10 Genius Ways Wrestling Companies Kept You Watching
3. Austin And McMahon Go Further Than Ever And Never Stop
The most fun way for a '90s kid teenager to spend an evening without molesting themselves, Austin Vs. McMahon was deliriously entertaining episodic TV penned at the perfect time.
The folk hero babyface and corporate overlord waged war just as the WWF evolved from its quasi-sporting presentation. The audience was plunged into a new, chaotic realm of heightened wish fulfilment so suddenly that everything Austin did felt like a transgression - and every transgression was punished in such a way that it felt, every week, like the end. The WWF, on a weekly basis, convinced the audience that the insanity could never be topped, that Austin could never overcome.
How can you come back from being fired?
How do you successfully avoid death after being threatened by the hero who always delivered on his promise?
The WWF intensified the core idea of the babyface-in-peril to an outrageous extent. The winning peril/payoff formula was so outstanding because Austin always prevailed, and he prevailed with such incredible visual flair to illuminate the all-important catharsis.
Austin came back from being fired by threatening to kill McMahon.
McMahon successfully avoided death because Austin just wanted to make him piss himself.
Peril/show-long hook/catharsis via Stunner: this was all so dramatic and literally so piss-funny that fans could never get enough.