How Great Was The Attitude Era And Would It Work Today?

Attitude. That’s the marketing tool that has been used this past week on the WWE Network to try to entice fans to subscribe to the WWE’s television network. Over the course of the last few weeks, the WWE has also debuted “The Monday Night War: WWE vs. WCW” as part of a weekly series that has documented the rivalry between World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation in the late nineties.

The series has given wrestling fans that lived through the Monday Night War era a fantastic trip down memory lane. I became a full time wrestling fan in early 1984 after watching the WWF’s “All American Wrestling” television show broadcast the previous Monday night’s WWF title switch between the Iron Sheik and Hulk Hogan. Despite the charisma of Hulk Hogan, I did not become a Hulk-a-maniac. However, it was Hulk Hogan that got me completely invested in the world of professional wrestling.

THROUGH THE YEARS

Since I became a loyal fan thirty years ago, I have witnessed wrestling at its greatest, and not-so-great moments. I saw territories, like Georgia Championship Wrestling and World Class Championship Wrestling. I witnessed the National Wrestling Alliance, the World Wrestling Federation, and the American Wrestling Association expand on a national level to become the “big three.” That was until the AWA folded, and the NWA became a shell of its former self due to the extinction of the territories. I lived through the Rock n’ Wrestling Connection. I saw professional wrestling on M-TV. I have been lucky enough to have seen every WrestleMania as it happened (with the exception of the first WrestleMania where I watched it for the first time a few months after March 31st, 1985 when it became available on video cassette). I saw the birth of the Four Horsemen. I watched the entire Hall of Fame careers of Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. I remember when Starrcade was a Thanksgiving tradition. I can recall when Ric Flair was only a two-time NWA World Heavyweight champion. I saw Hulk-a-mania, Macho Madness, and have been one of Jim Hellwig’s little Warriors. I saw the WWF suffer a steroid scandal that saw the end of Hulk Hogan in the company, and saw a New Generation of stars like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels take over the top spots in the company. I’ve watched the growth of Sting from a young mid-card wrestler to become the face of WCW. I’ve witnessed the birth and death of the most influential wrestling promotion that helped change the landscape of the industry in the late nineties. I saw the WWF become the WWE thanks to a lawsuit from a bunch of pandas. I saw the rise of John Cena from a guy with a rapper gimmick who couldn’t work a good match to becoming the face of the WWE. I have witnessed the rise of the independent wrestler in the WWE. Guys like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins went from “indy geeks” to main event players in the WWE. I have seen the end of the Undertaker’s streak, and have witnessed the WWE create a network that you can watch for only $9.99 a month.

The point is that over the last thirty years, I have seen every major wrestling event, storyline, and behind the scenes drama. Despite all of the golden moments and wrestlers that I have seen over the last quarter and a century plus, there is one era that stands out above them all. I am talking about the period from 1997-2001. Otherwise, known as the “Attitude Era.”

BRING ON THE ATTITUDE

In 1997, I was twenty-five years old. I loved the fact that the WWF was now pushing workers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels over the previous era that highlighted style over substance by pushing the likes of Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. However, as a young adult, I was looking for a more mature brand of wrestling. I didn’t want cartoon characters like Doink the Clown and the Goon. I was no longer that twelve year old kid who watched Hulk Hogan’s “Rock n’ Wrestling” cartoon show on Saturday mornings. I was looking for a wrestling show that was geared towards my generation. I found it on the MSG Network at 1am on the weekends, as the cable network aired Extreme Championship Wrestling. ECW was exactly what my generation was all about. It was counter-culture, and in your face. It was grunge and hip hop to the WWF’s bubble gum environment. ECW was innovative and real. The WWF was cartoonish and geared towards children.

Extreme Championship Wrestling provided me with the alternative that I craved. However, as the year 1997 approached, World Championship Wrestling overtook the WWF as the number one wrestling promotion in the United States thanks to their own innovative and edgy New World Order storyline. As WCW took the lead from the WWF by greater and greater lengths, the World Wrestling Federation was forced to adjust their way of thinking. The WWF took a page out of Paul Heyman’s book, and decided to go for more reality based storylines and more sexuality. The WWF turned itself into the national version of ECW.

As a 25 year old male, I could not get enough of the new WWF. The “attitude” of the new WWF gave us the anti-authority “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the heel in the US/face everywhere else “Hitman” Bret Hart, and the rebellious Shawn Michaels with fellow degenerate Hunter Hearst Helmsley. These men, along with mainstay the Undertaker and future movie star Rocky (soon to be The Rock) Maivia, the WWF was becoming the hip wrestling promotion once again. During the “Attitude Era,” the WWF’s main event scene was the best of the business. Despite all of World Championship Wrestling’s faults, one of the biggest differences between the two companies was their roster. WCW had awesome undercard talent, but their main event level wrestlers left a lot to be desired from a work rate level. The WWF, on the other hand, had an average undercard, but a fantastic main event group of workers. While the undercard acts as the appetizer, the main event is the main course. It’s what people pay for, which is yet another reason why the WWF overtook WCW.

Even though the WWF didn’t have the stud performers that WCW featured on their undercards, the World Wrestling Federation gave us very memorable characters. Maybe they couldn’t work in the ring like WCW’s Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, or Rey Mysterio, but they could give us personality. The WWF gave us Val Venis and the Godfather, who dropped sexual innuendo on every show. Women like Sable and Terri Runnels hit you with their sexuality. There was no innuendo about it. Pre-main event Triple H, along with Degeneration X members X-Pac, the Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn brought their rebellious antics to the fold. While The Rock’s Nation of Domination provided the perfect foil for DX.

The “Attitude Era” was a great time to be a wrestling fan. Both WCW and the WWF did everything in their power to top one another on a weekly basis. It seemed like every week, someone jumped ship to the rival federation or a hot angle exploded. The ratings for both groups were through the roof, as the combined ratings of RAW and Nitro at one point saw over 9 million wrestling fans combined watching both shows. For every Steve Austin stunner on Vince McMahon, WCW gave us another nWo beatdown of the WCW roster. The more the ratings war heated up, the greater the television became. The “Attitude Era” was unlike any other era in wrestling. For once, the WWF put the 18-35 demographic ahead of the 5-14 year old demo. With every outlandish skit, chair shot, blood, Mick Foley dive off the top of the cell, and latex body paint on Sable, the WWF got more popular, and more controversial. This wasn’t your “Rock n’ Wrestling” cartoon wrestling of the eighties. This was the new era of the WWF.

END OF THE ATTITUDE

However, all good things must come to an end. In early 2001, World Championship Wrestling closed it’s doors as the WWF purchased WCW at a discounted price to be the victor in the Monday Night Wars. The WWF didn’t need to push the envelope anymore since the competition was gone. Eventually the WWF, now the WWE, lost the “attitude” and went back to entertaining children. The WWE didn’t bring back cartoon gimmicks, but they did lose the blood, violence, and sexuality of the late nineties WWF. The WWE’s PG Era had begun, and it’s been here ever since. As great as the “Attitude Era” was, it couldn’t last forever. Like the WWF in the late nineties, times have changed. The world had changed. The rebellious times of the late nineties was replaced with the political correctness of the 2000s.

If there was never an “Attitude Era,” would an “Attitude Era” succeed if it was implemented today? I don’t think the late nineties “Attitude Era” would have the same success today as it did in 1997-2001. I think the world is too politically correct today for a 2014 WWE with “Attitude.” While I think a WWE with some attitude could have some success, I don’t think the 1999 WWF would be able to draw a 5.4 rating today. In 1999, Redskins was the name of a professional football team in Washington DC. In 2014, Redskins is a racial slur that has people demanding that the NFL change the name of the NFL’s DC franchise. I can’t imagine the WWF that pushed the envelope in 1999 would be as popular today. I think there would be more protesting and negativity towards the WWE than there even was during the “Attitude Era.” If you don’t recall, thanks to the Parents Television Council, the WWE had their fair share of protesters back then.

While I don’t believe the “Attitude Era” would work today, I think a more mature WWE would work. The WWE could still cater to a younger demographic, while also presenting a more realistic edgier product. After all, you don’t need to have blood, violence, and sex to be edgy. At the same time, you don’t need poopy jokes and lame promos to appeal to children either. A little Breaking Bad mixed with some Modern Family would work. In other words, give us some hard hitting matches and promos with some humor mixed in without going over the top or without being too sophomoric. Call it the WWE Realism Era. Its clean enough for children, but doesn’t insult the intelligence of the adult fans. Now that would be the best of both worlds.