- 6/22/2025
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00:00It's like a party and you're all invited
00:18Monday Night Raw became the hip thing to watch
00:24Stone Cold! Stone Cold is here!
00:30I am the King of Hardcore Wrestling!
00:42For 25 years, I have never witnessed anything that even closely resembles what we have just
00:59in the 1970s WWE dominated Madison Square Garden and sold out the venue a record number of times! The 1980s saw the birth of Wrestlemania and Saturday night's main event which propelled the WWE into mainstream consciousness.
01:29The rollercoaster experienced its first downward spiral in the early 1990s. A steroid scandal rocked the WWE and while Vince McMahon was exonerated of any wrongdoing by a federal grand jury, the damage was already done and the WWE suffered through its lowest point in history as a result.
01:47But just like any cyclical creature, by the second half of the decade, things were clearly pointed in a positive direction and WWE's popularity practically exploded overnight.
01:59Summer Slam is this weekend, y'all!
02:01We started having so many more enthusiastic young guys attending Raw with their buddies.
02:15Monday Night Raw became the hit thing to watch.
02:19Wrestling shows were the top two programs on cable last week.
02:22You smell what the Rock is cooking?
02:24It's cooking big time.
02:25It was a cultural revolution and WWE just happened to be caught up in it.
02:33It's also a cast of a few very talented people.
02:40Stone Cold Steve Austin.
02:42Check this out right here.
02:43No, no, don't do it.
02:46Baby!
02:47Have a nice day!
02:49America was pushing the envelope and the rest of the world was loving it.
03:03The Attitude Era, to me, started the day that Vince McMahon spoke to all of the WWE superstars and divas and said that if we were going to be successful moving forward, everyone was going to have to put a little bit more of themselves into the characters.
03:24This is a conscious effort on our part to open the creative envelope, so to speak, in order to entertain you in a more contemporary manner.
03:31The world changes.
03:32People's attitudes changes.
03:33Okay?
03:34You got to keep going with the times, man.
03:36You know?
03:37If you don't change, you get left behind.
03:40We think that you, the audience, are quite frankly tired of having your intelligence insulted.
03:44We also think that you're tired of the same old simplistic theory of good guys versus bad guys.
03:50Going out there and saying, you know, we're going to evolve with the times and we're going to change what that show is, rather than, you know, doing it and just hoping people catch on to it, let's just tell them where we're going.
04:00And where we're headed.
04:01Surely the era of the superhero who urged you to say your prayers and take your vitamins is definitely passé.
04:09Therefore, we've embarked upon a far more innovative and contemporary creative campaign that is far more invigorating and extemporaneous than ever before.
04:17Vince knows that when he needs a change, he needs a change.
04:20I'm happy to say that this new, vibrant, creative direction has resulted in a huge increase in television viewership.
04:27It was Vince McMahon's vision to make the show edgier and have a little attitude.
04:33A fierce battle between WWE and its number one competition, WCW, began in 1995 for Rating Supremacy on Monday nights.
04:44While it began as a rivalry, it quickly became a war as WWE was losing its homegrown superstars to the organization down south.
04:53Monday night was a destination for a lot of fans that were either watching WWE or WCW.
05:00WCW began to claim the lion's share of the television ratings on Monday nights, forcing WWE to alter its course of action.
05:09The ratings were everything. There were several weeks in WCW when we were beating WWE in ratings.
05:15We had a limitless budget, great networks to be on. At the time, we were just putting on a better product.
05:22We felt like that we needed to change our approach.
05:26I was starting to notice significant changes within WWE, largely because of the competition from WCW.
05:35We decided to go in a different direction and provide the audience a little bit edgier product.
05:41There was no limitations. It was go all out, do whatever, and get over.
05:47There was a lot of freedom where guys were going out there and were willing to take a little bit more risks.
05:52People's real personalities starting to come through in their characters and they were just connecting more.
05:56Everyone realized they were going to have to shift gears and that some of the things that have worked before,
06:00as far as really outrageous characters, was probably not going to work in that current environment.
06:09Changes were needed and in March of 1997, Raw underwent an extreme makeover.
06:15The entrance from the back to the arena was transformed into a much more elaborate creation.
06:20The innovation of, you know, big screens, big trons, cameras everywhere.
06:24It kind of changed it a lot from the perspective of the fans.
06:28WWE decided to upgrade their television production.
06:32And you can't stay the same all the time. It gets boring.
06:36So you got to change your program.
06:39The WWE now sported a giant titantron, which displayed a music video customized for each superstar or diva.
06:47And as they say, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
06:51And the music alone was leaving a lasting impression.
06:54Back in the day, back in the Attitude Era, that's kind of what it was, 90% of it was your entrance.
06:59If you remember, there was people's ring music that you remembered.
07:02The, oh, you didn't know, right away when you heard that, the crowd was connected.
07:06Oh, you didn't know!
07:10You're out for the cars!
07:12I just thought of, you know, the greatest show on earth, the Ringling Brothers.
07:15You know, I just thought of that ringleader that would get the fans kind of into it.
07:20Welcome to the doghouse!
07:23Sometimes now when I listen back or I go back and watch old footage,
07:26it's really hard for me to believe that 12,000, 15,000 people said every word.
07:31They weren't hanging on my every word.
07:33They were saying every word with me.
07:34D-Generation X proudly brings to you, it's Happy Ten World!
07:42The Road Dog, Jesse James!
07:44The Badass Billy Gunn!
07:46The New Act Outlaws!
07:51Today, when I look back and I realize what was going on,
07:54that was an incredible thing to be a part of.
07:56People still love The Brood, they still talk to me about The Brood,
08:01still ask me about The Brood.
08:02I remember even packing to go on the road,
08:04and, you know, I got a copy of the song,
08:06and I would, you know, I would kind of put it on in my room
08:08while I was packing my bags to hit the road
08:11to kind of get in the right mind frame for the trip coming up.
08:14People still talk to me to this day about The Brood music
08:16and how original it was and how cool it was and how distinct it was.
08:20And that with the entrance coming up through the floor with the fire,
08:23just added like a whole element to kind of being kind of larger than life.
08:27Being there that was thrown together here and there with Scotty and Brian,
08:31we wanted to try something different.
08:32So I came up with this idea, how about if we were to dance?
08:36It was the funniest trying to have a big Samoa
08:38and teach two white dudes that have no rhythm how to dance,
08:41especially Scotty, he was petrified.
08:43They were great. They were too cool.
08:46They had Rakeshi, they had the dance.
08:49They were interactive in a different way.
08:51It was one of those things that just exploded.
08:54The steadily increasing stream of patrons was proof that the audience
08:57was more engaged in the product than ever before.
09:00And WWE not only capitalized on its growing fan base,
09:04but on the success of reality television
09:06by trademarking its own reality-based programming,
09:09dubbing it the Attitude Era.
09:13I know what you're thinking.
09:17I'm not a real athlete.
09:19I'm just a wrestler.
09:22I'm six foot ten, three hundred and twenty-eight pounds.
09:25I was a consensus All-American.
09:27I played football for the Dallas Cowboys.
09:29My jersey was retired at Florida State.
09:31I was voted the greatest sports hero in Germany three years in a row.
09:34When you step through those ropes, bad things do happen.
09:38At over 200 stitches, I've suffered a dozen concussions.
09:41I've broken bones.
09:42I've separated shoulders.
09:43Damn near broke my neck.
09:44I've blown out knees.
09:45But I've still got up.
09:47This is who I am.
09:49This is what I do.
09:51I'm not really an athlete.
09:53This isn't real.
09:54Try lacing my boots.
09:58The campaign touted the WWE superstars as genuine athletes.
10:02But more so, they were entertainers.
10:05And leading the way was a threesome who summed up the entire movement.
10:09D-Generation Axe.
10:11DX, two very talented smart asses.
10:14When Sean and I started to get the ball on the DX thing, which we had push Vince for and push Vince for and push Vince for.
10:20And when we finally kind of got the green light, we almost felt like at that point, like, what do we got to lose?
10:29Let's go all out.
10:30Santa never looked so good!
10:33I repeat, I did not sleep with that young intern.
10:38Loser!
10:39I was at ball night!
10:42What's my motivation?
10:47Again, DX gets in trouble every time we do something gratuitously.
10:52I love that stuff.
10:54It made our partners not so happy.
10:57But DX, they were the renegades.
10:59The moment that we joined DX was a huge step up.
11:03Myself and Billy Gunn, we were already the New Age Outlaws and we were reaching some success, you know.
11:09But it wasn't until they came to us prior and said, hey, you guys want to be in DX?
11:13You know, have you thought about that?
11:14And, of course, we hadn't thought about that because that was beyond our imagination.
11:18But we had played hard to get.
11:20And we're like, yeah, let us think about it.
11:22And we were jumping for joy inside.
11:24And look at this gang attack!
11:26DX and the Outlaws are taking apart Tactus Jack and Terry Funk!
11:31No!
11:32No!
11:33Oh, God!
11:34You're seeing the new DX!
11:37Are you ready?
11:44The Generation X, right?
11:46Young people could relate to him.
11:50DX was the anti-establishment.
11:53I probably hadn't seen a group that kind of important to a show since The Four Horsemen.
11:58D-Generation X proudly starts the war against WCW!
12:05That stuff was unheard of at the time for us to be doing stuff like that.
12:09Invading WCW and that was the Monday Night Wars.
12:13That's just how it all began.
12:15I was pissed.
12:18The other thing that really irritated me about that was it was so damn good.
12:22And who knows all the professional wrestling?
12:25DX! DX! DX! DX! DX! DX! DX! DX! DX!
12:32This is CNN.
12:34It was a ballsy, arrogant, aggressive, ruthless move.
12:38I love that.
12:39We are surrounded right now. We are surrounded by the police.
12:43They gave us an opportunity to do things like that that were fun for us to do.
12:48And therefore, it was fun for the fans to watch.
12:51Break it down!
12:56There you go. New York's finest.
12:58DX was the cool kids and the class.
13:02Get back!
13:06They were big!
13:07We were having a legitimate good time.
13:09And at that point, we were welcoming everybody to join us on that good time trip.
13:14Now, Solo! Break it down!
13:16Woo-hoo!
13:17So ahead!
13:18Woo-hoo!
13:19I definitely had a blast. I just cut loose.
13:22The body was dead when I got there.
13:24They let us run with it. They really let us go out and have a good time.
13:27And I think that was the key to our success was that we were having a legitimate good time.
13:32For the thousands in attendance and for the millions watching at home on live TV.
13:36Let's get ready to sucker!
13:42DX had a way of making everybody in the crowd feel like, man, God, I wish I was down.
13:53As much as I enjoyed DX, there were times when things seemed to be done just unnecessarily.
14:00The illusion to a sexual act taking place probably was going too far.
14:06We had a good time and we did what we thought was socially acceptable at the time.
14:11I don't think we ever went too far.
14:13Sometimes it seemed we pushed the envelope just to push it.
14:17You know what they were doing? Some people might have found it offensive.
14:20You know what I mean? But you still have the option.
14:22If you don't want to watch it, change the channel.
14:24We had a very demanding, tough crowd.
14:26And a crowd that would spot lame, bubblegum, stuff like that.
14:32And really be pissed off if we tried to force that down their neck.
14:36We probably desecrated a generation of young people.
14:39I'll never forget parents walking up to me with their four-year-old.
14:42Go ahead, son. Show him. And he's saying, suck it.
14:45You know what I mean? And I'm thinking, ah, dad, mom, that's on you.
14:48That ain't on the road. Don't put that on the road, dog. That's on you.
14:51DX was revolutionary.
14:53But nobody could have foreseen the monsoon of good fortune about to come
14:57thanks to a foul-mouthed redneck named Stone Cold Steve Austin.
15:01Sportsmanship? What a load of crap.
15:06Don't preach your morality to me.
15:09Steve Austin doesn't have any compassion.
15:12You want mercy?
15:14Take your ass to church.
15:18I think we can probably go back and look at the success and the explosion of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character,
15:32and the way he had the perfect antithesis in Mr. McMahon.
15:37That really propelled and launched the Attitude Era.
15:41Do you want to see Stone Cold Steve Austin as champion, yes or no?
15:45It's not just a no, it's a, oh, hell no!
15:51I've always said that the growth and the development and the evolution of the evil boss, Mr. McMahon, was a very key component to the Attitude Era.
16:05What you see, Vince, is what you get.
16:08Austin was the guy that everybody sitting in his Lazy Boy on Monday night wanted to be.
16:16I was just like, man, the harder I ramp it up, the crazier these people are going.
16:20Stone Cold!
16:21Just got the owner!
16:23Put him in jail!
16:24Austin is going directly to jail!
16:31It was the way I did things, but it was how I did them with that attitude.
16:34It was Stone Cold.
16:35It was all about that character.
16:37Stone Cold Steve Austin drinks beer, swears, kicks ass.
16:42That's the bottom line.
16:43He's the man, number one.
16:45There's no doubt about it.
16:46It was just that time in America, I guess, and in the world.
16:50It was just, he was exactly what the doctor ordered, and timing is everything.
16:55I'm damn sick and tired watching you walk around with a check at your belt.
17:00He symbolized everybody that's worked for a tyrant to rise up against that tyrant.
17:06And Vince was the ultimate tyrant.
17:09Austin was your red-blooded American that shoved it right up his nose.
17:13It was good.
17:14There's Austin!
17:15There's Austin!
17:16Wait a minute!
17:17Stone Cold!
17:18Stone Cold!
17:19It's here!
17:20Get your guns out!
17:21He's gonna crash!
17:22Pigman party!
17:23Oh, yeah!
17:24Oh, you got McMahon!
17:25Oh, you got McMahon!
17:26Oh, you got McMahon!
17:27Get him!
17:28Get him!
17:29Get him!
17:30I ain't through with you, bitch!
17:31I ain't through with you, not yet by a long shot!
17:33You violated me, Austin!
17:34I will make your life a living hell!
17:38Help!
17:39If you want Vince's eyes to pop out in front of his head, give me a hell yeah!
17:52Let's go!
17:54Steve Austin was over like anybody I'd never seen before.
17:58His popularity and his relationship that he had with the fans was so different than anything
18:03I'd experienced before.
18:04He was an innovator when it came to merchandise.
18:07He was very hand-in-hand with creative working on his merchandise.
18:10So that, from a business standpoint, he was an innovator.
18:13McMahon 316 says I just pissed my pants!
18:18There was no long-range plan as far as where we wanted to go.
18:24Where we wanted to go was higher and higher, but just to keep the momentum.
18:28Because, man, we were sold out every single night.
18:31The Austin McMahon saga was clearly the horse pulling the cart.
18:36But WWE wasn't just a one-trick pony.
18:39While Austin McMahon brought more viewers, it was the development of other complex stories
18:44that played out over a period of several months, which kept the audience's intrigue.
18:49The raiding wars were kind of like a rallying of the troops for WWE.
18:53They hunkered down, dug in their bunkers, and came up with some pretty good battle strategies.
18:58Kane is alive, Undertaker!
19:01Your brother Kane is coming!
19:04You, Undertaker, are gonna burn in hell!
19:10There wasn't anything on Raw that didn't mean something, didn't have a storyline or developed,
19:15or people had already been emotionally invested in.
19:17Undertaker, welcome to your worst nightmare!
19:21WWE tries to constantly develop emotionally-driven storylines,
19:26something that the talent can relate to, react to.
19:30It was me all along!
19:33You all bought it hook, line, and sinker!
19:37Even my family, even my immediate family bought it!
19:41Every damn one of you were made fools of!
19:45Dad, Shane, how could you be so cruel to me?
19:49It made it a big story because now you're seeing the family that runs this company
19:53is now involved in the show.
19:55That's something that everybody wanted to see.
19:58We were able to provide that bigger experience, backgrounds, characters, storyline.
20:05It made sense.
20:06It's been almost a year since you had me abducted and carried down to this ring
20:12to be sacrificed to the Undertaker.
20:18What goes around, comes around.
20:21I'm not daddy's little girl anymore.
20:25If you have a story, now you know where you're coming from.
20:29You get to know the character, then you just fall in love with the character.
20:36WWE was all about building the characters and the storylines.
20:43Ladies and gentlemen, tonight marks the dawning of a new era
20:48in the World Wrestling Federation.
20:50The McMahon-Helmsley era.
20:53The key to those long, arcing storylines in that era were twofold.
20:59I think they were planned strategically.
21:03But I also believe that the talent we had at that time
21:07really contributed to their own particular stories.
21:12Stone Cold Steve Austin.
21:16You never saw it coming.
21:19All the speculation.
21:20All the rumors.
21:21It was the game.
21:24The fact that, you know, we went with the storyline with my father,
21:28it was good for me because it allowed my character to have some depth
21:32and develop some range.
21:33Hey, Ms. White.
21:34Now that you're a single woman, would you like to go out with a man like me?
21:38No, you don't, you son of a bitch.
21:40No, I'm wrong.
21:41Come on.
21:42Come on.
21:45God almighty.
21:46I'll never forget that.
21:47The backbone of the attitude era was unquestionably superior storytelling.
22:01And that fostered an environment that encouraged talent to participate in that process.
22:06They turned all the talent.
22:07They said, outline something you'd like to do.
22:09And my outline was the hardcore division.
22:12We didn't have one at that time.
22:13I wanted to create a hardcore division though I didn't call it that name.
22:17Well, apparently when Vince Russo got my thing,
22:21he looked at it and created not the hardcore division but the brawl for all.
22:30The brawl for all was one of those ideas that looked really cool on paper.
22:37This is a combination combat.
22:39You can wrestle, you can box, you can throw down your opponent.
22:42And I said, what in the world are you talking about?
22:46Bruce Prichard said, we're going to put you in gloves and it's going to be a legit fight.
22:50Creative guys assumed that it would be really cool to see guys beat the hell out of each other.
22:56Now nobody knew Bart Gunn was that good.
23:00Bart Gunn ends up knocking everybody out.
23:02The big left hand by Bart Gunn caught the doctor.
23:06Bart Gunn was dominant.
23:08His reward was getting knocked out by Butterbee.
23:12It was an absolute terrible idea.
23:16Did we do a great job of the brawl for it all in making a star?
23:19Can't name a single soul that we made.
23:21It was really a bad idea.
23:23We had so many people get hurt.
23:25It looked good on paper, but when he put it out there in the ring,
23:28it just wasn't something that the fans wanted to see.
23:33Not everything was a success, but with every miss came several smash hits.
23:38And those groundbreaking innovations were a fresh element that brought unpredictable shock value to the shows.
23:44I'd like to see it, you know, get a little more, I wouldn't say too much more extreme than it is,
23:49but, you know, maybe just a little bit more.
23:51Anything that has steel chairs, thumbtacks, anything that hurts, I like.
23:55The Big Show! Don't slam the undertaker all the way to him!
24:01When I think of innovations with all the hell in a cell and all the things that have come along
24:06as part of that outside creativity, it also has to do with the talent that can pull it off.
24:10You can come up with a fantastic idea.
24:13Whether or not the talent can execute it is a whole nother level.
24:16This is the Hardcore Championship belt, and Mick, you've earned it.
24:22I love it!
24:25When I think of Hardcore, I think of one guy, Mick Fulton.
24:31Mick Foley always put his body on the line for the entertainment of the fans.
24:37Mick Foley's like a classic car that has just been beat to and still runs.
24:42Mick Foley was a train wreck, a car wreck.
24:47You wanted to see what he was gonna do next.
24:56Look out! Oh, no!
24:57Good God almighty! Good God almighty! They've killed him!
25:01People ask the question, did you know it was coming? Absolutely not.
25:06Yeah, Mick Foley? Well, there's only one Mick Foley, you know?
25:09And God, who would ever want to do that? I have no idea. There's only one guy.
25:16When it happened, Kevin Sullivan, who was one of the members of the booking committee for WCW,
25:22just specifically said, that's it brother, the fight is over, they just won the war, it's over.
25:27Pack it up, go home, it's over.
25:30I didn't get that feeling at all, but when looking back on it,
25:33I think, you know, that moment or a few of those moments have gone on to define
25:37what was most outrageous, right or wrong, about the Attitude Era.
25:43I knew that somebody was gonna come around and take some of the things that I had done
25:50and add some genuine athleticism to it.
25:53We kind of came up with the idea for a tag ladder match.
25:55Okay, we've seen Sean and Razor doing a singles match, can we do this in a tag team environment?
26:00There's all these other elements you can add in there with extra bodies,
26:03and I think that that just kind of added to the excitement.
26:08The best ladder matches ever were the ones with Edge and Christian and the Hardys.
26:12I mean, they did stunts that are a hair's breath away from life-ending injury.
26:27The Dudley boys were the creators of the table matches and stuff like that,
26:31so they were innovators in a way too, they were coming off that good ECW run.
26:35They were very, very creative, and they were coming up with stuff like,
26:44oh my God, how far is it gonna go?
26:47Look at him! Oh! What the heck?
26:50The room for error in those ladder matches is paper thin.
26:55New ways of presenting the WWE only left the audience thirsting for more,
27:05and the once and later family-friendly product was now attracting a college demographic.
27:11In that era, the business and the industry was so incredibly hot.
27:21People love it. All the millions and millions of fans.
27:24We had college kids. We had kids that would say, screw the rent, I'm going to Raw.
27:30Screw the rent, I'm buying the pay-per-view.
27:32We're getting massive numbers. We're selling out arenas.
27:36We've struck gold here with a new presentation of an old product.
27:43It's a new thing, and it's just catching on really good, and it's working.
27:47It's a positive thing for the company, too.
27:50The crowds just ate everything up.
27:55It's completely, like, for the fans.
27:58Money Night Raw became, you know, the it thing to watch.
28:02Raw was their brand.
28:03Hello, everybody, and welcome to the War Zone!
28:06Jim Ross, Jerry the King Lauder here at ringside!
28:09This crowd is jacking!
28:11You know, about that era, too, they started bringing signs.
28:13They were very creative. They showed a lot of passion.
28:16It became much more acceptable for someone who is 16, 17, or 18
28:21to not only admit that they were watching it,
28:24but be proud of the fact that they were watching it.
28:27You started to see the young girls with cut t-shirts like bikini tops
28:32sitting in the front row.
28:34During that time, I saw several women on a nightly basis
28:38take her shirt off in the arena.
28:40It was a different time and a different era.
28:44The male demographic was the crux of WWE's success,
28:48and catering to that group with beautiful women was a smart business decision.
28:53I think Sonny was really the first WWE diva.
28:57I think Sable and Sonny both innovated what the divas bring to the table.
29:01I mean, no offense to the divas that we had in the past,
29:04but most of them were very rough-looking.
29:07Trish Stratus, Chyna, Lita, these girls turned that around
29:13because not only they were hot chicks, but these were chicks that would whoop your ass.
29:17Women's wrestling at the time had kind of fallen off,
29:20and they were determined to bring back the prominence
29:23and to be taken seriously, not just as I can do.
29:26In that respect, they were kind of pioneers.
29:28I remember Lita, at one time, used to get the biggest crowd reactions
29:33out of anybody in the locker room.
29:34I mean, she was getting stone-cold, rock, undertaker-esque reactions.
29:40We were able to incorporate some very beautiful women
29:43that were also great athletes.
29:45They were sexy, they were fun, they were manipulative.
29:51This is Mr. McMahon's idea of conservative, but it's not mine.
29:56If you're at home watching TV and you see Sable come out,
30:02you don't want to miss it.
30:04So, she was good for the company.
30:06Sable coming out with handprints on her breasts
30:11might not have been real good for little Johnny, who's nine.
30:15The divas had more freedom with what they wore.
30:19It's a business issue, and they're good for business.
30:23I know when I wouldn't have wanted my children watching then.
30:27That's just all there is to it.
30:30I had a sex scene with Terry Reynolds and Jacqueline.
30:34They made a chocolate sundae out of me.
30:40I thought that was a little bit much, especially if I had kids.
30:43Today, I wouldn't let my kid watch that.
30:45I'd be like, oh, you know, turn it off.
30:50Y'all go in another room while I watch this.
30:55There was no doubt the content and the superstars weren't exactly as family-friendly
30:59as they had been in the past.
31:01And the male counterparts to the divas were also indicative of that trend.
31:05Hey, my man.
31:09Hey.
31:10Well, you got the hair of the hoes, man.
31:12I can't leave home without the Godfather, all right?
31:16The American Express.
31:18Here comes a dude who's a celebrated pimp,
31:22and he's got the big gaudy gold chains,
31:25and then behind him he's got a train of beautiful women.
31:28Don't get no better than that for a young man to be watching.
31:31I don't know what the women were thinking,
31:32but we were going for 18- to 34-year-old men,
31:34and I think we were shooting them straight in the heart with that one.
31:38My favorite, whoop, whoop.
31:40Hoetrain.
31:41People came to the show just to see the Hoetrain.
31:43I mean, it was like they couldn't go to the strip club,
31:45but, you know, if they told their wife they was going to watch wrestling,
31:48they got some balls.
31:49I mean, it was like they couldn't go to the strip club,
31:52but, you know, if they told their wife they was going to watch wrestling,
31:55they got some strip club in.
31:58It was a good time, man.
32:03Vince McMahon had called me up in the hotel early one morning,
32:06and he described this character,
32:08and he says,
32:09Now, Val Venus is a film star.
32:12Okay, that's cool.
32:14He goes,
32:15He's actually an adult film star.
32:17And it kind of took me back a little bit.
32:19Whoa, where's this going?
32:20He came out on the towel.
32:21Hello, ladies.
32:22It was cool.
32:23It was interactive.
32:24He made it work and used the double entendres and the double meanings
32:27and things like that.
32:28And, you know, the way that I think his voice really made the character.
32:32You know, you can forget about Pat's cheese steaks
32:36and try the big Balbozkis
32:39cause I got more meat than your buns can handle.
32:44There were times when Val Venus was out there doing this Val Venus thing with the towel and Hello Ladies
32:50where I would just turn to the guy next to me and say,
32:53He can't say that. Can he say that?
32:56I came, I saw, and I came again.
33:03He did an amazing job with it, but I also thought that the character at times brought us unnecessary criticism.
33:12The example of having the pee pee cut off with Kai and Tai, I thought gave WWE too much criticism and allowed people to use it as an example of what they thought was representative of the show.
33:26I come to you half the man that I used to be.
33:33I think at the time that's what people wanted. How far can we push this? Oh, we push it to here? We're going to push it a little bit further. That's the way that it was.
33:41That example and the one with Mark Henry were the two, Mark Henry and the transvestite, where I was like,
33:46Ooh, I think you went too far and we're not getting as much out of that as we're, you know, as we're suffering because of it.
33:55Mmm. Mmm. How's that feel, sweetie?
33:59Feel good. Oh, yeah.
34:03What do you have, baby?
34:05Oh, sweet Jesus!
34:08Sweet Jesus, he's got a penis.
34:12I guess that's probably the most portable of all the lines.
34:29I have people, you know, coming up to me all the time going,
34:33Man, that was real cool of you, man, like to be so comfortable with, you know, homosexuality and somebody that's a transvestite or whatever.
34:42And I was like, I never thought about it.
34:45You might inspire somebody or you might make somebody feel more comfortable with themself and totally being indirect.
34:53And that's exactly what happened with that.
34:56WWE was flourishing like never before.
35:01But WWE was also cognizant of the fact that it had to toe the line with sponsors and network standards and practices.
35:08The edgy programming was attracting record numbers, but it also brought unwanted criticism from its detractors.
35:15USA was mad. They were sending us letters all the time to stop doing what we were doing.
35:20Vince was mad. We got yelled at constantly.
35:24But the group of people that didn't seem to be bothering, they seemed to be loving it, was the fans.
35:29From time to time, there would be edicts handed down that we had to change a few of the things we were doing.
35:35And a lot of it, I think, was a business decision.
35:38And you got sponsors and you got to hold back a little bit.
35:44I was on hand when Mr. McMahon talked about having to scale back some of the things because we were chasing away sponsors.
35:51Not the exaggerated ones that were bragged about by the Parents Television Council.
35:56I mean, they went to court with WWE and they lost because they were wrong and there's a letter to prove that.
36:02Well, I think that the PTC was very narrow-minded in a lot of things.
36:07They wanted to be the conscience of America.
36:09And it was unfortunate because they would take a few issues and a few segments, cherry-picked them,
36:18and then showcase them as if they were indicative of what WWE programming was all about.
36:24Due to the live nature of Raw and the war zone, we encouraged some degree of parental discretion as it relates to the younger audience, allowed to stay up late.
36:32There is a reason for a rating system.
36:35We would tell people, this is a TV-14 rated program.
36:39Did we do things that perhaps weren't in good taste?
36:42Of course.
36:45If we were trying to portray that we were something that we were not, I'd get their message.
36:50But we were up front.
36:52WWE was experiencing its greatest ratings, not to mention pay-per-view and merchandise sales in history.
37:00Most of the credit is given to the top-tier stars.
37:04But the truth is, WWE's wealth of talent allowed the company to expand.
37:09Raw was so popular that Network couldn't get enough WWE.
37:14So here comes Sunday Night Heat.
37:17The thing that Sunday Night Heat did from a strategic standpoint, it allowed more talent to get a cup of coffee and to get on television.
37:26It allowed us to promote every fourth week or so, tonight is the pay-per-view.
37:33And it also, just as importantly, allowed us to talk about tomorrow night or Monday Night Raw.
37:42It was a lot more work.
37:44A lot more work to tape and to televise and to get more talent.
37:49It was a lot of work.
37:51It's about the consumer, the universe, the fans, the people sitting there.
37:56That butt over 18 inches is the key formula.
38:00That's when you know you're doing well or you're not.
38:03If there's a rear end every 18 inches in that seat, you're doing pretty good.
38:06After Heat's successful launch in the summer of 1998,
38:10WWE's vision was even more grand in August of 1999.
38:14As they debuted SmackDown, marking the first time in history, WWE was airing a weekly show on broadcast television.
38:22With our new show, SmackDown on UPN, of course, USA Network, Raw is War,
38:27we always try to reach as many people as we can.
38:29Let's grow our audience.
38:30I think that was the theory behind SmackDown.
38:33Expansion required a diverse group of talent,
38:37and the introduction of comedy became an essential ingredient.
38:40Comedic relief was sexual chocolate.
38:44It was fun to me.
38:45I had a great time.
38:46People still to this day, every time they see me, they ask me about May.
38:50May, I'm going to tell you something here.
38:53There's not one woman like her.
38:55I'll tell you what, she's special.
38:56She's hilarious.
38:57She reminds me a lot of Betty White.
38:59I'm pregnant!
39:01What?
39:02Oh, my God!
39:04I'm here!
39:05Briscoe, poor guy.
39:07He was really puking.
39:09Yeah!
39:10Unbelievable.
39:11We're having fun with that.
39:12That was fun.
39:13I even asked Vince, like, why a hand?
39:17And he was like, it's a hand!
39:20And laughed hysterically.
39:22I'm like, I'm still confused.
39:24You didn't answer the question.
39:28While many things were done inexplicably, they always seemed to get a reaction.
39:33This is so cool.
39:35See?
39:36That is terrific!
39:38Man, Al Snow and Steve Blackman, the lethal cheddar.
39:44Get that chicken!
39:45Get the chicken!
39:46Come on, that's it!
39:47Get it!
39:48Make the Colonel proud, baby!
39:49The biggest thing was is that WWE fell out of the box.
39:52I'm trying to have a little bit of fun.
39:54By doing the comedy, we showed everybody that I'm a real person, too.
39:57Funny isn't money was a saying.
39:59And I think we disproved that because a lot of the guys who really became huge superstars were in equal parts great performers and funny.
40:11God himself spoke to you and said this, Bob, but my name's Billy.
40:18It doesn't matter what your name is!
40:20Classic!
40:21You know, the croc just came from the bathroom.
40:26The croc.
40:28And you should have smelled what The Rock was cooking.
40:34Going out there doing the stink face serve, I didn't feel too comfortable doing it.
40:43The fans just, they loved it.
40:46I'm wrestling in a drag, for crying out loud.
40:49Dressing drag, come on, you know.
40:51That was so embarrassing for me.
40:53I'm the greatest hardcore champion, and to prove it, I'm gonna put this title on the line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
41:01I found that to be entertaining, man.
41:03Hey, Crash Holly, he's escaping again, King, with a hardcore title!
41:07Keep doing something innovative, keep changing.
41:10And that's been Crash Holly.
41:12This whole 24-7 thing's nuts!
41:14I gotta call it out!
41:18It's always a balancing act of trying to find the right elements of comedy and drama and action.
41:24And I just think we were really lucky to have a bunch of guys all hitting their stride at about the same time.
41:32I feel like we cater to every single person in this world that has different flavors of different characters that they like.
41:40I love DX, love Jericho.
41:42You're the filthiest, dirtiest, most disgusting, brutal, bottom-feeding trash bag hoe!
41:52Everyone on that card meant something due to how much time was put into expanding every character.
41:58Triple H, cause he's got a bad attitude, and I like that.
42:02It's about nobody else, it's about me.
42:05It's about me getting what I deserve in this business.
42:08Fans make you popular, if they like you.
42:13If they don't, no matter how good you are, they don't care.
42:16I think it's a tie between Edge and Mankind.
42:19The Acolytes, the best tag team of all.
42:22I remember the APA, I remember the door, I remember the attitude, and sometimes that's even better than having that long list of matches that people can readily recall.
42:31I remember when they told Ron, we want you to sit backstage, drink beer, and play cards.
42:36And Ron said, that's the best idea I've ever heard.
42:40We loved it.
42:41We had so much fun.
42:43We just tore up whatever we could.
42:45Some of the most fun matches I had were with the APA.
42:48Now having said that, they were also the most painful matches that I had.
42:52Because Brad Shaw is no joke, and Ron Simmons is a man among men.
42:57Brood fit into the Attitude Era, just because it was different.
43:04There's always kind of been interested with that dark side or nightlife sort of thing.
43:09I miss those days where the lights would go out in the arena, and they'd come back on, and somebody would be soaked in blood.
43:15You know what I mean?
43:16That's dirty, and that's nasty, but it was really cool.
43:19What is wrong with you people?
43:21You do not fool them before belts.
43:24I'm an American hero.
43:26Kurt realized that in order to make it stand out, he was going to have to use that God-given athletic talent that he had,
43:33and add some entertainment value into that.
43:35He got that right away.
43:36He wasn't afraid to go out and make a fool of himself, because he knew at the end of the day he was legit.
43:42Rock's cool.
43:43He's got the clothes, the moves, the cars.
43:45He's got everything.
43:46Because the Rock is the great one.
43:49The Rock is the chosen one.
43:51And the Rock is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best damn champ there ever was.
43:59Great look.
44:00Athletic ability.
44:01Smart.
44:02Kind of changed the way guys present themselves now.
44:05I was so jealous of The Rock, because, you know, I could cut a good promo, and I was a pretty good stick man, as they say in the biz.
44:12But he was the total package.
44:14And it doesn't matter what you call it.
44:15Let us call it a hell in a cell, a rage in a cage, a penis in Uranus.
44:20I gotta get in my pickup truck, drink some Steve Weiser's, listen to some Backstreet Boys.
44:26He gave the people what they wanted, and what they wanted was catch phrases and flash and glitz and glamour, and that's what he was.
44:33He could probably wake up coma patients in the hospital.
44:36He had so much electricity that poured out of him, you couldn't sit on your ass when Rock was in the ring.
44:41Well, The Rock says this, Big Show.
44:44You think you impress somebody by taking The Rock and go,
44:50It was just a crazy thing to see how women reacted to him in the airport or at the rental car place.
44:57We got free rental cars.
44:59People were like, well, I mean, you know, The Rock can come around there and give you a hug.
45:04I mean, give us a rate on this car, you know?
45:07And we end up with a free car.
45:10This company was very, very blessed at that time.
45:13There'll be a lot of Hall of Fame talents that came out of that roster.
45:17At that time, the company was trendsetting and groundbreaking, and we were ushering in this incredible era.
45:29So, it was important to me that I was the one leading the pack.
45:36And Steve Austin sure as hell didn't want to be second.
45:40But there was just a bond and respect and a trust there.
45:44I brought out the best in The Rock, and he brought out the best in me.
45:47He's one of my favorite guys to have ever worked with.
45:50It wound up being arguably the greatest rivalry in the history of the WWE.
45:57And that's saying something.
45:59With all these incredible rivalries, I'm just a little biased.
46:02I get it.
46:03People don't realize it, but there was a lot of, I will cut your throat to get my segment on TV.
46:20And it wasn't buddy-buddy, hey, let me show you how to do this, and maybe you should work on that.
46:25If you made a mistake in the locker room in the Attitude Era, they ate your ass alive and rolled on and were happy you couldn't keep up.
46:31That's what the Attitude Era was really all about.
46:34It was about everybody in the locker room fighting to get on TV, fighting to do well on TV, and to give a s*** who you stepped on.
46:41When WWE was fighting WCW, it didn't matter what WWE did, as long as they crushed WCW and vice versa.
46:54Everybody wanted, on Monday night, to have the best performance they ever had.
46:59Because whatever segment that you were in, you were going to be judged.
47:03I mean, you had to really step up.
47:06It was fortunate enough during that time that we had a lot of talent.
47:10We had a lot of people stepping up and getting the job done.
47:21People are enamored with celebrities.
47:23And if they were enjoying the show, you knew that WWE was definitely something the world was watching.
47:29I'm a fan.
47:30I'm a groupie of these guys.
47:31I love these guys.
47:32It takes a great amount of skill, athletic ability, in order to do what we do.
47:43Actors, I think, and entertainers understand that more than anyone else.
47:49They know what it takes.
47:51And they come and watch us because they marvel at what we do.
47:55There's a great cornerback of the Miami Dolphins, Dan Marino and his boys.
48:00Ben Stiller!
48:02There's Cortez Kennedy, one of the great defensive linemen in the international football league
48:06of the Seattle Seahawks.
48:08You know, I can recall nights where Monday Night Raw, in that attitude era in the 97 and late 90s,
48:30we had some amazing ratings that rivaled or beat Monday Night Football games.
48:36Raw began to dominate Nitro in the Monday Night Ratings War.
48:40And with Nitro preempted for the NBA playoffs on May 10, 1999,
48:45a tag team match between New School and Old School gave Raw a segment
48:49that was viewed by an unprecedented number of viewers.
48:52Those kids, you know, they were good kids, but they were not good wrestlers.
48:56It was dangerous working with them.
48:58I think Shane has been showing the posse a few moves here.
49:01They were really worried.
49:03They didn't want to hurt, really hurt one of us because we're old timers
49:06and we're in there and doing our thing.
49:08But I'm going to tell you something.
49:09We didn't take care of them.
49:12We let them know that who was the boss.
49:17You know, it was Patterson and Briscoe.
49:19That was a fun era in those days.
49:21I really enjoyed that with those kids.
49:23People were really behind us.
49:24They liked Patterson and Briscoe, you know.
49:27It was a fun time.
49:28It really was, yeah.
49:29A mean street posse!
49:31And we'll see you later!
49:34The ratings record would only live a few short months,
49:38as another duo captivated the audience with a unique celebration.
49:42This is big rock!
49:44I felt like, you know, Roger Maris must have felt in 61 breaking Babe Ruth's record.
49:50I mean, when you can break the posse versus the Stooges, you're really doing something special.
49:56This is your life!
49:59The Rock say hello to Coach Everett Hart!
50:03The Rock would like to take that whistle you got.
50:06Turn that sumbitch sideways and stick it straight up your candy ass!
50:11Behind the scenes, I guess, Mr. McMahon was furious because we were allotted, I think, 14 minutes for a segment on live television.
50:19We went 26, 26 minutes.
50:22The Rock's high school sweetheart!
50:25The Rock just has one thing to say to you.
50:27Poontang your ass on out of here!
50:29This moment that caught people, you know, that they loved and enjoyed and think of, you know, with great fondness.
50:38And I'm, you know, I'm happy that I was part of it.
50:45Thanks to ratings and pay-per-view success, WWE saw unprecedented financial growth.
50:51And as a result, WWE became a publicly traded company in October 1999.
50:57Our fans are, they turn out, they want to be a part of our company.
51:00And that's why we took the World Wrestling Federation public so that our fans could literally be a part of it.
51:06WWE continued to ride the wave of success until March 2001, when it bought its main competition, WCW.
51:18And shortly thereafter, purchased ECW as well.
51:22WWE was, in essence, the only show in town.
51:26I don't think anybody was consciously thinking, okay, this is the end of the Attitude Era.
51:31But perhaps there was just, like, this giant combined, you know, pause.
51:41Like, okay, we won.
51:44We didn't have anybody to try to outdo other than ourselves.
51:48The buying of WCW was a ceasefire.
51:52Because you never knew what outlandish stuff WCW was going to pull.
51:56The stuff that Vince would do, showing up at the gates, starting to blow the door down with the tank, with DX.
52:01I mean, that was all cool stuff for fans to see.
52:04I think, looking back on it, that there was a sense that we could no longer run quite as fast without somebody chasing us.
52:13And I think we all kind of paused for a giant exultation.
52:19And that we may have lost a little something there because of it.
52:35There was about four years there, 97 to 2001, where it was just rocking hot.
52:39And every arena was sold out to the rafters in every town we went to.
52:44Just the guys that I were around all the time were such big stars.
52:50Undertaker, Stone Cold, Rock, Mick, Triple H, Sean.
52:56It was groundbreaking. It was different.
52:58We were onto something that had never been done before.
53:00And everything we did was fresh and new.
53:02And things were just taken off.
53:04And just week after week, seemingly on a bigger scale.
53:07So, for me, it was just a whirlwind.
53:11And it's an important period in history.
53:13And I'm just happy I was a part of it.
53:27I got a lot of memorable moments.
53:29And I could probably talk about them for hours because every night was a memorable moment.
53:33And the crowds were great and crazy.
53:36And even when we left the arena, you had, you know, people following you.
53:38Or you go to your hotel and there would be a couple thousand people in the lobby.
53:41Every night when I left the arena, it was like a party at the hotel.
53:46And you're all invited, you know, and what a blast.
53:51It was kind of like a rock star kind of era.
53:56Everywhere you went, WWE is what people were talking about.
54:02It was an era that changed the landscape of WWE.
54:06And ultimately became the watershed period for the company.
54:11It was an adventure.
54:12Every Monday night was another adventure.
54:14It was just cool as hell.
54:16The programming was innovative and groundbreaking.
54:29It pushed the limits of what was considered accepted content on television.
54:34It was all about letting those people live vicariously through me.
54:37And I really look forward to Monday Night Raw because I was doing so much crazy, crazy horse.
54:43It's like, man, what are we going to come up with next?
54:45I like to surprise the ability to make the crowd go, oh, my God, I didn't see that coming.
54:54The superstar struck a chord with audiences across the world.
55:00Just a once in a lifetime group of people that came along that made it just that special.
55:10It was incredibly entertaining.
55:13It defied the odds, but that was part of what the audience loved.
55:19The stars make the product shine.
55:23I don't think that I've ever had more fun outside the ring in my career.
55:35The iconic images have left a lasting impression.
55:38It was so outrageous at that point in time, I think those are moments that changed the business.
55:51The men and women who lived it and the millions who lived vicariously through the WWE superstars will always and forever refer to it as simply the Attitude Era.
56:16Attitude Era
56:17Attitude Era
56:21Attitude Era
56:26Transcription by CastingWords
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