Reviewing the past 3 PPVs, I was surprised to find that the WWE had really started to slip in quality near the end of 2000. In fact, it was the mistakes they were making then that would carry over to later periods where things only got worse. Now obviously, you can look at certain key events (WM 17, the ending of ECW, the buying of WCW, the Invasion, ect) as significant points where the good times appeared to be over. But what was the very peak of the Attitude Era where right afterward things started going downhill? Not so much where it became terrible, but just the point where although things were good, they just weren't
as good?
Looking back, I would say Fully Loaded was that point. All you need to do is look at the card to see how things changed afterward. The three biggest matches had a young star (Benoit, Angle and Jericho) facing established main eventers (Rock, Taker and Hunter). Even though they all lost, finally being able to wrestle major stars made it look like the company was about ready to change the focus of their top stars. The very next month at Summerslam though, things were different. Jericho was forced back in the midcard ranks against Chris Benoit (Exactly where he was months before), Taker was taking on Kane for the 100th time, and the World Title wasn't even the main issue in the main event between Angle, Hunter and Rocky.
As the year went on, they continued to forget about their young stars while always keeping their major stars (besides Rocky) in the spotlight. Even though they'd still have some good ppvs afterwards, the direction of the company continued to go down.
What's your pick for the time period or show that was the peak?
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