No one is exactly sure what ushered in the Attitude era of the World Wrestling Federation. Some say it was the Montreal Screwjob. Others will argue it was when Stone Cold Steve Austin coined the phrase “Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass”; some maintain it was the moment Austin clashed with Vince McMahon and The Rock.

Wherever the beginning is for you, you can’t deny that the Attitude Era was the golden age for professional wrestling. Ratings were at an all-time high for the sport in general, but the WWF were able to capitalise on a wave of new and exciting talent in both performance and writing that allowed them to completely obliterate the WCW in the ratings and go on to be considered ‘the’ pro-wrestling corporation.

Surely you must have heard by now that THQ’s new edition of their yearly WWE game franchise is to be set during this prolific era. And we aren’t half excited for it!

There were many storylines and rivalries during this era of the sport that electrified audiences the world over. Of course, not all of them are applicable here; depending on copyright, some of the key Attitude players will be absent from the final roster.

But that still leaves us with more than a handful of storylines that literally shook the foundations of the WWE then and continue to have lasting implications for the sport even today. We take a look back at some of these storylines in our run-down of the Attitude era segments that we feel make for essential playing.

 

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