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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?
 
#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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#39 ·
I don't get the hate for Austin's heel turn. I thought it was really well done, myself. Those first few weeks of him destroying the Hardys and whatnot, they made the guy look like a legit monster. The biggest problem with it was that there was no dominant babyface for him to feud with besides Undertaker. Kurt Angle vs Austin in the summer of 2001 was awesome, and it really got Kurt over as a serious performer, but sadly we had the Invasion screw up to deal with at the same time. I agree that Austin siding with McMahon out of the blue was strange, because it was out of character. However, Austin as a heel himself was great.

Now, onto some of the biggest Attitude mistakes...

Well, obviously Rikishi's "I did it for the Rock" makes this list. That heel turn basically killed him, and was so underwhelming. "What, this fat dancing joke of a guy ran over the top babyface in the company and now they're feuding? OK...

I'm gonna avoid stuff like Mae Young and the hand. Those were just stupid storylines, we all know it, every era has them. I'm gonna try to get to the big issues.

I think El Chapo will agree with me when I say that one of the biggest mistakes of Attitude was the Fed's handling of ECW guys, specifically Raven and Tazz. My God, Tazz, what did they do to you? They could have done so much with Tazz, and by his second PPV appearance he was taking on Bossman and Bull Buchanan. I'd have loved to see a Tazz vs Big Show feud where Tazz just completely owned him right before he went to OVW. Can you imagine how much that would have solidified him? Instead, by the summer he was jobbing to Jerry Lawler. That was handled so poorly.

Chyna's IC title run was really terrible, but at least she was over. More than I can say for most of the title holders of today.

Billy Gunn's KOTR 1999 win was a mistake, as well. He was very effective with Road Dogg in the Outlaws, but he was just not singles star material. He's the perennial KOTR winner that went nowhere after his win, right along with Mabel. Back then KOTR was a sign of great things to come, and instead Gunn jobbed to Rock at Summerslam and went right back to the tag division.

I think they really mishandled British Bulldog when he came back in 1999. Granted, he might have been in a really bad way at that point, but come on. Jeans, work boots and his pant legs stuff into his socks? He looked like him sort of Neo-Nazi. Completely the wrong thing to do with him. Then he and the Mean Street Posse got paired up. That was a real head scratcher.

As other have said, Wrestlemania 2000 not having any regular singles matches. I love Mick Foley, but he and Big Show shouldn't have been in main event.

I'm sure there are others, as well. This sticks out the most to me.
 
#47 ·
Now, onto some of the biggest Attitude mistakes...

Well, obviously Rikishi's "I did it for the Rock" makes this list. That heel turn basically killed him, and was so underwhelming. "What, this fat dancing joke of a guy ran over the top babyface in the company and now they're feuding? OK...

I'm gonna avoid stuff like Mae Young and the hand. Those were just stupid storylines, we all know it, every era has them. I'm gonna try to get to the big issues.

I think El Chapo will agree with me when I say that one of the biggest mistakes of Attitude was the Fed's handling of ECW guys, specifically Raven and Tazz. My God, Tazz, what did they do to you? They could have done so much with Tazz, and by his second PPV appearance he was taking on Bossman and Bull Buchanan. I'd have loved to see a Tazz vs Big Show feud where Tazz just completely owned him right before he went to OVW. Can you imagine how much that would have solidified him? Instead, by the summer he was jobbing to Jerry Lawler. That was handled so poorly.

Chyna's IC title run was really terrible, but at least she was over. More than I can say for most of the title holders of today.

Billy Gunn's KOTR 1999 win was a mistake, as well. He was very effective with Road Dogg in the Outlaws, but he was just not singles star material. He's the perennial KOTR winner that went nowhere after his win, right along with Mabel. Back then KOTR was a sign of great things to come, and instead Gunn jobbed to Rock at Summerslam and went right back to the tag division.

I think they really mishandled British Bulldog when he came back in 1999. Granted, he might have been in a really bad way at that point, but come on. Jeans, work boots and his pant legs stuff into his socks? He looked like him sort of Neo-Nazi. Completely the wrong thing to do with him. Then he and the Mean Street Posse got paired up. That was a real head scratcher.

As other have said, Wrestlemania 2000 not having any regular singles matches. I love Mick Foley, but he and Big Show shouldn't have been in main event.

I'm sure there are others, as well. This sticks out the most to me.
1. Rikishi would've been by himself without HHH but his Heel run failed.
2. Hand stuff was funny but stupid
3. Tazz should've been pushed in 2000
4. Chyna wasn't great cause her 5 moves of doom sucks so is IC title reign
5. Billy Gunn should've been pushed as main-eventer, would've been good Heel
6. Bulldog would've been pushed 2 face HHH, Rock, Austin, Big Show etc but never won WWF title
7. Rock-HHH WM16 will be 10 times better but Foley hasn't main-evented
 
#82 ·
Rock should have won the 2000 Rumble in a cleaner way then won WM 16 clean, but of course politics runs WWE as usual.

It wouldve also made far more since to have SC win the title at No Way Out 2001 or maybe even Royal Rumble 01 then have him face Rock and have the finish be the same as WM 17.

Then at Rocks first PPV back at Summerslam have him beat SC and hold the title til Vengeance bc it was retarded to have your top heel hold the title forever. Not to mention he was supposedly WCW yet had the WWF title while Rock was WWF and had the WCW title, yet again politics running WCW over common sense situations
 
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#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.
 
#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
 
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