The Secret History Behind WWE's Attitude Era
The March 17th 1997 edition of Monday Night Raw was the culmination of a series of unexpected events and shrewd pivots, as a company now actively attempting to change course was doing so at ostensibly the worst time of year.
It was all at least down to the most important of ramifications - the state and future of the WWE Championship.
From the moment Bret Hart returned with a victory over Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1996 Survivor Series, a rematch with Shawn Michaels was on the docket. To that end, Michaels regained the title from Sycho Sid at the Royal Rumble on the same evening Hart was supposed to win the battle royal. Alas, Vince Russo (as Vic Venom) overstepping his mark with what he knew and outright calling it on an edition of Livewire rattled Vince McMahon into taking another path. Austin - unable to let go of the loss to Bret and in deeper with him now more than ever - screwed him out of the match. His tainted win was valid for all of 24 hours when a Final Four match was booked for February's In Your House to determine a Number One Contender once and for all, and Bret won that. But by then, everything had started to change once again.
Rewinding back to the booking of that Final Four match in the first place, it was Hart's post-Royal Rumble posturing to quit the company that got him back in the fold. He was rightfully infuriated about Austin's misdeeds, but this was his second tantrum in 48 hours and his third in as many weeks. In December, he'd lost to Sycho Sid thanks to interference from Shawn Michaels, and booted off about that too. He was never wrong to voice his displeasure, but 'The Excellence Of Execution' had never...whined so much before.
Meanwhile, Michaels - in a segment you may have heard about - elected to relinquish his Championship anyway due to a knee injury and loss of smile. While Bret's on-screen character would go on to have plenty to say about that as the year wore on, he was now part of a four-way that wasn't crowning a Number One Contender but a new World Champion. A four-way he won, giving him a fourth reign with the belt he could take into WrestleMania just as long as he could beat Sycho Sid on Raw 24 hours later. He didn't of course. Thanks to Steve Austin, of course.
'The Rattlesnake' struck twice as Bret hit the ring in the first two attempts to start the match, sending Hart in hurt when it did get going in the main event slot of the show. 'The Hitman' fought through the pain, but was walloped by Austin in a last-gasp steel chair assault, gift-wrapping the belt for Sid once again to heat up the Austin/Bret blood feud and Sid's upcoming showdown with The Undertaker. If this reads like a lot, it felt like it too, but a lot of serious stuff was happening underneath all the twists and turns. The more Bret justifiably complained about these constant impositions, the more the fans pushed back against him and guilty-fawned over a rampaging Austin. He was no friend of the authority figures Bret rallied against, but he was getting things done with his actions as opposed to Hart whinging impotently with his words. It reflected something else too; a change in the air that both mens' fundamental character traits suited perfectly. As with when he hobbled Brian Pillman, Austin's deranged acts of violence were no longer cast as unforgivable sins but as bold transgressions. Simultaneously, Hart's refusal to sanction a profound social sea change built a wall between him and a shape-shifting fanbase. Bret wasn't just protesting the supposed mismanagement of the situation by Vince McMahon and WWE, nor Austin's physical actions. He was raging against the fact that people seemed to prefer the chaos of it all. He was raging against Attitude.
On March 17th, he raged against all of it.
With days to go before the 'Show Of Shows', the two biggest singles matches both stood to be for the WWE Championship, and Raw was the destination where the outcome would be decided. In a lovely bit of booking, Bret was given one last shot at Sid, meaning that both Austin and The Undertaker had vested interests in their rivals winning.
The resulting steel cage match saw all four men brawling in the corner of the structure. Austin defiantly trying to help his most hated rival win just so he could claim the belt himself days later, Undertaker getting in the muck with all of them to guide Sid over the line to set up his own WrestleMania redemption. A gripping encounter ended when 'The Deadman' blasted the cage door in Hart's face before he could escape, gifting Sid yet another win and solidifying the status quo at the last possible second.
Bret had been screwed, again. There were no extra lives left, and as much as he wanted to beat Austin to a pulp, he couldn't even blame his enemy for this one. His former mate had - as he'd put it days later - "slammed the door on their friendship", and in that moment, Hart knew he could either blame himself or blame every single person breathing air. Like the self-righteous heel he'd gradually and gracefully morphed into over the prior few months, he chose the latter.
Vince McMahon entered the ring to get post-match comments as Hart paced the ring in fury. He started with "Bret Hart, you've got to be terribly frustrated, extremely frustrated over what has just happened..." but was interrupted by Bret violently shoving him to the ground as he stole the microphone. With audiences as floored as McMahon himself at what they'd just seen, Hart unloaded months of misery in a promo that ensured not a soul in the crowd could be left confused about where everybody stood.
In its glorious entirety;
"Frustrated isn't the goddamn word for it! This is bullsh*t! You [Vince] screwed me! Everybody screwed me! And nobody does a goddamn thing about it. Nobody in the building cares, nobody in the dressing room cares. So much goddamn injustice around here! I've had it up to here! Everybody knows it! I know it! Everybody knows it! I should be the World Wrestling Federation Champion! Everybody just keeps turning a blind eye. You [Vince] keep turning a blind eye to it. I got that Gorilla Monsoon, he turns a blind eye to it. Everybody in that goddamn dressing room knows that I'm the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be! If you don't like it, tough sh*t!"
Austin then appeared back on the TitanTron to cement a turn just days away from realising itself in the company's greatest-ever match. Piling on misery through his own anger at how things had played out, Austin screamed;
"Kiss my ass, Bret. All you wanna do anytime you go out in the ring is cry like a baby. I tried to go out there and help you and you threw it all away because you're a loser! It could have been you and me for the championship at WrestleMania, but you blew the whole damn thing because you're loser! At WrestleMania ...you will quit. And one of these days, well, it's you and me for the title. You're looking at the next champ! And there is nothing you can do about it!"
The war of words continued until Sid, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels all reappeared to mix it up for what was then an unfamiliar and chaotic way to end the show. It was historic too - Hart's language resulted in a time delay that remained in place forever to try and beep as many of the worst words as possible. In every respect - right down to the old Hogan-era blue bar cage being disassembled in order to make more space for the chaos - the old ways were crumbling in favour of the new.
And really new, this time.
The entire closing stretch was a war zone that just happened to be taking place on a show by the same name. The product actually suited the branding rather than branding doing the heavy lifting for the product. This had been the core issue with the New Generation even when it was good. Because it was good, sometimes. Especially on November 20th 1995 when an episode of Monday Night Raw aired that featured events so significant that they would actively alter the future of the company, even if many of the key players involved weren't really around to reap the rewards.
1995 walked in order for 1996 and 1997's biggest hitters to run, but that's not a story WWE particularly ever care to tell.
(CONT'D)