The Insane Popularity Of The Bloodline (& What It Says About WWE Fans)

Anti-authority babyface versus heel authority figure wasn't brand spanking new by late-1997, but Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs Vince McMahon was box-fresh in every respect.

Jiving with popular culture at the time - WWE was always at its hottest when the two things aligned - 'The Rattlesnake' was catnip to the rambunctious teens flocking back to a brand they'd ignored since Hulk Hogan et al departed in the early 1990s. The New Generation wasn't for the tweens, but Attitude was for the teens, bad language, heightened violence and salacious sexual titillation included.

Plenty of those fans hadn't seen McMahon screw Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1997, but didn't need to to understand the character of suited-and-booted boss, especially when he took such a strong dislike to the folk hero who was smashing everybody in sight.

Austin Vs McMahon didn't have the advantages of Hogan Vs Savage in terms of being able to stretch things out. By then, the weekly television model required rapid-fire angle advancement and raising of the stakes, but McMahon not being a wrestler was an extremely helpful development. Everybody from Mick Foley to The Undertaker and Kane to The Rock did his bidding for him at one point or another, getting more over by virtue of the Austin dust rubbing off on them as they ate Stunners.

The feud had a decisive ending of sorts at Fully Loaded 1999 when McMahon was forced out of the company "forever", because when he returned two months later he was at least a babyface. By then it didn't matter, they were two years into a second boom that still had two years to go. That's how it used to work when television rights weren't the be-all/end-all.

They are now, but record setting ratings are positioning The Bloodline's hold over SmackDown as the most bankable ever. Should new multi-billion dollar deal be signed in the very near future, it'll be primarily thanks to them.

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