When everyone talks about “bringing the Slam Dunk Contest” back, they are talking about making the dunk contest like it was in its hey days in the late 1980s.
That is when stars roamed the contest, completed their dunks on the first attempt and were innovative. Those classic battles get replayed over and over again. They are what future contests get compared to.
The 1988 Dunk Contest between Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan is the gold standard of dunk contests. It was a battle with each player one-upping the other until they had to end it.