10 Things We Don't Miss About WWE's Attitude Era
1997-2001: We got a couple thousand words for ya.
The Attitude Era provided us with some of the most incredible moments in pro wrestling history.
From Mr. McMahon p*ssing his pants at the sight of Steve Austin pointing a pistol at him (imagine Stephanie selling with a hundredth of that conviction), to Triple dressing as and brutally sending up The Rock, it was a no holds barred environment in which ingenuity was rewarded and encouraged.
Not just a lewd sideshow, it was also home to some of the most progressive and violent in-ring content the WWF ever produced, the innovations of which remain familiar tropes today. But much like Mickey Rooney's turn in Breakfast At Tiffany's, some of it is deeply regrettable in retrospect. Octogenarian women gave birth to disembodied hands. Leaden dead weights like Gangrel were regularly featured on pay-per-view. Even incest angles were threatened before common sense prevailed.
The Attitude Era's lasting legacy is the sheer number of genuine stars it created, the spirit behind which is mourned to this day. However, there are several tropes we're glad didn't make it much further past the turn of the millennium...
10. Woeful Undercards
Things started to look up towards the tail end of 1999; Chris Jericho and a nascent Kurt Angle were injecting the opening hour of RAW with a more technical flair than we'd been accustomed to. By early 2000, thanks to the arrival of the Radicalz (why were so many things purposefully misspelled back then?), the WWF had stolen the top-to-bottom match quality crown away from WCW - along with a sizeable portion of its audience.
In the early dawn of the Attitude Era, however, the WWF's undercards were putrid - particularly in late 1998 and early 1999.
A perfect example of the dross saw Mideon take on the Big Boss Man at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Michael Cole optimistically promised us that it was 'going to be a good one'. He was wrong. Despite Boss Man's best attempts to heel it up - by stiffing Mideon and correctly pointing out that his Ministry stable 'sucks a**' - the match was a dull procession of punches and kicks.
Mideon, who was gassed after a minute, offered nothing save for some bites and the worst German suplex you're likely to see. At least, that's what it looked like he was going for. It might have been a back body drop. Even more likely, he probably just fell over backwards.