reply to post by King Seesar
I really do not remember anymore, but man... that was such a good time to be a wrestling fan.
People got to remember when all this was going on, it was mid 1996. Almost 15 years ago. It really did change the business drastically. Ted Turner and
WCW bought all of WWF's established stars and talent for the exception of a few people who stayed in WWE. People like Triple H, who was then still a
midcard performer known as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, some rich guy turned wrestler. They still had Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Stone Cold, Brett Hart
and The Rock. Now these are all big names now, but back then the only established stars were actually Shawn Michaels, Brett Hart and The Undertaker.
Stone Cold had not really become anything yet, no one at that time realized how big he would become. The Rock was still Rocky Miavia (or something
like that) and people hated him and thought he was the worst performer ever. So WWF began it's "Attitude Era". Hunter Hearst Helmsley became "Triple
H", Steve Austin became Stone Cold, Rocky Miavia became "The Rock". With all of WWF's established stars gone, they were forced to develop new talent.
They started putting on some really cutting edge, risky television. They began pushing the envelope and doing things that had never been done before,
and it all started with the formation of Triple H and Shawn Michaels.. which came to be known as DX.
This "DX" gimmick basically carried the WWF promotion and kept them from going out of business. While this was happening, the WWF began developing it
future stars. Starting with the birth of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Austin began this character in ECW, he then went on to the WWF. He won a series
of matches in a tournament style event known as King of the Ring. His final match was against Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Jake was using a religious
type of gimmick at this point in his career, and he would quote psalms out of the bible when he did promos. After Stone Cold won this match, he cut a
promo in which the phrase "Austin 3:16" was born. It was after this moment in time, Stone Cold's rise to stardom began. Nothing would hold him back
from becoming a Mega Star.
Now remember, I did say Shawn Michaels and the DX gimmick was literally carrying the promotion at this time. This was the start of the "Attitude Era".
This was when cussing, sexual innuendo, and everything you see today made it's first appearance into prime time. Below is a clip of what is known as
the "DX Election Speech" to give you an idea of what they were doing. It is pretty stupid, but at this time it was never done before. These stupid
things suddenly made wrestling "cool". It was a huge leap from the days of Doink the Clown and the WWF marketing to very young children. Prior to
this, they used to showcase Hulk Hogan and "say your prayers, eat your vitamins". So this was a drastic change. Sponsors pulled out, the FCC watched
them like a hawk. The current WWF Champion was Brett Hart. Also a "good guy" and very clean cut and tame compared to the new direction the company was
going in.
WARNING: This clip is the unedited version of what was shown on Prime Time TV. Very Foul Language is contained in this video
Hearing the unedited version, you can imagine how this came across on TV with a constant editing. Here is another video which will also give you a
good idea of how they went more X rated. This video, although nothing like the above, still full of innuendo. The DX catch phrase was "We got 2 words
for you, Suck it"
Also like I previously stated with all the established stars gone from the WWF, they had to elevated and create all new talent. Here is "The Rock's"
debut on Monday Night RAW. Just to give you an idea of how drastic the change was for the "Attitude Era"
and then came what we now know as "The Rock"
Now the year is 1997 and the "Attitude Era" had still not caught on with the masses. WCW was still dominating the Monday Night Wars and was solidly
beating the WWF in the ratings. Brett Hart's contract was almost finished and he would be leaving the company, the last of the "good guys" and by this
time he was simply not going to fit the mold of the "Attitude Era" which lead to what is know as the Montreal Screw Job.
And with that, Brett Hart went to WCW. With the last of the comic book good guys gone, the "Attitude Era" took off like wild fire. So as all this new
talent was being developed and the crowds were loving the new direction of the company, WCW began to turn into what the WWF used to be. They found
themselves with all of WWF's old talent, all fighting each other over and over and over again. Just like the fans had already seen in the WWF. So the
new WWF product was fresh. While WCW stars were constantly working with each other, the rising stars in WCW never got elevated. The characters that
people liked in WCW, were always over shadowed by the old, stale characters that people were sick of. At this point the WWF began to turn a corner.
The year is now 1998, with new talent being developed and stars rising, Shawn Michaels suffers a serious back injury. He would later drop the title to
Stone Cold Steve Austin, and by this time the WWF was gaining strength in the ratings war with their new direction and history began to repeat itself.
Just like all the old stars of WWF went to WCW and put it on the map, all the young future stars began leaving the WCW for an opportunity to shine in
WWF who still needed star power. There had already been a few signings, but nothing quite as big as the signing and debut of Chris Jericho.
From this point on there was no turning back. The WWF exploded. They had reached the masses and wrestling was more popular than it had ever been.
I forget where I was even going with this post, so I am just going to stop here and I guess consider it the history of Pro Wrestling's iconic rise
into pop culture. Sorry I went way way off topic with this one

edit on 19-12-2010 by MrWendal because: (no reason given)