I'm watching the 1997 replays on the Network right now and I'm up to late June. From what I remember after Canadian Stampede in July is where they started going rapidly to the Attitude Era. The earlier stuff that year with Austin and Bret was pretty good, but the product started to really become must see after HBK was announced as the referee for Bret's match at Summerslam
It's hard to debate Summer Slam 1997. I really don't know what point things really started rolling. I just kinda picture Bret with the microphone in his hand going off on Vince McMahon after his cage match. That always stood out to me as "edgy"... and edgy is what the attitude era would go on to be in a nutshell. So I'm going to stick with Bret unleashing his anger on Vince early in 1997.
Summer '97 when they really started to turn up the heat on the America vs. Canada storyline. The Hart Foundation vs. HBK/Austin was some really entertaining stuff.
Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin feuding with The Hart Foundation, Undertaker feuding with The Nation whilst the "Kane" storyline was in its infancy as well and Mankind's babyface turn were all drawing me in weekly and I saw WWE as must watch TV, it only got better on the way to Summerslam then from there The Attitude Era was born in my opinion.
agree. while the show had plenty of good aspects post summerslam it wasn't really drawing the casuals...survivor series outside the montreal screwjob was a totally forgettable ppv but late november/december was the turning point with vince now viewed as the biggest real-heel in wrestling
Not long after Mania imo. Around the time they had Austin coming into the ring in a wheelchair and attacking Bret in the ambulance which was probably some time in May or perhaps late April.
The perfect point to start would be the Canadian Stampede PPV in July. That plus all the Raws leading up to Summerslam is when WWE started to turn things around. Summerslam was the best built PPV in a long, long time. After Summerslam, with DX forming in mid August, Austin stunning Vince for the first time in September, Vince screwing Bret and Tyson appearing, the product was really taking off and ready to beat the miles ahead competition in WCW.
things have been taken off as far back as 1996, but if you want to be more specific, i'd say Bad Blood 1997 set the wheels in motion for a lot of things including the Kane/Undertaker storyline, and it segued into the Survivor Series 1997 when the Mr McMahon character was born in an official capacity. but there were shades of the AE for a full year before this
Eh, I don't think it took off much in 97 honestly. Things didn't really start taking off truly for the WWF until early 98 around Mania with Tyson. It was treading the boiling point but hadn't reached that, holy shit you gotta see this, with the casuals yet.
That said, RAW 97 is one of my favorite seasons and I am thoroughly enjoying watching it on the network.
There were seeds of good in early 97, the Bret cage match tirade, the show after the Rumble and so on. But I really think the WWF hit a homerun on the April 21st Raw with the Austin/Bret Street Fight and the Brian Pillman return. Not a perfect show, but there was such a great main thread running through it.
From that point, you had Shawn spending more time not wrestling and Bret injured, which forced the focus to fall to Austin, and he did a great job. Heading in to the third quarter when Raw was criss-crossing between the US and Canada week by week, that was when things started getting really hot.
The main event scene started to get compelling around late 96, round about the time Bret returned. Bret's heel turn is another point when WWF began to really make some noise.
The show got vastly better after Wrestlemania. Taker as champion, Bret as a heel and the new Hart Foundation being formed, and then Mankind turned face soon after. It all really came together and that was ended up being one of the best summers WWE ever had. And then HBK heeled up and DX was formed and it got even better after Summerslam.
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