Attitude Era
[1] This was immediately before the main event featuring Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, which retrospectively would be known as the Montreal Screwjob due to the match's controversial finish, marking the end of the New Generation Era.
The Attitude Era marked the rise of many WWF wrestlers, including The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Kane, Mick Foley (in various personas), Kurt Angle, and The Undertaker (who was already a veteran but continued to gain popularity).
While most of the company's female talent, such as Sable, Sunny and Stacy Keibler during this time period were marketed as sex symbols booked in sexually provocative gimmick matches (e.g., "bra and panties", bikini, lingerie, etc.)
[13] Russo's and Ferrara's booking style has been described as "Crash TV",[14] where they contributed edgy, controversial storylines involving sexual content, profanity,[15] swerves,[12] unexpected heel turns, and worked shoots, as well as short matches, backstage vignettes, shocking angles and levels of depicted violence.
One week later, on the March 17 episode, after losing a steel cage match against Sycho Sid in an attempt to win back the WWF Championship, Bret Hart angrily shoved Vince McMahon to the mat during a post-match interview and went into a profanity-laced tirade.
"[24] Austin's popularity gradually started to rise as an anti-hero despite being portrayed on-screen as a heel character,[25] eventually leading to a long-term feud with Bret Hart from late-1996 to mid-1997, climaxing in a Submission Match at WrestleMania 13.
During the pay-per-view broadcast, a video package aired immediately before the Hart vs. Michaels match, debuting the “Attitude” promo that included the first instance of the WWF "scratch" logo.
McMahon – who was at ringside, a rarity at the time, as he was primarily working as an on-screen commentator – quickly ordered referee Earl Hebner to call for the bell and award Michaels the WWF Championship by submission, despite Hart not submitting.
McMahon discussed the idea of blurring the lines more for fans between the typical hero and villain (or babyface and heel) dynamic which would ring true for popular anti-hero Steve Austin.
[33] Following the purchase, the WWF began to dominate cable television ratings with Raw episodes which were not only breaking away from traditional censorship, but that were also showing fans at ringside screaming obscenities, wearing risqué t-shirts, and holding signs that often sported controversial phrases.
[37] After Stone Cold Steve Austin won the 1998 Royal Rumble, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who was in attendance at the pay-per-view, made a guest appearance on Raw the following night.
Despite being a babyface with an impressive winning streak and an Intercontinental Championship reign, he was frequently met with negative reception from live audiences, such as loud boos, "Rocky sucks!"
While Mankind was his main WWF persona, and Cactus Jack was previously used in his days in WCW, ECW, Japan, and various independent promotions, Dude Love was inspired by a character Foley created when he and his high school friends participated in backyard wrestling in his hometown of Long Island, New York.
Later on in the night, however, Triple H would betray his long-time friend and fellow D-X member X-Pac by helping Shane McMahon retain the European Championship and joined The Corporation, turning heel in the process.
Triple H would then be involved in a love triangle with Kurt Angle and Stephanie before revealing himself to be the man who convinced Rikishi to run over Stone Cold Steve Austin the year prior.
Kurt Angle successfully defended the WWF Championship in the first and only 6-man Hell in a Cell match at Armageddon that included The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Rikishi.
[83] D-Generation X officially formed on August 11, 1997, edition of Raw after Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Chyna, and Rick Rude helped Shawn Michaels win his main event match against Mankind.
On the November 6, 2000, episode of Raw, Chyna, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and Triple H, as part of D-Generation X, took on The Radicalz (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn) in an eight-person tag team match, which D-X won.
Upon his return, The Undertaker introduced his Ministry of Darkness, a satanic-themed stable which would consist of The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw), Mideon, Viscera and The Brood (Edge, Christian, and Gangrel).
On the August 9 episode of Raw, he officially made his debut, referring to himself as "Y2J" (a play on the Y2K frenzy) and began feuds with The Rock, Chyna, Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit while capturing the Intercontinental and European championships on several occasions in the era.
Edge and Christian soon developed the "con-chair-to" (a play on the word "concerto") finishing move, which involved the two hitting an opponent's head simultaneously, on opposite sides, with steel chairs (which simulated the clashing of cymbals).
This led to then-WWF Commissioner Mick Foley to make the first-ever Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC) at SummerSlam in August 2000, also won by Edge and Christian.
In late 1999, Parents Television Council (PTC) founder L. Brent Bozell III began a campaign to pressure companies to pull advertising from WWF programming,[113] due to the content becoming characterized by "cheap sex, vulgarity and violence of the most sadistic sort".
[114] Many Fortune 500 companies had been keen to associate themselves with the WWF due to their transformation into "theater-in-the-round redone as 'roid rage, jam-packed with charismatic, monumental players, prime-time-worthy production values, and labyrinthine plot machinations".
[115] Having lost several advertisers,[116] the campaign forced the WWF to change the content portrayed on their programming, in particular SmackDown,[117] with McMahon saying that there would be "less aggression, less-colorful language, less sexuality", and controversial characters would be appearing less frequently.
[119] The PTC accused the WWF of being responsible for several young children's deaths, including that of six-year-old Tiffany Eunick by Lionel Tate,[120] for which Dwayne Johnson received a subpoena to testify in 1998.
[122] In 2001, federal judge Denny Chin threw out a motion put forth by the PTC in an attempt to have the charges dismissed,[123] and the following year the WWF was awarded damages of $3.5 million, and Bozell apologized for the accusations made.
[129] However, the WCW fanbase, which consisted mainly of rural, older traditional wrestling fans from the Southern States, did not welcome Russo's "Crash TV" formula in their programming and almost entirely stopped watching it altogether.
[131] In January 2001, AOL Time Warner announced they were to sell WCW to a group of investors called Fusient Media Ventures, with the provision that they would continue television broadcasts on TNT.
Later that week, it was announced that the WWF had purchased the remaining assets and select contracts of WCW[136] from AOL Time Warner for a number reported to be around $7 million,[137] putting an official end to the Monday Night War.
