15 EXACT Moments Failed WWE Attitude Era Gimmicks Actually Got Over
7. New Age Outlaws (December 15, 1997)
It’s almost a shame that the babyface D-Generation X act was such an overnight sensation. By April 1998, the Road Dogg and Bad Ass Billy Gunn had an unforgettable bit of crowd interaction down pat, and it was echoed across every arena at deafening volume every night. After trying halfheartedly to run with them as heels in a crap feud against LOD 2000 and the Disciples of Apocalypse, the WWF quickly embraced the fact that DX were babyfaces, and had them do racism to make that clear. 1998 was a very different time.
It was the only correct decision - but Road Dogg and Billy Gunn were genuinely excellent as heels. They were obnoxious, yes, but they were also actual failures, as the Roadie and Rockabilly, who had to do transgressive things to get ahead. For a few months, they were nasty pieces of work who generated elusive heat because they weren’t perversely entertaining. They were rotten cheating bastards who didn’t deserve to win, and they got over big in 1997 by putting a shocking, ultra-violent twist on the scoundrel trope before ultra-violence was normalised.
The famed dumpster angle is considered the point at which they got over. The scene was scary, and Jim Ross sold it to his apoplectic best. He was probably genuinely frightened. The impact was diabolical; there was no way that Cactus Jack and Terry Funk were able to adequately protect themselves.
But on December 15, they helped Shawn Michaels and Triple H kick the sh*t out of the Legion of Doom in a hair-shaving angle before joining the stable officially months later. Shawn was great here - he didn’t respect anything or anybody, but gave Dogg and Gunn a “not bad” nod, in a great show of restraint that actually meant something - and Hawk’s hair was an iconic and sacred thing to destroy.