The 10 moments/superstars that planted the seed for the attitude era

5th Letter · March 2013

The attitude era is by far the greatest time period in WWE history. But there were a few things that took place to plant the seed of the eventual attitude era.

10. Sunny

While there have been females in wrestling in years prior like Ms Elizabeth, Ms Sherri, Luna, and Alundra Blayze etc. They weren't marketed as sex symbols, then Sunny arrived and they began to push her and blatantly began to sell sex.

9. Vader attacking Gorrilla Monsoon on Monday Night Raw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rcb3pfKjQg

You're asking what's the big deal, but prior to that authority figures only showed up when there was a big announcement. Plus wrestlers and authority figures rarely interacted, Vader attacking Monsoon sewed the seeds for what was to come (Austin/McMahon) and now in 2013 it's not taboo anymore for a wrestler to smack fire out of the boss.

8. The work-shoot promo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jLy1NtcCfA

Prior to 1996 there weren't any type of "shoot" promos but they started popping up in 96 from Brian Pillman at the 96 KOTR to Jim Ross shoot on Vince McMahon. These would become commonplace for the remainder of the decade and beyond.

7. Mankind

Prior to coming to the WWF ? Foley was known for his risk taking ? style of wrestling, he would bring this style to the WWF and thus changing how they worked matches going forward. By the late 90's there were ALOT of ? matches and Mankind ushered in this new phase, and it was implemented in subtle ways like the boiler room match, IYH match against HBK and the buried alive match, not to mention his fued showcased Takers in ring ability after years of working stiff matches.

6. Diesel flips Undertaker the bird at the Royal Rumble 1996

Before this happened there was never any cursing or "flipping the bird" on WWF TV. This broke the ice and the wrestlers started cursing on TV a lot more in the late 90's especially SCSA famous KOTR 96 promo.

5th Letter · March 2013

5. Diesel's tweener character

Diesel's late 95-early 96 run was interesting, he may have been the first tweener, not a bad guy but not a good guy either. He was a heel when going against Bret, and Taker, but was a face against the Bulldog, Owen and Yoko even teaming with Shawn and Razor around that time. He also let it be known that he will only pound the fist of those wearing black gloves.

4. Ahmed Johnson winning the IC title
AhmedJohnson_display_image.jpg?1356886029

AhmedJohnson_display_image.jpg?1356886029

This was a big deal back then because they never had enough confidence to put their second most important belt on a black man, let alone their WWF title. Ahmed winning the IC title opened the door for the WWF to be more confident in giving blacks a chance with the IC title the Rock, D Lo Brown, and The Godfather held the IC belt during the attitude era.

3. Goldust

He came in an era when cartoon gimmicks were running rampant. His character was so dark and had multiple layers to it. He resembled the Oscar statue, plus he used movie quotes as an analogy against his opponents. But the thing that made him memorable was his homosexual demeanor he would do this to play games on his opponents. He wasn't "? " but he knew it would freak out his opponents. This character was ahead of its time and this showed that the WWF was beginning to bring in risky characters as the years went on.

2. Steve Austin/Brian Pillman gun angle on Monday Night Raw 96

Even though never before and never again has the WWF used gun angles on their TV shows, but this moment gave us an idea the direction the company was going in. They were about to become an edgy product.

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin's emergence
wm13_display_image.jpg?1301387232

He was going to be the biggest star of the attitude era, after years in WCW's mid card scene, he jumped ship to ECW then the WWF. Initially he debuted as the ringmaster in late 1995, but by March of 96 he became "Stone Cold" but only in name, but over time he was able to fine tune his character into what it was about to become. His KOTR win was a moment when everyone realized that this guy has main event potential. He got his iconic theme music in October 96 and started a fued with Bret which officially made him a superstar.

Serious Juice Mayne · March 2013

Goldust should be number 1 ... The first edgy character .. He came out b4 scsa

jono · March 2013

The Pillman/Austin gun incident should have been #1. I remember it being the single most shocking thing I'd ever seen in wrestling before the AE kicked in and crazy ? started happening regularly.