Russo's booking style was often referred to as Crash TV - short matches, backstage vignettes, and shocking television. This era was spearheaded by Vince McMahon and WWF head writer Vince Russo, who drastically changed the way professional wrestling television was written. In response, the WWF would transform itself from a family-friendly product into a more adult orientated product. During this same period, the WWF had become so financially powerful, that McMahon was able to buy the company from AOL Time Warner at a dramatically reduced valuation.ĭuring the Monday Night Wars, a ratings battle between the WWF's Monday Night Raw and WCW's Monday Nitro, Nitro was defeating Raw in the ratings as WCW President Eric Bischoff famouly put it, "84 weeks in a row". Within two years, WCW had become so unsuccessful that it lost its primetime television deal. The Attitude Era proved to be a huge marketing success for the WWF, drawing in a previously unaccounted for young adult demographic that allowed them to successfully cripple competitor WCW by defeating them in the ratings wars. The conflict behind the scenes spilled out into their on-screen storyline, with both men making pointed personal remarks in interviews that were often rooted in these legitimate issues. The feud between Hart and Michaels was particularly notable in that the two men had serious real-life issues with one another. The year was notable for Steve Austin's rivalry with Bret Hart, which culminated with Austin's rise to prominence, the USA vs Canada storyline by The Hart Foundation, as well the feud between Hart and Shawn Michaels. Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!" Austin's defiance of authority and social morals proved to be very popular amongst the fans, and "Austin 3:16" became the major marketing juggernaut for the WWF during the Monday Night Wars.ġ997 was also a pivotal year in the Attitude Era. Talk about your Psalms, talk about your John 3:16. Having defeated alcoholism and at the time been preaching the Bible around the country, Roberts became a face (fan favorite) and was considered the likely winner of the 1996 King of the Ring.Īt the event, Roberts was defeated by Austin and with the upset victory over Roberts, Austin mocked Roberts' recital of the biblical passage John 3:16 by saying, "You sit there, and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere. During his second tenure with the WWF, Jake Roberts was promoted as a "Cinderella" story. The 1996 King of the Ring tournament saw Stone Cold Steve Austin's first usage of "Austin 3:16" which began the WWF's transition to an edgier product. The exact time period that the Attitude Era spanned between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2000s is essentially undefined, leaving observers to draw their own conclusions as to the starting and ending points of the era within those loose boundaries. Finally, in May 2002, usage of the WWF logo used to represent the company's "Attitude" promotion became prohibited as the result of a legal battle between the company and the World Wildlife Fund over the rights to legally use the initials "WWF". On Apat WrestleMania X-Seven, Austin, who had been synonymous with the Attitude Era, embraced his long time archenemy Vince McMahon after defeating The Rock to become WWF Champion once again, turning heel and concluding a rivalry which had lasted since 1997. In March 2001, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was bought out by the WWF, concluding the Monday Night Wars. The WWF/E has variously given "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's victory in the King of the Ring 1996 tournament, the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997, and Austin's WWF Championship victory over Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV on March 29, 1998, as the starting point of the era. The Attitude Era began in the mid-to-late 1990s, and ended in the somewhat in the early 2000s. Traditionally heroic characters were replaced with disaffected anti-heroes and family friendly storylines were replaced with controversial stories based on shock value, similar to the "Trash TV" genre popularized in the 1990s. In contrast to the more traditional, family-friendly content that was common in WWF programming, the Attitude Era sought to attract the young adult demographic by transforming the product into an edgier and more controversial form of entertainment. The Attitude Era was defined by a radical shift in programming content. Similar to the 1980s wrestling boom, the Attitude Era was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States from the late 1990s to early 2000s, as television ratings and pay-per-view buy-rates hit record highs. The Attitude Era was a period in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and professional wrestling history that began as a direct result of the Monday Night Wars and culminated with the conclusion of the Wars in 2001. The WWF Attitude scratch logo, used from Novemto May 6, 2002.
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