Romanticizing The Attitude Era

[Diablo]

Having been on forums for the better part of a decade now, it's safe to say that the number one time period in wrestling that people will always revert back to is the Attitude Era.

The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, The Undertaker, Sting, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, DDP, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Sabu, The Hardys, The Dudleys, Edge and Christian all have one thing in common--They'll undoubtedly make a fan's favorite wrestler list, even if it's just one of them. Rock and Stone Cold will obviously be tops.

The era was the most profitable for the industry for a multitude of reasons--popularity of cable television, strongest economy since the recession, the element of surprise with the internet not ruining much yet and pure cut passion.

However, it's an era that most fans can't get over. They clamor for the days where Stone Cold and The Rock were headlining Wrestlemania 17 with the "My Way" desire package playing in the background. They'll also do one more thing: Block out all the bad.

If one wants to discuss terrible gimmicks and failed ideas, look no further than both companies in the Attitude Era. The most infamous: Mae Young birthing a hand with Mark Henry being the father, the 6-man HIAC with Rikishi being thrown onto a tractor full of hay, Rikiski running over Stone Cold for The Rock, DDP being revealed as The Stalker and the terribly botched InVasion angle.

We haven't even scratched the surface. The Headbangers, anyone?

That said, the only conceivable difference between the two times has been the shift if marketing. While the product was TV-14 during the Attitude Era, by 2002 they were often under the guidelines of a TV-PG show. To transition from one to another takes time as a change in rating isn't something that happens overnight. People are often disillusioned by the TV-PG and disregard how the product can still be really successful(Punk's epic rant, anyone? I'll challenge that with anything the Attitude Era has to offer, especially the atmosphere in Chicago when he came out).

The headliners(Cena, Orton, Triple H, The Miz, Sheamus, The Rock to a much lesser extent) are all capable, and while they're not comparable to the previous era it's harder to say they're failures because most of them are making the company money..it's just that the times have changed. It's hard to continue running a weekly episodic crash TV program with surprises every week, especially with no conceivable competition in sight.

The Attitude Era, while great in many respects, has become entirely overrated by the internet. Yes? No? I'm crazy?

 

[PHX]

It is overrated by net fans for the simple fact a lot of people act like nothing crappy ever happened during that time and you named just some of the shitty stuff that happened during that time. Difference is most of us weren't adults or even 17-18 years old during that time and were so open minded back then and weren't on the internet reading spoilers, knowing what goes on behind the scenes who's putting who over etc. I don't think some people take all of that stuff into consideration when looking back at that time to now. There was some things back then that were better than it is now but not to the extent to which it gets made though imo. If they had some of the gimmicky stuff that they had then like Too Cool, Oddities, etc around now people would lose their mind bashing the hell out of it.

So I always wish that people stop trying to want stuff to go back to how it was but instead want something new and move forward.

 

[Slim]

For the record I wouldn't bash the Headbangers. Although the gimmick was kinda awkward a little bit... they were actually a real good tag team and were rather innovative with their offenses. Like if you were to get past the stuff they wore and watched their matches... they were talented together. they were good. They could go and they would actually do pretty well as a tag team in today's time.

But yeah the Attitude era is the internet's darling era. Because during that time... we just enjoyed it. We didn't care who was screwin over who, who was puttin over who, or anything like that. All we did was sit back and flip channels watching what they put on and we liked one show more than the other or we liked both shows equally. But now we analyze and over analyze and that takes away from the show. Its like now we see stuff that sucks and it gets blown way way away. Whereas back then when we would see something stupid... we'd move on. I think one of the things that era has over this era... the feuds, the storylines that were the overall importance of the show. So that those stupid things like Mae Young and Mark Henry, although remembered are still overshadowed by other things. Whereas in today's time... we don't have that overshadowing big feud. We don't have those storylines that we just want to see the ending to. Back then we cared... now we kinda care.

 

[Kingslayer]

Watching some of the Attitude Era clips now highlights the fact that it really was trash. Austin vs McMahon is the greatest gift ever offered to wrestling, the Undertaker vs Kane feud with Paul Bearer involved was amazingly good before they ruined it and every following incarnation of it was crap, Edge and Christian were the only interesting thing that ever happened to tag team wrestling, and early goofball Kurt Angle was incredible. Other than that, it was a bunch of shit. Even Rock. I'm one of the few who is not even slightly amused with the crap that spewed out of his mouth. A talented mic worker, but if he ever said anything that had some substance behind it, I missed it. Shit wrestler too, not that that's worth anything.

The rest of it consisted of zany, nonsensical segments like Mae Young giving birth to a hand, Boss Man cooking Al Snow's dog and desecrating Big Show's dads coffin, the infamous Val Venis "choppy choppy your pee pee" skit, Godfather taking up way too much air time dancing with his 'ho's", a bunch of diva stripping segments that aren't arousing to anyone that's discovered even 1% of what you can find on the Internet, etc. It's no different from today in the sense that there's a few things that are amazing, and a LOT of things that are bad. The only difference is, when the Attitude Era did something good, it was a hell of a lot better than the good of today. The reason it's so romanticized is because we didn't do what we do now, then. If we had smarks in the Attitude Era, everybody would've said "BOOO, this trash tv approach sucks, bring back the 80's!".

It's the same philosophy that we use for all the rest of our interests, we just don't consciously know we're doing it. Ask an adult what their favourite video game is, the chances are you'll get an answer like Mario or Zelda. You know why? That's what they're brought up on. It brings back good memories for them. Show somebody who's never seen either some footage of Uncharted 3 and then show them a primitive game like Mario 3, they'll laugh at Mario.

 

[TheZig]

The Attitude era had its brilliant moments then again it had its fair share of dissapointing moments. Look at WCW and look how they strung out every possible angle with the nWo, Who we could credit with the start of the Attitude era if im honest. The high points are unmatchable to anything that has happened in the buisness. Then you have the dragged out version when anyone in the company could be a part of the faction, Which will go down with some of the worst booking in history. Then you had the period when the Attitude era was coming into prominence in the WWF, You had teams like The New Blackjacks and DOA who were nothing spectacular. A short period later we had teams like Edge & Christian, The New Age Outlaws, The Hardy Boyz etc coming through. We had a great IC division with some memorable matches, But counteracting that we had some terrible gimmicks and awful segments.

Overrated...For the most part yes, But when something great was about to go down it was truely great. There are alot of factors that make the Attitude era the most talked about and one of the most adored times in the buisness. Rating wars, Great mid card workers, Brilliant tag team division and for the most part a great main event scene. But to compare it with todays product its apples and pears, The whole structure of television has changed since then and the way we view what is and what isn't suitable viewing.

 

[Defiant]

My only problem with the Attitude Era is that in terms of the pure quality of the actual wrestling, it was one of the worst era's in the industry's history imo. Entertainment-wise I preferred WCW by a long shot. But when you look at the main event scene constantly hogged by the likes of either stale or unexciting acts like Hogan, Nash, Flair, Sting and so on, while the ultra-talented cruiserweight division was rushed out of the way like a chore, and equally talented guys like Jericho and the Radiclez weren't appreciated enough and left.... Well, WCW in the Attitude Era wasn't all that great purley as a wrestling product, was it?

WWF was a little better, but only by a little. I guess I should chalk that down to the absenses of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. It also wasn't as "holy shit" exciting as WCW.

- Edit

This is why I get confused when people say that wrestling - or at least WWE - is worse as an actual wrestling promotion nowadays (especially without the likes of Eddie, Bret, Benoit, etc). I can see where these people, who are probably the majority if I had to guess, are coming from when they say the product isn't as exciting. There are reasons for that and thats a different topic, but I can agree with that.

But to say the wrestling is of lesser quality? Dude, we have CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Evan Bourne Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Kofi Kingston..... Those are just a few people, and I would take ANY MATCH FROM ANY OF THEM over ALMOST ANY match from the Attitude Era with the exception of WCW's cruiserweight division. Hell, the awesomeness continues on if you watch a good half of the talent on TNA's roster, as well as the fact that we now have access to indy promotions such as ROH. In-ring, wrestling is more exciting than it has ever been.

So fuck the Attitude Era. You may have Austin's beer truck, The Rock's promos and Jericho's pants, but we have good wrestling.

And our chicks are hotter.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Don't say everybody because I am a MUCH bigger fan of 80's Wrestling than the Attitude era. Less Characters (NWA at least) and better in ring product by far.

 

[The Cork]

Everyone remembers it fondly because EVERYTHING was well-recieved during the time, even the most downright shitty angles went over with the crowd. Too Cool, a jobber tag team were getting pops that even Cena couldnt get now. The crowds played a huge part in teh Attitude Era, IMO its overlooked a lot. The rise of the internet is a huge reason why crowds are less passionate, spoilers are ready available for every (non live) show, and if you know whos out of contract soon, etc, you can take an educated guess on whos going to win feuds,.matches and so on. Totally sucking the 'surprise element' out of wrestling these days.

Plus the freedom in promos, ie being allowed to swear, etc, in comparison to todays strict autocue following tribe makes it look better than it really was, like obviously Stone Cold dropping curses is all cool and whatever but there wasnt much substance to it.

Not to say that era didnt have a lot of good, obvs it did hence why most of us got hooked and are here now.

 

[John McHenry]

the 6-man HIAC with Rikishi being thrown onto a tractor full of hay, Rikiski running over Stone Cold for The Rock, DDP being revealed as The Stalker

Personally not sure why these three things were listed.

Personally I think the biggest difference between the two Era's is John Cena he exemplifies everything wrong currently. He had a custom belt made for him but that has been in use for going on 7 years now. Now we all know custom belts have been around but we also know none of them have been around to that extent. During the attitude era title reigns had meaning now it really means very little it's all about how many times someones been champ or how long Cena has been champ. Cena also isn't to blame for these things he's just the most obvious example.

As for the PG BS it can remain PG to me thats not an issue. The issue is that it came about almost purely because of Linda McMahon was running for Senate. I'm not against PG but why constrain yourself why not allow adult story lines every once and awhile We've only just now started seeing them attempting this three years later.

Also wrestling used to be to arts fused together a type of ballet (the wrestling) with improvised theater. You've lost that the art of the promo is in the can. Now for the most part people are going out their reciting lines written for them by some of the worst writers in the buisness. Most of them don't seem to even understand the industry their in.


Romanticizing the Attitude Era...Not so much missing the art of wrestling, maybe.