10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About WWE's Attitude Era
3. The Storytelling Was Awesome
Of all the things WWE fans tend to present an over-exaggerated opinion of, the Attitude Era's creative output is near the top of the list.
The writers did a tremendous job of crafting a show that wanted to tune in to see every week, and the period birthed some truly awesome storylines, many of which remain among the most important in WWE history. Austin vs. McMahon, Rock vs. Austin, the big three-way tag feud: these stories deserve their lofty place in history, but they weren't the norm, and aren't representative of Attitude as a whole.
The period saw Mae Young give birth to a son, the Big Bossman crash Big Show's father's funeral, the same crooked law enforcer feed Al Snow his own dog, and the Hawk suicide angle. It was the mother lode of bad ideas. For every captivating, groundbreaking storyline, there was a smattering of unwatchable dross, and the perception that it represents the pinnacle of pro-wrestling storytelling is as warped as the stories themselves.
By all means, celebrate the legitimately great yarns that WWE spun from 1997 to 2002, but let's stop cherry-picking history. Attitude was as creatively inconsistent as any other era.