WWE In 1997 | Wrestling Timelines

32. January 11, 1997 | Bang Me Elmo

This is the second episode of Shotgun Saturday Night: the late-night experimental wrestling show which, to be reductive about it, is the WWF’s attempt to be ECW. 

Vince McMahon knows that his product is mostly lame, but lacks the ability to make it cool. Shotgun Saturday Night sits awkwardly between those two states. Held in various nightlife spots, it’s a WWF show with added brawling; the backdrop is simple and ultimately unconvincing window dressing. The WWF is basically posing here - but one early experiment will become a weekly Attitude Era staple. 

The 1990s love a celebrity sex tape. The three words in succession are surgically precise in their ability to literally arouse interest, in that you get to see the already private life of a celebrity doing the most private, alluring thing. The WWF tries to capitalise. Vince McMahon promises a glimpse of Sunny’s homemade sex tape as burgeoning gooners don’t know what to do with themselves for a week. It is revealed that she has a thing for a certain plush toy, leading to an apparent sex scene with a human-sized Tickle Me Elmo. The screen blacks out. All you hear are helium-voiced sex noises. It’s a dumb bait-and-switch, but then, so is the Attitude Era. 

The WWF later breaks the 83-week WCW Nitro winning streak by pretending that Steve Austin is going to wrestle Mr. McMahon in the main event. Huge things are meant to happen every week, and never do, but the fans are so entertained and titillated that they are happy to fall for the ruse. This false advertising method is almost as effective as Vince Russo himself in cheaply retaining and attracting viewers. In January 1997, though, the WWF lacks the star power to get away with it.