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Biggest mistakes in the Attitude Era?

31K views 127 replies 76 participants last post by  Thekweewee 
#1 ·
Because of the WWE'13 launch and the Attitude Era mode in it, the momeries about those great times are back. WWE made a lot of good decisions, that helped them survive, but like always, nothing is perfect. Whats the biggest mistakes of WWE in 1997-2001?
 
#5 ·
Not actually hiring Jake the Snake for the Ministry leader angle and instead giving us "IT WAS ME AUSTIN, IT WAS ME ALONG".
Which sort of makes McMahon look like a moron, considering if he was leader he made Undertaker he made him both physically and emotionally torment his family.
 
#19 · (Edited)
They had re-signed Bret Hart to a 20-year contract. WWF and Bret mutually agreed to part ways and then he signed a 3-year 3-million dollar contract with WCW. WCW then made a big mistake by not pushing Bret and wasting the Survivor Series heat.

I think a big mistake was not pushing Edge and Christian as singles stars during the Attitude Era. They definitely over-compensated by giving Edge a billion title runs long after it had ended. Took so long for either one to be recognized for stealing Wrestlemanias during the Attitude Era.
 
#9 ·
I hear that a lot but I don't think someone like Bret would have had as hard a time adjusting as people seem to think. I'm not quite sure what "he was a wrestler first and foremost" means really.. that he didn't do entertainment as much as he did focus on the in ring product? That's true, but I can think of others that were like that that fit pretty well during the attitude era. And either way I would bet Bret would have had a larger impact with the last few years of his career with Mcmahon than he did in wcw.

I just think WWF made a mistake in letting a guy they'd built up since the mid 80's to world champion status go in his prime.



---
On a side note a mistake made, not by WWF but by WCW that was pretty big imo was announcing on Nitro that Foley was going to win the WWF title. I switched to Raw immediately.
 
#8 ·
-Rikishi being revealed as Austin's attacker. An even bigger mistake was when it turned out Triple H (the most obvious choice to begin with) was really behind it.

-Too many random heel and face turns, particularly in 1999. Seriously, there was at least one turn a month that year.

-Too many random and pointless stables. JOB squad, Oddities, PMS, the Union, and to some extent even the Corporation. though I like its overall concept. The members of the corporation were way too random and they changed too frequently (see previous bullet point).

-Too many world title changes. Again, this applies more specifically to 1999. In that year the belt went Rock, Mankind, Rock, Mankind, Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Austin, Mankind, Triple H, VINCE, Triple H, Big Show, and then less than a week into the year 2000 Triple H won it back.

-The 24/7 rule for the Hardcore title. I like the concept of a Hardcore championship but the 24/7 rule killed the belt.

-Mark Henry with a ******.

-Beaver Cleavage.

-Mae Young giving birth to a hand.

-Chyna as IC champ
 
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#13 ·
Ministry Taker going American badass
Mcmahon taking the undertaker's role as the leader of the ministry
The invasion angle not having the main wcw stars such as hogan, goldberg, sting, nash, hall.
kennel from hell match (horrible lol)
bossman coming back after being hanged by the ministry
foley retiring in the middle of the attitude era.
 
#22 ·
...but that is just ONE McMahon that shouldn't be there. It's great when Vince, Shane and Stephanie are involved. Linda was involved in one dumb storyline, which ended up actually being pretty damn funny.
 
#23 ·
Linda was involved in 2 iirc
The Vince/Shane/Trish/Steph thing and the WM2000 angle
 
#25 ·
The biggest have already been mentioned: The Invasion, turning Austin heel, not pushing Jericho right after his hot debut.

After that, all of the mistakes are minor and small in comparison, because the Attitude era was so successful, even from a financial standpoint.

But to me, after the ones I already listed above, I hated the WM 2000 main event of the fatal four way. 2000 was a great year for the WWF, even from an in-ring standpoint. 2000 might be the best year from an in-ring standpoint in the Attitude era, along with 1997. But, IMO, a fatal fourway can never be the main event of WM. Any other PPV? Sure. But not WM. The main event for WM, in my mind, always has to be a 1 on 1 match. To me, they dropped the ball on that one. It should have been Triple H vs Rock.

Triple H was the hottest heel in the business at this point. Rock was the hottest face in the business, with Austin out for the year. They were both in their prime. No reason these two couldn't be in the main event and pull off at least a 4 star match. Nothing against Foley and Big Show, but their presence in this match just jumbled the match.

Like I said, not a huge mistake in the grand scheme of things. But we probably got cheated out of a classic match featuring the most over heel and face in the business, both in their prime.
 
#26 ·
Agreed. The main event at Backlash 2000 should've been the main event of Wrestlemania 2000, Austin run-in and all.
 
#29 ·
not making the hardcore title legit until 2000 when Blackman got it
 
#31 ·
I agree with the guy who mentioned Austin turning heel. They should of seen the fans weren't going to buy that shit and when they shook hands Austin stuns McMahon. Didn't have to turn him heel, we'd just seen him demolish The Rock with a chair, but then stun McMahon, he should of took a new edge to his character in the fact that he will literally do anything to win the title, side with McMahon for a second to get the job done but then show he doesn't trust anybody.
 
#32 ·
Surprised no one has mentioned this but IMO, Kane should have gotten an extended run with the belt in 1998.

He should have at least held the belt until November/December, possibly dropping it to Foley then continue with the planned Rock/Foley feud. But having him win it, dropping it the next night to Austin then a few months later, having him and Taker as "co-champions" was a bad idea. I understand it helped turn the Rock heel and it was great how so many angles were born from Austin/McMahon but I feel Kane would have been great as the dominant and unstoppable champion.

And The Union was a pretty bad idea, as well.
 
#41 ·
But having him win it, dropping it the next night to Austin then a few months later, having him and Taker as "co-champions" was a bad idea.
It was pretty stupid. The Taker / Kane / Mankind / Austin stuff at first was a total clusterfuck. (Thank god Kane + Taker in late 1998 was fucking awesome) But I think the most logical reasoning behind this was simply, ratings.

The WWF was hot again, as was WCW. Going back and forth in the ratings. Honestly, who didn't want to see Austin get his rematch the night after King of the Ring? Raw won the ratings that night 5.36 to Nitro's 4.1
 
#33 ·
Same problem wcw had, not creating future stars for the business. Vince rode Taker,Austin,Rock,HHH as much as WCW rode Hogan,Nash,Savage,Sting with both companies not really creating to many future talents. When the AE started to die down in 2001, Vince thought he would do alright buy buying the wcw roster and creating the dream feuds that we always wanted to see. But push came to shove and Vince thought he could just buy a few of the guys and go from there. It didnt quite pan out. So he did the draft split but still he relied on the stars from the AE. Yes guys like Big Show werent old but they were tv old. Then it seemed like anytime he pushed an ew name, it didnt quite work out: Brock left,Benoit/Eddie didnt draw, JBL although a good heel just wasnt that good for buyrates and attendance. So it took a little bit longer but Vince finally got some good all stars for his company: Cena,Batista,Orton..and now Punk but it took awhile to get there.

I mean look at the top stars of the attitude era and by 2002 how thin the roster was:

Rock-left for hollywood, was only a part timer.
Austin-Left
Kane-Got stale
Undertaker-doing good as the biker, but not as much of a draw as he used tobe.
The list goes on and on

Im going to say the biggest mistake of the attitude era, was not creating new stars towards the end.
 
#35 ·
Some more mistakes from the Attitude Era:

-Kane's 24 hour title reign.

- Feeding Big Show to Austin on the RAW before WM15. That match should've been saved and built up to a PPV. It could've almost been the Hogan/Andre of the Attitude Era if Big Show had been built up properly.

-Not a single standard one-on-one match at WM2000

-Stephanie McMahon's Women's title reign.

-Rock pinning Vince to win the title at KOTR2000 and not Triple H.

-The way the main event of Survivor Series 1999 was handled. They knew weeks ahead of time that Austin would not be able to go so they shouldn't have plugged the triple threat match then pull the bait and switch with Big Show. It seriously pissed off the fans and is why I consider SSeries 1999 one of the worst of all time.

-"Choppy choppy your pee pee."
 
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