[WWE NETWORK] What Are You Watching?

[BillThompson]

The Attitude Era is by far the worst era I've seen from the WWF/E. It's like any other era in that it produced some great matches and some new stars, but on the whole I find it to be an era where you have to wade through far too much crap to get to the good stuff.

[Big Fresh]

That's not fair. Mr. McMahon, Rock, 2000 Triple H, Foley, Angle/Jericho/Benoit, E&C/Hardyz/Dudleyz. Attitude Era had a lot of great guys and angles to come out of it.

Sure, it's highly overrated because wrestling itself was so hot and folks are nostalgic, but to say the era sucked outside of Austin is highly underrating it.

Also, 2000 WWF was absolutely tremendous.

Nah. It sucks.

[Petey]

You're nuts Bubba. 2000 WWF featured some awesome television.

[Tromatagon]

I'm starting to think Blade 3 is the right movie for Big Fresh

[Vincey Greene]

It's ironic, a lot of attitude era's ridiculousness was excused by the company as "mature, adult content."

Meanwhile there is no era of the WWE that provides as many embarrassing, cringe worthy moments as 98-01.

[mco543]

The only good part about when they'd show the Attitude Era Raws on Classics was you could knock them out in a half hour. So much embarrassing bullshit.

[Big Fresh]

You're nuts Bubba. 2000 WWF featured some awesome television.

 

I just went for the punchline in the 2nd post, but in truth: Yeah, there were more great things outside of Austin. But the whole aura of that era was ADD-riddled. There were no promos that showed character development or made you think at all, it was just repeated catchphrases and gay jokes. Even most of the matches weren't great because they never went longer than 10 minutes (with a few main event exceptions) forcing everyone to rush through their spots as quick as they can (because everyone's gotta get their shit in, brother) and not sell squat. It was just bad crash TV.

[Ziggy]

Started watching ECW tv with the episode before the Night the Line was Crossed

and after a few show I can't figure out why they didn't protect him, push him as heel like an early Brock Lesnar.

[Petey]

Protect who?

[Ziggy]

Awesome. Keep him strong.

[Raziel]

Awesome was a full time FMW worker at that point, ECW was just a few appearances. Plus he fucked up his knee around this time. When he came back later when Taz left, he got the Monster Push.

[hammerva]

WWF in 1999 and 2000 is a lot like a reverse WCW 1995-1998 to me.  WCW was known for some great undercards and a truly embarrassing main event programs.  The WWF is really the opposite as the main event programs with Rock, Austin, Taker, and Triple H were great stuff but the undercard with the exception of the Hardy's/Edge & Christian/Dudleys stuff was really bad and doesn't stand up.  

 

Catching up on the Network with Warrior stuff and I really need some kind of timeline on Daniel Bryan when it comes to the Warrior.  On the WM Rewind he talks about how he loved him and dressed up like him and that 88 Summerslam was his favorite match and then you have Bryan on these countdown shows just completely shitting on him. 

[eikerir]

Watched Beach Blast 92 last night, cringed at the ridiculous amount of concrete bumps that Foley took in his match with Sting.

[goc]

I've watched a match here or there off of WWE PPV's from 98-99 but there is NO WAY I would sit through a whole PPV. There are some seriously shitty undercard matches in 98. Like how does the Godwins vs The Quebecers get a PPV match in 98?

[Domino_Not_Deuce]

I've watched a match here or there off of WWE PPV's from 98-99 but there is NO WAY I would sit through a whole PPV. There are some seriously shitty undercard matches in 98. Like how does the Godwins vs The Quebecers get a PPV match in 98?

 

I've thought the same with the brand-specific PPVs I've been watching. I wouldn't sit through The Bashams vs. Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas on Velocity, never mind on PPV.

[goc]

That's a fair point but I actually was intrigued enough to watch Charlie Haas vs. Luther Reigns. Couldn't say the same for some of that Attitude Era stuff, although I did watch the Good Housekeeping Match and found Chyna vs Jeff Jarrett to be a perfectly fun garbage match.

[The Nature Boy]

I'm watching the Legends Roundtable discussion on RAW. It's weird to see Mean Gene defending WCW on some fronts here. JR and Gene got into it regardin whether or not WCW talent had guaranteed contracts.

[ivpvideos]

The attitude era was a product of its time. Go back and watch things that were hot back then and it is all cringe inducing. Early South Park, Jerry Springer, The Tom Green Show. All of it is vile, crude, ADD programming.

 

Been watching random matches that I either hadn't seen or haven't seen in years.

 

Vader vs. Razor Ramon in Razor's last WWE match was shockingly good. I expected an extended squash but Razor got in a lot including kicking out of a Vader bomb.

 

Diesel talked about how his amazing match with HBK in Omaha so I checked out the street fight from the same IYH. Diesel hits an absolute brutal power bomb thru the announce table with the monitors sitting on top of it still. They both fall down on top of HBK in brutal fashion.

 

I stopped watching WWF in 1996 when Bret left and didn't come back until early 1997 so I missed a lot of things from that time period. Got on an Ahmed Johnson kick lately and if he wasn't so injury prone he would have easily been the world champ.

 

Six man tag from the PPV before Summerslam with Ahmed, Sid and HBK vs. Vader, Bulldog and Owen is fantastic. Solid work all around with a hot crowd even though a part of me wishes Warrior made the booking as Vader vs. Warrior seems like such a strange match. Vader wins to setup the main event of Summerslam.

[Petey]

Early South Park was awesome! You take that back.

 

Also, I loved Ahmed Johnson as much as the next guy, but he was horrendous on the mic.

[goc]

Ahmed was so awesome at that time period, he seemed like he absolutely would be the next big star. Injuries would have probably always derailed his career but they definitely didn't help him with that heel turn where he joined The Nation.

[JRGoldman]

The undercard for attitude era stuff has aged so incredibly poorly. The funny thing is most fans who have rose colored glasses for that time period would cite the promotion of the undercard as one of the strengths of the era. It's the same reasoning as people complaining that today's WWE doesn't have a mid card. I think looking back, one of the best things about the presentation of the attitude era was how easy it was to be a fan of someone in the lower card, but that doesn't make those shows any easier to sit through now. Same with the Royal Rumbles, which are super thin in retrospect.

[Greggulator]

The Attitude Era is really hit-or-miss. There's a lot of classic stuff: Austin vs. Mr. McMahon and his various machinations; the rise of The Rock; Foley, etc. But so much of it is just utter trash. I can't believe I watched a lot of the stuff -- especially the degradation of women, the dumb DX "humor" stuff, etc. And then the promo stuff became so friggin' awful. Probably 25% of a lot of those shows was dedicated to crap like The New Age Outlaws neverending intro or the Too Cool dance parties or The Rock's catchphrases or HHH hogging the ring for 30 minutes.

 

For where I'm at in my life now, the current product kills the Attitude Era every way imaginable. The characters are more enjoyable. Daniel Bryan is a great traditional babyface -- he doesn't beat women in the ring or attack innocent people. He has great foils in The Authority. The Shield rules. The Wyatt Family are so much better than the snooze-fest that was The Ministry. Cesaro and Heyman are fantastic. Zeb Colter's one of the all-time great mid-card acts. And even though the divas division stinks I'd much rather see what it is now than Trish barking like a dog or skanks like The Kat ding stuff that feels like it's a deleted scene from The Accused.

I have no idea what I would think if classic-era ECW was a current product. I'm way passed hardcore wrestling these days and I certainly don't need bloodbaths anymore. But I think I'd still really love Sabu and Shane Douglass' promos and New Jack jumping from balconies and Stevie Richards' stooge act. And Tommy Dreamer getting caned in the sack. That's one of the best moments of my life.

[Greggulator]

The attitude era was a product of its time. Go back and watch things that were hot back then and it is all cringe inducing. Early South Park, Jerry Springer, The Tom Green Show. All of it is vile, crude, ADD programming.

 

Been watching random matches that I either hadn't seen or haven't seen in years.

 

Vader vs. Razor Ramon in Razor's last WWE match was shockingly good. I expected an extended squash but Razor got in a lot including kicking out of a Vader bomb.

 

Diesel talked about how his amazing match with HBK in Omaha so I checked out the street fight from the same IYH. Diesel hits an absolute brutal power bomb thru the announce table with the monitors sitting on top of it still. They both fall down on top of HBK in brutal fashion.

 

I stopped watching WWF in 1996 when Bret left and didn't come back until early 1997 so I missed a lot of things from that time period. Got on an Ahmed Johnson kick lately and if he wasn't so injury prone he would have easily been the world champ.

 

Six man tag from the PPV before Summerslam with Ahmed, Sid and HBK vs. Vader, Bulldog and Owen is fantastic. Solid work all around with a hot crowd even though a part of me wishes Warrior made the booking as Vader vs. Warrior seems like such a strange match. Vader wins to setup the main event of Summerslam.

 

Also look at the music scene back then. The rock music that defined that era -- the Woodstock 99 main stage -- was the absolute worst crap ever recorded. I have no idea how Fred Durst became a thing (and he is a thing) when just a few years before Teenage Fanclub was the music guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Jason Priestly. The WWE's product really did mirror the lowest common denominator vibe of the era.

I talked w/ my brother about another thing with it, though. Wrestling in a lot of ways hasn't just reflected pop culture. It's also forecasted it, too. Austin was the ultimate wrestling anti-hero bad-ass. Almost all of the most acclaimed shows of the past two decades (The Sopranos, Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad) have been focused around that same archetype. And I know this might be opening up a bag-of-worms (please oh please don't make this into a political debate everyone/anyone) but I think you can also draw a line from Austin 3:16 to the Tea Party libertarian movement, too.

I think the current run also really reflects pop culture, too. Geek culture reigns supreme. I think wrestling has certainly become an accepted part of nerd culture. A lot of the more lunkhead types who made it hard to stomach going to shows with (dudes who would wear Wolfpack T-Shirts, for instance) have migrated MMA. The Attitude Era certainly rooted for Austin. But the current era really identifies with Daniel Bryan. He grew up a wrestling geek and speaks our language. And if you factor in that LCD Soundsystem had its farewell show at Madison Square Garden and Bryan collects vinyl, he also taps in a bit to the whole indie culture vibe, too. Orton and Batista and HHH are the perfect foils for him, since they're such relics of the past and the ultimate soulless cool kids no one actually likes.

[Brian Fowler]

Even in the 90's, there were a lot of us who often said "WCW's midcard with WWF's main events would be the best thing ever."

 

Then Vince signed Jericho, HWSNBN, Eddy, and Malenko, and we basically got just that.  And 2000 was a really great in-ring year for the WWF.

[Greggulator]

Even in the 90's, there were a lot of us who often said "WCW's midcard with WWF's main events would be the best thing ever."

 

Then Vince signed Jericho, HWSNBN, Eddy, and Malenko, and we basically got just that.  And 2000 was a really great in-ring year for the WWF.

 

The Jericho signing is Attitude Era to a t. His debut was so friggin' great. It's one of the defining moments of the era, I think. But he went from that to a feud with the completely worthless Chyna that somehow involved the two of them sharing a title. I mean, Jericho obviously survived but that was absolutely the dumbest thing possible.