WWE's roster by the Summer of 2007 was pretty WOAT

[Metal Face]

Benoit had just committed dat also...
Edge was Hurt
Taker was Hurt
HBK was Hurt
Matt was Hurt
RVD left the company
Lashley left the company
No HHH till SSlam 07
No Mysterio till SSlam 07
No Jericho till the end of the year
Khali was the World Champion
You only had maybe Cena, Batista, Orton as legit top guys

How did the brand split even continue at this point?
That drop off from roster quality from to 2003 to 2007 is crazy. Lesnar, Kurt, Eddie, Goldberg etc etc all gone too throughout the years.

 

[Tanahashi Coates]

The 1994-95 roster would like an word with you about this

 

[Riley Escobar]

The 1995 Royal Rumble shows how trash the roster was at that point

1 Shawn Michaels
2 The British Bulldog
3 Eli Blu
4 Duke Droese
5 Jimmy Del Ray
6 Sione
7 Tom Prichard
8 Doink the Clown
9 Kwang
10 Rick Martel
11 Owen Hart
12 Timothy Well
13 Bushwhacker Luke
14 Jacob Blu
15 King Kong Bundy
16 Mo
17 Mabel
18 Bushwhacker Butch
19 Lex Luger
20 Mantaur
21 Aldo Montoya
22 Henry O. Godwinn
23 Billy Gunn
24 Bart Gunn
25 Bob Backlund
26 Steven Dunn
27 dikk Murdoch
28 Adam Bomb
29 Fatu
30 Crush

 

[Tanahashi Coates]

The 1995 Royal Rumble shows how trash the roster was at that point

That Jacob and Eli Blu theme hit though

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I definitely thought it rivaled the 95 roster so I’m glad other ppl noticed as well

 

[RammerJammer]

It got so bad that semi-retired Mick Foley competed for the WWE Title that summer​

 

[norfwestdc]

2007 was a terrible year for WWE shyt was trash

 

[SpacelySprockets]

goat year

 

[R=G]

Push Shelton as the best..simple. Go all in with Lashley instead of coming up short with Cena. Just stupid shyt. They had resources..just lazy. Edge, Blandy, Cripple H..that always sucked. Shawn Michaels is a gay looking chump..of course he ain't gonna bring money in. Common sense.

 

[Him]

I remember being mad as hell as a youngin when Lashley left

 

[JerseyBoy23]

You didn't even mention the steroid bust right after SummerSlam where like a dozen wrestlers were suspended.

2007 was really the start of wrestling becoming more niche. While in reality ratings had been dropping since the move to TNN in 2000, the Benoit tragedy, steroid bust, and move to PG in 2008 really did a hit job on wrestling.

 

[THEREALBRAND]

Push Shelton as the best..simple. Go all in with Lashley instead of coming up short with Cena. Just stupid shyt. They had resources..just lazy. Edge, Blandy, Cripple H..that always sucked. Shawn Michaels is a gay looking chump..of course he ain't gonna bring money in. Common sense.

 

[Chris Cool]

You didn't even mention the steroid bust right after SummerSlam where like a dozen wrestlers were suspended.

2007 was really the start of wrestling becoming more niche. While in reality ratings had been dropping since the move to TNN in 2000, the Benoit tragedy, steroid bust, and move to PG in 2008 really did a hit job on wrestling.

That already happened in 02.

 

[Piff Huxtable]

The 1995 Royal Rumble shows how trash the roster was at that point

1 Shawn Michaels
2 The British Bulldog
3 Eli Blu
4 Duke Droese
5 Jimmy Del Ray
6 Sione
7 Tom Prichard
8 Doink the Clown
9 Kwang
10 Rick Martel
11 Owen Hart
12 Timothy Well
13 Bushwhacker Luke
14 Jacob Blu
15 King Kong Bundy
16 Mo
17 Mabel
18 Bushwhacker Butch
19 Lex Luger
20 Mantaur
21 Aldo Montoya
22 Henry O. Godwinn
23 Billy Gunn
24 Bart Gunn
25 Bob Backlund
26 Steven Dunn
27 dikk Murdoch
28 Adam Bomb
29 Fatu
30 Crush

I lost so much money betting on Gigolo Jimmy Del Ray to win the Rumble that year

 

[JerseyBoy23]

That already happened in 02.

I guess. There was still some mainstream type of notoriety back then and celebs in the crowd.