What If The Attitude Era Returned?
There’s no argument that the Attitude Era is Sports Entertainments most beloved and controversial time ever. From segments that sadly involved “black face” characters to unannounced nudity. All this madness was a weekly thing.
The Attitude Era defined WWE.
The boundaries that Vince McMahon was willing to go to was something that was almost too meta to comprehend. He did everything and anything just to surpass WCW in the ratings. Even if that was putting his own show in jeopardy with head of the network they were on.
This was the time where susperstars were born. We had the likes of The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Triple H, Mick Foley, D-Generation-X, Chyna, Lita, New Age Outlaws, Trish stratus, etc. The list goes on and on.
With that being said…there’s always been one lingering question in the mind of wrestling fans. What if this era came back with todays wrestlers. Could they bring the attitude that drove the show to the masses? Could the violence be taken lightly with all the children watching? Would WWE push the boundaries again to beat…let’s say AEW?
The answer for me is MAYBE.
It’s a touchy subject for the older WWE fans. Many, if not MOST of them will tell you that it wouldn’t work. They’re too “soft” now. There’s too many kids watching the program. The parents would go against what is being shown. Then again…I was a mere child watching all this blood flowing down the faces of the wrestlers…I was a kid watching Sable having bikini contests. So, I don’t really understand why anyone would even go against the idea.
Quite frantically, I do believe WWE needs some adult content right now to gain some sort of momentum.
There very well might not be one superstar in the locker room today that will have the same drive. The same motivation to come out to the ring and raise some hell. They might never go off-script because the higher-ups backstage could easily fire them. I’d say that’s B.S. There are many superstars in the locker room who CAN bring it and can deliver some attitude.
Would the violence be there? Headshots…barbed-wire bats…falling from the top of a Hell In A Cell? Probably not. I say it would be very toned down. But, I’d take it. You never know what they can bring to the table given the right material.
Roman Reigns could easily be todays Triple H. Kevin Owens could be this generations Stone Cold. Clearly Bianca Belair is todays Trish Stratus. Bayley, who is a GREAT heel could be this generations Ivory. There’s a lot of similarities I could list with todays wrestlers.
With that being said…we all know it’s an era that came, saw, and conquered. It was a time where the rules went out the window. Vince has lost his touch. He’s mostly about the business side now.
Business would SOAR if we saw a chair shot to the head or some intentional bleeding. People would gather in armies to see if their going in another direction. We will all love to see what will happen next. There’s been hints of a attitude era here and there but they quickly dispose of the idea. I guess they panic because it ain’t “PG”.
I could only dream…actually I continue to dream that one day it will return with a fresh face and it will be the greatest day of my life.
