YMMV / Ruthless Aggression Era

• Audience-Alienating Era: The year 2004 was not a good year, and is seen as the lower point of the era. Notably the draft was introduced this year, and inexplicably broke up several good tag teams to seriously hurt the division. The Diva Search was introduced, Brock Lesnar abruptly left the company, the Cruiserweight division was downplayed and there was a general slump in quality of wrestling.
• Broken Base: 2003 introduced the concept of brand exclusive PPV events. Some fans loved the idea, feeling it gave opportunities for more talent to make it to the shows and it also gave the Big 4 events more importance (making them the only dual-branded shows). Others felt that it allowed for too much Filler and general low quality of booking. It didn't help that these returned in the 2016 Brand Extension, re-igniting the Broken Base. However, as of 2018, WWE seem to have gone back to multibrand PPVs.
• Creator's Pet: The first half of the decade is where Triple H infamously hogged the spotlight on RAW. He gets free title shot everytime he loses his championships and in fact got five of his fourteen World Title reigns in this period, which was given the Fan Nickname "Reign of Terror".
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Brock Lesnar. Debuted in 2002 and stayed with the company just two years. Yet was one of the most recognisable faces of the era, and was still remembered even before his surprise return in The New '10s.
  • The beginning of the era is where John Cena rose in popularity thanks to his charismatic "Dr. Of Thuganomics" gimmick and at the time hard-hitting wrestling style.
  • Trish Stratus actually wasn't a star when this era started. She'd had a couple of notable moments and showed signs of improvement in the ring - but nothing to distinguish her from the rest of the model-turned-wrestlers. Then she had some intense feuds with Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria and eventually Lita - culminating in a match in the main event of Raw.
  • Randy Orton became one of this era too. When Evolution formed, he was considered the odd one out of the group - Triple H was the established star, Ric Flair was the veteran, and Batista was The Big Guy with lots of potential. Then the Legend Killer gimmick caught on and he became the youngest ever World Heavyweight Champion at the age of 24.
  • Molly Holly is one of the most fondly remembered women of the era, due to being a great all-round worker and known for being incredibly nice in real life.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Attitude Era vs Ruthless Aggression Era - which was better? Fans of the Attitude Era tend to dislike the Ruthless Aggression Era for being somewhat Lighter and Softer, and not being as fun. Others have suffered Hype Backlash to the Attitude Era, finding that the Ruthless Aggression Era had better quality wrestling as opposed to booking and gimmicks. Of course there are plenty of fans that love both too.
  • Trish Stratus vs. Lita can always ignite World War III on message boards. With Trish Stratus being viewed as WWE's golden girl and getting more title reigns - and a beautiful send-off - it's led to people championing Lita as the underrated one. The flipside has fans highlighting Lita's flaws in comparison to Trish. The rivalry ignores that the two women are best friends in real life, and are beloved by many for what they did for women's wrestling.
• Franchise Original Sin: Diva Dirt noted that when reviewing some matches from the Ruthless Aggression Era, there were still some problems that the Divas would face in later years - namely talented women being misused (Jacqueline randomly appearing as a referee in several matches for instance) and there were still Bra and Panties matches happening.
• Girl-Show Ghetto: Broke out of it, for a time. The women's division was treated seriously, matches were given time and feuds were given importance. Diva fans tend to refer to this as 'The Golden Era' - and indeed this was when Trish Stratus and Lita had a match in the main event of Raw. While there had been main events featuring the women before, this marked the first time that it was solely just the women - outside of a mixed tag match or Lita's previous main event, which had The Rock as a referee. Notably in 2003, SLAM Wrestling were slating most of the PPVs - but taking time to praise the women's matches.
• Never Live It Down: The infamous Katie Vick storyline happened during this era, and is usually held up as one of its low points.
• Once Original, Now Common: The women's matches might pale in comparison to the likes of SHIMMER or bouts that the Four Horsewomen had on NXT. But after years of WWE dumbing down the division to little more than Fanservice, it was the first time a mainstream audience had seen women's wrestling treated legitimately since the mid-90s. These were the matches that proved casual fans did want to see women wrestle. Molly Holly even lampshaded this when comparing herself to the more recent women.
  "I just went out there and wrestled for three minutes. You should see what the girls can do today."
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The infamous Chris Benoit Murder-Suicide case is the biggest scandal to have come out of this era, and quite possibly in all of wrestling history.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Again, Triple H's "Reign of Terror". No matter what happens, Trips always gets his way in the end. Even in times he loses, he found ways to get the upper hand back.
• Tough Act to Follow: The Attitude Era was what brought wrestling back to mainstream, and was something new at the time. Ruthless Aggression gradually saw that mainstream press drying up.
• Vindicated by History: At the time, the Ruthless Aggression Era was seen as a step down for simply not being the Attitude Era. With the rise to prominence of several stars who got their start in this era, nostalgia for the great women's division and general appreciation of good quality wrestling - without the twists and gimmicks of the Attitude Era - it is more fondly remembered nowadays.

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