Although the mid-nineties have historically been portrayed as the time period in which WWE almost lost it all, the truth is that it also gave us some of the best moments in their history.This is especially true of 1996. While the year is best remembered in the wrestling world for the formation of the nWo, WWE used this period to finally start figuring out what life beyond the company's glory days would look like. For the first time in a long while, the right young talent was beginning to get the spotlight. This led to a series of strong feuds such as Mankind vs. Undertaker and Hart vs. Austin dominating television, as well as a significant improvement in general match quality owed in large part to Shawn Michael's WWE Title victory over Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII and his subsequent reign as a fighting champion. This is also the year in which the WWE began to explore edgier content. The Nation of Domination formed and provided WWE's infamous style of not so subtle social commentary. Goldust began using homosexual actions to throw his opponents off their game. Brian Pillman participated in the incredibly controversial "Pillmans Got A Gun" home invasion segment. The Ringmaster would use his King of The Ring victory to cut perhaps the most famous wrestling promo of all-time and complete his transformation into the biggest pro wrestling character ever; Stone Cold Steve Austin. Of course, that last event would only come as a result of Hunter Hearst Helmsley's role in the famous "Curtain Call" incident which would, in its own way, forever alter the course of professional wrestling. You can easily group 1996 into the WWE dark age and there was a lot of negatives at the time, but in doing so you will miss out on significant moments in professional wrestling history and a lot of great stuff, too.
