The Attitude Era
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The Attitude Era was a period in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and professional wrestling history that began as a direct result of the Monday Night Wars and culminated with the conclusion of the Wars in 2001. Similar to the 1980s professional wrestling boom, the Attitude Era was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States from the late 1990s to early 2000s, as television ratings and pay-per-view buy-rates hit record highs. The Attitude Era was defined by a radical shift in programming content. In contrast to the more traditional, family-friendly content that was common in WWF programming, the Attitude Era sought to attract the young adult demographic by transforming the product into an edgier and more controversial form of entertainment. Heroic characters were replaced with disaffected anti-heroes and family friendly storylines were replaced with controversial stories based on shock value, similar to the "Trash TV" genre popularized in the 1990s.
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[edit] Origin
The official date of the Attitude Era was between March 29, 1998 when Stone Cold Steve Austin became the WWF Champion defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV to April 1, 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven, days after World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was bought out by the WWF. However, the Attitude Era's origin is attributed to events that took place in the mid 1990s. One of these notable dates was the 1996 King of the Ring when Stone Cold uttered the famous catchphase of "Austin 3:16" and began the WWF's transition to an edgier product. Leading up to the event, Jake Roberts was as a fan favorite and considered the probable winner of the event as his character had successfully defeated alcoholism and drug addiction and was now trying to live life as a constructive member of society. Roberts was defeated by Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose character was that of a heel redneck. With an upset victory over Roberts, Austin mocked his opponent for constantly referencing John 3:16, culminating in the phrase, "Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!" Austin's defiance of authority and social mores proved to be popular amongst the fans, and "Austin 3:16" became a marketing juggernaut for the WWF.
The dominance of anti-heroes and villains was further cemented by the Montreal Screwjob. Vince McMahon used fans' knowledge of the real-life politics behind the incident to create the "Mr. McMahon" character, a corrupt businessman fixated on destroying the lives of disobedient employees. The resultant feud between Austin, portrayed as a working class everyman, and Mr. McMahon became the central storyline of the Attitude Era, propelled by Austin's profanity-laded tirades against McMahon and McMahon's increasingly violent and corrupt retaliations against Austin. Against this backdrop, other adult-oriented stories and characters were introduced, including D-Generation X, a crew of lewd frat boys prone to innuendo, and The Godfather, a pimp who came to the ring accompanied by a variety of prostitutes.
The Attitude Era proved to be a huge marketing success for the WWF, drawing in a previously unaccounted for young adult demographic that allowed them to successfully cripple competitor WCW by defeating them in the ratings wars. Within two years, WCW had become so unsuccessful that it lost its primetime television deal. During this same period, the WWF had become so financially powerful, that McMahon was able to buy the company from AOL Time Warner at a dramatically reduced valuation. The Attitude Era effectively ended on the March 26, 2001 edition of WWF's flagship program, Raw is War, during which McMahon announced in-and-out of character that he had purchased WCW. On the same night, WCW aired its final independent program, WCW Monday Nitro. From that point, the sexualized and controversial stories that had defined the Attitude Era were deemphasized in favor of a complex "corporate intrigue" story during which the real-life politics behind the acquisition of the WCW played out onscreen, and wrestlers competed in drafts to determine the fate of their careers.
[edit] Initiation
In the midst of the Monday Night Wars, a ratings battle between the WWF's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro, which WCW was winning, the WWF would transform itself from a family-friendly product into a more adult orientated product. This era was spearheaded by Vince McMahon along with head writer Vince Russo, who drastically changed the way professional wrestling television was written. Russo's booking style was often referred to as Crash TV — short matches, backstage vignettes, and shocking television. Vince McMahon would also use the real-life controversial events of the Montreal Screwjob to flesh out his character of the selfish, manipulative, and self-centered "Mr. McMahon", an evil-owner caricature who would routinely "screw" faces in order to ensure the dominance of his hand-picked heel champions. This in turn led Stone Cold and Mr. McMahon to enter a feud that would launch the WWF into prominence.
In the weeks leading up to WrestleMania XIV, McMahon announced that former boxing champion Mike Tyson would be the special guest enforcer in the WWF Championship main event at WrestleMania. Austin entered and won the 1998 Royal Rumble, lastly eliminating The Rock.[1] The next night on Raw, Austin interrupted McMahon in his presentation of Mike Tyson over the objection of McMahon referring to Tyson as "the baddest man on the planet." Austin flipped off Tyson, which led to Tyson shoving Austin and the two fighting until being separated and subdued by Tyson's and McMahon's security. This resulted in an irrate McMahon to publicly disapprove of the prospect of Austin as his WWF Champion. For the following weeks, Tyson aligned himself with D-Generation X, a group led by Austin's opponent at WrestleMania, WWF Champion Shawn Michaels. It was only after WrestleMania that Tyson's intentions would be revealed. Throughout the WWF Championship match, Tyson bickered with both Austin and Michaels, who was upset that Tyson wasn't doing everything possible to ensure that Austin would be unsuccessful. In the closing moments of the match Austin countered Michaels' finishing Sweet Chin Music and executed his finisher, the Stone Cold Stunner. Austin then covered Michaels, which was followed by Tyson himself counting the pin-fall. With this, Tyson turned on Michaels and D-Generation X as Austin became the new WWF Champion. Following the victory, a distraught Michaels confronted Tyson, who then knocked out Michaels with a right-handed punch as Austin celebrated and the Attitude Era was officially ushered in.
[edit] Austin vs. McMahon
On the Raw after Austin won the WWF Championship, Mr. McMahon presented him with the newly designed WWF Championship belt and informed Austin that he did not approve of his rebellious nature and that if he didn't conform to society and become his image of what a WWF Champion should be, Austin would face severe consequences. Austin gave his answer in the form of a Stone Cold Stunner to McMahon. This led to a segment a week later where Austin had pledged a few days prior in a meeting to agree to McMahon's terms, appearing in a suit and tie, with a beaming McMahon taking a picture of himself and Austin, his new corporate champion. The entire thing was a ruse by Austin who in the course of the segment proceeded to tear off the suit, telling McMahon it was the last time he'd ever be seen dressed like this. Austin punched McMahon in the "corporate grapefruits", and took another picture with McMahon grieving in pain.
The following week on April 13, 1998, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. McMahon were going to battle out their differences in an actual match, but the match was declared a no contest when Dude Love interrupted the entire thing. On that night Raw defeated Nitro in the ratings for the first time since June 10, 1996. Meanwhile, several popular characters emerged on Monday Night Raw that would establish consistently high viewing from fans: The Rock, after not winning over the fans as the face Rocky Maivia, was making a new name for himself as a member of the Nation of Domination, and later as a singles performer, and Triple H, who after Shawn Michaels left due to back injuries, took control of D-Generation X and recruited The New Age Outlaws and X-Pac, who had just returned to the WWF after his two years tenure with WCW as a member of the nWo, into his new "D-Generation X Army".
[edit] The DX Army and The Rock
With the newly formed "DX Army", D-Generation X participated in numerous segments causing chaos and leaving wreckage wherever they went. On April 27, 1998 Nitro was held at the Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia, while Raw was held nearby at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. With the ongoing war between the WWF and WCW, the DX Army decided to initiate an immediate "invasion" of Nitro. The DX Army drove to the Norfolk Scope in an army Jeep, challenging WCW head Eric Bischoff to come out and face them or to let them in. The fans outside the arena for the show began chanting "DX" as they joined the DX Army, helping them attempt to enter the arena and invade the Nitro broadcast. Soon after, the DX Army even appeared at CNN Towers to call out WCW owner Ted Turner. Like Austin, D-Generation X were embraced by fans, with their mischievous antics and defiant attitude, as their popularity continued to grow.
Perhaps the only individual to rival Steve Austin in popularity during this time was The Rock, a third-generation star who was originally introduced to fans as Rocky Maivia and pushed as a major face upon his debut. The fans began to turn against Maivia, as they didn't appreciate him being constantly overemphasized as a good guy and forced into the role. Aggravated by the fans' extreme dislike for him and feeling under appreciated and underestimated, Rocky himself turned against the fans and began to verbally insult them on a weekly basis with various trash-talking promos while referring to himself in the third person.
Through his in-ring abilities and tremendous skills on the microphone, The Rock gained a huge fan base as he continued to grow immensely popular despite every attempt The Rock made to be a heel, even interrupting fans as they chanted The Rock's catch phrases in unison with him, reiterating "This isn't sing-a-long with The Rock!" With his engrossing and funny promos, The Rock became one of the most popular WWF superstars of all time.
[edit] Notable moments
- March 10, 1997 - Monday Night Raw officially became Raw is War; the show introduced the TitanTron, the pyro openings and the Raw is War banners over the ring.
- September 22, 1997 - During this episode of Raw, Vince McMahon receives his first Stone Cold Stunner from Stone Cold Steve Austin.
- October 5, 1997 - The Hell in a Cell match was first introduced at In Your House: Badd Blood at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri. It featured The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. In that match, the door was unlocked to allow the removal of an injured cameraman. This led to Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker fighting outside the cell, eventually climbing the structure and fighting on top of the cell. The fighting taking place outside of the Cell led to the first fall from the cell, when Shawn Michaels, hanging from the edge of the structure, had his hands stepped on by The Undertaker and fell from the structure, crashing into the table below. Also in that match, the goal of no interference was not achieved when The Undertaker's younger brother Kane made his debut, ripping the door off of the cage and giving a Tombstone piledriver to The Undertaker, allowing Michaels to crawl and pin Undertaker.
- October 13, 1997 - The group of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna give themselves the name D-Generation X in an episode of Raw Is War.
- November 9, 1997 - at the 1997 Survivor Series, with the match between Shawn Michaels and WWF Champion Bret "The Hitman" Hart for the WWF Title, when Michaels locked Bret Hart into Bret's own submission, The Sharpshooter, Vince McMahon, who was at ringside, order referee Earl Hebner to ring the bell. The post-match events came under fire of controversy the fact that in the storyline, Bret did not tap out when locked into submission and was not supposed to lose at all. Due to the fact it took place in Montreal, Canada, the event has been dubbed as The Montreal Screwjob. The match is remembered as Bret Hart's last in the WWF.
- December 8, 1997 – During this episode of Raw, Stone Cold Steve Austin knocks WWF Chairman Vince McMahon off the ring, thus entering the Austin/McMahon saga.
- March 29, 1998 – The Undertaker beats Kane at WrestleMania XIV, making Kane the seventh opponent whom Taker had beaten at WrestleMania. Later that night "Stone Cold" Steve Austin wins the WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels.
- March 30, 1998 – With Shawn Michaels out because of back injury, Triple H calls himself the leader of DX, which he adds the New Age Outlaws and X-Pac to the group.
- April 6, 1998 - For the first time since June 17, 1996, WWF Raw won over WCW's Monday Nitro in the ratings when on Raw, Stone Cold Steve Austin was supposed to face Vince McMahon for the first time, one on one.
- April 27, 1998: – D-Generation X actually invades WCW headquarters.
- June 28, 1998 – At the 1998 King of the Ring, Mankind loses against The Undertaker in the second Hell in a Cell match. In the opening moments of the match, the Undertaker threw Mankind off the roof of the cage. Later that night, Kane won his first major title from Stone Cold Steve Austin.
- June 29, 1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the WWF Championship back from Kane.
- July 27, 1998 – Triple H and X-Pac face each other for the first time in a Triple Threat Match, against The Rock.
- October 5, 1998 – On this episode of Raw, Mankind visits an injured Vince McMahon. During this segment, Mankind introduces Mr. Socko, a hand-drawn sock puppet. Mr. Socko became so popular, that it became part of the Mankind gimmick. A few moments later, in another segment, Stone Cold Steve Austin impersonates a doctor and starts attacking McMahon. From this date until Nitro's last episode on March 26, 2001, Raw took the lead in the ratings war and was never beaten by Nitro since (except on Oct 26, 1998).
- November 23, 1998 – After his return, Shawn Michaels turns on D-Generation X and joins Vince McMahon’s Corporation after hitting X-Pac with Sweet Chin Music.
- December 7, 1998 - The Undertaker has his druids chain Stone Cold Steve Austin to his "Undertaker Symbol" and raised high into the arena in the entranceway. As it physically symbolized Austin being crucified, it was one of the most controversial moments in Raw history.
- January 4, 1999 – Shawn Michaels turns against The Corporation and rejoins DX. After rejoining DX, the Corporation attacks Michaels, indicating he is definitely out. Later that night, Mankind won his first World Title from The Rock. On Monday Nitro WCW gave away Mankind's victory at the beginning of the show resulting in hundreds of thousands of viewers switching over to Raw to see the title change. This was also the night of The Fingerpoke of Doom, an infamous match between Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash that many fans see as the beginning of the downfall of WCW.
- March 28, 1999 – The Undertaker defeats Big Boss Man in the fifth Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania XV, making Boss Man the eighth opponent whom Taker beaten at the pay-per-view event. After the match, Taker (kayfabe) hanged Boss Man from the cell. It is also the same WrestleMania that Triple H turns against X-Pac and joins The Corporation. Also, it is the first time that Stone Cold Steve Austin faces off and defeats The Rock at WrestleMania for the WWF Championship.
- April 26, 1999 - The Undertaker tries to marry Stephanie McMahon in a black unholy wedding, in order to get the attention of Vince McMahon.
- May 23, 1999 – At the 1999 WWF Over the Edge event, Owen Hart, who was going under the name The Blue Blazer against The Godfather for the IC Title, fell to his death when he was lowering himself from the rafters, but released himself too early. WWF was criticized for going on with the show, even after then-Raw announcer Jim Ross had said that Owen died. As the Blue Blazer was seen as a family-friendly "superhero" that contrasted with the pimp Godfather, this tragic incident accentuated, in a way, the edginess and adult content present in the Attitude Era.
- July 25, 1999 – X-Pac and Road Dogg defeat Chyna and Billy Gunn for the rights of D-Generation X.
- August 9, 1999 - "Y2J" Chris Jericho makes his first WWF appearance.
- August 26, 1999 - WWF Smackdown make its debut and became a weekly television series.
- September 23, 1999 – Road Dogg and Billy Gunn reform the New Age Outlaws to win the WWF Tag Team titles from the Rock 'n' Sock Connection.
- September 27, 1999 – In this episode of Raw, Mankind hosted the famous This is Your Life segment, for The Rock. This segment alone garnered the highest rating for any professional wrestling segment on television (8.4) to date.
- November 1999 – August 2000: Triple H left DX when he "married" Stephanie McMahon, Billy Gunn was soon kicked out, and Road Dogg and X-Pac soon split up after a brief time as a tag team. Triple H and Stephanie's marriage began the McMahon-Hemsley Era, a storyline which would carry into the WWF until February 2002.
- December 12, 1999 - Armageddon: The Kat wins the WWF Women's Championship in an Evening Gown in a Pool match; after the match she drops her top to expose her breasts on live TV, marking the first incident of intentional nudity in WWF television.
- March 26, 2001 - Vince McMahon announces to the world on Monday Night Raw that he has acquired WCW. Later in the night during a live Raw/Nitro simulcast, Shane McMahon appeared on WCW Monday Nitro and (kayfabe) announced that it was he who had in fact purchased WCW and also voiced his intentions to go into competition against his father.
- April 1, 2001 – The Undertaker beats Triple H at WrestleMania X-Seven, making him the ninth opponent Taker had beaten at WrestleMania. Stone Cold Steve Austin turned heel by defeating The Rock with the help of Vince McMahon. This event is considered by many to be the last day of the Attitude Era.
[edit] See also
- History of professional wrestling in the United States
- Monday Night Wars
- History of World Wrestling Entertainment
[edit] Notes
- ^ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling’s Historical Cards: pp. 100.
[edit] External links
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