mapletree23 t1_j90vap2 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 11:04 AM

there was a time where i believe there could've been a future where that might've been possible

wrestling was ABSURDLY big in the attitude area, like people in different countries and friends would talk about shit, it was starting to get eveyrwhere on a crazy level

i don't know if the pg13 era or whatever fucked it up or just the writers got bad but i feel like a lot of people who knew wrestling back then can probably attest it was insanely popular

AnkurTri27 t1_j91rli5 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 4:04 PM

I think that at that time there was a mystery around the wrestlers and we almost never saw them out of character, as it was the era of no Internet, so all those wrestlers felt larger than life, something out of a comic book. And many kids actually believed thst Undertaker was resurrected and feared him. Such was the mystery engulfing those wrestlers. Then came social media, and wrestlers started being accessable 24*7 instead of weekly nights, they showed their human side and things kind of dwindled down.

RunALittleWild t1_j9e6hji wrote on February 21, 2023 at 7:02 AM

aren't you off by 5-10 years for the attitude era?

like...no one still believed it was real during that spot...I think?

GarlVinland4Astrea t1_j92kivk wrote on February 18, 2023 at 7:22 PM

It’s actually worth dramatically more now than it was in the Attitude Era. WWE has a global reach now that it didn’t have back then and has diversified a lot. Metrics like ratings are down, but WWE as a company is much stronger

rougepenguin t1_j93dve8 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 10:58 PM

People vastly underestimate how much WWE's popularity has reached out worldwide.

It's bordering on transcending being a banner American wrestling show. Getting into territory like say, Cirque du Soliei or something. It doesn't matter that much anymore if it's a niche thing back home, they can go just about anywhere in the world and draw humongous crowds just because it's an attraction in and of itself.

Lil_Mcgee t1_j95ijy2 wrote on February 19, 2023 at 11:57 AM

People on this site have a tendency to assume something is no longer popular just because they're not in the target demographic anymore.

Like obviously you heard more buzz about wrestling in the 90s, you were probably a kid and so were all your friends.

bronxct1 t1_j94cdbx wrote on February 19, 2023 at 3:32 AM

WWE’s market cap is 6.5 billion right now. The company is worth more than 10x what it was during the attitude era. Their reach is massive now. 9 billion is a little high but I’d bet 8.5 is around the price that makes sense given a normal buyout premium.