitude Era was more about sexual content and showing off the skin, the Divas of the Ruthless Aggression Era actually knew how to “Wrestle”.

Two of the all-time great Divas Lita and Trish Stratus had a historic rivalry. They competed in many high profile matches for the Women’s Championship. Lita and Trish also main event-ed Raw and wrestled for the Women’s Championship.

#4 Future Champions

Two of the top stars of the Attitude Era, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, left the company and were eventually replaced by newcomers from then WWE primary developmental territory OVW.

The Class of 2002 included future WWE Champions such as Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, John Cena and Batista. Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton both made history and became the youngest WWE Champion and the youngest World Heavyweight Champion respectively.

The biggest breakout star of Ruthless Aggression Era was John Cena. Cena made one of the most iconic WWE debut by answering an open challenge issued by Kurt Angle on Smackdown, after declaring that he possessed "ruthless aggression".

#5 In ring action

If we think of Attitude Era, we think of explicit content, over the top segments and interesting backstage storylines. It had controversial characters and storylines but lacked the in-ring action. For fans who enjoyed the drama, Attitude Era might have been great but for the ones who were devoted to pro wrestling, Ruthless Aggression Era was the era for them.

While the Ruthless Aggression Era from 2002 to 2007 featured some of the company’s biggest stars and greatest matches, it simply doesn’t get the same kind of wistful attention as the celebrated Attitude Era.

The talent WWE had with the likes Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle etc. at the time helped to pull off some of the classic matches of all time.