The New Era (WWE)

After the Reality Era ended, the 2016 WWE Payback pay-per-view was dubbed "start of a new era in the WWE. It was headlined by Roman Reigns and AJ Styles."[1] During that time, top stars John Cena and Daniel Bryan remained inactive, Cena had transitioned into an acting career and was making fewer appearances on WWE TV programming as a result, while Bryan was injured and out of in-ring action for 3 years serving in non wrestling roles before his return in-ring return in 2018. At the same time, the WWE was grooming Roman Reigns as Cena and Bryan's successor to mostly negative reactions. Roman Reigns emerged in victories in "passing of the torch matches" against Daniel Bryan, Triple H and John Cena at Fastlane (2015), WrestleMania 32 and No Mercy (2017) respectively to become the "face of the men's division" in the New Era. Since Roman reign's return from leukemia in 2019, crowd response to him has been more positive.[2] Seth Rollins,[3] Drew McIntyre,[4] Braun Strowman[5] and Bray Wyatt[6][7] with his new monster gimmick "The Fiend" also became top stars during this period.[8] Wyatt's Firefly Funhouse segments became popular, continuing to be so after his alliance with Alexa Bliss. In 2020 Roman Reigns turned heel, whilst remaining a top star and would ally with his former rival Brock Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman.[9]

Charlotte Flair made history in 2016 by being the first woman to main event a WWE pay per view (along with Sasha Banks) at WWE Hell in a Cell (2016) in the first women's Hell in a Cell match, and has been the symbolic female superstar of the "New" era. Charlotte along with Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch main evented WWE's flagship event WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Charlotte is a record 12 times Women's World Champion.

As a continuation of the Diva's Revolution that began in 2015, the Women's Evolution picked up further momentum in the New Era, with women have regularly competed in stipulation matches that were previously reserved for men, including the Royal Rumble match, Elimination Chamber, the Money in the Bank ladder match, Hell in a Cell, WarGames, and TLC match.[10] On the Raw-branded Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event in 2016, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks made history being in the first women to main event a WWE pay-per-view event. This match was also the first women's Hell in a Cell match.[11] In 2018 WWE recognized the women's titles as world championships equivalent to the men's world titles.[12] Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch in particular received much success during this period, with them being interchangeably considered the "face of the women's division" in the New era.[13] Flair, Lynch and Ronda Rousey headlined WWE's flagship event WrestleMania 35[14] in a triple threat match which Lynch won on April 7, 2019, making them the first women in WWE history to main event a WrestleMania.[15]

The influx of recently acquired NXT talents had resulted in a bloated roster, therefore resulting in the need for another brand split similar to 2002 to 2011 when the first brand split was in place. The new brand split became effective from July 19, 2016.[16]

At WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston became the first African born WWE Champion.[17][18]

NXT was moved from the WWE Network to USA Network on Wednesday nights and expanded to a two-hour format to complete against the new wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling and its show Dynamite on TNT, starting the Wednesday Night Wars.[19][20]

Former multi time world champion Edge made his in-ring return from a nine-year hiatus at the 2020 Royal Rumble.[21]

The Undertaker retired on June 21, 2020 after 30 years with the WWE, having wrestled his final match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36 in a Boneyard match.[22]

For most of 2020 WWE was affected by the Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports. WWE was barred from having live attendance, although WWE has used some of their own crew as part of a limited crowd in a protective environment, as with the highly advertised highly advertised NXT TakeOver: In Your House, which was also the 25th anniversary of the first In Your House events, and the first under the In Your House banner since 1999, the main event being a well-received women's triple threat match in which Io Shirai defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women's Championship. Subsequent events in 2020 have also used WWE's own crew as their limited crowd throughout the pandemic.[23][24]

• Official WWE website