The Attitude Era

[Johnny Sorrow]

So, the Attitude Era dvd "Sgt. Pepper" cover has more content in the infolds.

 

 

 

Say what you will, but that's the most thought they've put into a DVD cover art in a long time. I bought it. The documentary is ok. My favorite part is Mark Henry telling the story about how he went to Vince to ask about the "hand" birth, because he didn't get it. And Vince says to him "IT'S A HAND! HAHAHAHA!" and Mark just shrugs his shoulders.

 

The matches on the set are generally a lot of fun. One thing that totally stands out is how freakin' rabid the crowds were. There's a Austin/ Taker vs Mankind/ Kane vs The NAO vs. The Rock and D-Lo Brown match that's both a lot of fun and the crowd is just insane. Oh, and according to the DVD, The Attitude Era was from 1997 through WCW ending.

[El-P]

I have batch an eye or two to the documentary. Holy shit, they actually illustrate how "superior storytelling that made sense" was the backbone of the era by showing clips of "It was me all along", Helmsley and Stephy getting married and Big Boss Man dragging Big Show's dad coffin around. How do you say already ? BONG ?

[Johnny Sorrow]

Ah, the Big Show/ Bossman stuff was hilarious.

[blueminister]

It's probably very telling of the McMahon mentality that this at least two documentary DVDs that devoted time to attempting to redeem Show/Bossman. Show pretending that it helped him deal with his father's death is right up there with Batista saying he was WWE 4 Lyfe in the WWE DVD nuclear bullshit category.

[Victator]

I dunno Val Venis?

The Val Venis vs Dustin Runnels/Goldust feud is the perfect exemple of how nonsensical everything was back then, with a complete ignorance on how to define a heel and a face that people are supposed to care for. Russo said it best in his "Guest Booker" interview : "Heel or face ? I don't care, as long as I get ratings." The Val Venis character as a whole was really embarrassing.

 

I think from a basic story perspective there was nothing wrong with it. Everyone had proper motivation. As a morality tale it is very strange.

 

The Breakdown match is very good. With Dustin trying to fight clean and Val kicking his ass at every turn. The weird part is how the audience has no idea who to cheer. They go from cheering Dustin back to Val then back to Dustin.

 

Once Dustin realizes he will have to revert to Goldust to win, the fans start cheering him and Val stays in the same nebulous territory.

[El-P]

I think from a basic story perspective there was nothing wrong with it. Everyone had proper motivation. As a morality tale it is very strange.

I agree.

 

The Breakdown match is very good. With Dustin trying to fight clean and Val kicking his ass at every turn. The weird part is how the audience has no idea who to cheer. They go from cheering Dustin back to Val then back to Dustin.

I enjoyed the matches because Val was a solid wrestler and I always liked Dustin, but the angle was all screwed up with no face nor heel. Thus far, totally inefficient in telling a compelling story wrestling-wise.

 

Once Dustin realizes he will have to revert to Goldust to win, the fans start cheering him and Val stays in the same nebulous territory.

Add to that the fact JR was bashing Terri for basically being a slut, totally forgetting that she had been treated like complete shit by Dustin a few months prior and dumped live on TV. The moral stance by JR about Terri was completely ridiculous, she totally had the right to fuck whoever she wanted and get her revenge on Dustin. So you had :

 

_face Val Venis because it was cool to be a porn star womanizer

_heel Dustin because he was an uncool religious zelot, although having a "cool" sexual double entendre acronym again (the infamous EATME)

_face Terri (audience) because she was hot and getting her revenge on uncool Dustin / heel Terri (Ross, who was the face announcer), because she was "dressing up like a slut" and fucking another guy, despite having been treated like dirt and dumped on live TV by Dustin.

 

Then :

 

_tweener Val Venis because he was still cool to cheer but Goldust was cooler

_face Goldust because he was Goldust and that was a cool gimmick and he swore vengeance on Val and Terri, who he had dumped before in a heinous act that turned him heel before

_heel Terri because.... she was a slut (??)

 

Then :

 

_face Terri because she was in love and pregnant from Val

_face (WTF ???) Val who dumped a supposedly pregnant Terri, and god knows that is a funny move to make for a babyface, but I remembered it was cheered (no idea how Ross sold the whole deal)

_heel Terri trying to get back with Goldust, the lowly bitch she is (man, this girl always gets the bad end of the stick when she's dumped in humiliating ways)

_face Terri when she got a miscarriage, because I guess even for such a bitch (at least we're supposed to believe so), this is really a tragedy

_heel Terri : she really wasn't pregnant

_tweener Terri : she got revenge on Val which got a face pop (on Val who was supposed to be the "cool" guy to the audience), and formed PMS, which is the most embarrassing name ever to give a female stable.

 

To me this is the most mindblowingly fucked up angle and the picture perfect definition of Russo's shock TV formula : sex, nonsensical heel/face turns (if you can even call it that), no focus on wrestling at all (we had what, two matches out of the whole deal), and of course complete mistreatment of the woman character, complete with embarrassment, humiliation and being presented as both a sex object and a slut. You've got it all there.

 

Another totally nonsensical angle/stipulation with the same "morals" came a few months later in the Goldust vs Jarrett feud, in which Debra had to strip if Jarrett lost. I don't remember the details exactly, but it was just the same kind of mess with screwed up dynamics and way to present the female character.

[Victator]

It was strange how they tried to sweep the heel Dust run under the rug. The only thing with Terri being a heel is that her and Dustin had a kid together. But at the same time that was true when Dustin was running around in diapers.

 

The PMS stuff is hilarious, because of how often Val had to stay in position to get ambushed by a slow moving woman in high heels. The last one he watched her walk to the ring, then turned around, so he could be hit in the balls.. Also he never seems angry about it afterward.

 

Best thing is this is clearly Russo doing female empowerment. Which means the men are idiots and the women conniving cowards.

 

Val dumped Terri because he had a vasectomy years before, so Terri had to have cheated. Ross sold it like it was sad for the baby, but Terri made her bed.

 

I just watched this stuff on demand. Only reason I remember the angles.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Shit, you remember all that off the top of your head? All I remember from that whole deal was thinking "Cool, Goldust is back to teach this guy a lesson."

[El-P]

It was strange how they tried to sweep the heel Dust run under the rug. The only thing with Terri being a heel is that her and Dustin had a kid together.

Yes, but so what after all ? She was dumped in the most humiliating way for no reason. I also remember Ross complaining about the way Terri was dressing, because "she was a mother". Wait, what ? Wasn't Sable a mother too ?

 

But at the same time that was true when Dustin was running around in diapers.

Oh man, this whole AFKAG was beyond words.

 

The PMS stuff is hilarious, because of how often Val had to stay in position to get ambushed by a slow moving woman in high heels. The last one he watched her walk to the ring, then turned around, so he could be hit in the balls.. Also he never seems angry about it afterward.

 

Best thing is this is clearly Russo doing female empowerment. Which means the men are idiots and the women conniving cowards.

 

Val dumped Terri because he had a vasectomy years before, so Terri had to have cheated. Ross sold it like it was sad for the baby, but Terri made her bed.

I forgot about the vasectomy ! This was even worse than I remembered it to be !

 

I just watched this stuff on demand. Only reason I remember the angles.

Which leads me to answer to this :

 

Shit, you remember all that off the top of your head?

Actually I do. I know, it's been nearly 15 years, and I never rewatched any of this stuff except maybe the two PPV matches in the mid 00's. Yeah, I know, I know...

 

All I remember from that whole deal was thinking "Cool, Goldust is back to teach this guy a lesson."

Probably because I always was a huge fan of Goldust & Terri, and although I wasn't crazy about the Val character, I enjoyed his work. So the nonsensical booking of this feud really made a terrible impression on me.

[Loss]

YOUNG DAKOTA RUNNELS.

[Al]

When Dustin mentions on Twitter about Dakota going to college, goddamn that makes me feel old.

[Loss]

I'm trying to remember the approved WWF language surrounding her -- was it "their lovely daughter Dakota"?

[Johnny Sorrow]

I do remember that time when they were all in the ring as a "normal family" and Dustin was trying to get her to say "Goldust" and the poor kid was just crying and scared.

[Victator]

I also remember Ross complaining about the way Terri was dressing, because "she was a mother". Wait, what ? Wasn't Sable a mother too ?

 

WWE never advertised that Sable was a mother. I'm pretty sure they never said she was married to Mero. So I think that is the big difference.

 

It probably helped that I found Terri very unlikable from the start.

[NintendoLogic]

I'm trying to remember the approved WWF language surrounding her -- was it "their lovely daughter Dakota"?

All I know is that Dustin should've named her Target, because I heard everybody in Atlanta had a shot at it!

[El-P]

I also remember Ross complaining about the way Terri was dressing, because "she was a mother". Wait, what ? Wasn't Sable a mother too ?

 

WWE never advertised that Sable was a mother. I'm pretty sure they never said she was married to Mero. So I think that is the big difference.

 

I think they did at some point, but maybe I'm mistaken.

But this doesn't change anything anyway, it's a completely nonsensical point to begin with. She's a mother. Well, ok. And ? WWF morals were so screwed up.

[El-P]

When Dustin mentions on Twitter about Dakota going to college, goddamn that makes me feel old.

You don't say...

[Victator]

She's a mother. Well, ok. And ? WWF morals were so screwed up.

Well as I said earlier, I think as a parent (and this applies to fathers as well), you have an obligation not to behave like Terri was, or behave like Goldust did during his 98 heel run.

 

I feel like JR did condemn Dustin for embarrassing his family during the Artist heel run. So I don't really have a problem with it and he was defending her during the PMS stuff.

[El-P]

Well as I said earlier, I think as a parent (and this applies to fathers as well), you have an obligation not to behave like Terri was, or behave like Goldust did during his 98 heel run.

Well, I think there's a big difference between dressing sexy and making out with your lover and... well, TAFKAG.

 

So I don't really have a problem with it and he was defending her during the PMS stuff.

Weren't PMS supposed to be heels though ? This is so confusing.

[Victator]

At that point the only true heels are The Corporate Team, Jarrett/Owen and Undertaker. The only true faces are Austin, DX, Goldust and Steve Blackman.

 

Everybody else is in a grey area, with some leaning heel and others face.

 

Which I do not think is a bad thing necessarily. I liked things like the Brood attacking The Corporate Team, because they cost them a tag title match. Today the Brood would have been squashed and put up no fight.

[Bob Morris]

I recently bought the nWo DVD and thought a good point was raised about the nWo, which I think nicely explains the biggest problem of the Attitude Era.

 

With the nWo, the whole point of the angle was to see how many times people could be "shocked" as to what was happening on Nitro. The introduction of new members, the backstage attacks, the way the vignettes and promos were presented -- all of it was about showing stuff that people had not been used to seeing before.

 

But then it got to the point that all the bookers could figure out is "how can we top what we did last time?" In the nWo's case, it was all about who they could roll out as a new member and what they could do for their next backstage attack. When it got to that point, the intrigue started to fade.

 

So it was with the Attitude Era. It was too much about "what can we do to top this?" and soon the intrigue started to wear off. Russo's departure allowed a new team to take over and inject some new life into the product, but that soon wore off as well, in large part because they fucked up the Trip/Steph/Angle love triangle storyline.

 

There has always been a pile of crap to go alongside the truly enjoyable material that pro wrestling rolled out. But when it becomes too much about how a promotion can keep topping what it did the last time, the intrigue wears off and people see it more as a cliche than can't miss TV.

 

Also, most pro wrestling bookers and writers these days don't understand what complex characters are all about. I'll put it to you this way: There may be "shades of gray" with complex characters, but that's more in the sense of what is the difference between the Superfriends show of the 1970's and 1980's and the DC Animated Universe. Had Vince Russo, for example really understood what "shades of gray" was really all about, he would have been a far better writer and booker than he was.