10 Big Misconceptions People Have About WWE's Attitude Era

6. Everyone Cursed

There is this overwhelming belief that what made the Attitude Era the success it was was because Superstars would speak their mind, even if what they said included a great deal of cursing. That simply is not the case. Steve Austin broke out as the star of the company because he cursed at a time when there was not a lot of that happening. He promised to "open up a can of whoop-a**" on a weekly basis and implored the audience to give him a "hell yeah" every night but the illusion that the entire product was wrought with cursing is an illusion. The foul language was used far more sparingly than historians would suggest. When it was, it was nothing more than what today's fans may be exposed to. A**, damn, hell, and b**** were as far as it was taken. Most of the time, those words were reserved for a select few Superstars positioned at the top of the card. Today's PG Era fans have heard all four of those words used recently on Monday Night Raw. If the cursing taught fans anything during the Attitude Era, it was that when used occasionally rather than frequently, it could have a tremendous effect on the overall tone of the promo. Today, using curse words pops the audience just as it did nearly two decades ago when Steve Austin did it for the first time.