The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Attitude Era Alumni Success Stories

he Attitude Era was undeniably one of the most successful periods any wrestling company has ever had. While fans can debate the morals depicted at the time and quality of the storylines, there’s little question that the period drew big money and captured the imagination of not just hardcore fans, but also more casual fans, which facilitated mainstream crossover and more people talking about wrestling than most any other time in the history of the business (Hulkamania and Rock N Wrestling are the only real competitors).

But what of the Attitude Era’s aftermath? In a business that’s seen more than its share of early retirements due to injury and, all the more unfortunate, tragically young deaths, not everyone came out of the Attitude Era for the better.

This week’s column, however, recounts success stories coming out of the Attitude Era. The countdown focuses on stars who rose to prominence during the Attitude Era, roughly between 1996 and 2001. I’ll be the first to admit I made some arbitrary distinctions about what it meant to rise to fame in that era. For example, I decided Steve Austin was eligible because he became a main event level talent during this era. I disqualified The Undertaker, however, for having been established on the WWE landscape and having been treated as a main eventer as early as 1991. I counted Mick Foley, despite having briefly main evented for WCW earlier, because the Attitude Era reinvented who he was and how the wrestling world saw him. I did not count Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart who were invaluable contributors to Attitude’s early days, but did more to lend credibility to the Era’s launch, as opposed to coming of age during it. This list only considered WWE performers from this time period—guys who participated in Attitude, not performers featured in WCW, ECW or other promotions in the same time period.

While I did take wrestling accomplishments into considerations, particularly for some performers toward the lower end of this countdown, I was more interested in accomplishments beyond the wrestling world—how Attitude launched not just a successful wrestler, but a mainstream success story. As is always the case for these columns, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

#7. Kane

When it comes to wrestlers with longevity, few can compete with Kane. Yes, he debuted before the Attitude Era, and cycled through truly awful gimmicks including evil dentist Isaac Yankem and the Fake Diesel. He went on to prove, however, that persistence and being assigned the correct gimmick can take a star from middling to all-time legend. As Kane, The Undertaker’s estranged brother and victim of a childhood fire, Kane was an awesome fit as WWE figured out what Attitude was. Sure, he had more than a bit of the camp quality of WWE’s previous era that focused on vocational gimmicks, but he balanced it with real horror movie sensibility that drew interest and legitimately frightened its share of fans.

Kane could have been in and out of WWE programming as a short-term attraction, but it’s a testament to the man beneath the mask that he evolved his style, remained loyal to the company and was rewarded with opportunities that stretched across two decades and counting. You can very reasonably argue that he was never better as a character than in the first few months of the gimmick, but it’s nonetheless hard to argue that he wasn’t also wildly entertaining as his little buddy X-Pac helped humanize him (and perhaps reveal an even more human side after he betrayed him), or that he didn’t capture the audience’s attention with his first unmasking, or that he didn’t enter one of the most entertaining periods of his career overall in his months with Team Hell No. And, like it or not, it’s pretty remarkable that the guy is challenging for a world title at this year’s Royal Rumble.

So, Kane makes the cut for this countdown (just a sliver ahead of The Big Show, who often gets lumped with him) for attaining success over a long period of time, and with a wide variation on his core gimmick, in addition to launching a credible new career in politics as he pursues a mayoral spot in Knox County.

#6. Edge

Edge got his start with WWE as a mid-card act and then a tag team wrestler during the Attitude Era. The team of Edge and Christian evolved nicely over that period to arrive at the front of the pack of hungry young teams, more often than not playing sleazy comic heels who were also daredevils when the situation demanded it.

Coming out of Attitude, Edge embarked on an upper mid-card singles career, but seemed to stall out for a period of years before really finding himself with Lita as his femme fatale sidekick, and the Money in the Bank briefcase in hand. Edge has talked on his podcast with Christian about bringing Vince McMahon the idea of the conniving MITB cash-in after a hard-fought match, while the champ was hurt, and has credited his gumption in suggesting the idea as one of the ways he gained McMahon’s confidence. While that first world title reign wouldn’t last long, Edge would be a main eventer for most of the rest of his career, wrestling in world title matches for his last four WrestleManias, including one main event, and becoming a eleven-time world champion overall.

While Edge mostly gets this spot for wrestling accolades and being the most successful wrestler in terms of transitioning from the Attitude Era to even greater success in the years to follow, his success as an actor and with the aforementioned podcast help shore him up for the number six spot.

#5. Steve Austin

As we enter the rarefied air of this countdown, we reach Steve Austin, the biggest and arguably most important star of the Attitude Era. While Austin had been active in wrestling for years before Attitude, this period of foul-mouthed carnage fit him like a glove, and his rivalries with Vince McMahon, The Rock, Triple H, and others vaulted him onto the short list of biggest stars wrestling has ever seen.

And Austin has done all right for himself post-Attiude. He remained as the face of WWE for most of the first year after the Era unofficially ended at WrestleMania 17, the focal point of the Two Man Power Trip and InVasion angles that dominated WWE programming. His wrestling career would be limited from that point, as a falling out with WWE management and personal differences with the company took him out of WWE for several months, and leading into WrestleMania 19, his body gave out on him and it became clear he’d need to retire from the ring. Afterward, he’d make appearances as a successful on-air authority figure and instantly credible guest referee for high profile matches.

After wrestling, Austin remained relevant by pursuing acting to some success (most notably achieving reasonable success as a leading man in WWE Studios’ The Condemned), and serving especially well as a reality TV host, first for WWE’s Tough Enough revival, and then on his own Broken Skull Challenge. Additionally, he may have achieved his greatest success of all post-wrestling with his excellent Steve Austin Show podcast. No, it wasn’t the first wrestling podcast, but it was among the first to really break into the mainstream with a host who was credible at every level of wrestling and without reproach, and who had the name value to appeal to relatively casual fans and a mainstream audience. Austin’s influence led to fellow stars like Chris Jericho and Jim Ross jumping into the podcast game themselves.

#4. Mick Foley

Of all of the top stars of the Attitude Era, Mick Foley may have been the least likely. Foley has claimed in interviews that Vince McMahon signed off on Jim Ross bringing him in with the expectation he’d fail, and given his track record leading into his WWE career, he didn’t exactly come across as a slam dunk signee. Foley didn’t have the physique of a WWE favorite, and it was questionable if his hardcore sensibilities would jive with WWE programming.

Foley did get over, though, as the onset of Attitude jived perfectly with his wrestling style and personality, and his offbeat success with WWE in this most-watched era paved the way for him to cross over to success outside the wrestling business. First and foremost, his book, Have a Nice Day was not only a great read and a New York Times bestseller, and not only set up Foley for a number of successful books to follow, but opened up mainstream publishing to the idea that wrestling memoirs could be a success, and launched an industry.

Foley’s work as an author are his most notable efforts since retiring from full-time wrestling, but he has also thrived in various returns to wrestling as a limited-run in-ring performer for runs designed to elevate Randy Orton and Edge, besides an oft-forgotten run as TNA World Champion. He’s also succeeded in philanthropy, partnering with Tori Amos’s RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), and was even the subject of his own short reality TV series for the WWE Network, Holy Foley. Add on his one man shows and he’s a big star who blossomed even further coming out of the Attitude Era.

#3. Chris Jericho

In terms of wrestling, Chris Jericho was just finding his footing as a top-level, national star during the Attitude Era. He bounced from WCW to WWE at the peak of the Monday Night War and immediately fit in based on a combination of enough in-ring skill to dazzle crowds and enough personality to get himself over on the mic when given the opportunity. During the Attitude Era, Jericho beat Triple H for a phantom world title victory (he had to return the title in the same episode of Raw on a technicality) and in the immediate aftermath of Attitude, he’d move up to more full-fledged, more permanent main event status. While he had some great performances in his first five years with the company, Jericho would interestingly do even better work down the road, arguably arriving at his prime in the late 00s in his suit-wearing, serious heel gimmick, in addition to a fun run with Kevin Owens from 2016 to 2017.

Jericho’s wrestling accomplishments post-Attitude might put him in contention for this countdown, but its his success outside the wrestling world that have shored up a top five spot. Jericho became a successful author, starting with his best book, A Lion’s Tale, which was not only a great read but demonstrated great foresight as he shrewdly held back material to have additional content for additional books to re-attain bestseller status over and over in the years to follow. Jericho isn’t just a literary success, story, though, as he also succeeded in growing his band Fozzy from a novelty and vanity project to a legit rock band, produced a well-received comedy series called But I’m Chris Jericho. More recently, his Talk is Jericho podcast has earned acclaim and a sizable audience, giving way to him starting the Jericho Network, hosting podcasts for others. Jericho’s latest venture sees him masterminding a wrestling-themed cruise that will feature a live tournament featuring ROH stars.

Today, Jericho is a special talent who has been free to come and go from WWE more or less as he pleases, and all the more unique for more recently crossing over to headline for New Japan, and act as a lightning rod for their Wrestle Kingdom 12 spectacular.

As the preceding paragraph suggests, Jericho has emerged as one of the most well-rounded, entrepreneurial stars t come out of the wrestling business, and a real success story coming out of the Attitude Era.

#2. Tripe H

The top of this countdown is occupied by guys who found ways to succeed in world after they moved on from full-time performance in a wrestling ring. Triple H is in the unique position of not only having stayed with the business, in a different role, full-time but actually bettered his position. At WrestleMania 16, Helmesley became the first heel to successfully defend a world championship at WrestleMania. Little could anyone have suspected that he’d walk into the main event of WrestleMania 16 years later the heel world champion as well, nor that that would be secondary to his role behind the scenes with WWE.

Yes, Triple H married into the McMahon family which likely as not gave him a leg up in both his on-screen and backstage work with WWE. However, the guy’s work ethic and level head also went a long way as he earned his way into a spot as Vice President of Talent, Live Events, and Creative which includes signing talent and heading up NXT. It’s widely expected that he may succeed his father-in-law as the creative head of the company, and run WWE at large alongside his wife.

While you can very reasonably argue that Steve Austin and Mick Foley have achieved equal or greater celebrity to Triple H, Helmesley has uniquely positioned himself as heir to the most powerful spot in the wrestling world, not to mention a more stably high income than any of his Attitude Era colleagues (with the exception of the guy ranked at number one). That’s good enough to secure the number two spot in my book.

#1. The Rock

As I’d like to think this countdown would attest, the Attitude Era set up a larger number, and wider variety of success stories than most wrestling eras, and particularly guys who achieved at a higher level than top performers from other periods. The Rock is a next level star altogether, though.

Sure, if you want to talk about wrestling accomplishments alone, The Rock holds his own. After thriving in his increasingly part-time work for the years to immediately follow Attitude, he then came back to headline two WrestleManias and win a world title the better part of a decade after he’d seemingly retired from wrestling. Those accomplishments alone would put him on this countdown.

Outside of wrestling is where Rock has really shone, though, emerging as a genuine top-tier movie star. It’s not a new observation—a number of other writers on wrestling have made the observation—but he became what Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin never could as the first elite pro wrestling star to genuinely cross over and become more famous for his work outside wrestling than he was for wrestling itself (OK, you could argue for Jesse Ventura, too, in the realm of politics, but I’d argue didn’t reach quite the right level in wrestling to qualify for that categorization).

I don’t place The Rock on my WWE Mount Rushmore—I feel Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and John Cena get those spots to date based on longevity, over-ness, and top star status. I place Rock more alongside (albeit at the front of the pack among) guys like Randy Savage, Triple H, and—if we were to equivocate between eras—Randy Orton as the second biggest star in the company for most of his prime, on a similar tier to guys like Andre the Giant, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker who earn consideration for the size of their leged, their quality of performance and/or length of service. Just the same, when you talk about guys who were major wrestling stars who crossed over to become legit household names, he is without peer, across any era.

Who would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.