Is The Attitude Era Of The WWE Overrated?

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

The attitude era was the best time to be a wrestling fan ainec

I think the 80s gives the AE a serious run for its money but both were great times to watch wrasslin.

 

[JackSlater]

The quality of the Attitude Era and the mid 80s period really shows the importance of competition. In the mid 80s you had various viable promotions. WWF was cartoony but very staid in ring while pushing wrestling production values to new heights. AWA was very traditional, in both good and bad ways. Mid South had great in ring product and in many was was a precursor to the general badass vibe that would go on to dominate in the 90s, but it was small. JCP had a great in ring product and tremendous promos and largely inspired the direction that wrestling would follow. Even World Class showed how well a promotion can do when it milks one angle for all its worth. Later on in the 90s we saw the benefit of having two large promotions at "war" and a third alternative that was smaller but quite innovative.

The best thing that could happen to wrestling is legitimate competition among promotions.

 

[John Price]

As someone rewatching a lot of the Attitude Era on Youtube, it's miles better than anything in 2018. The storyline of Rikishi and Triple H going after Stone Cold

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS

TELL ME WHY TRIPLE H

TELL ME WHY

 

[These Are The Days]

I unfortunately cannot speak for Raw at the time but Smackdown 2002-2004 was the best goddamn programming I have ever watched. The Cruiserweight division was stacked, the tag team division was stacked, a young John Cena, prime Undertaker, prime Kurt Angle, Eddie FREAKING Guerrero and Lesnar making you want to go "holy shit" any time you watched him. It was not as popular with the masses but you didn't need Attitude when you had Ruthless Aggression. It had its share of stupid stuff (especially misogynistic tendencies ) but it was overall the perfect balance of skill and entertainment that was not afraid of its sense of edginess. That led to it more often than not living up to its billing.

The most notable difference I find between then and now is that there was more liberty for guys like JR and Cole broadcast the way they wanted. I could be wrong, maybe they never had control. But Vince has hijacked it so much that listening to Cole is like watching someone look in a mirror and pleasure themselves to their own image because WWE content is little more than self promotion anymore and less about what's happening in it. It's a far cry from 15 years ago. There's little organic about it anymore. But I'm also not about to fault the guy for doing his job exactly as he is told.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I unfortunately cannot speak for Raw at the time but Smackdown 2002-2004 was the best goddamn programming I have ever watched. The Cruiserweight division was stacked, the tag team division was stacked, a young John Cena, prime Undertaker, prime Kurt Angle, Eddie FREAKING Guerrero and Lesnar making you want to go "holy ****" any time you watched him. It was not as popular with the masses but you didn't need Attitude when you had Ruthless Aggression. It had its share of stupid stuff (especially misogynistic tendencies ) but it was overall the perfect balance of skill and entertainment that was not afraid of its sense of edginess. That led to it more often than not living up to its billing.

The most notable difference I find between then and now is that there was more liberty for guys like JR and Cole broadcast the way they wanted. I could be wrong, maybe they never had control. But Vince has hijacked it so much that listening to Cole is like watching someone look in a mirror and pleasure themselves to their own image because WWE content is little more than self promotion anymore and less about what's happening in it. It's a far cry from 15 years ago. There's little organic about it anymore. But I'm also not about to fault the guy for doing his job exactly as he is told.

bingo...problem is it isnt just the announcers. The wrestlers have no freedom in their promos or character. They are told word for word what to say and it's beyond obvious.

Part of what made the wrestlers so great in the Attitude Era is their characters were reflections of themselves. Their promos were basically they get told what their motivation/situation is and they went out and ad libbed most of it from there so you actually got to see their personalities come through.

Every part of WWE right now is micro managed to such a maniacal level that everyone looks like a stiff, unrelatable robot. Since there's no connection emotionally, the crowd has no reason to and doesn't care about the storylines

 

[These Are The Days]

bingo...problem is it isnt just the announcers. The wrestlers have no freedom in their promos or character. They are told word for word what to say and it's beyond obvious.

Part of what made the wrestlers so great in the Attitude Era is their characters were reflections of themselves. Their promos were basically they get told what their motivation/situation is and they went out and ad libbed most of it from there so you actually got to see their personalities come through.

Every part of WWE right now is micro managed to such a maniacal level that everyone looks like a stiff, unrelatable robot. Since there's no connection emotionally, the crowd has no reason to and doesn't care about the storylines

I have always considered the weeks leading up to Vengeance 2003 to be the height of the Smackdown era and chose this match to contrast what we see today.



Tazz and Cole spend the vast majority of the match protecting Lesnar such as "the odds are stacked against the champion tonight" "I don't know how he could have overcome this anyway" quoting broken ribs and constantly mentioning the numbers game. It's what you do for a babyface any day and age. But meanwhile you've got Lesnar selling the hell out of it along with the announce team. Say what you want about Tazz but he was damn near flawless at selling what was happening i.e "Big Show's fingers are the size of people's wrists. I'm not exaggerating." There is no way in God's name that is a Vince plug like "How bad is Lesnar?" but you can deal with Vince plugs and negate them when the two most noticeable aspects are how it's all "here and now" and that's the focus and not the PPV. The other is that the intensity of Tazz and Cole's reactions match the action at all times. An F5 to Haas is not a freakout like "SUPERMAN PUNCH!" instead they save it for the earlier belly to belly to Big Show. Sure Show has to sell it and toss himself but Lesnar still has to toss him. It's an incredible feat of strength and it's a moment worth raising your voice over. The action of today is so improperly hyperbolic at the wrong times and done by the wrong people.

Take the finish as the proper example. Again Tazz is just so damn good. His style is similar to a hype man but he was always laid back about it. But here with a big finish he takes the opportunity to give us a legitimate mark out moment and legitimately match the intensity of the moment while Cole plays the straight man. Nowadays we've got Cole marking out "FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY!" like he's supposed to be JR. But instead of excuses for why Lesnar lost he's crediting the Big Show and not making such a focus on the number's game but the fact that Lesnar just got the shit beat out of him one on one and ends the broadcast with "Big Show has Lesnar's number"

You don't get that today man. It's a shame because the product has been never better in terms of the wrestling. But the product and its execution leave so much to be desired.

 

[These Are The Days]

With all that said idk if the Attitude Era was overrated but every time I watch it the Ruthless Aggression era that followed was everything I remember it as and gets better every time I watch it. The product matched the atmosphere right down to shades of black and gray. Now they've got 10 different directions played out on a social media hype machine staged on a ring with LED lights and a polished tron in the back. If you gave WWE a facelift and allowed for more creative liberty to the talent the fanbase would probably buy in more.

 

[JackSlater]

I have always considered the weeks leading up to Vengeance 2003 to be the height of the Smackdown era and chose this match to contrast what we see today.



Tazz and Cole spend the vast majority of the match protecting Lesnar such as "the odds are stacked against the champion tonight" "I don't know how he could have overcome this anyway" quoting broken ribs and constantly mentioning the numbers game. It's what you do for a babyface any day and age. But meanwhile you've got Lesnar selling the hell out of it along with the announce team. Say what you want about Tazz but he was damn near flawless at selling what was happening i.e "Big Show's fingers are the size of people's wrists. I'm not exaggerating." There is no way in God's name that is a Vince plug like "How bad is Lesnar?" but you can deal with Vince plugs and negate them when the two most noticeable aspects are how it's all "here and now" and that's the focus and not the PPV. The other is that the intensity of Tazz and Cole's reactions match the action at all times. An F5 to Haas is not a freakout like "SUPERMAN PUNCH!" instead they save it for the earlier belly to belly to Big Show. Sure Show has to sell it and toss himself but Lesnar still has to toss him. It's an incredible feat of strength and it's a moment worth raising your voice over. The action of today is so improperly hyperbolic at the wrong times and done by the wrong people.

Take the finish as the proper example. Again Tazz is just so damn good. His style is similar to a hype man but he was always laid back about it. But here with a big finish he takes the opportunity to give us a legitimate mark out moment and legitimately match the intensity of the moment while Cole plays the straight man. Nowadays we've got Cole marking out "FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY!" like he's supposed to be JR. But instead of excuses for why Lesnar lost he's crediting the Big Show and not making such a focus on the number's game but the fact that Lesnar just got the **** beat out of him one on one and ends the broadcast with "Big Show has Lesnar's number"

You don't get that today man. It's a shame because the product has been never better in terms of the wrestling. But the product and its execution leave so much to be desired.

I'm not a fan of that era (Raw was poisonous at the time, but credit to the Smackdown creative team) but that writeup reminds me of the Smackdown houseshow that I saw in spring 2003. Lesnar vs Big Show was the main event, Los Guerreros vs World's Greatest tag team was the highlight. Other than arguably Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero was way above everyone else on the card as a performer. He was more entertaining just standing on the apron waiting for a tag and interacting with the crowd than pretty much any other wrestler n the card was. Those interested parties, the lowlight was Nidia vs Torrie Wilson.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Does anyone think in the modern day that Too Cool never got enough credit for getting Rikishi over?

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I still can't believe Rikishi didn't even mention them in his HoF speech. Pretty much his entire career was made because of them. His heel turn was awful and he lost every shred of overness until he turned face again and teamed up with Scotty again.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Yeah the fact that they weren't mentioned in his HoF speech was pretty low.

 

[Shoalzie]

I'm re-watching Raw and PPV starting with Austin 3:16 at King of the Ring '96 and I'm up April '97 currently.

In terms of the roster, it's tremendous when you think of what it eventually becomes...Austin, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Mankind, Rocky Maivia, Shawn Michaels, Hunter Hearst Hemsley, Goldust, Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog. The early years of the "Attitude Era" was the best time even though the best versions of some of these characters will come later. When they just tried to be too shocking and edgy, it appealed to the lowest common denominator. The best part was watching that all start with the Austin 3:16 promo and seeing the development of the Stone Cold character.

 

[scrubadam]

I'm re-watching Raw and PPV starting with Austin 3:16 at King of the Ring '96 and I'm up April '97 currently.

In terms of the roster, it's tremendous when you think of what it eventually becomes...Austin, Bret Hart, Undertaker, Mankind, Rocky Maivia, Shawn Michaels, Hunter Hearst Hemsley, Goldust, Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog. The early years of the "Attitude Era" was the best time even though the best versions of some of these characters will come later. When they just tried to be too shocking and edgy, it appealed to the lowest common denominator. The best part was watching that all start with the Austin 3:16 promo and seeing the development of the Stone Cold character.

I don't know if 96/97 is really attitude era?

I think its more 98-2001ish.

96-97 was really peak WWE even though they were getting their ass's handed to them by WCW.

I don't think we will ever see another character like Stone Cold again.

 

[JackSlater]

I don't know if 96/97 is really attitude era?

I think its more 98-2001ish.

96-97 was really peak WWE even though they were getting their ass's handed to them by WCW.

I don't think we will ever see another character like Stone Cold again.

1997 is definitely in the Attitude Era. You have the ascent of Austin in full effect and all that that entailed, Bret Hart's heated angles culminating with the screwjob, DX comes into existence and even WWF starting using "WWF Attitude" in its advertising. I would give decent consideration to 1996 as well given that we have the crowd beginning to cheer a clear heel like Austin and even segments like the Pillman gun segment.

 

[scrubadam]

1997 is definitely in the Attitude Era. You have the ascent of Austin in full effect and all that that entailed, Bret Hart's heated angles culminating with the screwjob, DX comes into existence and even WWF starting using "WWF Attitude" in its advertising. I would give decent consideration to 1996 as well given that we have the crowd beginning to cheer a clear heel like Austin and even segments like the Pillman gun segment.

I see 96 as a transition year, and then the begining of 97 as the planting of the attitude seeds. For me the Attitude Era really started with the departure of Bret Hart and the Montreal screw job. 97 basically had the beginnings of Foley/DX/Austin/Rock but not their full Attitude Era forms yet.

I think both Bret and Sean leaving were big parts of moving from the new generation to the Attitude Era. Just like Hogan had to finally leave after WM 9 to end the Hulkamania Era those two had to go to make room for the guys who lead the AE in Foley/Rock/Austin/HHH.

 

[Deen]

It was fun growing up with it. Hot babes and gimmick matches made it all fun. Some of the ridiculous characters were fun to relate to. The reason the attitude era was the best was because you had the true Mega Powers in Austin/Rock and the NWO.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I don't think we will ever see another character like Stone Cold again.

I can almost guarantee we won't. And if we did, they'd be watered down.

Personally I wouldn't want another SCSA type character even if I still cared about wrestling. Why?? Well because I saw the original and was a huge fan from '96-99 and anyone else trying to do that type of character would just pale in comparison to Steve Austin.

 

[karnige]

attitude era was about entertainment and plots .ruthless aggression had the best wrestling easily.

 

[BruinDust]

bingo...problem is it isnt just the announcers. The wrestlers have no freedom in their promos or character. They are told word for word what to say and it's beyond obvious.

Part of what made the wrestlers so great in the Attitude Era is their characters were reflections of themselves. Their promos were basically they get told what their motivation/situation is and they went out and ad libbed most of it from there so you actually got to see their personalities come through.

Every part of WWE right now is micro managed to such a maniacal level that everyone looks like a stiff, unrelatable robot. Since there's no connection emotionally, the crowd has no reason to and doesn't care about the storylines

100%

Just watch the HBK-Taker segment from last week. You could tell those two were given the creative freedom to speak without a script. They were given bullet-points of what the segment was to be, but they spoke their own words.

WWE is completely over-produced now to the point where you can't even believe in the characters anymore.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

1997 was definitely the attitude era. Stone Cold, DX formation, stables that were essentially gangs - Nation of Domination, Los Boriquas, DOA. Heck, the 1997 Survivor Series was promoted as GANG RULZ.

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

The Rock, SCSA, and Vince were the best things of the AE.

Everything else was just filler. The excessive violence, Rock giving Foley all those chair shots in the I Quit match, Foleys resume from that time, are disgusting.

Mick Foley allowing others to pretty much maul him so he can stay on top was revolting. The cheap "Jerry Springer" types, like the pimp, porn star, etc was just fluff pieces worked around the main events every week.

You had three white hot talents who could do no wrong, then a bunch of garbage.

 

[scrubadam]

The Rock, SCSA, and Vince were the best things of the AE.

Everything else was just filler. The excessive violence, Rock giving Foley all those chair shots in the I Quit match, Foleys resume from that time, are disgusting.

Mick Foley allowing others to pretty much maul him so he can stay on top was revolting. The cheap "Jerry Springer" types, like the pimp, porn star, etc was just fluff pieces worked around the main events every week.

You had three white hot talents who could do no wrong, then a bunch of garbage.

I am a huge Foley fan, but looking back the stuff he was doing was disgusting. And it unfortunately created a generation of "wrestlers" who thought all they had to do was fall off something really high and they can be a World Champ, best selling author and millionaire.

KOR 98 and the Hell in the Cell was both a watershed and iconic moment in wrestling and one if its most ugliest and black mark. I watched the match again and its hard to watch. The two big bumps were over the top, but then Foley trying to "wrestle" when he is clearly out of it, and then add in tacks. And he misses the tacks so he decideds to roll around in them because its not enough.

I think we have the same views on the era, which isn't very popular. It was over the top garbage that wouldn't fly in this day and age being elevated by 3 of the best talents to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. Take away Rock and Austin and AE would be worse than new generation IMO.

 

[Engebretson]

I'm currently re-watching Raws from late 1999. We've braved through the Russo era and now we're getting into Triple H basically taking over the company as top heel.

I had completely forgotten that DX had reformed during this time to assist Triple H in his World Title pursuits. It was weird seeing DX with X-Pac and the Outlaws be heels. Road Dogg doing his thing on the mic and heeling up to the crowd was just weird and didn't feel right because it started out all fun and getting the crowd involved and then he finishes his bit by ripping on the crowd. Just didn't feel right.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Triple H is going to drug Stephanie McMahon in Vegas and ruin her wedding soon. Big Show is World Champ right now and the World's Largest Afterthought, Rock and Mankind are still doing the Rock N' Sock Connection and Austin just got hit by Rakishi, so by default, the top face in the company is actually... Vince McMahon?

At least we have a freshly debuted Kurt Angle to inspire us with his 3 I's!

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

The Rock, SCSA, and Vince were the best things of the AE.

Everything else was just filler. The excessive violence, Rock giving Foley all those chair shots in the I Quit match, Foleys resume from that time, are disgusting.

Mick Foley allowing others to pretty much maul him so he can stay on top was revolting. The cheap "Jerry Springer" types, like the pimp, porn star, etc was just fluff pieces worked around the main events every week.

You had three white hot talents who could do no wrong, then a bunch of garbage.

well that is simply 100% false.

Undertaker
Kane
Edge and Christian
Hardy Boyz
Owen Hart
HHH
Ken Shamrock
New Age Outlaws
Big Show[/b]

 

[JackSlater]

I am a huge Foley fan, but looking back the stuff he was doing was disgusting. And it unfortunately created a generation of "wrestlers" who thought all they had to do was fall off something really high and they can be a World Champ, best selling author and millionaire.

KOR 98 and the Hell in the Cell was both a watershed and iconic moment in wrestling and one if its most ugliest and black mark. I watched the match again and its hard to watch. The two big bumps were over the top, but then Foley trying to "wrestle" when he is clearly out of it, and then add in tacks. And he misses the tacks so he decideds to roll around in them because its not enough.

I think we have the same views on the era, which isn't very popular. It was over the top garbage that wouldn't fly in this day and age being elevated by 3 of the best talents to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. Take away Rock and Austin and AE would be worse than new generation IMO.

What things were being done by Foley that were so disgusting? As was already pointed out to you the second big bump in that hell in a cell match was a botch. The first bump was quite bad sure, but it was not typical of the era. Thumbtacks are a good "hardcore" visual but are far less dangerous than pretty much any big bump. Honestly the next most dangerous thing that Foley did was take chair shots from The Rock in their I Quit match, and the fault was not with Foley as Rock went beyond what was anticipated.