One Moment WWE Wants You To Forget From Every Year (1985 to 2026)
30. 1997 - The Ultimate Misfire
The less said about the Ultimate Warrior's 1996 WWE run the better. Or not, if you're making a hatchet job DVD about him during a period most people just wanted to bathe in the nostalgic glow brought about by his neon gear.
The hypocrisy exploded out of every utterance on that presentation, not least because half the talent shuttled in to do the talking heads were actual fans of the Warrior, but also because most of what the ranters-for-rent spouted was stuff that had once been promoted as part of the character's appeal.
Yes, it might have seemed corny in the mid-2000s, and would have been a disaster virtually anywhere outside of its own time, but what's the stupidest thing really - the act, or trying to make sense of it removed from its peak? It's the latter, but Vince McMahon wouldn't be told otherwise when he nearly made a catastrophic tactical error at the end of an otherwise-transformative year.
In December, McMahon formally introduced the Attitude Era in a speech that, amongst other things, pledged to bin off “good guys versus bad guys”. Easy pledge to make too, the next megastar was loaded up and just happened to be a first-of-his-kind anti-hero. But this was the man himself confirming change was indeed happening, and would continue to. Change was key to the success of the times. New was the necessity, with almost no exceptions. Austin popularised a new brawling-based in-ring style that was adopted up and down the card, new colour schemes, logos, fonts and even ropes teased if not outright promoted blood, gore and danger, and if you were even percieved as being old (Legion Of Doom, the NWA stable, the screwed-and-fired Bret Hart), expect to get new or get out of the way.
At this exact same time, McMahon offered the Warrior a five-year contract worth a guaranteed downside of $750,000, with limited dates and extremely generous royalties. He didn't go for it, and the timeline in which he becomes WWE Champion at WrestleMania XIV instead of 'The Rattlesnake' doesn't bear thinking about.