Jun 29 2009
Was the Attitude Era overrated?
Wrestling fans are, by and large, historians. We here on the Internet love to discuss days gone by, to reminsice about the past, to compare x to y, to say how the curent product sucks and how it wasn’t as good as {insert era here}.
One period of time wrestling fans love to travel back to was the late 1990s boom, colliqually referred to as the “Attitude era”. This was when a good majority of the population tuned in to get a gander at what ol’ Vinnie Mac was running.
I have it on good authority from regular folks and non-wrestling fans that they enjoyed watching during the heyday of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, DX, and Ministry-era Undertaker. These were the years when The Angry Cynic, as a tiny but brewing malcontent, got into wrasslin’ as we know it.
For those unaware, the Attitude Era was basically wrestling’s response to the alternative rock movement: it was characterized by vulgar language, scantily-clad women, obscene and controversial storylines. On a deeper level, it focused on shorter matches, more backstage skits, numerous face and heel turns, and often seemingly illogical swerves and incoherent storylines.
But, as I ponder these matters, and search in my heart for why I exactly revere this incarnation that Russo was writing, I have to play the devil’s advocate and ask myself: Was it really that great? We constantly talk about how awesome it was, but did it really have all the quality and substance that we demand in a typical broadcast?
Keep in mind, the true reason the ratings were so high was because of the lurid subject matter they dealt with in that day. You had blood for the first time on a Monday night show, people nearly stripping, and wrestlers betraying each other left and right, with very little rhyme or reason.
Did that really make it a compelling product, or was the public simply fascinated with it because it appealed to our more stupid urges? It’s the trash TV/Jerry Springer syndrome: people will always be drawn out of curisoity to view something if it violates most of our held moral assumptions, if only for a brief second.
Once the initial shock of breaking most taboos wore off, people tuned out. There wasnothing of substance in the matches or characters to keep them hooked in. They had exhausted every possible disgusting turn they could. Once the rock n’ roll mindset wore off, they switched up their direction and had to fall back on what brough them to the game: wrestling.
As I mentioned up above, the matches were shorter and the in-ring promos and circus-like atmosphere were longer. The average match on RAW then would last 3 or 4 minutes, tops. There was no time to build to an exciting conclusion and demonstrate match psychology. Vince Russo has long been known as a guy who could really care less about the actual wrestling, instead preferrin to focus on the pagneatry of the specacle and showcase lowbrow humor.
Here’s a match from the peak of the Attitude Era from Wrestlemania. Note the wild, unfocused brawling and the bullshit DQ ending. And remember, this is Wrestlemania, the Grandaddy of ‘Em Al, the Grandest Stage of Them All, supposedly a showcase for the WWE (well, WWF at that time) and a PPV that people plopped down hard-earned money for.
And now, let’s get into the (arguably) most absurd part of the Attitude Era: the storylines. If one looked past the T&A, the insane hardcore matches, and the mic work from Triple H and Vince McMahon, and really looked into the storylines, one could conceivably have their head explode.
Let’s let look at the insanity that was the Corporate Ministry, shall we? Supposedly Underaker started becoming evil to torment Vince McMahon, even though a few months back he may (or may not have) been in cahoots with him to win the title from Stone Cold.
So he forms this satantic cult where he recruits people by abducting them and beating them. After some time, he stalks and torments Vince McMahon, who is still a heel on account of going after Austin and leading the Corporation. Then they reveal they were all in cahoots to screw over Austin.
But wait, Shane kicks Vince out the group, and so they merge to form the Corporate Ministry, which negates the two groups fighting for months. Somewhere along the line, Ken Shamrock from getting abducted by UT, but gets kicked out, which turns him face.
Or you’d have crap where HHH reunited with Chyna but then turned on X-Pac later that night to be a bad guy and join the Corporation. Nevermind a year later he’d end up feuding with Vince and reforming DX, only to merge later with them to form the McMahon-Helmsley faction. I’m suprised SCSA kept his popularity all this time, although it could argued he was always essentially an anti-hero/tweener. SHADES OF GREY!~
Look, I’m not trying to hate on what was a very profitable and popular time in WWE’s history. Some of the matches were reat in that sort of wild, ECW donnybrook sort of way.
What I am suggesting is maybe we were looking through it with rose-colored glasses. I honestly think the Attitude Era was similar to The Beatles and Nirvana: it just happened to come along at the right time.
We came off the heels of the cheesy, black-and-white, do-gooders vs. sniveling villain era of the 80s. We were tired of having Hulk Hogan crammed down our throats. The fans had grown up, become cynical teenagers, were used to Pearl Jam singing out their adolescent pains, and became tainted when they happened to stumble across the punk rock madness that was ECW one fateful night on public access television.
After being exposed to the genius of Paul Heyman, we demanded something more in our national product. And so they responded. But along the way, it could be contended that the match qualities themselves took a dip, that while the wool was pulled over our eyes, we did’t pay attention to how ridculous the storylines could truly be at times (Mark Henry and a transvestite? Beaver Cleavage? Kennel in a Cell? Are you f’n kidding me?). That’s all.
I write this with still much love from my heart for that time period. But it’s time to take an objective, neutral stance, seperate ourselves from how caugh up we were in it at the time, and really analyze it.
