Let’s Say Nice Things About... The Ruthless Aggression Era

In an effort to bring some positivity to professional wrestling—and the world for that matter—Cageside Seats and its community will say nice things about people and things in wrestling every single day throughout 2017.

Remember, only positive comments allowed here. Negativity will not be tolerated, and that includes back-handed compliments and troll comments. Any comments that are not in the spirit of this feature will be flagged, deleted, and posters of said comments may be subjected to a ban.

Well, it is the one area we haven’t covered yet. So today, let’s cover the Ruthless Aggression era.

NOTE: For purpose of this discussion, we’ll go with the time period most often cited, from the initial brand extension in April 2002 to July 2008, when the WWE officially announced all of its programming would be TV-PG.

I’ll start. The Smackdown Six, easily some of the best wrestling on television in the 21st century involved the group (for the young or unaware: Edge, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio).

It also gave birth to many concepts we take for granted: the Draft, Money in the Bank, multiple world champions for a huge roster (yes, it does kinda have the “everybody gets a participation trophy” feel, but quite a few people wouldn’t have had Hall of Fame careers if not for the roster split).

It also birthed four of the most prolific performers in WWE history: Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Dave Bautista, all of whom will likely end up in the WWE Hall of Fame.

Your turn. Say something nice about the Ruthless Aggression era.

Got a suggestion for a future “Let’s Say Nice Things About...”? Hit me up on the Twitter gimmick @notoriouseddie. I may not always respond, but I promise I will read it.