(Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images)

For years, the WWE (nee WWF), and WCW alike, had a pretty "cookie-cutter" system for booking and promoting their shows.  They would sit around in booking meetings, lay out the clear faces and heels, figure out how the hero would overcome the odds, and put it to tape. 

It was a predictable mentality, geared towards the youth that were the main clientele of the industry.  To that clientele, the excitement was there, the anticipation of hopefully seeing their hero defeat the powers of evil were there, and the pure enjoyment of the product was there.

Then they began to grow up.

When the clientele of the professional wrestling business began to mature in age, the "cookie-cutter" mentality didn't cut it anymore, the fans began to grow restless.  It was this, along with the emergence of ECW to a more mainstream stage, that caused the executives and writing staff to begin to rethink how they pulled off their shows.

It all culminated in the mid-'90s (between 1996-1998) when the face of sports entertainment changed.

At the 1996 edition of the WWE King of the Ring pay-per view, the face of the "Attitude Era," as it is known now, was born.  In the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament, Jake "The Snake" Roberts was defeated by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. 

Austin, who was supposed to be the clear heel, changed the minds of the entire wrestling world with one speech as Jake Roberts was exiting the walkway area:

"... You sit there and thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere!  Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16, Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!"

It was with those words, the world of professional wrestling was turned on its head.  From this point forward, until roughly early 2001 the WWE would be in the middle of the "era" it now calls the "Attitude Era."

Throughout this "era" of professional wrestling, the shows were edgy, the characters were edgy, and the product exploded.  The WWE produced characters like Austin, The Rock, D-Generation X, The Godfather, etc. 

They were able to have storylines involving the battles between anti-establishment mentality of "Stone Cold," against the corporate mentality of Vince McMahon, D-Generation X "invading" WCW in Norfolk, VA, and the most infamous, the "Screwjob in Montreal."

Unfortunately, when the WWE bought out their chief competitor, WCW, it effectively ended the era that made wrestling bigger than ever.

Since then, the business of professional wrestling has been pretty stagnant overall.  There has been a noticeable lack of creativity in storylines and development of new talent.  Obviously, there have been a few exceptions, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Jeff Hardy most notably.

It is this reason I write this column.

Over the past couple of years, I knew that Vince and the WWE were really trying to "get their feet under them."  But it has gotten to the point where it is resembling the old "cookie-cutter" style, but on a more predictable and more ridiculous level.

Last night is the best example I have.  The WWE had a special three-hour edition of Monday Night Raw

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