The Secret History Behind WWE's Attitude Era
Stone Cold Steve Austin was a force of nature in WWE, but by most realistic comparison points, his rise through the ranks was closer to Daniel Bryan's than that of a Hulk Hogan or John Cena. Years after he'd dominated the industry, the company were liberal with the truth in their description of his push, suggesting that they'd seen it coming by booking him as King Of The Ring and followed up on all the Austin 3:16 signs the next night by promoting him in line with obvious interest.
This was nonsense. Objectively provable nonsense.
In terms of pay-per-view appearances across the summer of 1996, Austin's figures were comparable with Triple H's, despite the fact that the 'Blueblood' was supposedly serving a punishment for The Kliq's kayfabe-breaking Madison Square Garden farewell back in May. The same ceremony that resulted in Hunter losing a planned tournament win as Vince McMahon measured locker room optics. Austin was an alternate turned super-sub, claiming victory in his place and then cutting the promo that every retrospective has told you has changed everything. It changed something, eventually, but a banana skin win over Yokozuna on the SummerSlam pre-show wasn't exactly scaling the dizzy heights of the main event Mabel managed one year prior. Austin had to graft for it, often through gritted teeth. He'd regularly call matches on Monday Night Raw and call the wrestlers in the ring worse than garbage because he knew he was more than a cut above. Lots and lots of fans knew this, having monitored his progress for years as a wunderkind for USWA and star midcarder for WCW. But he had to prove himself to Vince McMahon. Prove himself, prove his work, and prove his ethos.
Bret Hart wanted to help him, and, in acknowledging him as the best wrestler a roster including some of the best in North American history, he couldn't have done more. A Survivor Series match required a build, and 'The Rattlesnake' finally had his opportunity to get venomous.
"If you put the letter S in front of Hitman, you have my exact opinion of Bret Hart" was one of several soundbites Austin fired off at the time, and it wasn't just the hint of bad language that made it such a transgression. This was a funny line being fired off by a heel against the company's ostensible joint top babyface. Jerry Lawler knew his way around zingers when feuding with the Harts, but his words were framed as cruel and - rightfully - punching down. Austin, meanwhile, would frame his biliousness around being held back because Hart and his ilk wouldn't get out of the way. The intent, beyond getting under Bret's skin, was to add more meat to the bones of the Austin character. Swearing helped, but the crassness would have died on the vine if the man behind the microphone wasn't backing it up every time he hit the ring.
The October 27th 1996 edition of WWE Superstars was one of those crucial times, and Austin didn't need to don his trademark black trunks and boots on. The episode was one of the more fondly remembered editions of that particular show, or at least contained one of the more fondly remembered angles from its latter days. Realistically, it was the last angle from the time. By then a B-Show having led the line for the majority of the 1980s and early 1990s, the advent of Monday Night Raw in 1993 eventually resulted in the weekend show slipping down the pecking order. So far in fact that, by October 1996, it was billed as "Sunday Morning Superstars" and slotted into the spot of the former Action Zone on USA Network when that show was cancelled. Times were extremely hard for a number of cherished brands, but one man was even harder and had no interest in the heroes or villains of the past.
If you've not seen the whole episode, you've probably seen the most notable clip. Austin brutally assaults the injured ankle of Brian Pillman, at one point trapping it between a steel chair and stomping the weapon to effectively re-break it once and for all. An act of violence so potent that it gave its name to the spot. "Pillmanizing" entered the vernacular along with many other words normalised by the Steve Austin run, and the angle served as a tremendous bit of build for Austin Vs Hart as well as a psychotic upcoming edition of Raw where the company escalated things to the next level with a home invasion, liberal use of the F-Bomb and Pillman threatening Austin away from his living room with a gun. It was tonally unlike anything WWE had ever done before but caused as many headaches as it did celebratory toasts at the time, particularly when it didn't really have a knock-on effect on the ratings. It was all character-building for Austin (and to a lesser extent Pillman) at the time though, and that was key.
But back to Superstars. Pillman had supposedly warranted the assault having conducted an interview in which he ever-so-slightly pushed Austin's buttons by praising Bret Hart. Really, he only used his "Best There Is, Was and Ever Will Be" catchphrase, but his former friend was so tightly wound that the attack was a matter of time. That they'd been partners once upon a time was established earlier in the interview to make Austin's actions all the more heartless, but the King Of The Ring man wasn't seeing much in the way of riches following his crowning and took to becoming a violent ruler rather well. Television cameras saw the magic too - from the interview starting to the last shots of Pillman being taken away on a stretcher finally free from Austin's enraged clutches, nine minutes of television had passed. This was a lifetime in 1996, especially for a one-hour broadcast. 15% of the show being committed to this most worthy cause.
Or so we thought. The Steve Austin Show was just getting started.
On commentary, Jim Ross and Mr Perfect couldn't switch off what they'd seen during the Justin Hawk Bradshaw/David Haskins match that followed, explaining that they were despatching a camera backstage to monitor Pillman being loaded into the ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital. They wanted people to stick around without giving away the primary reason that it'd be more than worth their while. Only a further nine minutes of the entire show remained, but two more were about to be taken up marvelling at Stone Cold Steve Austin locking all the way in as the company's true next big thing. As the 'Loose Cannon' wailed in agony, the cameras revealed that Stone Cold Steve Austin had blocked the exit path just so he could yell a torrent of obscenities at his former fellow Hollywood Blonde.
It was hard not to share in the devilish glee of it all as Dave Hebner tried and failed to ward him off before getting a torrent of abuse as well. Austin was fearless in the face of authority, ruthless in his actions, and peerless in his performance. In the same way the anti-Bret promos were, the actions were heel-leaning in the older sense but simply irresistible in an era of counter-culture and the wrestling fan becoming a more discerning sort thanks to the writers Russo aped and borrowed from in the company's own physical media. If some or all of this segment sounds remarkably familiar, you may be thinking of a far more famous version of virtually the same scene that played out a few months later on a substantially more iconic broadcast. The April 21st 1997 edition of Raw is one of the most beloved in the 31-year history of the show. It's the Superstars angle with upgrades - this time the poor victim is a white-hot Bret Hart, Austin attacks him in the ambulance rather than simply mouthing off, 'The Rattlesnake' goes nose to nose with WWE President Gorilla Monsoon rather than Hebner, and - most crucially of all - the events of WrestleMania 13 have already occurred and fans are cheering wildly for newly-minted babyface Stone Cold.
WWE copied their own homework from just six months earlier, but were aware that almost nobody would have seen the full extent of the original, and were smart enough to realise that the rules had indeed changed and acts once associated with the bad guys were suddenly the coolest things a contemporary hero could do. In one final booking flex tying both moments together, Brian Pillman made his shocking return from the Superstars beatdown on the very same Raw, siding with the heel-turned 'Hitman' to strike Austin from behind in one last twist as the show went off the air. That the two men had changed alignments but were able to keep identical roles and keep their feud alive was a testament to how carefully the Stone Cold Steve Austin babyface turn had been booked. Once again, this wasn't a one-night magic wand being waved at WrestleMania 13. And that takes us to the final forging of the Attitude Era's fire.
Austin had gotten under the people's skin in all the best ways between his instantly iconic battering of Brian Pillman and the 1997 'Show Of Shows'. But he'd gotten under Bret Hart's in a way that was about to drive them both to bloody redemption on WWE's grandest stage. Hart was indignant, bemused and constantly frustrated.
All until March 17th 1997, when frustrated wasn't the goddamn word for it. It was bullsh*t.
(CONT'D)