(WWE) The WWE Attitude Era wasn't good, you're just nostalgic for the 90s

Arguably the biggest Boom period of Pro Wrestling was WWE's Attitude Era, a marked shift in the tone of the product when the then WWF turned to a more TV-MA product. The time period, which began with a vignette on the 1997 Survivor Series PPV and ended in May of 2002 when the WWF changed their name to WWE, saw Vince McMackles house of Grapples become the biggest promotion on the planet, beating WCW Monday Nitro and becoming the last national promotion in the US for nearly 20 years.

...And it's honestly not that great. In terms of Television ratings it was a hit, but so was shock jock radio DJs and those suck in hindsight.

And to be honest it wasn't even good for the wrestling. The Attitude Era is infamous for short, sub 5 minute matches that divulge into bullshit endings that only serve to swerve (Insider baseball: A swerve is when a wrestling promoter books a decision specifically to divert what fans are expecting), poor treatment of the women's wrestlers (The Bra and Pantie's matches, Trish Stratus being told to strip and bark like a dog for Vince McMahon, anyone?), and the absolute terrible health decisions these wrestlers made. The Steroid Trial was only about 4 years prior and yet by this point (as admitted to by Linda McMahon) the WWE suspended their Wellness policy, meaning that Wrestlers were allowed to gas up on Anabolic Steroids. And the general lack of Concussion protocol meant that wrestlers from this era are likely still living with the effects of CTE.

So why do people pine for this era of wrestling to make some grand return? Because they want the 90s to come back, people don't care about the actual WRESTLING part of it, they want that specific cultural zeitgeist to return, where you could wear a Stone Cold T-Shirt in public, get acknowledged for wearing the shirt, and people would COMPLEMENT the shirt. They want to go back to when the only worries they had are the crush on a neighborhood kid, Pogs, and Dunkaroos. They don't want the ACTUAL writing style and wrestling from this era to come back, they want to be a kid again.