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LTTP: The WWF's "Attitude Era"

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Most of the Attitude Era is unwatchable nowadays. It's really bad outside of nostalgia. But even so it's a lot better than today, because at the time it was really enjoyable. I don't know what kids see in the product today. A bunch of boring ass regular dudes.
 
WWF's side of the Monday Night Wars is mostly held up by the upper-card stuff with Austin and McMahon. Mid-card stuff wavered between good and bad, and stuff like the womens division and low-card stuff was an absolute joke.
 
Despite the poor quality of most matches the attitude era felt like a must-watch, something huge might happen any second, whereas most of the time now when you tune in things feel stale and formulaic.
 
Who watches wrestling for the matches anyway? To me that's like watching Rocky for the boxing part. Stories is what it's all about. I fast forward every Raw match today unless there's a good story behind it. (So all the time)
 
Lothar said:
Who watches wrestling for the matches anyway? To me that's like watching Rocky for the boxing part. Stories is what it's all about. I fast forward every Raw match today unless there's a good story behind it. (So all the time)
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If there's a good mix, it's bad. As WCW shows with ten minutes of wrestling proved
 
Lothar said:
Who watches wrestling for the matches anyway? To me that's like watching Rocky for the boxing part. Stories is what it's all about. I fast forward every Raw match today unless there's a good story behind it. (So all the time)
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The stories in the attitude era were not exactly the greatest.

The biggest matches of the attitude era were:

Bret Hart vs Austin at Mania 13 (Story: They didn't like each other)
Rock vs Austin at Mania 15 and 17 (Story: They didn't like each other and Austin wanted the title)
Austin vs. Undertaker at Summerslam 98 (Story: They didn't like each other and Undertaker wanted the title)
Rock vs HHH multiple times (Story: They didn't like each other).

Wrestling works best when kept as simple as possible.
 
Those Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit ppv matches were the best. Didn't matter who the face or heel was the crowd would give both a standing ovation after the match. They were 2 of the best in ring workers.
 
Loved this time period as a wrestling fan.

It will never be this good again.

Also, have any if you actually had a correct mandible claw applied to you? If so, you wold know it hurts like hell.

A sock though, removes all threat.

A literal gag move.
 
The one thing I'll always remember about the Attitude era was that from about 1996 until roughly 2000, pro-wrestling was the must-watch thing. Tuesday mornings were always buzzing about what happened the night before, and it seemed like a bunch of age demographics all tuned in.
 
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! said:
The biggest matches of the attitude era were:

Bret Hart vs Austin at Mania 13 (Story: They didn't like each other)
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It's shocking that you would reduce the story to this. Do you understand why the double turn happened? Whether they liked each other or didn't like each other was irrelevant. It was more about Austin using Bret to make a name for himself. And Bret getting frustrated because even though he proved himself better than Austin time and time again, it didn't matter. It wasn't good enough for the fans and it wasn't good enough to get what he wanted because he was constantly getting cheated. Not by Austin but by everyone. Bret's tantrum that he threw a week before WM wasn't because of something Austin did. It was because of something Undertaker did. This was the best story in all of wrestling and not liking Austin had nothing to do with it. Bret was frustrated with the entire WWF including the fans. (This led to the great USA vs Canada wrestling war of 97)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38iaiv_bret-vs-stone-cold-promo_tv - Video package before WM13
 
Lothar said:
It's shocking that you would reduce the story to this. Do you understand why the double turn happened? Whether they liked each other or didn't like each other was irrelevant. It was more about Austin using Bret to make a name for himself. And Bret getting frustrated because even though he proved himself better than Austin time and time again, it didn't matter. It wasn't good enough for the fans and it wasn't good enough to get what he wanted because he was constantly getting cheated. Not by Austin but by everyone. Bret's tantrum that he threw a week before WM wasn't because of something Austin did. It was because of something Undertaker did. This was the best story in all of wrestling and not liking Austin had nothing to do with it. Bret was frustrated with the entire WWF including the fans. (This led to the great USA vs Canada wrestling war of 97)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38iaiv_bret-vs-stone-cold-promo_tv - Video package before WM13
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My point was, it was a relatively simple storyline (and one that has been done many times in pro wrestling). They also definitely hated each other and it was def relevant but that's kinda beside the point. The point is the AE wasn't known for these kind of storylines, it was mostly known for things like Val Venis almost getting his penis chopped off, one of the Road Warriors being an addict, the dumb as shit higher power storyline, nonsensical heel turns, titles being traded off every week etc. The few high points to rise above that were relatively simple storylines that have been done in wrestling for years.
 
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! said:
My point was, it was a relatively simple storyline (and one that has been done many times in pro wrestling). They also definitely hated each other and it was def relevant but that's kinda beside the point. The point is the AE wasn't known for these kind of storylines, it was mostly known for things like Val Venis almost getting his penis chopped off, one of the Road Warriors being an addict, the dumb as shit higher power storyline, nonsensical heel turns, titles being traded off every week etc. The few high points to rise above that were relatively simple storylines that have been done in wrestling for years.
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I find this to be a pretty false accounting of what most people actually take away & remember about the attitude era.
 
I think it's full of both good complex storylines that get you invested into the characters and just fun entertaining stuff like Val Venis. I don't see how a masterfully crafted double turn that makes the fans turn against the wrestler is simple. For another example, Mankind. He made people feel sorry for him at the same time as he was assaulted baby face wrestlers and vowing to inflict pain on everyone because he wanted them to suffer. He became a good guy in the 97 during the interview where he gives JR the mandible claw, which made fans have complicated emotions about him.
 
Uno Venova said:
I find this to be a pretty false accounting of what most people actually take away & remember about the attitude era.
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What people remember from the attitude era is the good shit that I already listed: Austin vs Rock/Taker/Bret etc feuds. What the attitude actually was was mostly borderline incomprehensible storylines that were done without much thought beyond "how can we beat WCW tonight?"
 
1998 in the bag.

Gotta say, this has definitely been the most entertaining year of the 3 I've gone through. The Austin/McMahon feud has been great, Kane/Taker was great, Mankind becoming a goofball was great (minus Socko which is pretty dumb). Lots of other fun stuff like Val Venis and The Corporation stuff.

Onwards to 99 and my favorite part of every year, The Royal Rumble.
 
11 chair shots to the head while handcuffed? I'll say it again, Mick Foley is out of his freaking mind.

Jesus.
 
J2 Cool said:
Been watching some amazing reviews of old WWF events. https://www.youtube.com/user/OSWreviewHD/videos

Give's promos leading up to the matches, and a bunch of context for the time period. It's pretty glorious, I adore '89-92.
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I wish OSW did the Attitude Era or following the Austin v. McMahon storyline.

I know that there's a podcast for it, The Attitude Era podcast, but it's really not nearly as good as OSW. OSW Review shits on bad gimmicks and bad wrestlers, but they don't think that everything is bad, and even a lot of the bad stuff, they really like it because it's bad. Attitude Era Podcast seriously just hates wrestling. They seemingly hate every PPV except for the really, really great ones, it's so odd, especially because most of them are coming from an era where pro-wrestling storylines and motivations are really bad, and Attitude era was when they were the best in the business.

Sinatar said:
11 chair shots to the head while handcuffed? I'll say it again, Mick Foley is out of his freaking mind.

Jesus.
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There's been a lot of talk about that over the years, and the general consensus is that they agreed to 5 chair shots, and in the heat of the moment, Foley and Rock were playing up to the heat and just kept going against everything they had agreed to.
 
Sinatar said:
11 chair shots to the head while handcuffed? I'll say it again, Mick Foley is out of his freaking mind.

Jesus.
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The fucked up thing is that's not the first time he did that. He did almost the exact same match with Shane Douglas before (that one was 11 too I think) and I guess decided that it was a good enough idea to do AGAIN.

1416688566159
 
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! said:
The fucked up thing is that's not the first time he did that. He did almost the exact same match with Shane Douglas before (that one was 11 too I think) and I guess decided that it was a good enough idea to do AGAIN.

1416688566159
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God damn. If there's one thing from this era that disturbs me, it's the chair shots.
 
The Hamburglar said:
What would be th best way to watch raw and smackdown from 1999 to 2005v
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It's all on the WWE network, you can sort the shows by year.

I really wish there was a way to have all the content sorted by year so I don't have to keep jumping back and forth between a Raw tab and a PPV tab (and soon a Smackdown tab).
 
Bizazedo said:
Don't forget, Foley's family and small children were front row for that madness.


Jebus.
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Don't get it twisted, that was the ONLY reason you hear Foley complain about it. Dude was a glutton for punishment and he loved how good those things came off on TV.

In fact, the whole Socko thing and the comedic turn to Mankind's character was Vince's idea - he had to neuter Foley so he wouldn't kill himself in the ring.
 
Bizazedo said:
Don't forget, Foley's family and small children were front row for that madness.
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Which made me lose respect for Foley. Why the fuck would he have his small children there? Even if it was 5 chair shots like it was supposed to be. That was enough to make them cry as shown in the movie Beyond the Mat. They didn't stick around to watch the whole thing. They left crying after the first few chair shots.
 
It seemed to me Rock realised he went too far (after reading Foley's first book was it?) and he went out of his way for Mick ever since then.
 
Sinatar said:
1998 in the bag.

Gotta say, this has definitely been the most entertaining year of the 3 I've gone through. The Austin/McMahon feud has been great, Kane/Taker was great, Mankind becoming a goofball was great (minus Socko which is pretty dumb). Lots of other fun stuff like Val Venis and The Corporation stuff.

Onwards to 99 and my favorite part of every year, The Royal Rumble.
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I love the '98 Rumble. The lead up with Austin beating everyone down before the event. '97 is quite good too.

Oh, and long forgot, but also enjoyed HBK getting surprise super kicks on Austin leading up to WM14, in the way he was accustomed to using the stone cold stunner on people. They had a solid chemistry.
 
Watching the first episode of Smackdown and wow, Gangrel should never ever be given a mic again. He is so so so incredibly awkward and it completely ruined his whole evil vampire shtick.
 
Wow they actually successfully face turned Vince and the crowd is buying it. Didn't think that'd be possible.
 
The current WWE product is just awful so I decided to rewatch the Attitude era. I lived through this era and loved every minute of it. I remember recording RAW on Monday nights because of work and watching it afterwards. I ran over to my friends house who didn't have cable and watched it again to show him what happened. I started rewatching the Raw after Wrestlemania 13. Damn, this Bret vs Stone Cold rivalry is intense. You really think these two had it in for each other.
 
Sinatar said:
Watching the first episode of Smackdown and wow, Gangrel should never ever be given a mic again. He is so so so incredibly awkward and it completely ruined his whole evil vampire shtick.
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Oh, you're about to hit the Kreski era, aka god mode WWE. After Jarrett leaves, you'll notice a shift.
 
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