Eras

Well you should watch the documentary! You'll learn so much.

Vince did a promo in the ring the night after King of the Ring where he demanded that someone step up and grab the brass ring (what with Austin leaving and Rock going part-time) because they needed a new star.

SIDENOTE: The documentary makes it sound like Rock and Austin were both gone in 2002, but Rock was WWF CHAMPION at the time when Austin was gone!

Anyway, the "Ruthless Aggression" era is roughly defined as 2002 – 2008, at which point the sponsors freaked out and they had to cut all the raunchy bullshit. So then you have what WWE defines as the "PG Era", from 2008-2011. Then CM Punk dropping the pipebomb kicks off "The Reality Era", which runs until somewhere between 2014 and 2016 and then becomes what their marketing people define as "The Modern Era". I'm assuming the launch of the WWE Network is roughly the end point of the "Reality Era", but I'm not in marketing so I'm not 100% sure. But yes, they really do have people who think up this stuff for marketing purposes.