Golden Age made me feel sick WWEA party going out to have a mainstream charm. Vince McMahon’s vision of sports entertainment helped to expand its product as the dominant powerhouse in an industry that forks into a larger audience. Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage were the faces of the era when they created many new fans in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The company has learned many lessons since then, but there are things that can be applied today after looking at current products. Certain things work and remain relevant today for successful storytelling. Unfortunately, this is a negative lesson that others should avoid today. The next lesson in the Golden Age can help WWE products today.
Have ideas for the top stars of the future
WWE was too dependent on Hulk Hogan during its Golden Era
- WWE has booked everything around Hulk Hogan for a long time
- They didn’t have the next future star planned for the next era
- Bret Hart has become WWE’s next top star
Vince McMahon made Hulk Hogan the first face of WWE during the expansion of the Golden Era. For almost a decade, Hogan stayed in the top face position as Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior were behind him.
The end of the Golden Age led to the issue of McMahon having to push young talent on the spot after Hogan lost its sheen. This should always be kept in mind when WWE is trying to replace the current face of promotions or create new top stars to risk difficult periods, like the early days of the new generation.
Romance angles can make money
The storytelling experiment paid off
- Wrestling was apart from the romance of previous eras
- Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth proved that fans care about it
- Their reunion at WrestleMania 7 became the greatest WWE moment of all time
Wrestling promotions were off the romantic storyline as the average audience felt they wanted more sports-based entertainment from the industry. WWE won gamble by winning Randy Savage, and Miss Elizabeth Romance has become a big angle with great results.
Face Couple Law has earned more support from the audience to Savage because he loves his dynamics with Elizabeth. The farewell angle gave him more heat, but the final reunion was a huge reward for confirming success. WWE has learned to continue using romance when fans enjoy chemistry between partners.
Foreign heel characters get old faster
Cheap gimmicks have short shelf life
- Vince McMahon loved using patriotism to create foreign heels
- Hulk Hogan slams on the anti-American heel to add his gloss
- Eventually it became obsolete and over time it became obsolete
WWE began recycling foreign heel acts that humiliate the United States and gain heat from the audience. Iron Sheik may have been the best instance that worked effectively, winning the WWE Championship to drop the belt on Hulk Hogan.
Unfortunately, WWE continued to return to it with names like Nikolai Volkoff, Sgt. Massacre, Dino Bravo and some others following the same blueprint. In the future, I saw WWE return to it, but it was too old and barely responded. The current landscape makes this style of character worse when you try it again.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Creates Stars
The Golden Era helped to create the path of midcard
- The WWE InterContinental Championship became important in the golden age
- Titles used to boost new talent before the main event pushed
- In today’s scene, it should be used like that
The use of midcard titles is subjective based on what the company wants to achieve. Some names use it to move to the main event scene, while others peak there, telling interesting stories while retaining the secondary belt. The Golden Age established the best blueprint of the InterContinental Championship, the next top star.
Randy Savage, Bret Hart, and the Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels all managed to hold the title in that era and help them eventually become world champions.
Every weekly TV shows require a match against the stakes.
TV shows during the Golden Era sometimes felt pointless
- PPV made the TV show feel eventful
- WWE booked all expansion matches for TV
- The model had to be changed to make TV fans interested
Including PPV events has become a big deal for WWE as fans received money from big fans at these big hit events. Unfortunately, the TV product was damaged when the title was changed and the major matches of Big Four Pay-Per-view were saved.
Most years featured a TV product with a one-sided enhancement match that anyone who watched for several months could know the finish. WWE eventually began to change this model in the mid-1990s by having a title change and attraction match on television to keep audiences happy.
Heel Manager Group Can Prosper
Bobby Heenan changed the game
- Managers gained popularity before the golden age
- Bobby Heenan changed the game by creating a new style of management
- Don Karis and Paul Heyman use the same template today
WWE began using managers before the Golden Era, but when Vince McMahon took control from his father, the role was complete. Bobby Heenan followed as the next top manager of Lou Albano legend Freddie Brassy and Grand Wizard.
The Heenan family has featured new concepts for the various respected heel performers that Bobby represents, despite not always being on the same page. AEW has been successful with Don Charis who does this, and Paul Heyman’s new group may also fit this type.
Tag team matches should be rare in the main event PPV
It began to ruin the appeal of major events
- Tag Team Matches with Main Events Summerslam 1988 and 1989
- Playing singles matches in the main event will be a big deal
- The concept of the Survivor Series is about matching multi-person tag teams
The Big Four PPV model helped WWE tweak the routine of saving big matches for these events. However, WWE started to get too stingy little by little by having a tag team match for the main event that ends a particular SummerSlam show or other PPV in the main event role.
Fans wanted to see Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage defend all PPVs to the WWE Championship for price tags, but WWE has begun booking tags for the main event. The negative result ended with the fact that tag match rarely closed from the mid-1990s until today.
A longer title governance is needed
Too far from this hurt WWE
- Most WWE champions had long title reigns during the golden age
- An era that changes this with attitudes will hurt world title photos
- In recent years, it has proven that long world governance is important
The Golden Era features most WWE Championship reigns that lasted six months, and, depending on the name, approached the full year. Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Ultimate Warrior all had long reigns as faces of promotions to create legacy as champions.
The mid- to late 1990s featured this blueprint change as WWE frequently changed world titles. In 1999, an average of one WWE Championship change was made per month. WWE has worked hard for the past decade to have names like Rome Reign, Brockle Lesnar, Cody Rhodes and more.
