the booking is what makes it cool. last night we had a sing off and a dance contest. albert in womens underwear bro. thats not cool. the rock and stone cold were cool, along with everyone else in that era because of the booking. that and the characters, but really characters mean shyt without a good story to go along with it.
you'd be foolish to tell me if you took the talent on the roster and placed them in an engaging story that viewership wouldnt skyrocket. you dont have casual fans anymore. you only have wrestling fans. because the stories suck. soap operas have stupid fukking plots and women are glued to their sets because they're more engaging that the shyt on our tv every monday night.
steve martin once said "be so good they cant ignore you." and that was the case in the attitude era.
without a good story you could have every dream talent on the roster and it wouldnt matter, because casual fans dont care about suplexes and spinebusters.
:edit:
honestly we really just said the same fukking thing. but booking is what makes it the "in thing" again, not a lucky roll of the dice.