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Attitude Era

madunit

madunit

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62,358
Jack_Napier said:
Dude, even now some of the real memorable episodes/feuds are just so freaking enjoyable. Watching the re-emergence of foley after he lost the early momentum he had when he first hit the WWE is as good as I remember it. Also get a tad teary watching the Owen Hart tribute episode, man that was a full on episode, seeing the whole roster literally in tears was and still is a toughie.

Te quality of the DVDs I've got aren't the best as they were clearly recorded off foxtel every Tuesday night back in the day but its still enjoyable as hell.

I had planned to try and get the PPV's for 98-99 as well but never got around to it.
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trying to remember some of the fueds.

Kane v Undertaker & Mankind
Undertaker v Austin
Austin v Rock and Vince
Triple H v Rock
DX v The Nation
Owen Hart v Ken Shamrock v Steve Blackman
Val Venis against those japanese guys "chop off your wee wee" lol)
 
Jack_Napier

Jack_Napier

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Staff member
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3,622
madunit said:
Austin/McMahon for mine

They sold that so f**king well!

best storyline ever in any wrestling show ever
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Yep agreed. Vince was as good as anyone on the roster during that feud. Got a bit ridiculous when the undertaker/ministry angle happened.

Wcw vs NWO was good but IMO it got outta hand when literally anyone remotely known was switching sides to NWO. The start of the nWo/Wcw feud was great. The whole hostile take over angle and hall and Nash taking over schiavone and the brain broadcasts were great. Was oly until the Wolfpack split when I started getting into it big time again.

Thankfully Nitro and Raw never clashed back in the day, Raw was Tuesdays and Nitro was Saturday night on TCM.

Might have to break out 98 Raws again with all this attitude era talk.
 
Big Pete

Big Pete

Referee
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28,976
Great comparison penny.

It's a tough one.

Austin was a way better face than anybody on the WCW roster. Even Sting couldn't compare because when he came back he was lazy and got absolutely punked out. Luger, Flair, Arn, DDP, Mysterio had their moments but none of them was bad-ass as the Texas Rattlesnake for my money.

However, the nWo were so much cooler than Vince who just reminded me of a jacked up Mr. Sheffield from the Nanny. :lol: "Miss Fiiiine!" indeed. They clearly made it work and had Vince hire guys like Kane, Taker and The Rock to do his bidding but there were times where I thought Vince over-shadowed them and it really ruined my interest in the matches.

Both storylines also ran too long. The nWo should have ended early 1998 while Austin/McMahon should have ended at Mania XV. Both ran too long and jumped the shark with the Wolfpac/Elite/B Team/LWO/Fingerpoke of Doom and the High Power/Austin as CEO/Vince as champion etc. respectively.

However when they were at their best, the nWo was just so much more interesting to me.
 
S

Styles clash

Juniors
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583
Tommy Smith said:
I've been looking up a lot of stuff about the Attitude Era lately, and the start and end points of this amazing era seem to be vague.

Every site or article I read has somewhat differing opinions.

And so I was just wondering what the experts on here thought were the defining BEGINNING and END moments of the Attitude era... if they can indeed be simplified into specific moments/PPVs...

Also would you consider it by far the most entertaining era of wrestling you've ever seen?
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Start Survivor Series 1997. End March 2002 with final pre-brand split Raw and SmackDown. Though that start is a little arbitrary (WWE pushed it to downplay Bret Hart's importance) so it's probably worth starting at February 1997 when Raw becomes 2 hours. I'll watch Feb-Nov 1997 eventually.
 
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Valheru

Valheru

Coach
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17,635
Styles clash said:
Start Survivor Series 1997. End March 2002 with final pre-brand split Raw and SmackDown. Though that start is a little arbitrary (WWE pushed it to downplay Bret Hart's importance) so it's probably worth starting at February 1997 when Raw becomes 2 hours. I'll watch Feb-Nov 1997 eventually.
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I said King of the Ring 1996 earlier int he thread but 6 years on I would have to revise that. The Pillman gun angle in October 1996 was their first real attempt at something very edgy. They were actually blasted by the USA network for doing it and the show was nearly cancelled. The angle was never mentioned again.

Austin's promos against Bret Hart leading up to survivor series 1996 were really the prototype for the next 4 years of programming so I would put that as the start of the era.

The end is probably more difficult to define. I sad WMX7 but that is really the end of the Monday night wars, not necessarily the attitude era.
 
S

Styles clash

Juniors
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583
Valheru said:
I said King of the Ring 1996 earlier int he thread but 6 years on I would have to revise that. The Pillman gun angle in October 1996 was their first real attempt at something very edgy. They were actually blasted by the USA network for doing it and the show was nearly cancelled. The angle was never mentioned again.

Austin's promos against Bret Hart leading up to survivor series 1996 were really the prototype for the next 4 years of programming so I would put that as the start of the era.

The end is probably more difficult to define. I sad WMX7 but that is really the end of the Monday night wars, not necessarily the attitude era.
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There's no real hard start and end given how wrestling flows. Survivor Series 1997-WrestleMania 2001 is indisputably Attitude Era with who the wrestlers were.
 
S

Styles clash

Juniors
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583
Styles clash said:
There's no real hard start and end given how wrestling flows. Survivor Series 1997-WrestleMania 2001 is indisputably Attitude Era with who the wrestlers were.
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Thinking on this more post-WrestleMania 17 through to just before the brand split a year later is Late Stage Attitude Era.
 
pennywisealfie

pennywisealfie

Coach
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13,777
I've watched a few recently too. It's no surprise how much of a fan I was. I think storyline wise 98-99 was the best ever.

But talent wise, 2000 is on another level. With no Stone Cold for most of the year. The GOAT and most over wrestler of all time out and they don't miss a beat. Somehow they held the main event scene together by just throwing Triple H and The Rock at each other with smatterings of ABA Undertaker and Mankind. But the midcard is so good. Jericho coming into his own, early days Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Latino Heat Eddy Guerrero, Perry Saturn losing his mind, Edge & Christian in their heel tag champs days, The Hardy Boyz & The Dudleys chasing the titles constantly, DX. Must watch television at the time.
 
Valheru

Valheru

Coach
Messages
17,635
pennywisealfie said:
I've watched a few recently too. It's no surprise how much of a fan I was. I think storyline wise 98-99 was the best ever.

But talent wise, 2000 is on another level. With no Stone Cold for most of the year. The GOAT and most over wrestler of all time out and they don't miss a beat. Somehow they held the main event scene together by just throwing Triple H and The Rock at each other with smatterings of ABA Undertaker and Mankind. But the midcard is so good. Jericho coming into his own, early days Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Latino Heat Eddy Guerrero, Perry Saturn losing his mind, Edge & Christian in their heel tag champs days, The Hardy Boyz & The Dudleys chasing the titles constantly, DX. Must watch television at the time.
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Yes 2000 was the year the WWF could finally put on a high quality lower and mid card to match the upper mid card and main event scene which had been on fire since Wrestlemania 12 really.

Look at the 1996 and 1997 PPVs, I personally count 14 of the 24 PPVs having 4+ star main events and a couple of others with upper mid card classics. The problem was the lower and mid cards were almost always ordinary.

The trend continued in 98 and 99 but not as pronounced and then when the likes of Angle, Jericho, Benoit, Guererro, Malenko, Edge etc. came through they were able to produce what must be the most phenomenal stretch of PPV shows from Survivor series 99 through to KOTR 2001.
 
S

Styles clash

Juniors
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583
Survivor Series 2001

Jazz debuts. She's an Alliance member for about 90 minutes :p

WWF wins the winner-take-all main event. The Alliance is defeated. The Invasion angle finished.

The Invasion angle wasn't nearly as good as it should've been. Absence of actual headline WCW names besides Booker T and DDP hurt it. Having WWF wrestlers lead it in the storylines hurt it. Making it a big McMahon vs McMahon angle hurt it. If you were a WCW fan or a WWF fan with a reasonable knowledge of what WCW was it must've been underwhelming.

Viewed in this context, that most of the 2001 Nitro audience didn't become Raw viewers makes much sense. They were WCW fans and Vince McMahon did a good job running the WCW name down. It literally ends with Vince McMahon waving his fists like he's won a grand final.

Salt in the wound: Most absent WCW headliners would end up in WWF days, weeks and months after this.
 
RedVDave

RedVDave

First Grade
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5,598
The era IMO started with Badd blood 1997 (the last time Vince was on the commentary team) also look how cheesy the promo posters are prior to that PPV with Kane's debut they went with a darker and more cutting edge product the attitude era died at the conclusion of the crappy invasion angle (survivor series 2001)
 
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