>>13342176It came to popularity too late. Essentially the people who bury it are people who are of the generation that think of Dusty and Funk and the Road Warriors as "ancient", forgetting that all of them at the time of this were younger than several of the WWE and AEW roster now. There used to be clear lines of generations in content but the internet age combined with increasing focus on nostalgia due to TV audiences getting older by average has blurred the lines.
So if you grew up in the Attitude Era, then Dusty was ancient despite his prime being arguably only 10 years earlier. Whereas if you grow up now then Rock/Austin is a huge star desp[ite the fact his prime was over 20 years ago.
Cornette talks about how WCW fans fell off the radar after the Invasion and about how part of the point of the card was to use classic WCW stars to be familiar and ease them into WWF programming which they had long resented. By the time Mania came around after the year or so of stories following their already favourite characters then they'd have other favourites who were in WWE or at least be more open to it. He explained that a lot of the older guys would be used transitionally and the year after the guys "on this side" i.e. the younger guys losing would be "on this side" i.e. the side where the older guys were winning.
The program also mixed in the attempts to combine kayfabe and reality, with the understanding that fans seeing more fights and less wrestling moves might start to bleed that kayfabe into the scripted fights. This actually is the opposite direction the business went but it wasn't a bad idea at the time.
People don't like this shoot mainly because Jim Cornette has said some things about wrestlers they like. It's really that simple. It's a perfectly cogent piece of booking for its time.
