I'd say the AE era got me into the product when I was younger but since then have watched plenty of archive footage and I have deep admiration for the territory era when the Nature Boy Ric Flair put the industry on the map and had countless classics wit and the likes of Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Harley Race and Sting; NWA's Jim Crocket promotions made tweaks to the studio style of wrestling which was pioneered by Cow Boy Bill Watt's, in many ways it gave inspiration to shows such as RAW and Smackdown we have today given the episodic format which utilised strong observance of kayfabe (protecting your character, storyline and the business), an emphasis on developing your persona through concise/emphatic promos and a simplified approach to booking which was designed to get wrestlers over by having the heels build heat; today you see too many 50/50 matches now it may make sense if it's the blow off but nobody gets over in those type of scenarios. I also admire how seriously they took their art, there was no prancing around; hey even back then their were whispers surrounding the nature of how things actually worked but the promoter and his talents would always take special measures by staying in character at all times, the heels and faces would not be seen in public and would also be kept in separate locker rooms during feuds, heck at one point in Mid-South a newspaper speculated how Jake Roberts would be working his final match for the territory and its custom to do the 'job' on the way out, Bill made sure he went over that night lol Additionally, if you got into a real fight; you'd need to make sure you won because you weren't going to find yourself in employment when it came your career as a wrestler. But all in all, the emphatic promos and raw passion combined with excellent in-ring performances which we saw on PPV where it made sense for performers to go all out and put those behinds on seats was the spark which helped take the businesses popularity to another level in NA and beyond.
Vince did a tremendous job to create a monopoly by defeating majority of the territories and while Ric Flair was a big coup for him the legends heart was always with WCW who he left due to creative differences; at that point he was still a major draw and for him to go over in the 1992 Royal Rumble with the WWF peaking at the height of the golden era of wrestling, it finally did the greatest ever justice and was the culmination of a legendary pro wrestling career which was never to be equalled, with a tear in Ric's eye as he said; it was the greatest moment of his life and for many of the true fans of the industry it genuinely was, one of the good guys finally went over when we always new he was vastly superior to the likes of Hulk Hogan.
The golden era itself which was spearheaded by the WWF did have its wacky moments and was a little goofy but it did showcase some excellent characters which included Hogan, Savage, Steamboat, Piper, Bret and the Ultimate Warrior; from time to time they did have some excellent feuds which led to great pay offs in the ring; Andre/Hogan gave a memorable moment, Savage/Flair were ahead of their time in terms of the 50/50 style they showcased but also displaying their excellent technical pedigree, Warrior/Hogan was rare in how you had two very popular faces lock horns and they delivered in the ring as well and one of my favourites, the Savage/Warrior retirement match after an excellent in-ring encounter led to one of the greatest moments in the history of wrestling and closed a 6 year on/off screen storyline arc involving Savage and Miss Elizabeth,
The steroid scandal and involvement of Ted Turner in the wrestling business would change everything, WWF would see new lows in terms of their popularity and revenues but turned away from the bigger dudes by giving the likes of HBK and Bret the Torch to carry the main-event picture, and they were both popular in their own right because they kept the ship afloat despite WCW being the more edgy product which was in tune with popular culture, people didn't want to the gobbledy gooker or the canadian mountie, they wanted to see dark and gritty characters who blurred the lines between good and bad, this is why Undertaker would soon turn into a face and people had still been cheering Austin before his full blown face turn in arguably one of the greatest matches in history at WM 13 with Bret. The new generation would still put good in the table and what ultimately saved the company was their extreme levels of professionalism while WCW just self-destructed, they had the NWO book their shows, ruined Goldberg and even the aura of Sting / Ric Flair; it all went down hill after Starcade 1997 and from a business POV they didn't seem to understand that you make fans pay to see Hogan / Goldberg but Russo had other ideas when it came to his philosophy, now Vince did use some of his ideas during the 90s but he filtered most of them, you give that man all creative freedom and you're going to suffer. Austin blew up and the rest was history, when I look back the monday night wars was the peak in wrestlings popularity but at the same time while it created great characters it relived heavily on car crash TV and memorable moments. I personally feel the RA era had the best combination of in-ring work and cohesive story telling as far as the WWF/E was concerned.
They did botch the invasion angle but during that time I'd say the AE era had not ended and WWF found themselves in a tricky spot where they had acquired WCW but not the guaranteed contracts of the likes of NWO and Goldberg, post WM 17 we were in purgatory but the return of HBK and emergence of Brock Lesnar helped carve out long term booking plans and build on the brand split idea with so much talent in the company The RA era was led at the of the card by HBK and The Undertaker while we saw the company take a chance with emerging talent such as Batista, Edge, Cena, Orton and Lesnar who for the most part repaid the faith/investment, with Heyman on SD the promotion thrived creatively and financially with some truly thrilling performances from Eddie, Angle, Mysterio, Cena and the Undertaker while RAW was led by HBK, Evolution and supported by Booker T, RVD and Kane.
When Cena was drafted to RAW the company was not testing waters with the PG ethos at the time, they were still TV-14 people forget that; he had outlived his gimmick as the Rapper and lets be honest it's an upper-mid card level persona, he had a tremendous ability on the mic even though he was green as a wrestler and that truly resonated with the younger audience, so Vince protected him heavily but in between the likes of Edge did get to shine although RVD just couldn't help himself even after the company gave him his shot despite it being perhaps 4 years too late. I'd say it wasn't fun at the top of the card to see John go over all the time, but the feuds and in-ring action was still compelling and on the SD world Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Batista and the Undertaker had excellent encounters when it came to the WHC picture.
What COMPLETELY transformed the business of pro wrestling was CHRIS BENOIT and not John Cena, Benoit turned the industry on his entire head, after his heinous acts and the bad press wrestling recieved given how his mental injuries and steroid abuse were emphasised the WWE were forced to go PG, blood was banned, chair shots to the head were not allowed and the company introduced a wellness policy; while creatively this period may not have been enthralling as it hinders what stars were able to do in terms of their promos as these were then scripted heavily and also in the ring; it protected the wrestlers from themselves and improved their working rights, these guys are on the road 365 days a year and there's no off season for them, we only see the live shows but beyond that there are non televised events, the schedule combined with the brutal travel just takes its toll. And who is better then Cena to be that guy to carry them through this phase ? and as far as his critics were concerns he would inevitably silence those who would chant that he couldn't wrestle, he wasn't gifted athletically but his work ethic and drive to improve resulted in a significant improvement from the in-ring performances to the point where fans began to clamour for a heel turn. But the PG era still gave us the memorable summer of Punk and arguably the greatest match in history between Taker and HBK and WM 25.
The PG era would take a turn as the WWE would change the tone from a lighter one to slightly more edgier product which is primarily built on in-ring work and athleticism, the return of Lesnar boosted their legitimacy to in a massive way as we saw him return to an old-school style of working in the ring after he dethroned Taker and only Lesnar truly would be able to have such success as a special attraction in the company. There may not be as much emphasis on ring psychology now and this isn't more evident if you watch anything from Japan where wrestlers just trade moves and go 50/50 against the same opponents over and over again, but then they get it right in NA no one does it better then Vince; stars such as AJ Styles, Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt are no mugs but remember they also work in a very constrained and heavily scripted set-up. But more me I still follow it as outside all the things I may not necessarily be in favour of if there's one good segment or a specific match I enjoy it's worth it, The Fiend Bray Wyatt would do well in any era on the mic, AJ Styles pound for pound is an outstanding in-ring talent, people complain about the lot being too small / a bunch of cruserweights but look no further then Roman Reigns who sells extremely well and is a tremendous brawler and then there's NXT who utilise a more independent style of working if that floats your boat but also used as WWE's very own development territory. With anything you reserve judgement if spend a significant time watching the product and while I think I may never see another HBK in his prime or a persona like Taker, the likes of AJ Styles, Reigns, Bryan and Wyatt can still suspend that disbelief of old but here's hoping creatively WWE show the vision to relax some of their restrictions and focus more on giving talent chances as they did when the competition came knocking.
It was also an era of anti heros rather than regular boring good guys beating down demons. 
