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Rooting for heels in the AE

2K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  YoungGun_UK 
#1 ·
Did any of you ever root for the heels during the Attitude Era? Guys like Austin and Rock seem to be quite universally liked even among the IWC. Of course this might only be because the AE was so long ago and we remember it more fondly because the current Era is just so much worse. Or probably some of us were kids then and just grew to like the faces.

But is there someone here, who during the AE rooted for guys like Jericho, Angle and HHH when they were the heels and going against SCSA, Rock, Taker. Was the atmosphere of the IWC different? Or were you casual fans at the time? But please tell what you think, have you always liked the bad guys or is all this heel-love a product of the current era.
 
#5 ·
Apparently IWC loved HHH, he was the Internet darling back then, but they hated top faces Austin and The Rock.

The Rock was the John Cena of the era to the internet community.
Thats not how I remember it. HHH was detested and every week there was a new burial conspiracy, e.g. Jericho, Mr. Ass. I remember the IWC were convinced that the arrival of the Radicalz would prove once and for all HHH's political burials. And the Rock... he was adored at first but the WWF really did overkill his face run. The IWC turned on him eventually. Casuals caught up (Boo'ed out of Summerslam 2002). Personally I loved heel Rock. 98-99 was his best run, his face run got stale really fast. He was painfully over exposed in 2000 and everyone on the roster, save for HHH was fed to him. Their iron-man match as a legit highlight though, the feud shoulda been ended there.
 
#3 ·
I do remember a gradual turn against The Rock by 2001 by the IWC. HHH was detested, he had casual heat and bad IWC heat. By the time the IWC developed crowds were less rebellious and the WWF generally had more say in who was legit heel/face, as opposed to 97-98 where rowdy crowds would choose who to root for. By the time the TAE ended I was genuinely sick of both Rock and HHH, they were over exposed in 2000 IMO.

Steiner was smark favourite, his WCW antics near the end were hilarious.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Not in the arenas if that's what you meant besides specific matches or situations. Plenty of Angle fans as you would expect from a guy who in less than a year was already a tremendous performer in every aspect but Jericho was mostly a babyface, a huge popular babyface, second biggest for most of 2000. The fanbase just enjoyed watching the greatest performers of all time in the greatest era and peak of the wrestling industry.

As for HHH on the internet. There was never a period that he wasn't involved in backstage BS with reports coming out that he's trying to bury someone in production meetings and things like that. But at least people appreciated his great on screen work in the 2000 period. Of course his real life relationship with his on screen wife which is probably going to be the first thing that come to people's mind when they would think of Triple H. It's just seems to me like it's stuck in the legacy for too long now. Also played a big factor. When he came back in 2002 half the performer that he was, it was pretty much full negativity and just got worse from there with the obvious attempts in the Jericho/Stephanie WM18 storyline.
 
#13 ·
the rock as a face champ got old and repetitive. same catchphrases and same few power moves over and over again. he was like a current cena except with better mic skills. i never even read about wrestling online back then and went from loving the rock to eventually being so sick and tired of him when he became face. i loved it when everyone rooted for hogan even though he was the heel. it wasn't just the iwc, it was a lot of people that got tired of the rock. i think people are forgetting how many boos he got during his last years in wwe.
 
#14 ·
The whole rooting for people to win/lose was less pronounced during the AA. It was an older smarter fan base, and they really enjoyed the characters and performers, and just went nuts for everything. It was actually kind of like ecw in that way, where the guys who were good often got cheered regardless, because people enjoyed their work. Everyone got cheered- Taker, Austin, Rock, Foley, HHH, jericho, Angle whether they were heel or face. Pretty much the McMahons took most off the boos and real hate from the fans.
 
#19 · (Edited)
The 'IWC' back in them days in all honesty were more of a minority, your 'uber smart marks' who just love workrate and in ring stuff compared to other stuff were all prominent, nowadays the 'IWC' is a bit different because I'd say nearly everyone who watches Raw and Wrestling in general has access to forums and the internet.

If back then the amount of people who use the internet like they do today back then im sure Rock and Austin would still have the same haters but they'd be among the minority with them getting a lot of love from most others.
 
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