How Vince McMahon's Most Famous WWE Words Will Come Back To Haunt Him
WWE Attitude Era launched Steve Austin - but all the good guys are Mr. McMahon in 2021...
On the December 15, 1997 RAW, Vince McMahon formally ushered in the Attitude Era.
There was a certain subtext to the message that has gone unnoticed - by comparing his WWF to "other widely-accepted forms of television entertainment," he was asking the media to accept his - but mostly, this was a message to you. And the key part of that message was thus:
"We in the WWF think you, the audience, are quite frankly tired of having your intelligence insulted. We also think that you're tired of the same old simplistic theory of "good guys versus bad guys". Surely, the era of the superhero urging you to say your prayers and take your vitamins is definitely passé."
Nice of him to specify the audience as "you," and involuntarily undermine the message, but regardless, these words were iconic, and they came true, to an extent. Stone Cold Steve Austin was a good guy, just with an antihero edge.
In 2021, WWE Monday Night RAW is something worse than an insult to your intelligence. It is an affront to your sense of logic. It is a fiendishly difficult memory test. It is impossible to catalogue as a series of events that could feasibly happen. It is a mind-f*ck that asks you to question your sanity, much less insults your intelligence, and yet it also conspires to be tedious.
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