Something is disappearing from WWE, not wrestling ability. If anything, today’s performers are technically better than ever. It is aura!
Brock Lesnar’s retirement after 24 years feels symbolic. The Undertaker has long since gone. John Cena finished his in-ring career in 2025. Roman Reigns now admits he probably has only another two or three years performing at his present level. Randy Orton feels increasingly like part of wrestling’s disappearing old guard, although the 46-year-old himself insists retirement is not imminent. These were wrestlers who looked as though they had escaped from somewhere wrestling could only create and that raises an uncomfortable question. Can WWE manufacture that feeling again?
The Attitude Era cannot literally return; society has changed for good. WWE is now part of TKO, operates across enormous corporate partnerships and describes its television product as family-friendly. Netflix has also transformed Raw into genuinely global weekly programming. The blood, chair shots, sexualised storylines and deliberate offensiveness of 1998 would be impossible in this era, and much of it should stay there, but WWE is making a mistake if it believes modernisation means abandoning what once made wrestling extraordinary.
The answer isn’t finding another roster of 6ft 6in, 300 pound men either. The Attitude Era itself was never simply about size, It was about characters you recognised instantly. Steve Austin walked differently. The Rock spoke differently. Undertaker felt supernatural before he even reached the ring.
Today’s WWE has phenomenal athletes; the likes of Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Penta, Bron Breakker and countless others can produce extraordinary matches; wrestling cannot survive on work rate alone. There is hope. Oba Femi possesses the physical presence WWE has lacked. Gunther feels dangerous without pretending to be a cartoon monster. Jacob Fatu has unpredictability. Bron Breakker moves like somebody twice his size should not be able to move, The next era therefore, shouldn’t copy the Attitude Era.
It should copy its philosophy. Give wrestlers identifiable personalities, let rivalries breathe, make championships matter. Stop making everyone sound polished. Allow somebody to look, speak, behave completely differently from everyone else.
Because WWE doesn’t need another Undertaker. It needs the next wrestler who makes a child look at the television and think, what the hell is that? That is wrestling. Somewhere along the journey towards becoming a global entertainment corporation, WWE occasionally forgot what made it special.