WWE has been running an ongoing documentary series on their ‘Ruthless Aggression’ era, which officially ran from 2002 to 2008. On the heels of WWE purchasing the now defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Time Warner, the company had to rebrand itself following the much maligned ‘Invasion of WCW’ angle which ran through most of 2001.
Another issue was, without a main competitor, WWE had to develop future stars on their own. The ‘Ruthless Aggression’ phrase was brought in by Vince McMahon and the documentary series focused on specific stars that grew from that era, notably John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista (when they were part of Evolution) and Brock Lesnar.
Interviews were conducted with those aforementioned superstars, as well as backstage WWE personnel such as Bruce Pritchard, former head writer Brian Gerwitz, as well as current roster members who were outside observers during that period.
Here are some interesting things that you may not have known about the Ruthless Aggression Era, as well as my own criticisms of some of the things the documentary glazed over or neglected to mention.
WWE spin on how ‘Get the F Out’ came about
For those of you who may not remember, the company used to be called the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) back in the day, and in my opinion being called a federation made it sound more prestigious than ‘WWE’ but I digress. What is noticeable in the documentary is how they explained the ‘Get the F Out’ campaign that came around in 2002.
During that year, the then World Wrestling Federation lost a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Fund, with whom they share the same acronym. The conservation group registered ‘WWF’ back in 1961 and by winning that case, it forbade WWE from using the same acronym in marketing, promotion and everything else that fans had come to know as the brand throughout the years.
However, in the documentary that minor detail was completely omitted. Instead, the move to ‘Get the F Out’ was described as part of a marketing genius move by Vince McMahon in the beginnings of the ‘Ruthless Aggression’ era. If that cannot be considered as a massive load of spin, I don’t know what is.
John Cena admits his failures
Cena is one of the most recognizable names in WWE history, and is already becoming a name recognizable outside wrestling with his recent work in Hollywood. He was a ‘blue chip’ prospect being developed in Ohio Valley Wrestling in the early 2000s when he got the call to go to Smackdown. His debut on Smackdown facing off with Kurt Angle solidified as one of Cena’s career defining moments.
But shockingly, Cena himself admitted that when it came to exemplifying Vince’s vision of “Ruthless Aggression”, he failed in doing so. After his explosive start and getting praise from all people, the Undertaker, Cena carried on his early run in 2002 but by all accounts became a ‘generic’ worker, with little to distinguish himself apart from the other generic workers in the ring. It reminds me of what the Rock described in his autobiography about becoming a cookie cutter ‘babyface’ with little to no personality of his own.
Cena even admitted that he was fearful of getting fired by the end of 2002, before coming up with the rap gimmick as “Doctor of Thuganomics” which finally gave him that distinct personality. To hear that one of the longest tenured wrestlers in WWE, who basically carried the company during the first decade of the 21st century, was admitting his own failure early on in his career was rather shocking.
Batista was almost replaced
Another episode featured the tenure of Evolution, the stable that comprised of ring veterans Ric Flair and Triple H, as well as then upcoming stars Randy Orton and Batista. On paper alone, you can see the recipe for success in the wrestling business when you put that kind of combination together. But as the documentary revealed, there were several issues with Evolution that many fans don’t know or remember today.
For one thing, Evolution almost dissolved when Orton and Batista got injured during a tag team match with the Dudleys. They had all four participants recall what happened during the match: Orton ended up breaking his ankle and Batista tore a tricep. Although Orton came back within a short time, Batista’s recovery took a bit longer because he tried training while the tricep was still healing and ended up reinjuring himself.
This led to the wild situation of having Mark Jindrak replacing Batista; WWE even shot vignettes of Evolution with Jindrak alongside Triple H, Flair and Orton, but they also did vignettes of just those three men minus Jindrak, and Jindrak was interviewed on how he felt about the whole situation. Batista eventually recovered in time to rejoin Evolution, but suffice it to say 2003 was a challenging year for the relatively new stable.
Ric Flair learned to be ‘The Nature Boy’ again through Evolution
When you think of the two time Hall of Famer, there is no way you cannot perceive Flair constantly brimming with confidence; he is one of the greatest of all time.
But during the early 2000s, after WCW was bought out by WWE and Flair returned to the company he once starred in earlier in his career, he was not the same Ric Flair. The account is that he would go in front of the crowd and play the role of Ric Flair, but mentally up in the head he was ‘not Ric Flair’.
To hear that is heartbreaking, considering that Flair is one of the most recognizable figures in the wrestling world and the thought of him not being able to be ‘Ric Flair’ was shocking, especially to Triple H, who took it upon himself to ‘rehabilitate’ the Nature Boy to his former self. It took forming Evolution, which many say was a successor to the Four Horsemen, to do so.
Brock Lesnar hated WWE schedule
This isn’t surprising, considering Lesnar’s current part time status in the WWE. But during the Ruthless Aggression era it would be as the Beast essentially had a rocket strapped to his back and was going over and higher than anyone in his position would be.
Even showing the video of the talent backstage and traveling between locations, you could see the look on Brock’s face that he didn’t really want to be there. In 2014, Chris Jericho had Paul Heyman on his podcast and they were discussing how Lesnar moved to Saskatchewan, Canada to a farm in a very isolated area with his family so he wouldn’t have to be near people.
Considering the way things are now with Lesnar’s arrangement, that shouldn’t be a surprise.
This wraps up the first season of the Ruthless Aggression documentary. Yes, you heard right, the first season. The second season promises to dive into segments such as Tough Enough and the Diva Search.
Stay safe out there, everyone.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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