ShowStopper '97

You really can't go wrong with either 1997 or 2000. Both years were great, albeit for different reasons. 1997 was more of a shock for fans when WWF went from being a kid-friendly, family-oriented program to more of an edgy, 18-30 year old oriented programming.

Gone were the gimmicks of clowns, garbage men, and plumbers. They were replaced with guys who actually had more than one layer to their character. Guys like Shawn Michaels who went from a babyface pretty boy (and completely marketed incorrectly in 1996, as even he would say, he didn't want to do the boyhood dream storyline) to a character that was alot more based on the guy he truly was at that time, an unruly degenerate who pretty much did what he wanted to do.

Then you had Steve Austin, who went from The Ringmaster to a guy who was a beer-drinking, ass-kicking, rebel who didn't take any crap from his boss. The character development with the Austin character to a guy who wasn't a "good guy" or a "bad guy" (which is how all us young fans from back then were programmed to either cheer or boo), but a guy who had some admirable qualities within himself (would never quit [WM 13], was tough, wouldn't take crap from anyone) and some not-so-admirable qualities about himself (profanity) finally showed us a wrestling character who was just like any human being. He wasn't strictly "good" or strictly "bad." He had alittle bit of both, which is what all of us are in society. Lots of shades of grey.

The character development in 1997 of guys like Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Undertaker from where they were 1996 to where they had developed by mid 1997 is incredible. We finally saw these guys go from cartoon characters that they were in early to mid 90s (Bret the pure babyface hero which no one bought anymore), (Shawn, the babyface boyhood dream champion, which got stale, and the guy himself didn't even want to play, but was forced to because of Vince) Austin (from Ringmaster to "Stone Cold"), and Undertaker (who we found out in 1997, actually had a brother, and a family, and was actually human).

1997 means to me character development, which was the most important thing, because that allowed the company to transition from a cartoon to a more adult, mature program, in which real people (not cartoon characters) had issues with eachother. This doesn't even take into account all of the great matches of 1997, including two of the greatest of all time with Austin/Bret at WM 13, and later in the year, HBK/Taker at Badd Blood.

If I had to choose, I would choose 1997. Because it was the start of the changing of the product that coincided with the changing of the times. 2000 was great because it was a very consistent product all year long, and by that time, the company had already found itself and gotten into a groove. But again, I would go with 1997, because to see the start of the character development of all of these guys I mentioned above was awe-inspiring.

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"I have the ability to push the buttons of people that would never, ever lose their temper."

Adyman

I would consider 97 and 98 if they had good video quality

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Edibas

Personally I loved 1999 so my vote goes to it.

Sam Knight

2000

Patrick Bateman

2000 because of DAT GAME in his prime.

450clash12x

1998- Steve Austin at his best, the Mcmahon family and austin, the rise of the rock, Mick Foley becoming a top star in the company, and DX being hugely over

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not removing until:
[x]daniel bryan and cm punk have a 5 star match
[x]brock lesnar beats triple h
[x]santino loses the us title
[x]austin aries is tna world champ- destination x 2012!!!! a-double baby!
[]aj styles vs austin aries
[x]Cm punk vs the rock
[x]seth rollins and dean ambrose debut on raw or smackdown

Jof

For WWF it was 2000 by far.

Lesnar Turtle

You can divide the AE into mini eras within itself.

1997- The transitional year/early Attitude Era. So much of what would go on to define the AE started in 97. The product changed bit by bit over the course of the year and then by about August I think its fair to say the AE had begun. That said it didnt really feel like full on car crash TV like it did in the following years, but it was still fairly gritty and edgy. Its an interesting year to rewatch for several reasons. Firstly because it laid the foundations for the AE and the success the WWF would go on to have, secondly because its massively overlooked and underrated, and thirdly because it was the only AE year where Bret was on the roster.

1998/99- The peak of "Attitude"- This was when the show was at its most extreme and Jerry Springer-esque by a pretty wide margin. It was hardcore car crash tv, lots of toilet humour, profanity, hardcore matches etc. At this point if you were a fan of technical wrestling you would go watch WCW, but if you liked hardcore wrestling it was heaven. 90% of matches involved brawling, chair shots, cages, interference etc. There were several very memorable and entertaining matches, but they were generally memorable because of someone taking a crazy bump, because of their brutality or because of a controversial ending.

2000/01- The final years- The show was still plenty edgy, but the Jerry Springer trashy car crash TV feel was toned down significantly while the quality of in ring work improved immeasurably as guys like Jericho, Angle, Edge, Christian, Tazz, Matt and Jeff were heavily pushed and were joined by Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn and later on Regal and Raven. 2001 was probably the year when the AE ended, a few months after the Invasion angle things just felt different.


Overall I would say

1) 00 - Prime Rock, great roster and a perfect balance between good wrestling and "attitude"

2) 98 - Austin at his peak, probably the best storylines, show at its most unpredictable.

3) 97 - Austin V the Hart foundation was awesome, start of DX and the Taker/Kane feud.

4) 99- Pretty good year but just doesnt stand out as much as 98. Higher power storyline was a bit dumb.

5) 01- The invasion angle turned out to be the most dissappointing thing ever, the end of the Monday Night Wars kind of made it feel like the buzz of that era had died and it was all coming to an end. Not a bad year and waaaaaaaaaaay better than todays WWE but the botched invasion storyline is the main thing that sticks out for me.

Ageei

I cannot pick between 1997 and 1998.

They are equal in my opinion.

1997 was amazing. The emergence of the Stone Cold character, The Hart Foundation and DX, and the creation of Kane. Amazing.

1998 was equally amazing. Austin vs. McMahon, the new DX, Brothers of Destruction, emergence of The Rock, emergence of Mick Foley. Also, probably overlooked but equally important was Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler going full time in a 2 man team. No more Vince, Jim Cornette, Kevin Kelly. Just JR and King. And they created a masterpiece.

So I can't choose. 1997 and 1998 was the perfect storm, with a bunch of hall of fame talent in the ring and outside the ring all in their primes. That will never be duplicated again.

Ageei

To this point and actually a larger point to your entire post which was a really good one by the way...

Still from January through February 1997, although called Raw is War, and the War Zone, and a much edgier feel...still, they had this old fashioned opening, followed by the siren blaring:



It wasn't until sometime in March 1997 they switched to the more Attitude style intro:



I think the two different intros alone in the same year are very telling about how Vince decided to go all the way. Also going from the sirens blaring in the January/February 1997 intro...to the explosions throughout the arena with the second March 1997-onward intro. Truly, it became what he intended "Raw is War" and "The War Zone".

Also don't overlook Vince's willingness to take the show on the road. If you look at 1996 and early 1997 they stayed very much near the Northeast. When he decided to go all the way he took the show on the road. Very important.