The problem with those years especially 2019 is We didn't have any reason to watch weekly episodes John Cena was gone,Roman Reigns didn't work,The champ was part timer They used the same formula for Roman Seth Drew(winning the rumble/chamber and fighting the champion brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania) The matches were too predictable,storylines felt boring and forced Fan favourites were not pushed Taker and HBK coming out of retirement just for disaster match(es) Atleast we had part timing Cena till 2018 greatest royal rumble or a bit of Roman Reigns redemption story till summerslam 2018 After that , No superstars, No storylines , No good matches so It was a total downhill after that (until the tribal chief arrived)
like the creator said, it was really a test to WWE fans on their loyalty. I went back and fourth with WWE and AEW and eventually WWE when they really improved.
@@aromega10he’s not irrelevant he’s constantly the topic of conversation in the wrestling world for better or worse. He’s in the wrestling news headlines and has been since he left WWE.
Thank you. I waited and no one brought this fact up. We were 15 years past WWE having a truly viable competitor with proper TV time and TNA/Impact had totally imploded by 2016. The gap between them and WWE was now so far that ROH were bigger than them. The second company to the E now was NJPW all the way IN JAPAN! So, in the US, the E was a monopoly, basically, for that three year period. And this was what we got as a result of that. 2019, you get viable competition plus a pandemic and WWE actually starts trying again! Go figure!
@@manniking233 Everybody needs competition look at McDonald they'll never stop bringing up new menu items because they don't want to get stale and overtaken by the competition
I was there for Hell in a Cell 2019 live, absolutely no disrespect to the deceased, the blame goes entirely to booking & everyone in the match hated it. I saw Seth walking to the back with his tail between his legs, metaphorically speaking.
Vince McMahon leaving (or at least not having as much creative input as before) was one of the best things to happen to WWE. PLEs in particular have been way better.
Hot take: this year is top 5 years of all time, you can't say otherwise. Such a great main event scene, great stories and there hasn't been a paper view below a 7.5/10
@@aromega10And yet ppl will still say they "see no difference between HHH and Vince being in charge". What a joke, just have them watch this video. Even with Vince lurking in the shadows looking over H's shoulder like the damned Boogeyman, since he has taken over we haven't seen awful booking decisions anywhere CLOSE to Kofi losing in 7 secs, Brock coming in at the last sec to win MITB, Bobby Lashley's sister's, Bayley's This is Your Life, Jinder rising from Jobber to world champ in a month, and of course a HitC match ending in a NO CONTEST. Jeez, we had it rough before 2020. Tony Khan didn't create AEW. Vince did with his booking.
The real irony that Roman was at his absolute lowest point booking wise here, and yet his return in 2020 and winning the Universal title is what started the resurgence of WWE as a product. Dude always had the potential and it just took him hitting his lowest point to realize it. Also, RIP to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk. We lost the former too soon and the latter redefined wrestling.
Yeah roman was a midcarder in 2019 and Seth rollins was the face of the company and the crowd turned on him by summerslam and completely turned on him at he'll in a cell against the heel/villian the fiend
Now Roman is probably one of the most over faces on the roster despite not appearing on a show since Wrestlemania. They should have turned him heel years before they did. They needed to "allow" fans to boo him for the right reason before they'd cheer for him.
May Bray Wyatt rest in peace. this feels so unreal, what's worse is how we lost terry in the same week. Condolences to both their family and loved ones
Dude, the Jason Jordan storyline was potentially brilliant. A spoiled heel taking advantage of his babyface GM dad. Could've been great. It's a shame he was injured.
If we talk about this time period the Miz deserves a mention, dude single-handedly carried the company throughout these years & it doesn't get talked about enough, imo. Amazing video btw
Bit of revisionist history there. Miz's best run as IC champ came before this period in 2016. His feud with Cena and Nikki Bella was also fun, with the Maryse parodies and stuff. But the late 2017 IC run is quite forgettable except for Kurt Angle in a Shield outfit. He played his part in the rise of Monday Night Rollins, but his babyface run and feud with Shane was poorly booked, and there's not much else of consequence he did before turning back heel and winning the tag titles with Morrison in 2020.
My exact thought as well. Maybe it was a good thing we had the pandemic for them to change. Yeah thunderdome wasnt the best since it didnt have crowds and didnt have very much big moments but after all that and crowds came back they started to change and ticket sales and everything is going well
2017-2019 was rough for the WWE but it had it's moments. I do remember skipping out on watching shows because of how bad the quality was. But one thing to keep in mind is that those years was the prime of black and gold NXT (2018 especially). I would not miss NXT and not miss a TakeOver ppv (even got to attend my one and only TakeOver in Toronto). I miss these years of NXT a lot, such good times.
Whats weird is post mania 2016 to the start of 2017 was the best WWE had been in a long time. Brand Split, Aj Styles rise, KO Jericho, Survivor Series, and much more. The bag was severely fumbled after that.
Exactly the product was at its best in years at that point with what seemed like finally the rise of new stars with even the potential of balor returning even bigger than ever but after Wrestlemania 33 things just took a nose dive. I literally wouldn’t be a wrestling fan anymore if NXT wasn’t the best promotion in the world at that point
What's crazy is that a while ago I had a conversation with my cousin bout how WWE was in 2017-2019 and how inconsistent and weird It was. For every 2 or 3 good moments, we got another 5 or 6 bad ones. Brock and Jinder holding the world titles for most of 2017, raw was unwatchable most times, part timers taking most of the shine, kofi losing his world title in the worst way possible, ppvs were really not good and having so much talent and pretty not doin much with it. These years almost made me stop watching pro wrestling but then roman came back in 2020 and pretty much got me back on it. Also yt channels like u and gifs and premier and others who make great content like this is why I stay watching wrestling so basically thank u superkick Also RIP bray🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
I started watching wrestling again in 2017 😂truly one of the worst periods of all time, didn't take me very long to quit again. 2023 pulled me back in after hearing how crazy 2022 was and I gotta say, we eating good right now
2018 was really the year that broke me as a WWE fan. I made it through 2017 after being completely bored and having the show on as background TV, but 2018 made me quit watching full time. Like it’s crazy how WWE went from a great 2016 to those last 3 years of the decade, but thankfully things really started to improve from like 2021-present
I always look at post-WrestleMania 33 as the end of the resurgence in quality WWE really had around 2016, and I guess you could say the end of the “SmackDown 2016 Era” we enjoyed so much
Fucking same dude, I remember feeling myself losing interest in 2017 but I was in denial and then early 2018 came along and i just checked out completely. Just started watching again 5 months ago and I’m so glad Triple H took over, Vince needed to go.
@@MAYUTHEUNDEAD Right! I’m just glad I got to experience a Takeover live the crowd was insane especially for WarGames 2. man if I could go back I would in a heartbeat
I will say growing up I always watched Cena during the Ruthless Aggression Era and stopped watching a little before highschool def when Taker lost at Mania, but recently started getting back into watching so it’s nice you posted a vid like this to kinda see what I missed out a bit 😅🫶🏻 Appreciate ur hard work man
AWA/WWWF, 80's, Attitude & RuthlessAgression WAS Peak, Whereas The Infiltration Of WCW INTO WWE Was Beginning Of The DownwardSpiral... I Only Restarted Being A Fan From 2006-2015, Then Stopped & Resumed with #FireflyFunhouse, Then Stopped AGAIN, Thanks To BoHowdy😵 & AlexaBliss😠! But Have Only Sparaticly Watched Every Once in A While. RIP: Bray😭
2018 was so bad I literally stopped caring completely about WWE back. No one could've even guess I once loved keeping up with this show weekly. Thankfully it's so much better now
These years were rough, as someone who loved WWE growing up this shit was making me question if I liked it anymore. It’s mind boggling how many stupid decisions WWE made between those 2 years. I stopped watching Raw and Smackdown and would look at highlights on Instagram or Twitter it got so bad.
@@Boo-wp1xwthe Smackdown tag team division was Hot though in 2017. Both the story and the matches especially the American Alpha, The Usos and the New day. Until they messed it up in 2018
Yall are tripping 2018 was a good year it just baron corbin being in charge is what ruin everything and Ronda rousey getting suspended for a few months and roman reigns losing to Brock Lesnar I liked roman reigns as the big dog but wwe was making him look bad
The initial phase of The Fiend run was so well executed, especially the cinematic WM match v. Cena. I seriously thought they had a believable and marketable monster to carry forward with. It's a shame that they dropped the ball (per usual,) with Bray's vision.
Got back to watching WWE few days ago after leaving it post Wrestlemania 32. Your videos are a great boost to my already sky high happiness on the recent developments in 2023. Looking forward to this year!
This may be unpopular but I loved Smackdown Live around that 2017 era, and during 2019 I loved the way they debuted Bray as the fiend. I loved Bray’s work, may he rest in peace 🕊️
These were definitely some of the worst years of WWE history. OMG, the amount of bad garbage we got here was just disgusting, and makes you wonder how the hell did any of this pass the creative minds. While we did have some positives during these years, the negatives definitely overshadowed them all, and it made you miss the good ol’ days all the more. But ironically, despite that tho, this was when I came back as a fan, and it makes me wonder, how the hell did I manage to handle it all. What a time to be alive😂.
It's nuts to me how bad WWE was at this time between 2017 & 2019 they genuinely had the best roster in wrestling. NXT was great during this time period but with how bad main roster was at the time it really shows Vince needed to retire because he didn't know what he was doing. With a roster this good how the old man screwed up this bad I'll never fully know
the roster was bloated, they didn't need that much people. That was their mistake, they're just hoarding all the wrestlers with no intentions of using them. I think WWE has hit the sweet spot in terms of the roster size today.
@@nicktasteless360 they had six hours of tv 7 hours by 2019 had they pushed there beat & most popular talent things could of been great. To me it showed how incompetent Vince was Hunter was doing incredible work in NXT at the time
@@nicktasteless360part of that was just Vince taking toys off the table for the burgeoning AEW and signing big names to new contracts to keep them around too
The late 2010s were like the early 90s to modern WWE's mid-late 90s. Today's product isn't as good as the peak Attitude Era, but the late 2010s were arguably worse than the early 90s to the point where the improvement is just as significant.
Bray Wyatt got me back into wrestling when the Wyatt family started in 2012, and he got me back into wrestling in 2020 when i stoped watching in early 2017. This hurts. RIP 🕊️
It made absolutely no sense. I had stopped watching in 2016 but I couldn't believe when I heard Jinder Mahal was the champion. If they wanted a champ of Asian descent they had an amazing potential one of their roster! And if you want to appeal to India why make Mahal a racist heel who has boring-ass matches? Build him up as the ultimate underdog who does the impossible instead.
Great video as always man! But for me 2018 had some hits as well…perhaps the most important one , the return of Daniel Bryan , man that was special and absolute cinema …especially when they made the TAG at WM 34.
I remember the iron man match. The crowd wasn’t counting at random intervals. After they took the clock off the Rita trim, people in the audience pulled up the live feed of the show on the network and counted along with it. Pretty disrespectful, but damn it’s funny looking back😂
Many people talk about how awful Raw was in 2017-2019 and I agree that it was Raw's worst period ever but SmackDown at times was actually worse. Remember SmackDown's 1st year's half ? The tag team division was non existant, the midcard division between Randy Orton...and Jeff Hardy...and Jinder Mahal ??? Yikes ! That awful Carmella/Asuka feud (and yet people calls Carmella's title reign underrated 🤣) and the main program was Nakamura making low blows to Styles...like dude what is this ??? This is probably WWE's worst ever period it's not even funny. Not even the PPVs were that good overall. To forgot all the bad, I wanna talk about the positives of WWE in 2017-2019 : - AJ Styles and Kevin Owens carrying SmackDown (2017) - The tag team division (2017) - Braun Strowman's rise (2017) - Seth Rollins's first Intercontinental championship run (2018's first half) - Becky Lynch's rise and the women's division at its best with Flair/Rousey/Lynch help (late 2018-early 2019) - Daniel Bryan's champion of the planet run (late 2018-early 2019) - KofiMania (early 2019) - Bray Wyatt/The Fiend (RIP btw) (until HIAC 2019)
Honestly Smackdown 2017 was bearable, maybe because the mid card and Tag division were hot asf..the Usos on Smackdown live locking everyone up...Baron Corbin having the best US title defenses. 2018 really sucked ass
@@InfernoG-or4s Yeah I agree, SmackDown in 2017 was carried by the tag team and midcarder division. SmackDown in 2018 I would say was garbage until like SummerSlam, After that it got better with Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan carrying thé show.
a lot of the nxt call ups from that period had a hard time when they came up to the main roster i could say that asuka bayley & drew came out of it better in the long term but still it was rough for them as well
@@Bruh-ys3sx I would not be introduced to pro wrestling until literally the day after Montreal, but from what I gather, the most interesting one-year period in American mainstream history is Survivor Series 1996 to 1997 because of what it covers for both federations. Memorial Day 1996 to Survivor Series 1997 is probably the greatest 18 months ever for the mainstream scene too if you wanna extend it that way. (I feel a need to shoehorn in that ROH has a similar golden age period as well, spanning exactly 365 days from Glory By Honor IV in September 2005 to Glory By Honor V weekend in September 2006.)
I started watching WWE again in 2019 after about 5 years of not watching it, but after WrestleMania 36, I couldn’t stick with it and only watch it on occasion. I don’t know what it was that caused me to come back to it but now I watch it on a regular basis as of last year
2019 definitely made me rethink wrestling and then the thunderdome era completely turned me off, from 2020 to mid 2022 I just didn't follow wrestling and it's all because of the nonsense that was 2019
And NXT had already been great for years by the time 2017 rolled around and stayed great during these years. I literally stopped watching the main roster and just watched NXT. How a company's supposed "developmental" brand could be so good while it's main brands were so awful still makes absolutely no sense.
Hearing bayley in the 2017 part is such a throwback. I remember sitting there the first time bayley debuted at home with my dad and I was so excited when I saw her because of her entrance with the big inflatable guys
Just like you, I've watched WWE Stomping Grounds live at the Tacoma Dome, you were right about the seats being tarped off and ppv quality wasn't good, but Samoa Joe vs Ricochet for the US title in my opinion is the only match on the card that deserves a re-watch. I also went to Monday Night RAW after Stomping Grounds in Everett, WA and it was worse. Half of the arena was tarped off, we were ranked as the lowest attendance in RAW's history until COVID-19 happened. The only positives are, The Undertaker saving Roman Reigns from a Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre beat down and Ricochet vs AJ Styles
I will always say that Rollins vs. Danielson should've headlined that show. Just let the babyface champ go up against the hometown challenger to groom him for the Lesnar rematch. Do something to heat up Seattle for that show.
I legit stopped watching WWE around 2018, and started watching again in 2021 around Royal Rumble. WWE's best year is 2023 so far not only PLEs are fun to watch but even weekly shows have improved a lot.
One thing that should've been mentioned here was the greatness of smackdown in late 2018. Becky Lynch (The Man) Randy Orton (Legend Killer) Daniel Bryan (Planet's champion) Samoa Joe (Verbal killer) Rey Mysterio vs Andrade
i tried so hard to get back into wrestling since 2015 and i just couldnt get myself to keep watching. i really thought it´s me and i just dont like wrestling anymore... started watching again like a year ago and i actually quite like it nowadays. now i found this video and it seems like it really wasnt just me lol
I took a break from wrestling after mania 33 and I didn’t come back till like summerslam 2019 so I miss pretty much the last 2 years and I’m glad I did.
Funny thing is. This is when I got into wrestling full. I remember just sitting there thinking this could be better and waiting and waiting. I’m glad we’re at where we’re at today
Great video. I couldn't agree with you more on this video. 17 to 019 was really the dark days of WWE for me. I would say only the NXT gold and white era brand was at its best. So, that was at least something i can fall back to. I think once AEW arrived. Thats when WWE really started to sharpmen their skills. And shows you whe having competition from another wrestling promotion is sooo important.
Hey I'm glad you brought this up because everytime icaew Doom posting on Twitter I always think back to these years when the roster was way more stacked than it is today yet they were performing in front of half empty arenas all over the country. I didn't hear anybody talking about WWE going out of business in a year I didn't hear anybody calling them the next WCW I didn't hear any of this Doom posting. Every company it's a little rough patch aew is going through it right now but they will recover. So next time somebody wants to sit there and post empty hard cam side just remember like during these years it was like that for almost every raw and SmackDown live for YEARS.
There was very much discourse comparing WWE half a decade ago to the dying days of WCW from a creative, TV ratings, and ticket-selling standpoint. TNA went through that as well and just as deservedly so.
2016-Early 2019 was my first run with WWE- i didn't actually mind it that much imo. Of course there was flaws, but I didn't mind it as a kid. Looking back, i still dont think it was that bad, But i will say that in 2023, WWE is much much better!
Trust me: if you wouldn't have been a kid, these years would have been absolute HELL. I've watched WWE, sometimes regularly and sometimes casually, since I was a kid in the 80s. I stopped watching completely in 2017. I just couldn't take it anymore.
I honestly think Vince McMahon was in a very bad mental state, and probably still is. He ruined so much talent in those few years, and definitely set the company back a lot. 2019 is when I really just couldn't watch it, it was some of the worst WWE I had seen. I do not know how 90% of this stuff came to be, it just seems so terrible. Roman wasn't ready but everyone besides Vince knew that. They ruined the Fiend character, made the main title seem worthless, and really just kept fumbling. I'm glad things are on a better track, Vince almost killed his own creation.
First of all Rest in power to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk 2017-2019 was the time I lost complete interest in WWE, I watched since 2008 I came back around when Roman turned heel it’s had its ups and downs but it’s definitely better now then it was in those times for sure
I love retrospectives like this because it reminds us of how good we have it now vs how terrible things were during this 2017-2019 run. It also serves as a cautionary tale to TKO/Triple H about the consequences of becoming an out-of-touch promotion.
The last 5 years of Vince McMahon under creative control were awful. Not just the late 2010s, but 2020-early 2022 as well. The Triple H era, even at its worst, is more bearable.
The way 2017-2019 is talked about, I'm really thankful sometimes that around that time School made it impossible for me to catch up with WWE. I'd only tap into it Wrestlemania szn then miss alot of PPVs where the most cringe things happen 😂😂
As someone who was on the outside looking in during this time (just kept up with what was happening) I didn't realise just how bad this period was. Just absolutely no long term planning an absolute mess of a product.
I always thought the first half of 2017 was pretty great. WM33 was super entertaining, the Roman vs Strowman feud was nuts; the Sumner Slam Mainevent; SVR Series; etc. 2018 - 2020, i stopped paying attention for the most part until Roman came back with the Tribal Chief gimmick. All-in-all, I agree with most of your point. Great video as usual man!
Thanks for reminding me why I stopped watching for the WWE... again 😅 2016 was SOOOO good when I got back into it then they did this shit 😤 Now I've found myself catching up to this Bloodline story. I'm praying once I catch up, they won't fuck it up 🤞🏾
RIP Bray Wyatt, it doesnt feel real :( ❤😔
I was so lucky I didn't start watching wrestling until 2020
The problem with those years especially 2019 is
We didn't have any reason to watch weekly episodes
John Cena was gone,Roman Reigns didn't work,The champ was part timer
They used the same formula for Roman Seth Drew(winning the rumble/chamber and fighting the champion brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania)
The matches were too predictable,storylines felt boring and forced
Fan favourites were not pushed
Taker and HBK coming out of retirement just for disaster match(es)
Atleast we had part timing Cena till 2018 greatest royal rumble
or a bit of Roman Reigns redemption story till summerslam 2018
After that , No superstars, No storylines , No good matches
so It was a total downhill after that
(until the tribal chief arrived)
Your right. It really doesn't feel real. Fly high Bray♥️🙏🕊
@@alphawrestlingfan6689 I joined in 2020 too
@mrdeljr if I started watching wrestling at 2017, I would have stopped watching wrestling a long time ago
2017 was tolerable, but 2018-19 were the years where they were proving CM Punk right.
Also, godspeed, Bray Wyatt...
Thank God i wasnt watch those days
like the creator said, it was really a test to WWE fans on their loyalty. I went back and fourth with WWE and AEW and eventually WWE when they really improved.
@@eixd3396bro good thing you didn’t watch. Lowkey wish I didn’t watch all ppvs in 2018. Gosh they were awful
And now look at CM Punk, he's irrelevant. And WWE shows are untouchable. It's just about damn time and the people running the shows.
@@aromega10he’s not irrelevant he’s constantly the topic of conversation in the wrestling world for better or worse. He’s in the wrestling news headlines and has been since he left WWE.
2017-2019 WWE is an example of why we need more than one major wrestling promotion.
Thank you. I waited and no one brought this fact up. We were 15 years past WWE having a truly viable competitor with proper TV time and TNA/Impact had totally imploded by 2016. The gap between them and WWE was now so far that ROH were bigger than them. The second company to the E now was NJPW all the way IN JAPAN! So, in the US, the E was a monopoly, basically, for that three year period. And this was what we got as a result of that. 2019, you get viable competition plus a pandemic and WWE actually starts trying again! Go figure!
@@manniking233
Everybody needs competition look at McDonald they'll never stop bringing up new menu items because they don't want to get stale and overtaken by the competition
@@manniking233wwe was really trash in 2019 gosh
@@manniking233can you stop saying E that's so fucking dumb
Agreed 10000 percent
2017-2019 were truly my dark years, its insane to see how better the company is when not much has changed besides a few members of the roster
Yeah same, I almost completely gave up on WWE and pro wrestling. Roman Reigns brought me back
Man 2018 was miserable and nobody was finna watch impact I was happy when I watching njpw at that time
I was there for Hell in a Cell 2019 live, absolutely no disrespect to the deceased, the blame goes entirely to booking & everyone in the match hated it. I saw Seth walking to the back with his tail between his legs, metaphorically speaking.
For me it was 2009-2020.
Maybe even 2008-2020.
So glad it's better again but just not quite there yet
And I thought early 2010s was bad
Vince McMahon leaving (or at least not having as much creative input as before) was one of the best things to happen to WWE.
PLEs in particular have been way better.
i felt that in 2020 WWE actually improved quite a bit. i guess when Vince was out, it really sped things up.
Thunderdome PPVs under Vince pretty much always ranged from solid to great, moreso since Roman's return.
WWE PLEs are untouchable rn. MITB was literally perfect
Hot take: this year is top 5 years of all time, you can't say otherwise. Such a great main event scene, great stories and there hasn't been a paper view below a 7.5/10
@@aromega10And yet ppl will still say they "see no difference between HHH and Vince being in charge". What a joke, just have them watch this video. Even with Vince lurking in the shadows looking over H's shoulder like the damned Boogeyman, since he has taken over we haven't seen awful booking decisions anywhere CLOSE to Kofi losing in 7 secs, Brock coming in at the last sec to win MITB, Bobby Lashley's sister's, Bayley's This is Your Life, Jinder rising from Jobber to world champ in a month, and of course a HitC match ending in a NO CONTEST. Jeez, we had it rough before 2020. Tony Khan didn't create AEW. Vince did with his booking.
The real irony that Roman was at his absolute lowest point booking wise here, and yet his return in 2020 and winning the Universal title is what started the resurgence of WWE as a product. Dude always had the potential and it just took him hitting his lowest point to realize it.
Also, RIP to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk. We lost the former too soon and the latter redefined wrestling.
Yeah roman was a midcarder in 2019 and Seth rollins was the face of the company and the crowd turned on him by summerslam and completely turned on him at he'll in a cell against the heel/villian the fiend
@@bigdonald123 Seth was a face on tv but a heel on twitter. It was wild how douchey he was being.
@@bigdonald123roman midcarder? The one who got 3 maint events at Wrestlemania without Deserving it ??
What resurgence? Roman took WWE to it's lowest point.
Now Roman is probably one of the most over faces on the roster despite not appearing on a show since Wrestlemania. They should have turned him heel years before they did. They needed to "allow" fans to boo him for the right reason before they'd cheer for him.
May Bray Wyatt rest in peace. this feels so unreal, what's worse is how we lost terry in the same week. Condolences to both their family and loved ones
Terry?
Terry Funk He was a very old wrestler that fought mick Foley in a Hardcore Match
Watching RAW in 2018 was painful.
Seth Rollins was carrying
@@tinotagwireyi5821seth was the worst thing
@@Jajshshshs bro carry raw while holding the ic title
@@tinotagwireyi5821nope he was boring
@mr.allday if it was 2019 I would 100 percent agree with you
Dude, the Jason Jordan storyline was potentially brilliant. A spoiled heel taking advantage of his babyface GM dad. Could've been great. It's a shame he was injured.
jason jordan could potentially be what dom mysterio became right now.
It’s would have fit more on Chad gable more then Jason
No, it wasn't, it was stupid shit
By the way, R.I.P Bray wyatt. He will forever be remembered as a creative genius and legend.
If we talk about this time period the Miz deserves a mention, dude single-handedly carried the company throughout these years & it doesn't get talked about enough, imo.
Amazing video btw
Bit of revisionist history there. Miz's best run as IC champ came before this period in 2016. His feud with Cena and Nikki Bella was also fun, with the Maryse parodies and stuff. But the late 2017 IC run is quite forgettable except for Kurt Angle in a Shield outfit. He played his part in the rise of Monday Night Rollins, but his babyface run and feud with Shane was poorly booked, and there's not much else of consequence he did before turning back heel and winning the tag titles with Morrison in 2020.
2019 was horrible especially with crowd noise. As terrible as the pandemic was I’m glad it reinvigorated them.
And also the camera men shaking the cameras on chair shots
Thank you for mentioning that. Crowd noises were super dead at the time
My exact thought as well. Maybe it was a good thing we had the pandemic for them to change. Yeah thunderdome wasnt the best since it didnt have crowds and didnt have very much big moments but after all that and crowds came back they started to change and ticket sales and everything is going well
Pandemic was in 2020 not in 2019 but I would put the pandemic /thunderdome era over 2019 any day
2017-2019 was rough for the WWE but it had it's moments. I do remember skipping out on watching shows because of how bad the quality was. But one thing to keep in mind is that those years was the prime of black and gold NXT (2018 especially). I would not miss NXT and not miss a TakeOver ppv (even got to attend my one and only TakeOver in Toronto). I miss these years of NXT a lot, such good times.
Whats weird is post mania 2016 to the start of 2017 was the best WWE had been in a long time. Brand Split, Aj Styles rise, KO Jericho, Survivor Series, and much more. The bag was severely fumbled after that.
Exactly the product was at its best in years at that point with what seemed like finally the rise of new stars with even the potential of balor returning even bigger than ever but after Wrestlemania 33 things just took a nose dive. I literally wouldn’t be a wrestling fan anymore if NXT wasn’t the best promotion in the world at that point
NXT black and gold saved WWE in this era
Nahhh , real fans the OGs really don't care about nxt
@@goat4620yes it was just a indy show , people back then liked flipping wrestling
@@goat4620real fans? nahhhhhhh real fans care about all the different areas, OGs only care about what they like
@@sayandas3939 Ciampa vs Gargano's unsanctioned match at Takeover New Orleans was...a flipping match?
What's crazy is that a while ago I had a conversation with my cousin bout how WWE was in 2017-2019 and how inconsistent and weird It was. For every 2 or 3 good moments, we got another 5 or 6 bad ones. Brock and Jinder holding the world titles for most of 2017, raw was unwatchable most times, part timers taking most of the shine, kofi losing his world title in the worst way possible, ppvs were really not good and having so much talent and pretty not doin much with it. These years almost made me stop watching pro wrestling but then roman came back in 2020 and pretty much got me back on it. Also yt channels like u and gifs and premier and others who make great content like this is why I stay watching wrestling so basically thank u superkick
Also RIP bray🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
Once the superstar shakeup in 2017 happened the quality of the overall product took a total nosedive
Miss that wwe 2016 era
Smackdown from July 2016 until the Shakeup in 2017 was amazing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. I don't know what exactly caused it but it never felt right after that.
I started watching wrestling again in 2017 😂truly one of the worst periods of all time, didn't take me very long to quit again. 2023 pulled me back in after hearing how crazy 2022 was and I gotta say, we eating good right now
2022-2023 the lowest point in WWE since I started watching in 1997.
2018 was really the year that broke me as a WWE fan. I made it through 2017 after being completely bored and having the show on as background TV, but 2018 made me quit watching full time. Like it’s crazy how WWE went from a great 2016 to those last 3 years of the decade, but thankfully things really started to improve from like 2021-present
I always look at post-WrestleMania 33 as the end of the resurgence in quality WWE really had around 2016, and I guess you could say the end of the “SmackDown 2016 Era” we enjoyed so much
Fucking same dude, I remember feeling myself losing interest in 2017 but I was in denial and then early 2018 came along and i just checked out completely. Just started watching again 5 months ago and I’m so glad Triple H took over, Vince needed to go.
2017-2019 was truly the worst years of wwe
The only thing that was good in 2019 was survivor series.
1993-1996
@@fastcarwhite4115thankfully I was there
2018 smackdown and 2017 raw were good
naw i'd still take these years over PG era/Super Cena era that was wwe at its lowest
It’s crazy how the main roster was terrible at the time but NXT was at its peak
To the point take over was better than WrestleMania
NXT was fucking amazing this time I really miss it. Each Takeover felt important every match had buildups great times
for real, black and gold era NXT (2016-2018 especially) was untouchable
And now its the opposite, which is exactly how its supposed to be
@@MAYUTHEUNDEAD Right! I’m just glad I got to experience a Takeover live the crowd was insane especially for WarGames 2. man if I could go back I would in a heartbeat
This is perfect timing i was wondering when a video would cover these years review style
I will say growing up I always watched Cena during the Ruthless Aggression Era and stopped watching a little before highschool def when Taker lost at Mania, but recently started getting back into watching so it’s nice you posted a vid like this to kinda see what I missed out a bit 😅🫶🏻 Appreciate ur hard work man
AWA/WWWF, 80's, Attitude &
RuthlessAgression WAS Peak,
Whereas The Infiltration Of
WCW INTO WWE Was Beginning
Of The DownwardSpiral... I Only
Restarted Being A Fan From
2006-2015, Then Stopped &
Resumed with #FireflyFunhouse,
Then Stopped AGAIN, Thanks
To BoHowdy😵 & AlexaBliss😠!
But Have Only Sparaticly Watched
Every Once in A While. RIP: Bray😭
This video is 26 + minutes and I didn't even feel it. Truly had a blast
2018 was so bad I literally stopped caring completely about WWE back. No one could've even guess I once loved keeping up with this show weekly. Thankfully it's so much better now
These years were rough, as someone who loved WWE growing up this shit was making me question if I liked it anymore. It’s mind boggling how many stupid decisions WWE made between those 2 years. I stopped watching Raw and Smackdown and would look at highlights on Instagram or Twitter it got so bad.
It literally made me stop watching it completely and i only came back because i saw a sami clip with the bloodline lol
Tbh 2017 was a good year had a lot of classic matches but in 2018 was when wwe got sour 😖
I agree. 2017 was tolerable but gosh 2018 was hard to watch
Some matches were fantastic AJ STYLES mostly caring that year but the story's where awful
@@jayjayh232017 had good survivor series
@@Boo-wp1xwthe Smackdown tag team division was Hot though in 2017. Both the story and the matches especially the American Alpha, The Usos and the New day. Until they messed it up in 2018
Yall are tripping 2018 was a good year it just baron corbin being in charge is what ruin everything and Ronda rousey getting suspended for a few months and roman reigns losing to Brock Lesnar I liked roman reigns as the big dog but wwe was making him look bad
the pandemic helped wwe a lot because once fans came back the show quality got mildly better
Pandemic Era was the best time period of WWE in years imo
The initial phase of The Fiend run was so well executed, especially the cinematic WM match v. Cena. I seriously thought they had a believable and marketable monster to carry forward with. It's a shame that they dropped the ball (per usual,) with Bray's vision.
Got back to watching WWE few days ago after leaving it post Wrestlemania 32.
Your videos are a great boost to my already sky high happiness on the recent developments in 2023. Looking forward to this year!
This may be unpopular but I loved Smackdown Live around that 2017 era, and during 2019 I loved the way they debuted Bray as the fiend. I loved Bray’s work, may he rest in peace 🕊️
I did like 2017 Smackdown! but I hate 2019 Smackdown!
During this time it was my break from wrestling, I’m sad i missed out on all the awesome nxt stuff 2017-2019 but I’m so glad i missed out on this
Vince was the problem
It has always been Vince
These were definitely some of the worst years of WWE history. OMG, the amount of bad garbage we got here was just disgusting, and makes you wonder how the hell did any of this pass the creative minds. While we did have some positives during these years, the negatives definitely overshadowed them all, and it made you miss the good ol’ days all the more. But ironically, despite that tho, this was when I came back as a fan, and it makes me wonder, how the hell did I manage to handle it all. What a time to be alive😂.
We all know it wasn't down to creative. It was Vince being nuts
That's dope
2017 was forgettable to me. 2018-2019 was abysmal.
RIP Windham Rotunda
2017 was peak to me, sad that everyone else doesn't think the same
It's nuts to me how bad WWE was at this time between 2017 & 2019 they genuinely had the best roster in wrestling. NXT was great during this time period but with how bad main roster was at the time it really shows Vince needed to retire because he didn't know what he was doing. With a roster this good how the old man screwed up this bad I'll never fully know
the roster was bloated, they didn't need that much people. That was their mistake, they're just hoarding all the wrestlers with no intentions of using them. I think WWE has hit the sweet spot in terms of the roster size today.
@@nicktasteless360 they had six hours of tv 7 hours by 2019 had they pushed there beat & most popular talent things could of been great. To me it showed how incompetent Vince was Hunter was doing incredible work in NXT at the time
@@nicktasteless360part of that was just Vince taking toys off the table for the burgeoning AEW and signing big names to new contracts to keep them around too
10:02 "Two Samoan Joes" that's fk'n clever man lol
Yeah, we should blame WWE Creative for making bad decisons for this decade of the 2010s!
The late 2010s were like the early 90s to modern WWE's mid-late 90s. Today's product isn't as good as the peak Attitude Era, but the late 2010s were arguably worse than the early 90s to the point where the improvement is just as significant.
Bray Wyatt got me back into wrestling when the Wyatt family started in 2012, and he got me back into wrestling in 2020 when i stoped watching in early 2017.
This hurts. RIP 🕊️
Seeing this video is eye opening to me to see how bad 2017-2019 really was
2017 was okay until WM 33
In 2018 it was embarrassing to be a wwe fan
Lets appreciate what we have today . Rest in peace bray 💔
Seriously WCW in 1999 was much better then 2017-2019 wwe
2016 was a great year for wwe but I cant remember 2018-2019
I stopped watching WWE around 09 and got back into it last year. I had no idea things got this bad lol im glad i got back in when i did
I actually stopped in 2016 after WM 32 because I could tell which way things were going. NXT during these years was absolutely on fire though.
This was the time where NXT was the WWE we were looking for.
Those takeovers were special
17:39 Taker nearly broke Goldberg's neck as well.
These were the years I stopped watching it consistently and started watching it casually.
Nakamura beating John Cena and Randy Orton clean only to get jobbed out by Mahal still leaves a sour taste on my mouth.
It made absolutely no sense. I had stopped watching in 2016 but I couldn't believe when I heard Jinder Mahal was the champion. If they wanted a champ of Asian descent they had an amazing potential one of their roster! And if you want to appeal to India why make Mahal a racist heel who has boring-ass matches? Build him up as the ultimate underdog who does the impossible instead.
Great video as always man! But for me 2018 had some hits as well…perhaps the most important one , the return of Daniel Bryan , man that was special and absolute cinema …especially when they made the TAG at WM 34.
I don't know how many times I said OH GOD watching this 😂. I got PTSD with every segment of this video.
I remember the iron man match. The crowd wasn’t counting at random intervals. After they took the clock off the Rita trim, people in the audience pulled up the live feed of the show on the network and counted along with it. Pretty disrespectful, but damn it’s funny looking back😂
Many people talk about how awful Raw was in 2017-2019 and I agree that it was Raw's worst period ever but SmackDown at times was actually worse. Remember SmackDown's 1st year's half ? The tag team division was non existant, the midcard division between Randy Orton...and Jeff Hardy...and Jinder Mahal ??? Yikes ! That awful Carmella/Asuka feud (and yet people calls Carmella's title reign underrated 🤣) and the main program was Nakamura making low blows to Styles...like dude what is this ??? This is probably WWE's worst ever period it's not even funny. Not even the PPVs were that good overall.
To forgot all the bad, I wanna talk about the positives of WWE in 2017-2019 :
- AJ Styles and Kevin Owens carrying SmackDown (2017)
- The tag team division (2017)
- Braun Strowman's rise (2017)
- Seth Rollins's first Intercontinental championship run (2018's first half)
- Becky Lynch's rise and the women's division at its best with Flair/Rousey/Lynch help (late 2018-early 2019)
- Daniel Bryan's champion of the planet run (late 2018-early 2019)
- KofiMania (early 2019)
- Bray Wyatt/The Fiend (RIP btw) (until HIAC 2019)
You forgot to mention Owens and Jericho on Raw in 2017.
@@J10005 True. I wasn't sure if this feud was on Raw or SmackDown.
Honestly Smackdown 2017 was bearable, maybe because the mid card and Tag division were hot asf..the Usos on Smackdown live locking everyone up...Baron Corbin having the best US title defenses. 2018 really sucked ass
@@InfernoG-or4s Yeah I agree, SmackDown in 2017 was carried by the tag team and midcarder division. SmackDown in 2018 I would say was garbage until like SummerSlam, After that it got better with Becky Lynch and Daniel Bryan carrying thé show.
One of my favorite matches actually happened in 2017: the Fatal 4-Way between Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Brawn Strowman and Samoa Joe at Summerslam.
a lot of the nxt call ups from that period had a hard time when they came up to the main roster i could say that asuka bayley & drew came out of it better in the long term but still it was rough for them as well
Alexa too
2017-2019 was really the dark years of wwe it was like 1995-1997 all over again
More like 1993-1995 cuz WWF okay after mid 1996
@@Bruh-ys3sx I would not be introduced to pro wrestling until literally the day after Montreal, but from what I gather, the most interesting one-year period in American mainstream history is Survivor Series 1996 to 1997 because of what it covers for both federations. Memorial Day 1996 to Survivor Series 1997 is probably the greatest 18 months ever for the mainstream scene too if you wanna extend it that way.
(I feel a need to shoehorn in that ROH has a similar golden age period as well, spanning exactly 365 days from Glory By Honor IV in September 2005 to Glory By Honor V weekend in September 2006.)
I started watching WWE again in 2019 after about 5 years of not watching it, but after WrestleMania 36, I couldn’t stick with it and only watch it on occasion. I don’t know what it was that caused me to come back to it but now I watch it on a regular basis as of last year
2015 and 2016 were good years you should watch
2019 definitely made me rethink wrestling and then the thunderdome era completely turned me off, from 2020 to mid 2022 I just didn't follow wrestling and it's all because of the nonsense that was 2019
Godspeed Windham...gone too soon pal. Say hi to Brodie for us. Thanks man.
And what makes this even more is that WWE had top teir talent in WWE and yet Vince booked them so poorly!!!
And NXT had already been great for years by the time 2017 rolled around and stayed great during these years. I literally stopped watching the main roster and just watched NXT. How a company's supposed "developmental" brand could be so good while it's main brands were so awful still makes absolutely no sense.
I genuinely loved every single 24/7 title segment
Hearing bayley in the 2017 part is such a throwback. I remember sitting there the first time bayley debuted at home with my dad and I was so excited when I saw her because of her entrance with the big inflatable guys
The first half of the 2017 was pretty decent since it carried the strong energy from 2016.
Rest in paradise Bray Wyatt 💔🕊️ Thank you for everything you’ve done to make all of our childhoods so legendary ♥️
It’s a shame because 2016 was so good I don’t know how the next couple of years after that was so bad
I remember: AEW dynamite debuted, Smackdown debuted on Fox, Kofi lost the title in 7 seconds, and THAT HIAC happened all in less than a week
The IC title picture was incredible from 2017-2018 thanks to Miz, Rollins, and Ziggler.
Proud to say that the first pay-per-view I’ve ever attended live was extreme rules 2022
I lived through these three years of WWE programming, attended the 2019 Royal Rumble, and it was well worth it to get to the WWE we see today.
to be honest as a fan 2023 is definitely the saddest year weve lost Bray Wyatt Cody lost in the main event the usos turned on each other
CODY losing was brilliant decision
This year is great what do you mean
2007
There's still 4 months left
dude really said bray wyatt died and then mentioned 2 booking decisions as if they were on the same level
Finally someone agrees with me that 2017-2019 were terrible years
Just like you, I've watched WWE Stomping Grounds live at the Tacoma Dome, you were right about the seats being tarped off and ppv quality wasn't good, but Samoa Joe vs Ricochet for the US title in my opinion is the only match on the card that deserves a re-watch. I also went to Monday Night RAW after Stomping Grounds in Everett, WA and it was worse. Half of the arena was tarped off, we were ranked as the lowest attendance in RAW's history until COVID-19 happened. The only positives are, The Undertaker saving Roman Reigns from a Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre beat down and Ricochet vs AJ Styles
I will always say that Rollins vs. Danielson should've headlined that show. Just let the babyface champ go up against the hometown challenger to groom him for the Lesnar rematch. Do something to heat up Seattle for that show.
Needed this I was looking at wwe the other day and was like wow they keep adding ppl haven’t watched it in like 4-7 years
I legit stopped watching WWE around 2018, and started watching again in 2021 around Royal Rumble. WWE's best year is 2023 so far not only PLEs are fun to watch but even weekly shows have improved a lot.
One thing that should've been mentioned here was the greatness of smackdown in late 2018.
Becky Lynch (The Man)
Randy Orton (Legend Killer)
Daniel Bryan (Planet's champion)
Samoa Joe (Verbal killer)
Rey Mysterio vs Andrade
These were definitely the dark times in WWE. At least we are in a much better position now. RIP Bray Wyatt BTW
i tried so hard to get back into wrestling since 2015 and i just couldnt get myself to keep watching. i really thought it´s me and i just dont like wrestling anymore... started watching again like a year ago and i actually quite like it nowadays. now i found this video and it seems like it really wasnt just me lol
the fact that they blamed Corbin in kayfabe for low ratings is funny, but also sad for him, he didn't deserve it
I took a break from wrestling after mania 33 and I didn’t come back till like summerslam 2019 so I miss pretty much the last 2 years and I’m glad I did.
Wwe from 2017 to 2020 was awful thank god roman heel turn save the wwe
Funny thing is. This is when I got into wrestling full.
I remember just sitting there thinking this could be better and waiting and waiting. I’m glad we’re at where we’re at today
Great video. I couldn't agree with you more on this video. 17 to 019 was really the dark days of WWE for me. I would say only the NXT gold and white era brand was at its best. So, that was at least something i can fall back to.
I think once AEW arrived. Thats when WWE really started to sharpmen their skills. And shows you whe having competition from another wrestling promotion is sooo important.
Hey I'm glad you brought this up because everytime icaew Doom posting on Twitter I always think back to these years when the roster was way more stacked than it is today yet they were performing in front of half empty arenas all over the country. I didn't hear anybody talking about WWE going out of business in a year I didn't hear anybody calling them the next WCW I didn't hear any of this Doom posting. Every company it's a little rough patch aew is going through it right now but they will recover. So next time somebody wants to sit there and post empty hard cam side just remember like during these years it was like that for almost every raw and SmackDown live for YEARS.
There was very much discourse comparing WWE half a decade ago to the dying days of WCW from a creative, TV ratings, and ticket-selling standpoint. TNA went through that as well and just as deservedly so.
2016-Early 2019 was my first run with WWE- i didn't actually mind it that much imo. Of course there was flaws, but I didn't mind it as a kid.
Looking back, i still dont think it was that bad, But i will say that in 2023, WWE is much much better!
Trust me: if you wouldn't have been a kid, these years would have been absolute HELL. I've watched WWE, sometimes regularly and sometimes casually, since I was a kid in the 80s. I stopped watching completely in 2017. I just couldn't take it anymore.
@@BiggieTrismegistus Understandable 😅
R.I.P. Bray Wyatt. You will always be remembered as a creative genius and we will never forget you.
I honestly think Vince McMahon was in a very bad mental state, and probably still is. He ruined so much talent in those few years, and definitely set the company back a lot. 2019 is when I really just couldn't watch it, it was some of the worst WWE I had seen. I do not know how 90% of this stuff came to be, it just seems so terrible. Roman wasn't ready but everyone besides Vince knew that. They ruined the Fiend character, made the main title seem worthless, and really just kept fumbling. I'm glad things are on a better track, Vince almost killed his own creation.
First of all Rest in power to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk
2017-2019 was the time I lost complete interest in WWE, I watched since 2008 I came back around when Roman turned heel it’s had its ups and downs but it’s definitely better now then it was in those times for sure
It's funny how i stopped watching it around that time only ... i dropped it around early 2017s and I am looking back at it all in hindsight.
I love retrospectives like this because it reminds us of how good we have it now vs how terrible things were during this 2017-2019 run. It also serves as a cautionary tale to TKO/Triple H about the consequences of becoming an out-of-touch promotion.
The last 5 years of Vince McMahon under creative control were awful. Not just the late 2010s, but 2020-early 2022 as well. The Triple H era, even at its worst, is more bearable.
i did not watch those years so thanks for summing it up
The way 2017-2019 is talked about, I'm really thankful sometimes that around that time School made it impossible for me to catch up with WWE. I'd only tap into it Wrestlemania szn then miss alot of PPVs where the most cringe things happen 😂😂
Wait till 2030 when we will have people saying "Back when wrestling was good" and referring to 2017-2019
That may be today's kids
RIP Brey Wyatt
As someone who was on the outside looking in during this time (just kept up with what was happening) I didn't realise just how bad this period was. Just absolutely no long term planning an absolute mess of a product.
I am a survivor of the 2017-2019 & 2020-mid 2022 era of WWE
I always thought the first half of 2017 was pretty great. WM33 was super entertaining, the Roman vs Strowman feud was nuts; the Sumner Slam Mainevent; SVR Series; etc.
2018 - 2020, i stopped paying attention for the most part until Roman came back with the Tribal Chief gimmick.
All-in-all, I agree with most of your point. Great video as usual man!
Thanks for reminding me why I stopped watching for the WWE... again 😅 2016 was SOOOO good when I got back into it then they did this shit 😤
Now I've found myself catching up to this Bloodline story. I'm praying once I catch up, they won't fuck it up 🤞🏾
The 2010's will always feel like a time where the WWE just left so much talent on the cutting room floor
2017 was pretty good all things considered, aside from a few parts and storylines.
RIP Bray Wyatt…
2017 was atleast watchable, once 2018/2019 hit it started getting so bad I regretted sitting through some of those RAWs in 2018-19