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15 years ago today, the greatest wrestling show of all time took place

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O

OléGunner

Member
Man Austin's commentary on this match is freaking amazing.

But now I remember how the match ended, with Austin going crazy using the chair to win the match.
Fucking hell did that leave me depressed as kid to see The Rock lose that way.

Really hated Austin from then on, the heel change was super effective! :p
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
It feels weird, but ending McMahon/Austin made a bookend to that fued. It didn't drag on in perpetuity like the nWo.

I still think the nWo would be even MORE fondly remembered if it had actually, you know, ended.
 
S

Striker

Member
Acorn said:
The eras as defined by wwe are always a little off. Attitude era officially started with austin winning the title, in reality Shawn Michaels going full dick mode kicked off the change in tone.
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Which is when?

To me it's right after WM 13. The Bret heel turn and Hart Foundation reformation. Austin becomes one of the top faces and there's tons of action going on, Ken Shamrock, Nation of Domination, The Rock turning heel, Undertaker and Paul Bearer, Mankind, and a very fun tag division to boot. Much fun is had.
 
T

TaterTots

Banned
From the formation of DX in 1997 to WM x7 is the best era for wrestling. It's been downhill ever since. Though, I have seen a few great matches like HBK vs. Undertaker etc.
 
T

thefro

Member
ZombieSupaStar said:
Looking back on it though, its a depressing show because it ends that era, and it never got back to that point again.
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Eh, the Smackdown Six era was really awesome, but yes this was the peak for the company overall.

Striker said:
Which is when?

To me it's right after WM 13. The Bret heel turn and Hart Foundation reformation. Austin becomes one of the top faces and there's tons of action going on, Ken Shamrock, Nation of Domination, The Rock turning heel, Undertaker and Paul Bearer, Mankind, and a very fun tag division to boot. Much fun is had.
Click to expand...

The real start of the changes was when Nash went tweener in late 95 and called Vince out as the owner. I think Survivor Series 1995 was the first table breaking in WWF.

Bret's promo where he went "this is bullshit!" and flipped out was about a month before WM 13.
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
Seems like the Attitude Era podcast had the same idea as me, as they've released their FINAL EPISODE today!

yU2ly7o.jpg


Give it a listen here, they're a good podcast.
 
B

bjork

Member
Wrestlemania 6 was 1990, not 2001.

The Ultimate Challenge was one of the last big-match feel matches they ever had.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
Yeah, WrestleMania 17 was the best. So many good matches. Austin's heel turn and shaking Vince's hand at the end does kind of make the whole thing end on a sour note, though. That being said, WM18, 19, and 20 are all pretty damn good too. WM18 is a step down from 17 but it has one of the hottest WM crowds ever.
 
V

Violence Jack

Member
This and WM 19 are the only WM DVDs that I cannot stop watching.

GOAT TLC match.

The face turn by Trish Stratus and Linda McMahon coming out of her comatose-like state in the Vince/Shane fight was pretty awesome at the time.

c_zpsc841c3a2.gif


Taker vs HHH match was leagues better than the ones at WM 27 or 28.

Austin vs Rock hype was off the damn charts at the time. I remember when they played that video package and I was with some buddies in college watching it. We got hyped as hell when they left in the whole "leave your shit" line since WWF always edited out cussing in their promo songs, and knew we were in for an amazing match. Probably in my top 5 of all time as well.

The only downside was the ending which I thought was silly to end the Attitude Era (and the Austin vs. Vince feud) on. Even weirder was the fact that Austin still got cheered like a face as a heel.

I'm going to watch this on Sunday before WM for the times when WWF was at its best.
 
R

Ruruja

Member
Best rivalry.

My favourite was Stone Cold however, even had a couple of posters of him on my wall.

The best memory I have of that era is my friend telling me Stone Cold would return at Backlash in 2000 (I think he'd been away for like a year due to back surgery), I was so excited - it actually aired on free-to-air TV in the UK so I could watch it.

I stayed up till around 1am to watch it and being 12 and not used to staying up that late, I drifted off to sleep. Unexplainably, I woke up like an hour later and thought I'd missed Stone Cold's return, I was furious! I kept watching waiting for them to discuss it or show a replay, but they didn't...

It got to the match between The Rock and Triple H and I was starting to think my friend was lying to me, I was super down, then *GLASS SMASHES* Ohhhhhhhh SHIT! OH SHIT! Out comes Stone Cold with a steel chair, crowd goes insane - probably the biggest pop I ever saw in my time watching wrestling. I had goosebumps all over.

Stone Cold ploughs through everyone with the chair and leaves, The Rock pins Triple H and the crowd go nuts, probably the best ending to a PPV ever.

I struggled to get back to sleep that night.

Here's the clip of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYF6r22UjKU
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
Violence Jack said:
This and WM 19 are the only WM DVDs that I cannot stop watching.

GOAT TLC match.

The face turn by Trish Stratus and Linda McMahon coming out of her comatose-like state in the Vince/Shane fight was pretty awesome at the time.

c_zpsc841c3a2.gif


Taker vs HHH match was leagues better than the ones at WM 27 or 28.

Austin vs Rock hype was off the damn charts at the time. I remember when they played that video package and I was with some buddies in college watching it. We got hyped as hell when they left in the whole "leave your shit" line since WWF always edited out cussing in their promo songs, and knew we were in for an amazing match. Probably in my top 5 of all time as well.

The only downside was the ending which I thought was silly to end the Attitude Era (and the Austin vs. Vince feud) on. Even weirder was the fact that Austin still got cheered like a face as a heel.

I'm going to watch this on Sunday before WM for the times when WWF was at its best.
Click to expand...

Yeah, turning him heel in Texas of all places just wasn't going to work. The crowd still popped huge when he pinned Rock at the end.

Ruruja said:
Best rivalry.

My favourite was Stone Cold however, even had a couple of posters of him on my wall.

The best memory I have of that era is my friend telling me Stone Cold would return at Backlash in 2000 (I think he'd been away for like a year due to back surgery), I was so excited - it actually aired on free-to-air TV in the UK so I could watch it.

I stayed up till around 1am to watch it and being 12 and not used to staying up that late, I drifted off to sleep. Unexplainably, I woke up like an hour later and thought I'd missed Stone Cold's return, I was furious! I kept watching waiting for them to discuss it or show a replay, but they didn't...

It got to the match between The Rock and Triple H and I was starting to think my friend was lying to me, I was super down, then *GLASS SMASHES* Ohhhhhhhh SHIT! OH SHIT! Out comes Stone Cold with a steel chair, crowd goes insane - probably the biggest pop I ever saw in my time watching wrestling. I had goosebumps all over.

Stone Cold ploughs through everyone with the chair and leaves, The Rock pins Triple H and the crowd go nuts, probably the best ending to a PPV ever.

I struggled to get back to sleep that night.

Here's the clip of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYF6r22UjKU
Click to expand...

Yeah Backlash 2000 is an incredible show and that is an awesome moment. That show was the real Wrestlemania 2000. They pretty much corrected everything they did wrong at Mania that year.

OleGunner said:
Man Austin's commentary on this match is freaking amazing.

But now I remember how the match ended, with Austin going crazy using the chair to win the match.
Fucking hell did that leave me depressed as kid to see The Rock lose that way.

Really hated Austin from then on, the heel change was super effective! :p
Click to expand...

Same! I was 9 watch this. fucking hated stone cold. but clearly most of the crowd (which was older than me) didn't give a fuck and wanted to cheer him every week regardless.
 
V

Violence Jack

Member
Megalosaro said:
Attitude era... invasion era... are those like story arcs?
Click to expand...

Attitude Era is usually referred to the time where WWF put on more adult-oriented content than what was usually seen in professional wrestling up to that point. The storylines during the time were edgier, matches were more violent, dialogue was much looser, and the women were mostly treated as sex objects with limited in-ring skills (outside of maybe Lita). WWF had its biggest ratings and most financially successful years during this time. It was also the time where lots of WCW wrestlers jumped ship to WWF after the Attitude Era pretty much crushed WCW, which lead to.......

The Invasion Era. Once the sale of WCW was finalized, and long after ECW had been finished, it was a storyline that had former WCW and ECW wrestlers take on WWF wrestlers. It was a dream come true for a lot of fans, but not nearly as popular as the Attitude Era was. It did result in one of the greatest PPVs I've ever seen with ECW One Night Stand 2005.
 
A

Anth0ny

Member
Megalosaro said:
Attitude era... invasion era... are those like story arcs?
Click to expand...

Kinda.

I think of it like... If the Hogan and Bret/Shawn years were Dragon Ball, the Austin/Rock Attitude Era years were Dragon Ball Z. And then within the Attitude Era you had the story arcs: Vince vs. Austin. Rock vs. Foley. Taker vs. Austin. Rock vs. HHH. Angle vs. HHH. HHH drugs Stephanie and marries her while unconscious. All that good stuff.

If we want to continue this Dragon Ball analogy, wrestling's Dragon Ball GT has been going strong for 15 years.
 
S

Shadybiz

Member
That TLC match was AMAZING. I showed it to my wife a while back when the WWE Network first came out. She doesn't really care for wrasslin' at all, but she was still glued to the screen while it played out.
 
C

Concept17

Member
Holy nostalgia. I haven't been into wrestling as an adult, but my brother and I loved it around that time. Great memories. I used to root for Stone Cold, but looking back, I should have rooted for the Rock lol.

Good stuff.
 
A

Acorn

Member
Concept17 said:
Holy nostalgia. I haven't been into wrestling as an adult, but my brother and I loved it around that time. Great memories. I used to root for Stone Cold, but looking back, I should have rooted for the Rock lol.

Good stuff.
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Nah man. You root for Austin always. I'll be a mark for austin til the day I die.
 
D

Dizzy

Banned
Austin being off for a year is what made it. It really allowed The Rock to become THE face in his abscence, so as soon as Austin came back you had two of the biggest faces ever ready to go for a main event.

The months of teasing too. They dragged it on for months. It started out small and got bigger and bigger.

They actually played it quite well by WWE standards.
 
G

ghostjoke

Banned
Anth0ny said:
Seems like the Attitude Era podcast had the same idea as me, as they've released their FINAL EPISODE today!

Give it a listen here, they're a good podcast.
Click to expand...

I've been waiting for this. Not sure how good of an idea it is to listen to just before the inevitable disappointment of Sunday.

Edit: Yup, that was a bad idea for Sunday. Fantastic podcast as always. The amount of hype and love for X7 is unfathomable in this day and age. Half tempted to rewatch either X7 itself or OSW's review now.
 
T

TheMagician

Member
Another reason the heel turn didn't make sense at that moment was because Austin vs Rock went beyond face & heel and Austin fans were absolutely desperate him to win...no matter what.

Even though he turned heel in victory, at the moment of the 3 count, I was just so happy that Austin had beat Rock and got the belt back after being away so long.

I think a lot of people felt the same way. The Austin fans weren't just going to start hating on Austin for joining Vince and smashing the hell out of The Rock. The Austin fans wanted him to smash the hell out of The Rock!

http://youtu.be/fYejWXgeN4g
 
S

Spizz

Banned
Anth0ny said:
Kinda.

I think of it like... If the Hogan and Bret/Shawn years were Dragon Ball, the Austin/Rock Attitude Era years were Dragon Ball Z. And then within the Attitude Era you had the story arcs: Vince vs. Austin. Rock vs. Foley. Taker vs. Austin. Rock vs. HHH. Angle vs. HHH. HHH drugs Stephanie and marries her while unconscious. All that good stuff.

If we want to continue this Dragon Ball analogy, wrestling's Dragon Ball GT has been going strong for 15 years.
Click to expand...
This is a fantastic comparison.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
I don't really remember the even much outside of vince/shane, angle/benoit,and rock/Austin despite the rest card having a lot of matches that on paper would be my ideal wrestlemania card. I didn't care for the main event at all from any angle so I have always had a negative memory of the event aside from angle/benoit. I think I'll give it a watch tonight to refresh my memory.
 
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