10 Controversial WWE Attitude Era Moments You Totally Forgot About

Unpleasant, quite frankly!

Shawn Michaels Sunny
WWE.com

Think of the Attitude Era as the big pair of whappers that it was.

Those cannons are aching, sore, and blistered now, for WWE, critics, and fans alike have spent much of the last two decades unable or unwilling to remove their suckling lips from its memorable lightning rod of a teat.

Sable's painted hands bra! Al Snow eats own dog! Vince pisses his pants!

And then, when the baby was burped, that baby became overtired and irritable at the repetitive, uninspiring fare on RAW, what with its years and years of long, opening verbal segments, rematches and John Cena, so it was back to Big Boss Man crashes the Big Show's da's funeral! Trish barks like a dog! Mae Young gives birth...to a hand!

From Fully Loaded 1998 to Royal Rumble 2000, the heaving, bountiful discourse has at last shrank down to a more prosthetic, shrivelled level of conversation, what with the U.S. professional wrestling scene amid renewed competition and interest. "Things were better in the Attitude Era" is out, and "Wah wah if AEW did it!" is in.

But, with enough pressure, one can still exact one last drip of milk...

10. Shawn Michaels Digitally Stimulates Sunny

Shawn Michaels Sunny
WWE.com

"Technically, this was not the Attitude Era. One Night Only happened on September 20, 1997. Vince McMahon formally introduced the Attitude Era on December 15, 1997. You are incorrect by 86 days."

Shawn Michaels fingered Sunny live on pay-per-view. It wasn't like Tugboat was getting kids to do the airhorn on the undercard.

Interviewed ahead of the European Championship match he won despite the British Bulldog promising to in honour of his dying sister - the "idea" "being" that Davey Boy Smith was to win the title back "in a different school" - Michaels was slouched by Sunny's side, said that he was "randy", and that he'd come to England to do two things: mug off a cancer patient and get his end away. Sunny, setting out the stakes for the main event and asking for Shawn's thoughts received, instead, his fingers. Her voice floated in an excited flutter before she collected herself.

There's something of a double standard to parse here.

Mickie James: imitates sexual act on pay-per-view when WWE is rated TV-14, gets absolutely b*llocked backstage.

Shawn Michaels: intimates sexual act on pay-per-view when the WWF is rated PG, is enabled to sh*t-can loyal servant Bret Hart out of the company two months later.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!