2. It Appealed To The TV Audience At The Time
When you think of the 90's and cult USA TV there are a few things that to me spring to mind; Beavis and Butthead, Simpsons, Jerry Springer and pretty much MTV in general. Films? Austin Powers, Fight Club and pretty much any Kevin Smith film. I could go on but the point I am trying to make here is that these were all films and shows which in their own way broke the mould from what we were used to watching. When you especially take the examples of Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead (cartoons which appealed to adults with adult references in them), Jerry Springer (reality TV with a bang!) and Austin Powers (certainly brought sex, toilet and random humour to the forefront of cinema) you can see Attitude fitting very snug in there; when you have Steve Austin raising his middle finger to his boss and dropping the JC bomb whilst DX (not GX!) chop their crotches at the crowd yelling "Suck it!" you could quite easily switch to Jerry Springer and see a similar set up. 90's TV was pre-FCC extremism and probably the last time we will ever see such crazy television...possibly, if you watched RAW is WAR during the 90's you could almost imagine that two guys who were trying to lump each other on Jerry's show were being let loose in front of a crowd on Vince McMahon's show. That primal "we want to see someone fight!" and have it feel like it wasn't meant to happen drove the ratings, certainly on RAW and no doubt on Jerry Springer too.