7 Reasons Why WWE's Attitude Era Was Actually Over-Rated

3. It Was Misogynistic As Heck

WWE has always treated women like second class citizens. It€™s the nature of the business to act like women have nothing to offer besides bikini contests and the occasional bra and panties match. That said WWE has come a long way in the past few years to make women€™s wrestling more legitimate. It€™s still got a long way to go, but comparatively today€™s Divas product is like the suffrage movement compared to the women of the Attitude Era. Between 1996 and 1999 women in WWE were nothing more than hyper sexualized play things for the burly Superstars of the time. Jerry Lawler would foam at the mouth and pound his desk while his eyes shot out of his head like cartoons every time someone with breasts walked on stage. Because of this most of the matches involving women were just glorified excuses to get the Divas to take off as much clothing as possible without making the censors lose their minds. Even Chyna, a woman who many saw as the antithesis of the Diva role in WWE, was another symptom of the bigger problem. She was Intercontinental Champion and could throw men around, but it showed that women could only be taken seriously as an athlete if they were just €œone of the boys.€ She won the Intercontinental title, but only did so in a €œGood Housekeeping€ match where she hit Jeff Jarrett with the tools of a domestic housewife. So while it looked like she was breaking the mold, in reality she was actually just another reminder that to WWE women are not on the men€™s level, and even when they were, they really weren€™t. Today€™s Divas are not just as (if not more) beautiful than their Attitude Era counterparts, but they are also athletes. They are capable of more than taking off their clothes and wrestling in mud. But they are still fighting an uphill battle, and that€™s thanks to the Attitude Era. Well, the Attitude Era and Jerry Lawler€™s cat-calling.