Forever Heel: Different Spin On WWF Attitude Era & WWE PG Era Comparison & Analysis

Columns, Top Story

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So I’ve been watching a lot of the Attitude Era Raws. The Attitude Era really was better, and I’m not talking about the controversial parts. It’s fitting that these Attitude Era Raws end in 2000.

In 2000 WWE went public, and that got the ball rolling for the PG Era. Of course we can’t have bra and panty matches, or wrestlers calling each other, “pieces of shit.”, but still this current era could learn a lot from The Attitude Era.

In 1998, everything on Raw was important. They acted like you couldn’t miss this important match between Marc Mero and Tom Brandy. Jim Ross and Jim Cornette acted like both guys were on the cusp of greatness, and this win could make them huge stars.

Even in WCW, The Cat took on Saturn. Even though Cat was having an inconsistent match, Bobby Heenan would say something like, ” This Cat guy is dangerous and unpredictable.”, so if you watch the match, a casual fan would think that Cat’s style isn’t sloppy, it’s “unpredictable”.

When I watch late 90’s Raws, I also noticed that we still had clear faces and heels. Austin was a face even though he attacked everyone that tried to help him. The shades of gray worked fine after you watched a few weeks.

Now in WWE, the difference between black and white is literally heels wearing black because heels can only cheat at PPV’s. A heel also can’t have a catchphrase, or awesome showboating, because the crowd might cheer the heel, and he’ll get confused and throw himself out of a window.

The Attitude Era also had a Diva’s Division (called Women’s Division) that mattered, even though it only had about five women in 1998 & 1999. The reason this division mattered was because Michael Cole yelled at us that it was important.

Sometime the Women’s Division and WWE valets merged. The Diva’s Division was born from this, and the division became a joke, and “piss break”, even though most WWE Diva’s were okay in the ring. I wasn’t told that Kelly Kelly was an athlete, or that Melina has a (kayfabe) martial art’s background. I just saw two Barbie dolls accidentally fall into favor, and win belts. I was told nothing about them.

The final thing I noticed is that the respect didn’t matter because this is Pro-Wrestling. The LOD lost their tag belts to the undeserving New Age Outlaws, and nobody really cared how LOD felt about it. LOD probably saw this as something to do to put over two younger guys. I mean the fans were even shouting “O-L-D” at them.

Now a days people are still pissed that Undertaker’s unimportant streak was broken. Undertake just accidentally won his Mania matches, until someone noticed it was a WrestleMania streak. In the old days, guys hardly ever retired as legends. They lost, or were retired by a young guy that needed some street cried. Not every dickhead that won a belt was a respected veteran.

Today these morons know that pro-wrestling is scripted, but still get mad at a Dusty finish? Why the hell would a scripted TV show get so much bitching? The story is, that it ended in a Dusty finish, accept what the storyteller puts down. Nobody cheers for Captain Hook because he worked his ass off being a pirate, and Peter Pan disrespected him. Nobody cancels their subscription to the Disney Channel.

Next Week: 2003 wasn’t so bad.

CH Punk comes from Beverly Hills, California; but considers himself a citizen of the World. Punk also turned heel at age 5, after receiving a LJN Iron Sheik figure for Christmas. On that day he vowed he would stuff his Sheik figure up Hulk Hogan's nose, to ruin Hulkamania. By 1995 Hogan had already ruined it without CH's help.