The Attitude Era

The Attitude Era was a period in World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (known now as WWE) and professional wrestling history that began as a direct result of the Monday Night Wars, a television ratings conflict between the WWF and longtime rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that lasted from September 1995 to March 2001, when the WWF acquired WCW. 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 mid-to-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 form of entertainment. Heroic characters were replaced with disaffected antiheroes and family friendly storylines were replaced with stories based on shock value, similar to the "Trash TV" genre popularized in the 1990s. Real-life issues were often mined for storyline content, blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Contents

Overview

The Attitude Era began in the mid-to-late 1990s, and ended in the early 2000s. WWE has variously given Stone Cold Steve Austin's victory in the 1996 King of the Ring tournament,[1] the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997,[2] and Austin's WWF Championship victory over Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV on March 29, 1998,[3] as the starting point of the era. In March 2001, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was bought out by the WWF, concluding the Monday Night Wars. On April 1, 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven, Austin, who had been synonymous with the Attitude Era, embraced his long time archenemy Vince McMahon after defeating The Rock to become WWF Champion once again, turning heel and concluding a rivalry which had lasted since 1997. Finally, in May 2002, usage of the WWF logo used to represent the company's "Attitude" promotion became prohibited as the result of a legal battle between the company and the World Wildlife Fund over the rights to legally use the initials "WWF".

The 1996 King of the Ring tournament saw Stone Cold Steve Austin's first usage of "Austin 3:16" which began the WWF's transition to an edgier product. During his second tenure with the WWF, Jake Roberts was promoted as a "Cinderella" story. Having defeated alcoholism and at the time been preaching the Bible around the country, Roberts became a face (fan favorite) and was considered the likely winner of the 1996 King of the Ring.

At the event, Roberts was defeated by Austin and with the upset victory over Roberts, Austin mocked Roberts' recital of the biblical passage John 3:16 by saying, "You sit there, and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere... Talk about your Psalms, talk about your John 3:16 ... Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!" Austin's defiance of authority and social morals proved to be popular amongst the fans, and "Austin 3:16" became the major marketing juggernaut for the WWF during the Monday Night Wars.

1997 was also a pivotal year in the Attitude Era. The year was notable for Steve Austin's rivalry with Bret Hart, which culminated with Austin's rise to prominence, as well the feud between Hart and Shawn Michaels. The feud between Hart and Michaels was particularly notable in that the two men had serious real-life issues with one another. The conflict behind the scenes spilled out into their on-screen storyline, with both men making pointed personal remarks in interviews that were often rooted in these legitimate issues.

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. From that point, the sexualized and controversial stories that had defined the Attitude Era were de-emphasized in favor of a complex story that became known as "The Invasion" during which the events behind the acquisition of WCW played out on-screen.

Initiation

During the Monday Night Wars, a ratings battle between the WWF's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro, the WWF would transform itself from a family-friendly product into a more adult orientated product. This era was spearheaded by Vince McMahon and 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 incident to flesh out his character of the selfish, manipulative, and self-centered "Mr. McMahon", a corrupt evil-owner caricature fixated on destroying the lives of disobedient employees and ensuring the dominance of his hand-picked heel champions. The resulting feud between Austin 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 prone to innuendo and mischief. Female sexuality was introduced in this era, with characters like the blonde bombshell Sable leading the pack of athletic, attractive female wrestlers and valets who had story lines of their own which usually involved bikini matches and contest that punctuated the success of the Attitude Era, so much so that Playboy Magazine took notice and signed Sable, the first female in the company to pose nude for the widely popular mens publication in the April 1999 issue, and it was the best selling issue the company had seen in ten years. It started a trend and many other women in the company have coveted the opportunity and posed for Playboy, generating quite a buzz not only in the world of professional wrestling but in the Hollywood entertainment sector as well.

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. Steve Austin, who won the 1998 Royal Rumble after eliminating The Rock,[4] interrupted McMahon in his presentation of Mike Tyson on Raw the night after, reason being that he objected McMahon's reference 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 irate 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. 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.

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 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 year tenure with WCW as a member of the nWo, into his new "D-Generation X Army".

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 28, 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.

Aftermath

Within two weeks leading up to WrestleMania X-Seven, World Championship Wrestling had been purchased by the World Wrestling Federation while Paul Heyman became a WWF broadcaster after the fall of Extreme Championship Wrestling just weeks before (due to the controversial departure of longtime announcer Jerry Lawler) which end up having both defunct entities a part of WrestleMania for the first time ever. WrestleMania X-Seven is considered the last day of the Attitude Era by many and is regarded as one of the best WrestleMania events of all time.

By the end of 2001, the 'Attitude Era' was left with few remnants. In March 2002, having a doubled roster size after the WCW acquisition and the integration of ECW, the WWF divided its roster through two brands; RAW (previously known as Raw Is War) and SmackDown!, which established them as separate franchises or promotions under the WWF. Along with WrestleMania X-Seven, many fans also consider the 2002 WWF Brand Extension Draft as an ending point of the Attitude Era. On May 5, 2002, the World Wrestling Federation was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment due to a court-battle over the 'WWF' initials with the World Wildlife Fund.

Era highlights

1996

1997

1998

Later that night, Kane won his first major title from Stone Cold Steve Austin in the first-ever First Blood match.
The following night on Raw Is War, Austin wins the WWF Championship back from Kane. On that same episode, the WWF begins the Brawl for All, an unscripted knockout tournament eventually won by Bart Gunn.

1999

Olympic Freestyle Wrestling gold medal winner Kurt Angle also makes his debut in a match against Shawn Stasiak, which he won.

2000

Shawn Michaels resigns as WWF commissioner and Linda McMahon appoints Mick Foley as his successor.

2001

The final Nitro segment was a live RAW/Nitro simulcast where Shane McMahon appeared on Nitro and announced that it was he who had in fact purchased WCW and also voiced his intentions to go into competition against a stunned Vince McMahon over on RAW, who had announced earlier he was purchasing WCW.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "WWE Hall of Fame Inductees "Stone Cold" Steve Austin Biography". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/halloffame/inductees/stonecoldsteveaustin. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
  2. ^ "WWE Hall of Fame Inductees Bret Hart Biography". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/halloffame/inductees/brethart. Retrieved 2011-04-07. 
  3. ^ "WWE Championship - Stone Cold". WWE. http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/wwechampionship/30445413. Retrieved 2011-12-29. 
  4. ^ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling's Historical Cards: p. 100. 
  5. ^ Raw is War - June 7, 1999
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