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Post by intervention on Jun 8, 2011 0:24:53 GMT -5
While the shift in tone was gradual and took over a year, I'd date the start of the Attitude Era to right after Survivor Series '97, both since that's when the "WWF Attitude" ads started running and because that PPV was the last hurrah of the feud that'd been running off and on for the previous five years between the New Generation's two top stars, Bret and Shawn. Yeah, it was a slow burn, really. I would say the first moment was Diesel throwing Bret Hart through the table at Survivor Series '95. After that, WWF was peppered with what would become "Attitude": Bret's blade job at the following PPV, Shotgun Saturday Night, Diesel giving Undertaker the finger at Rumble '96, anything involving Goldust.... I think it didn't come in full effect until after the screwjob, and at that point, it was strictly a branding tactic that went wild. Symbolically, it could have been when Austin destroyed Doink at the Slammys, amidst chants of "Kill The Clown!"
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Post by celticjobber on Jun 8, 2011 0:32:11 GMT -5
While the shift in tone was gradual and took over a year, I'd date the start of the Attitude Era to right after Survivor Series '97, both since that's when the "WWF Attitude" ads started running and because that PPV was the last hurrah of the feud that'd been running off and on for the previous five years between the New Generation's two top stars, Bret and Shawn. Yeah, it was a slow burn, really. I would say the first moment was Diesel throwing Bret Hart through the table at Survivor Series '95. After that, WWF was peppered with what would become "Attitude": Bret's blade job at the following PPV, Shotgun Saturday Night, Diesel giving Undertaker the finger at Rumble '96, anything involving Goldust.... I think it didn't come in full effect until after the screwjob, and at that point, it was strictly a branding tactic that went wild. Symbolically, it could have been when Austin destroyed Doink at the Slammys, amidst chants of "Kill The Clown!" In Mick Foley's first book, he said Vince told him that he had originally intended to make the product more edgy in 1993 or 94, but had to hold back because of the federal steroids trial. It would've been interesting to see them with "Attitude" in the early days of Raw.
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Post by Silver on Jun 8, 2011 0:34:59 GMT -5
Yeah, it was a slow burn, really. I would say the first moment was Diesel throwing Bret Hart through the table at Survivor Series '95. After that, WWF was peppered with what would become "Attitude": Bret's blade job at the following PPV, Shotgun Saturday Night, Diesel giving Undertaker the finger at Rumble '96, anything involving Goldust.... I think it didn't come in full effect until after the screwjob, and at that point, it was strictly a branding tactic that went wild. Symbolically, it could have been when Austin destroyed Doink at the Slammys, amidst chants of "Kill The Clown!" In Mick Foley's first book, he said Vince told him that he had originally intended to make the product more edgy in 1993 or 94, but had to hold back because of the federal steroids trial. It would've been interesting to see them with "Attitude" in the early days of Raw. I've never heard that before. I wonder if it would've actually worked?
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El Dandy
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Post by El Dandy on Jun 8, 2011 1:18:10 GMT -5
It was the Austin/Bret feud that kicked it off. Bret cursing on the air, flipping out and starting to jostle with Vince McMahon pretty much broke kayfabe and was the precursor to the whole "attitude" that developed with the WWF.
Then you had Degeneration X develop (which I think Bret originally named when he called Hunter and HBK degenerates in an interview on RAW). The DX-Hart Foundation Feud also had some racial overtones when they had the Nation of Domination involved. The attitude era definitely did not begin after Bret's departure, it was there well before he left.
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fw91
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Post by fw91 on Jun 8, 2011 1:21:43 GMT -5
I like to think of it as the date where Monday Night Raw became "Raw Is WAR" and the red white and blue ropes were replaced with all red, and the debut of the scratch logo
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erisi236
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Post by erisi236 on Jun 8, 2011 1:45:23 GMT -5
It was probably something to do with Austin in any case.
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Post by intervention on Jun 8, 2011 2:44:12 GMT -5
Yeah, it was a slow burn, really. I would say the first moment was Diesel throwing Bret Hart through the table at Survivor Series '95. After that, WWF was peppered with what would become "Attitude": Bret's blade job at the following PPV, Shotgun Saturday Night, Diesel giving Undertaker the finger at Rumble '96, anything involving Goldust.... I think it didn't come in full effect until after the screwjob, and at that point, it was strictly a branding tactic that went wild. Symbolically, it could have been when Austin destroyed Doink at the Slammys, amidst chants of "Kill The Clown!" In Mick Foley's first book, he said Vince told him that he had originally intended to make the product more edgy in 1993 or 94, but had to hold back because of the federal steroids trial. It would've been interesting to see them with "Attitude" in the early days of Raw. Huh, that was likely the original intention of Raw, what with the live-ness, and the New York City. It's a shame, they had some great characters back then- maybe the early interpretation of "Attitude" could have usurped the nWo in creating the wrestling boom? Okay, so probably not... though it would have been better than Demento, Bartlett, and Max Moon...
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Jun 8, 2011 8:05:07 GMT -5
The double turn that ended up with the anti-hero as a face and the franchise babyface as an insane cursing heel would be the starting point. Maybe not officially, but it was born there. I agree for that reason. I think that was the start of the Attitude Era. After that everything just snowballed in 1997. You had Austin becoming a bigger part of the company, Austin attacking Bret in the ambulance and the fans cheering, Taker's character getting darker, Foley's ascension to being a high card face, DX forming, the birth of The Rock, the whole Kane storyline and debut, Austin stunning everyone, and Austin stunning Vince.
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Post by héad.casé on Jun 8, 2011 9:47:27 GMT -5
I would argue it started in early 1996 with the Razor Ramon/Goldust feud leading to the Rumble. The mind games of Goldust definetely freaked me out, and i'll never forget seeing clips of the brawl they had where Razor was kicking the crap out of him and it even went outside in the snow.
But I also felt like it was changing the minute Diesel lost the WWF Title and went tweener, cutting his promo about not being 'that' kind of guy who kisses the babies anymore and the whole PR work involved being WWF Champion made him miserable.
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Post by barthelemykaras on Jun 8, 2011 10:16:07 GMT -5
I consider the official start of it to be Wrestlemania 14. Before that, 1997-early 98 (1997 especially) was a weird transitional period between the New Generation and the Attitude Era.
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Post by wildojinx on Jun 8, 2011 12:51:06 GMT -5
In Mick Foley's first book, he said Vince told him that he had originally intended to make the product more edgy in 1993 or 94, but had to hold back because of the federal steroids trial. It would've been interesting to see them with "Attitude" in the early days of Raw. Huh, that was likely the original intention of Raw, what with the live-ness, and the New York City. It's a shame, they had some great characters back then- maybe the early interpretation of "Attitude" could have usurped the nWo in creating the wrestling boom? Okay, so probably not... though it would have been better than Demento, Bartlett, and Max Moon... They were already getting to that point in 91-92 actually (taker trying to kill warrior, pretty much everything involving jake roberts, the flair/savage angle over elizabeth, slaughter supporting iraq, nailz, heck, you could even throw in heel doink).
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spec
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Post by spec on Jun 8, 2011 19:05:56 GMT -5
Huh, that was likely the original intention of Raw, what with the live-ness, and the New York City. It's a shame, they had some great characters back then- maybe the early interpretation of "Attitude" could have usurped the nWo in creating the wrestling boom? Okay, so probably not... though it would have been better than Demento, Bartlett, and Max Moon... They were already getting to that point in 91-92 actually (taker trying to kill warrior, pretty much everything involving jake roberts, the flair/savage angle over elizabeth, slaughter supporting iraq, nailz, heck, you could even throw in heel doink). Yup, the seeds were being sown this early. Also I think a big factor was when people started to cheer for The Undertaker around this point or just a little later. Here was one of the most evil and macabre characters ever seen in the WWF and yet he suddenly became a favourite to the fans who were sick of the goodie two shoes vitamins-taking, prayers-saying Hulkster. Taker was an anti-hero way before Austin.
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Post by HisRoyalGreeness on Jun 8, 2011 20:16:43 GMT -5
As far as I'm concerned, the Brian Pillman press conference got things moving. I think he gets far too little credit for the Attitude Era. I'm not saying he single handedly started things off but his name rarely gets mentioned in coversations such as this.
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Madagascar Fred
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Post by Madagascar Fred on Jun 9, 2011 4:57:18 GMT -5
I would argue it started in early 1996 with the Razor Ramon/Goldust feud leading to the Rumble. The mind games of Goldust definetely freaked me out, and i'll never forget seeing clips of the brawl they had where Razor was kicking the crap out of him and it even went outside in the snow. But I also felt like it was changing the minute Diesel lost the WWF Title and went tweener, cutting his promo about not being 'that' kind of guy who kisses the babies anymore and the whole PR work involved being WWF Champion made him miserable. these were the seeds indeed...around WM13, Vince REALLY started to go hardcore
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Post by ronnie2hotty on Jun 9, 2011 10:05:27 GMT -5
July 7th, 1996 Bash at the Beach. Hogan turns on WCW, joins the Outsiders, and cuts one of the best (if not THE best) promo's in history.
This was the day WCW became bigger than the WWF in many ways. This caused Vince to step up his game and get rejuvinated.
The Attitude Era was such a slow transition from the New Generation. It was a little wierd at times (some of Golddust's stuff, some of the dumb shoot promos that happened, left over silly characters trying to stay relevant in a new era, etc) but it was such an awesome time looking back at it.
It's difficult to exactly pinpoint a start to the Attitude Era because of the natural slowness of it. I would think that the end of the New Generation was pretty darn close to Shawn Michaels' "Lost Smile Promo".
If I was telling a new fan a starting point to start watching, I would say either the Monday following the Final Four PPV, or a few Mondays after that when they switched to the TitanTron screen and rampway set up for Raw. Everything after the switch just felt and looked completely different from what had been presented before that.
The ending I would say would probably be WrestleMania 18. WM 17 is definitly the climax of the AE, but 18 would be the ending chapter. It would be a shame not to include the Invasion angle (as inept and mishandled as it completely was) simply for the fact that if it had not been for WCW the AE wouldn't have been a exciting.
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Post by nerdinitupagain on Jun 9, 2011 17:24:46 GMT -5
I'll always define it as the Raw where Bret attacked McMahon and said bullshit on the air. That was the night it all changed for me.
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Post by héad.casé on Jun 9, 2011 17:54:19 GMT -5
I also remember they started to make references to Vince owning the company after Diesel had lost the title and kept threatening him. I never knew Vince owned the company, so all I kept wondering was why Diesel kept bullying a commentator every week up until he left.
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Post by fizzeewater on Jun 9, 2011 17:57:37 GMT -5
It started when Austin won the title at WM14.
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Post by kingbookermark on Jun 10, 2011 6:31:53 GMT -5
Austin/Bret, Survivor Series 96. The beginning of that feud set everything in motion. This for me. Since Austin began using curse words at this point.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 10, 2011 7:11:00 GMT -5
Monday, April 14th, 1997: Raw hit a new low and had a quarter-hour register a 1.9 rating; overall they drew a 2.2. The show was crap and everybody knew it.
The Godwinns defeated The Legion of Doom...Hunter Hearst Helmsley pinned Jesse James...Savio Vega pinned Intercontinental Champion, Rocky Maivia, in a non-title match...Goldust defeated The Sultan by Disqualification...Mankind and Vader defeated The Headbangers by Disqualification...Ahmed Johnson pinned Crush.
ECW had a PPV the night before and WCW had a live Nitro show in Philadelphia to counter that.
Chris Benoit pinned The Barbarian...United States Champion, Dean Malenko, defeated Hector Guerrero...Rey Misterio Jr. pinned Juventud Guerrera...World Television Champion, Ultimo Dragon, pinned Lane Carleson...World Cruiserweight Champion, Syxx, defeated Prince Iaukea...Public Enemy defeated High Voltage in a street fight...The Giant pinned Big Al...Diamond Dallas Page pinned Konnan...Jeff Jarrett and Steve McMichael defeated Harlem Heat by Disqualification...Lex Luger defeated Kevin Nash by Disqualification.
Shockingly, WCW put over pretty much anybody who was considered an ECW wrestler. Except "Big Al", who used to wrestle as 911. Even I thought this show was worlds better that that garbage on Raw.
Monday April 21st, 1997: Austin challenges Bret to a street-fight, Austin locks in the sharpshooter on Bret. Bret is carted away to an ambulance. (Owen screaming, "Watch his leg! Don't touch his leg!") Austin pops out of the driver's seat and beats up Bret some more. They drew a 2.8 that week.
Oh! And no Godwinns killing the opening quarter!
Crash TV had begun. Chaos and unpredictability reigned ever since then.
April 7, 1997 2.2 April 14, 1997 2.2 April 21, 1997 2.8 April 28, 1997 3.4 May 5, 1997 3.2 May 12, 1997 3.2 May 19, 1997 3.1
They drew a couple more 2.2 in 1997, but overall the viewship was rising, as more people turned in just to see what Steve Austin was going to do this week.
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