It’s the most influential era of professional wrestling, a boom period that brought in mainstream
success that hasn’t been seen since.
It made household names out Steve Austin and The Rock and created wrestling legends in
Triple H, The Undertaker Mankind and many more.
But there is a big question over when it truly began.
I am Luke Owen and this is the exact moment The Attitude Era started.
A lot of people have theories about when The Attitude Era came to life.
The chaps from The Attitude Era podcast argue it was WrestleMania 14 when Austin won the
WWF Championship, Bryan Alvarez has stated he believes it was the Austin home invasion
angle with Brian Pillman and WWE’s own documentary about the era says it was Vince McMahon’s
December 15th 1997 promo.
Although they’ve also said in other interviews and on commentary that D-Generation X were
the architects of the Attitude Era, and have since changed their mind to say it was all
of 1997.
That was a big year of change in the WWF.
The traditional good guys like Bret Hart were now the bad guys in the eyes of fans, as edgier
characters began to take centre stage.
The smiling good guy Rocky Maivia was now a part of the Nation of Domination and shouting
down the fans who wanted him to die.
But there was one date in particular - at least according to former WWF writer and producer
Bruce Prichard - that kickstarted The Attitude Era.
The date is September 9th 1997, and WWF are taping an episode of Raw that would air the
following to help build towards Bad Blood, where Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker were
set to go one-on-one inside the very first Hell in a Cell match.
What’s uncommon about this taping, however, is that Vince McMahon – who was always present
for TV tapings - wasn’t there for it.
Instead, Prichard and Jim Ross were put in charge.
Someone else who wasn’t at the show was The Undertaker who had the day off, and was
instead scheduled appear in a pre-taped video later in the night when HBK cut a promo on
him.
However, just cutting a promo on The Undertaker was not Shawn’s plan.
Instead Michaels – just before going out in front of the crowd – stuffed his shorts
and then proceeded to jump around in front of JR, crotch chopping in order to draw attention
to what he’d done.
He then proceeded to swear throughout the interview, and went against script by calling
The Undertaker names and challenging him to come out to the ring.
Now remember, Taker wasn’t there in the building and was only appearing as a video
on the screen, which allowed Michaels to call him “a chickens**t”.
“Michaels, knowing Undertaker wasn't in the building, responded by calling Undertaker
to the ring.
He said if Undertaker was as brave as he appeared, he should come to the ring and face him right
then and there.
The crowd popped thinking that, of course, Undertaker would accept the challenge.
Instead, Undertaker could do nothing about it since he was sitting at home, unaware of
Michaels's comments.
The crowd left the arena with the impression Undertaker avoided Michaels's challenge.
When Undertaker heard what happened, he was said to be very upset.”
– Wade Keller, Pro Wrestling Torch, September 20th, 1997
“I was in gorilla, watching the whole thing.
I was livid.
I was pissed.
This wasn’t what we had gone over with Shawn.
And he’s stuffed the towel down his shorts before going out.
He went out and got in JR’s face.
I think it was, in many ways, a slap in the face to me and JR because we were the ones
that we were running that taping.
It was a slap in the face to Vince for not being there.
Vince was not happy about it.
Kevin Dunn was not happy about it, none of us were happy about it.”
– Bruce Prichard, Something to Wrestle, October 6th 2017
The entire interview had to be heavily edited, and there was even a lot of discussion backstage
that Shawn cut this promo because he was trying to get himself fired so he could go to WCW
and hang out with his Kilq buddies Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac.
“Whether Michaels was doing it in another attempt to get fired so he could go to WCW
or he had other ideas up his sleeve, it's definitely brought a lot more negativity toward
him in a lot of circles.”
– Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer Newsletter, September 22nd 1997
Vince fined Shawn Michaels heavily – rumoured to be around $10,000 - and was said to be
very upset about the whole situation.
However, he then changed his mind about the promo.
“Vince gets JR and I in a room and starts pointing at Shawn and saying, ‘what he’s
doing is showing attitude, we need more attitude.
That’s attitude pal, the roster needs to find some attitude.’.
Attitude became the catchphrase for the next few years, all off that one promo...
It went from Vince being infuriated about it [and] fining him, to, ‘that’s what
we need more of’” - Bruce Prichard, Something to Wrestle, October 6th 2017
So there you have it boys and girls, at least according to Bruce Prichard, the exact date
the Attitude Era started was September 9th, 1997.
Do you think it was a different date or moment?
Let us know in the comments below.
And while you’re at it why not check out my opinion piece of WWE creating new stars.
And did Hulk Hogan really sue WCW over a storyline?
Click the videos to the left to find out more.
Press subscribe and support WrestleTalk on Patreon.
I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.