10 WWE Attitude Era Problems That Fans Don't Want To Admit

2. Wasn't Sustainable To Keep Pushing Envelope

As a extension of the previous entry, there was a limit of how much the World Wrestling Federation could get away with under the TV-14 rating employed during the Attitude Era. Obviously, the rules were a lot more loose than they are under Parental Guidance, but the company still had to adhere to certain guidelines if they wanted to appease sponsors. According to Steve Austin during an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine several years ago, Vince McMahon came under intense pressure from the USA Network to tone down what he was presenting on free television, which wasn't really something the WWF patriarch was keen to do. After all, what he was doing had been working, raking in large wads of cash. It seemed that more could be on the horizon if those pesky guidelines would just clear off, but things threatened to get out of hand occasionally. Some internally, such as Bret Hart, seemed uncomfortable with where the WWF was headed as early as late-1997, but that didn't matter to McMahon. Eventually, it would, as many sponsors pulled funding from the company out of protest, and they had to be reigned back in by promising to make some changes.