Did Chris Benoit Ruin The Ruthless Agression Era?

Inspired by this article from Bleacher Report:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1656908-why-doesnt-the-wwes-ruthless-aggression-era-get-any-respect

Obviously we all know how loved the Attitude Era is. And deservedly so as IMO its the greatest ever. But the Ruthless Agression Era wasnt exactly rubbish. You had an absolute abundance of quality stars: John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Chris Jericho, JBL and the list goes on. They combined to put on some of the greatest matches in history. But there is rarely a mention of it on TV. There are no DVDs about it like there are about the Attitude Era. Why is this? I think its purely down to the fact that Chris Benoit was involved heavily in this. A lot of key and memorable moments involve him so producing a DVD would be hard without mentioning the murderer. As we know WWE (rightly so) dont ever want to bring him up. So do you think Benoit ruined the Ruthless Agression Era or am I being an idiot?

I hated the Ruthless Aggression era tbh and it really put me off WWE for a while. Of that list of stars there's probably 3 or 4 guys Id care about watching.

Nobody was more ruthless than Benoit...he probably legitimised it

No I don't think he's the reason they don't make a bigger deal of it. I think it's generally just looked upon as not being a very good era for WWE. It came after their hottest run of business ever, the Monday night war was over and wrestling was off the mainstream radar. Plus there just weren't any huge stars having hot runs on top. There was a lot of talent, definitely, and they put on quite a few good matches, but it didn't feel like an exciting time in WWE. Lots had changed, and hardly any of it for the better.

If we define the period as 2002-2008 approximately, I don't think any of those were vintage years, and there were very few feuds or storylines from that period that would be near an all time great list. Business was down from the preceding years, and the top stars paled in comparison to the peak of Steve Austin and The Rock. It wasn't an awful period (I'd say 2009-2011 was a lot worse) but it just didn't capture the imagination.

agree with crippledtart, would not class it as an era. 2 era's in my book, the attitude and PG everything after attitude blows...

and nostalgia can only get you so far before it becomes stale.

How can the era up to 2007/8 be classed as PG? The stories were still as extreme and blood was still a common sight in matches. Flair v Edge TLC on Raw was a bloodfest, Lita and Edge having sex in the ring!

Think Edge and Lita was 2006...rated RKO vs DX in early 2007 was a blood bath, did Cena and Umaga not have some major blood too? Vince understandably started ro close ranks on a lot of stuff after Benoit but the PG rating didn't come into play until mid 98 and even then I'm sure Shawn bleed in battles with Jericho

It was the RA era that I grew up with. Royal Rumble 2000 was my first wrestling experience and I was 10 at the time, so was watching during my teens. I loved it. Sure it had its fair share of stupidity but generally the shows we're of a high calibre. I still remember John Cena debuting as the rapper and Deacon Batista. I remember Angle getting his head shaved and Lesnar arriving and destroying everything.

It was also the time of the brand split, which I always argue, produced some really high quality viewing. You had two completley separate brands, almost to the point it felt like two rival factions. I know people who would argue RAW was the best and people who would say vice versa. With 2 shows each getting a PPV every alternate month, it forced the writers to come up with enough entertaining content to hold your attentions for 6-7 weeks. Having two brands meant every title meant something. Look at today where the mid card titles are a joke and we clamour for 1 World title again, can you even begin to imagine having two tag divisions these days?

Did Benoit ruin it? Its hard to say, although because he was apart of so many high profile moments it tends to get over looked, and I dont think it gets the respect it deserves. I would say that 90% of PPV main events hold up well.

HOWEVER. The whole while I was watching I didnt even give online discussion a second thought, and I was completely into it from a Kayfabe point of view. That might give me the rose tinted glasses.

The RA "era" as it were turned me off wrestling. Just lacked the fun or the superstar of the days before. Coming into an age where wrestling wasn't cool it did nothing to keep me on its side.

I look back at the period between the invasion storyline and the rise of Cena as a particularly bad time. So many mistakes were made. It felt desperate and directionless; the only consistency was in the incessant lauding of Triple H as the biggest wrestling star in the history of the universe.

There was some really good wrestling during this period, but it just felt meaningless, and the product felt so flat.