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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?
 
#95 · (Edited)
Not booking Undertaker Vs. Mankind at Wrestlemania.

Vince McMahon as The Higher Power. 5 months of build-up down the fucking drain!

Making Billy Gunn KOTR.

Not trusting Jericho or Van Dam to carry the company.

Not making Ken Shamrock WWF Champion. It would've been good press for the company!

Not buying out the contracts on the nWo, Flair, Mysterio, Steiner, and Goldberg. Vince would've gotten so much back on his investment with a real Invasion.

Making Kurt Angle WWF Champion for just two weeks. He should've held in until No Mercy at least.

Making ECWCW looks like chumps from start to finish.

I didn't mind Austin's heel turn, but doing it in Texas was beyond stupid.

Not forcing Austin to drop the title to Helmsley at Wrestlemania 18. As much as I dislike HHH, he deserved a better main event match.
I'm sure there's more, but these are the critical errors for me.

- Vic
 
#96 ·
Rock should have went over at WM2000.
Benoit should have won the WWF title at either Fully Loaded or Unforgiven then feud with HHH.
Jericho, Guerrero, Saturn were underused
Kane became a comedy act
 
#98 ·
It doesn't matter what you "hope" Looney, nor does it matter if you think Parvati is excited about next season. I'm amazed that you can't figure out why people give you a hard time... This thread is to discuss material relating only too Beedlebum's potential information. Please, for the love of God, make this thread easier to follow by keeping your irrelevant thoughts and wishes in your head.

Beedlebum, it's totally understandable that you don't want to give out the supposed final 3 before the cast is announced, but is there a way you could maybe find out names of other cast-members? A poster with info last season kind of played a "game" where he gave us clues relating to the names and we had to try and find the cast-member. Almost all S24 castaways were found this way... If you found out at least a few more names you could give us at least a "sneak peek" of who you think is on, and blend in those 3 names without directly giving out the final three. Thanks for the new possible info.
 
#105 ·
Seen it mentioned but for me it was the handling of the Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness/Corporate Ministry/Higher Power angle. It was mishandled a couple times. The quasi-Satanic Undertaker was legitimate scary. The angle made a few directionless characters relevant: Viscera, Mideon, you could even argue Faarooq and Bradshaw. There were three major mistakes in my opinion:

Mistake #1- Overbloating the group. The Brood were hot at the time and had a gothic gimmick so while they were natural from that standpoint, it just seemed to lose them in the shuffle. I actually liked the angle with Christian ratting them out and it would have been effect to them excommunicate them. It would have set the Brood up as faces and rivals for the mid-card members of the Ministry.

Mistake #2- Overbloating by merging with the Corporation. It led to weird turns for other wrestlers and hurried angles to cut the numbers in the group.

Mistake #3- The Higher Power reveal. It made no sense. Vince was probably the 228th choice from a common sense perspective. They eventually paid this off by saying it was the reason Stephanie stayed married to Triple H, but I just refuse to believe that was the plan all along. Jake Roberts would have made more sense. Linda McMahon would have made more sense (she was tired of the shenanigans of her kids?). Heck even Paul Heyman would have made more sense.
 
#106 ·
Seen it mentioned but for me it was the handling of the Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness/Corporate Ministry/Higher Power angle. It was mishandled a couple times. The quasi-Satanic Undertaker was legitimate scary. The angle made a few directionless characters relevant: Viscera, Mideon, you could even argue Faarooq and Bradshaw. There were three major mistakes in my opinion:

Mistake #1- Overbloating the group. The Brood were hot at the time and had a gothic gimmick so while they were natural from that standpoint, it just seemed to lose them in the shuffle. I actually liked the angle with Christian ratting them out and it would have been effect to them excommunicate them. It would have set the Brood up as faces and rivals for the mid-card members of the Ministry.

Mistake #2- Overbloating by merging with the Corporation. It led to weird turns for other wrestlers and hurried angles to cut the numbers in the group.

Mistake #3- The Higher Power reveal. It made no sense. Vince was probably the 228th choice from a common sense perspective. They eventually paid this off by saying it was the reason Stephanie stayed married to Triple H, but I just refuse to believe that was the plan all along. Jake Roberts would have made more sense. Linda McMahon would have made more sense (she was tired of the shenanigans of her kids?). Heck even Paul Heyman would have made more sense.

Agree mostly, but Jake Roberts? Jake Roberts of 1992 would've made sense. By 1999 or whatever, Jake Roberts was a complete mess and washed up, sadly. There's no way they'd give a guy like that a huge role, at that point in time.
 
#113 ·
Austin's Heel Turn < the mania swerve (which was rumored leading up btw people fyi) and the two man power trip was actually very very ruthless and messed up. Austin acting like a dumbass coward singing songs in the summer and fall of 2001 messed up his heel turn/character.

The Mania 2000 main event; should have been Rock vs HHH with the Rock winning the title; the crowd was more than ready for it. If they HAD to have Austin involved at Backlash, have same exact scenario happen at Backlash except the Rock barely retains the title.

more wrestling in 1999; while very entertaining storyline wise, this year is by far the worst wrestling wise in the Era. Fortunately the next year compensated.

Should have just made it HHH that hit Austin instead of the whole "I did it for da rock" - soooo dumb and almost pointless.

IMO; Have Kane win the 2001 royal rumble with HHH screwing Austin. Kane's performance was so awesome, i was so pissed off when Austin predictably won. HHH and AUstin still have their match at NWO. Kane somehow loses his spot to Austin on Raw or Smackdown.

Couldn't have changed this but DLo was over HUGE in 1999 and after that Droz injury was never the same. He could've been such a much bigger player!
 
#115 ·
Should have just made it HHH that hit Austin instead of the whole "I did it for da rock" - soooo dumb and almost pointless.
This happened because Rikishi bailed on his heel push. They had no other choice but HHH.

IMO; Have Kane win the 2001 royal rumble with HHH screwing Austin. Kane's performance was so awesome, i was so pissed off when Austin predictably won. HHH and AUstin still have their match at NWO. Kane somehow loses his spot to Austin on Raw or Smackdown.
Then what about Mania match between Austin and Rock? Rumble win was essential. Austin's heel turn was much more important than Kane winning the rumble right?
 
#119 ·
Kane not winning the Royal Rumble 2001
Vince winning the WWF championship (not for nothin tho he was huge!)
I always thought they should have pushed to bring in Sting say what you will it would have made a massive splash.
Making the Hardcore Championship defense 24/7 kind of diminished it into obscurity.
but hey all and all we cant really complain because we would all take the old stuff back over whats happening lately haha
 
#127 ·
He was supposed to team with Haku against Kane and Taker at Mania 17 but that match was cancelled at the last minute. I think Rikishis ear injury might have had something to do with it. In any event this injury prevented him to participate at Mania.

He came back in May but within weeks he suffered a shoulder injury that put him out of action until December.

So 2001 being lackluster for Riksihi was more because of bad luck instead of being misused or not pushed. What really killed Rikishi was his heel turn in 2000 though.
 
#128 ·
The Katie Vick saga - Triple HHH publicly stated in a later interview there was a real funeral taking place in the room next door and he was told to be quiet whilst humping the corpse.

Anything involving Big Boss Man

Anything involving Mae Young

Test/Steiner abusing Stacy Kiebler (or was that just afterwards?)
 
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