10 Reasons WWE's Best Era Is Secretly Its WORST Era 

The best thing about the Monday Night War is that you can keep switching between Raw & Nitro to keep your interest at a high level. The Cruiserweights of WCW in particular had very entertaining matches. And while the Hardcore division in the WWF leaned more on comedy, their bouts were still generally fun to watch. Hence, the viewership decline during the Ruthless Aggression Era despite the controversial content still being present as well as having a stacked roster (the Smackdown Six really outclassed Raw's stars).

Like it or not, The Attitude Era was so dialed in to the rebellious "F-You" late 1990's culture and it did reflect the mentality of late 90's young boys that this was also the era of Howard Stern and Beavis and Butthead, Gangsta Rap etc. The extra Smut was just extra seasoning that was needed to erase the Hokey Hulk Hogan 1980's

Ultimately, you can highlight the worst of any era and claim that period was really terrible. Nothing can be perfect from top to bottom. There was a lot of crap in the Attitude Era but the high-spots overshadowed the weak moments.

The fact that the Attitude Era solidified WWE's monopoly on wrestling in the United States automatically dispels your claim that it was the worst era. The worst era comes down to around the mid 2010s all the way until Vince left, or the New Generation era.

I'm probably in the minority, but Ministry of Darkness era Undertaker is not only my favorite but the best version of the character. That was him at his scariest. And the storyline started off good, it's the WWE's fault for messing it up adding Vince and The Corporation.

You can also add the too many titles changes, and I don't even mention the Hardcore Title.

Ministry Taker is way cooler than Biker Taker.

Vince McMahon and Vince Russo both hated the concept of professional wrestling. I'm really surprised that when they had to drop the "WWF" name that McMahon didn't rename it the "World Entertainment Federation" or something.

You know people talk about the attitude era being basically softcore porn, but I was watching the Chris Colt Dark Side of the Ring and there's a guy on there who pointed out that for gay men, wrestling has always been softcore porn. So it didn't come entirely out of nowhere.

I feel like racism accusations for the Attitute Era are really REALLY overstated. I only really consider Goldust's and X-Pac's blackfaces as the incidences that really crossed the line. I don't even really consider the NOD faction as WWE being racist as it was their take on America's race relations, however uncomfortable it was for everyone. On the other hand in Ruthless Aggression, you got Triple H's openly racist promos on Booker T on the lead up to Wrestlemania 19, Vince McMahon saying N word in national TV. They also had their NOD style race baiting gimmicks like Theodore Long's Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson schtick back in 2003/2004. Or John Cena cutting a "all Mexican-Americans are illegal immigrants" promo on Eddie Guerrero once. And many others. But yeah, the Attitude Era is the only era in WWE that touched on uncomfortable racial stuff apparently.

I liked 99 spooky Taker. It gave way to his best entrance music too

I don't remember thinking it was all 'peaches and cream', but it was definitely exciting and raw, without the incredibly corporate feel it has today. Criticizing the mid to lower card when they were getting hot reactions, something which has been sorely lacking for the decades since (including now). There was so much going on, lots of experimentation, it was like a variety show, there was obviously going to be some crap. It certainly wasn't perfect but I notice that many of the things that create buzz nowadays, they have qualities that mirror something from the Attitude Era. You could do this kind of countdown for every era (poor storylines, neglected wrestlers, things that don't work ect) but I think the reason the Attitude Era is still the best is that it simply had more. Especially that crucial thing called competition! One reason I find the modern era a turn off is that money rules WWE above all else now and it could not be more obvious. Perhaps I just prefer that grungy feel to wrestling, not this sparkly glittery modern style.

The attitude era was the greatest wrestling era it did have some weird moments but it doesn't take away from how great it was

There was a point where my brother's first wife said it's not wrestling anymore, it's gang warfare. Then a couple months later they named a PPV Gang Warfare.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Vince used the "using your addiction as a storyline" crap ALL THE WAY IN 2020 with Jeff Hardy.

To say it was secretly the worst era is absolutely ridiculous.

What happened to this guy's speech patterns? He sounds he's doing a King Booker impression now.

I think the main problem with the attitude era was, that suspension of disbelief only works to a certain degree. While wrestling was always scripted, other eras still had somewhat believable storylines in the context of the setting and the lore of the gimmicks. But when attitude era heels murdered and raped their way through the roster on live TV without any legal consequences, when old ladies gave birth to hands, not to mention a certain necrophilia angle, it simply became ridiculous.

TO BE FAIR...some of the women employed in the attitude weren't actual wrestlers, they were valets and managers. Being eye-candy was in their job description. Don't tell female wrestlers to be nothing but eye-candy and don't tell the eye-candy valets and managers to be wrestlers. Let them decide for themselves which they want to be. As for King, he was played a horn-dog heel commentator. Being a horn-dog is natural for people.

I was in grade school when the AA began. Went to high school in 99. For a teenager, there was no better TV. If you don't think young kids would love a revival of something similar you're nuts

1:15 Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20

Woah, the same shit you see on TV and movies was on TV at the time! WOAH! AND IN THE 90s WOAH!

They didn't "fiddle with" the mania 2000 main event. The rock absolutely screwed up in the royal rumble. 100% his fault that we got a McMahon in every corner. Simon you used to be alright. Now you're just kind of annoying. The attitude era absolutely WAS good and entertaining. Take off your recency bias glasses and stop pretending to be woke. You loved it too.

Simon Miller with you're videos are you trying to get dislikes. This is another bad video from Whatculture Pro Wrestling or Whatculture WWE like Why The PG Era isn't the Problem for WWE and Why you shouldn't hate WWE and Why WWE is Screwing up John Cena SMH :(

how about that there was so many promos and not many matches every week until the PPV and then there again it was only certain matches that got put onto the card

Attitude Era is not the worst era. If it weren't for the Attitude Era WWE is nowhere near what it is today. Also WCW and maybe to a lesser extent ECW don't die if the Attitude Era failed 🤷‍♂️.

The bad wrestling angles always make me laugh...unintentional comedy! Every era has it's fair share.

Attitude era was more of entertainment than WrestleMania

I love Simon but this list is COMPLETE BULLSHIT. It's so easy to sit here 26 years later, stand on a soapbox, wag fingers and say, "This was wrong!" "This was not right!" "This was not proper!" "WWE/WWF should have known better!" when the truth of the matter is WE ALL WATCHED AND ENJOYED what we were seeing. The nature of what the content was makes no difference, because as wrestling/sport entertainment fans, we were all part of the culture at the time. If the attitude era was truly as destructive, vile and abhorrent as its being described in this video, it would have not made the headway with the popularity that it had to even bring forth the ruthless aggression and the much loved (by WhatCulture Wrestling) PG era of WWE. This virtue signaling, PC hypocrisy makes me sick to my stomach. Was the ATTITUDE ERA perfect? No. Was a lot of it garbage? Absolutely, but, DONT ACT LIKE YOU DIDNT LIKE IT.

As far as actual wrestling goes the whole era for the most part sucked where the best matches tended to be the younger guys trying to prove themselves anything higher up on the card was more story driven. Nothing has changed now though and anyone trying to convince others that all of these hour long 6+ star match that Dave Meltzer rates will get more casual people watching obviously don't realise it would have happened already if it was going to. Like it or not the actual wrestling side of it isn't what has attracted the largest audiences and it won't suddenly change the mind of the general public. Yes the Attitude era and the Monday Night War in general was overall awful in terms of wrestling for the most part and some ofnthe things done were questionable. But it was very much the culture at the time to take things to the extreme and it kept people talking and coming back no different to a soap opera with it's over the top stories and situations.

The Attitude Era made the WWF/WWE a BILLION dollar corporation, as well as a publicly traded one. It was also the Era that destroyed WCW, and allowed Vince McMachon to buy it. The WWE still cannot draw as much as it did in the Attitude Era. Ya know what? Sex sells, as did the violence and swearing. It’s not the wrestling world’s fault that this is a weak generation full of whiners. Hell, there is still no blood in WWE cage matches, making the cage pointless. At least AEW has that, plus some sex appeal, and swearing. I tried watching WWE a few times, it’s unwatchable to me. The women look like men, and the one who doesn’t, they call a man? I guess the WWE hates women and the veteran males that broke their bodies and died young for that company by calling her that. The facts are Becky Lynch hasn’t drawn a dime. Now Trish Stratus, Sable, Sunny, Tori Wilson, Stacey Keebler Etc did. If you experienced the Attitude Era first hand, you’d know how special it was. It was ECW on steroids(I mean on a bigger scale). It was drawing bigger numbers than all sports. But now they cannot draw numbers that large. All the WWE “marks” may think that it does well, but the facts are it hasn’t come even close to drawing numbers that the Attitude Era drew. And AEW is 100x’s better than WWE on a wrestling level. At least Tony Khan respects the sport of it. I was in it as well way back when, and actually have a connection with WWF in around 2001. I was also to do four dark matches and a spot with Scott Steiner where he attacks “fans” at ringside. But I got seriously hurt, it ruined my short career in it unfortunately. I’m trying to get my nephew into it because I still have friends in the business. So I know WWE isn’t doing as great as these “marks” think they are. There is still a black cloud over that company.

WhatCulture is a bunch of whiny guys trying to be politically correct. All while they clamored over Rock return that brought back Attitude Era vibes. Plus it brought in many fans that loved that type of edgy story telling

@whatculture 5:58 - we need more young simon at home!

It's like russo was hired to make all VKM's sick fantasies into storyline. Oh, he did

Every era has it's own pros and cons however, because this era focused on storylines and pushing the boundaries and characters it is simply untouchable,this current era could do better if done right

Well, Rikishi wasn't really "forgotten", he was injured for most of 2001. First started right before WrestleMania X-7 when he ruptured his eardrum that put him on the shelf. He would make a return in May of that year, only to injure his shoulder in his first match back from the eardrum injury. By the time he finally returned by the end of 2001, a lot has happened with the whole Invasion angle taking its course and he was left farting around in the undercard for the remainder of his WWE run until 2004.

having watched the AE it was great but there were some bad things as there are with anything but what I liked the most looking back was even though some of it was bad EVERYONE had something going on there was a title for every part of the card to chase .. however the titles changed hands too much ... I love the AE heck I even like '96 to '99 WCW whenever I feel bad etc I go and watch a random episode of raw or nitro or throw on an old PPV and it instantly transports me back to a simpler time

Just gonna throw this out here. Trish barking like a dog wasn’t in that 90s at all that was late 2000s even 2001 so when you tried to call out a random episode in 98 or even in the year in general. Trish barking like a dog isn’t part of it. I get what your trying to say that some episodes are fucking nuts but yeah I’m surprised no one else said anything

8:17 she didn't want to do irl right? She sued over this didn't she?

still better than EVERYTHING post-invasion angle

Same could be said for any era. Mark this era down and add 30 years or more to what is happening now and look back on it and tell me it has aged well. The next generation has their own views and options to your own. Most would day that the attitude era what the best era, are they wrong to have that view? Videos like there are just options and not fact. Better yet videos like this are just filler for channels that have nothing to say anymore.

What the hell is wrong with you? If you have covered wrestling for more than a week you would have known everyone in the industry says the more fans the better your doing, if everyone likes something that makes it the best at what it is being made for, do not get the time line wrong, everything has to be in its time so if your saying "this era vs another era at the same time" you've lost the plot, also Steve Austin 97 would still beat all. that's like saying "this band is better than it sounds"

This makes me glad the two Vinces are no longer on the business

This video desperately tries to put over the current era of wrestling while dragging down a previous one

Rock vs Triple H deserved their own singles match at Wrestlemania 16. Then having it robbed didn't make sense and wasn't right even if Mick desered a Wrestlemania match but we all know he had already did the miracle of winning the big one on Raw and he had that amazing HIAC match too and after Mania 16 he came out of retirement again to put over stars in hardcore matches so honestly Mick didn't need to part of Mania 16 and the Big Show should've never been in there his character and his work rate was just terrible during that time he was burnt out

I’m glad that you included number one in there. Not to act like no good came from WWE after 2000, but a lot of people who play the “Attitude Era wasn’t everything” card usually do so to try to justify the general staleness of a lot of what came after. The Attitude Era wasn’t even my favorite time in the company, but there was an overall freshness to the shows, things felt unpredictable and organic, versus a lot of the post-Attitude Era where things felt super cookie cutter and at times it felt like Vince was actively fighting against the fans to keep from giving them what they want. I really like what they’re doing now so this is hardly a “clinging to the past” post, but even with the bullshit in there, I think especially 97 (which I count) and 98 are miles more interesting than most of what came after.

I've now lived long enough for the greatest time in wrestling to become hated because of how weak this generation in the world is at the moment.

WHY ARE WE LOOKING AT IT THROUGH A MODER5 LENS...IT WAS WHAT IT WAS WHEN IT WAS ....AND THE FACT PEOPLE STILL ENJOY IT GOES TO SHOW THE WORLD HAS BECOME A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN'T JUST ENJOY THINGS ANYMORE

This is all BS!!! The attitud era reenvigortrated wrestling!

Feels so odd having Simon Miller talking about the negatives of wrestling!

Simon is SAWFT

Point 2 and 3 shouldn't be here. All of that was great

I’ve been saying this for years!

7:08 dude stop, this mentality is why wrestling sucks now

Everyone is soft these days the attitude era was prime

I'm onboard for criticizing Vince McMahon. The idea that modern wrestling is safer than it was back then is ridiculous. Modern wrestling is both WWE and AEW. I would argue that AEW is more violent than the Attitude Era ever was .

People forget that society was different back then. Jerry springer was huge and know one took things as hard as they do now

You are wrong Period

MoD Was amazing!

3/2 are awesome tho, you just too sensitive

Not a single mention of TAFKAG.....

I’m really getting tired of this let’s shit on the attitude era thing that being happening recently. It was 25 plus years ago, things were different, get over it. Honestly I think it’s jealousy, today’s generation can’t handle not being the best at something even though they very rarely are.

We are living in a cupcake society.

It was way better back then.

Simon is woke

“Baseball swig weapons into each other’s heads.” That explains tons about Glenn.

It's so funny how old heads love to call the younger generation sensitive but soon someone have criticism about something they like they start crying and throwing a tantrums all the proof is in this comment section 😂😂😂

This one aint it chief... Attitude Era was peak WWE for its time.

Now I remember why I unsubscribed

Keep stupid SJW takes out of opinions on wrestling.

I disagree with 3. Everyone found it entertaining and some of it is still funny, like Mark Henry and the… you know. If they find it offensive, then maybe that says more about them. It’s a mental illness after all…

whatcultuRe just went WOKE!

Watching it back now, the Jerry Lawler stuff was awful but to be honest some of it was bad even back then!! When he used to do that stupid thing when the Kat appeared was really bad but he always come over like a creep when the women were on!!

Friendly reminder movie bob noted sjw writes for what culture

You mispronounced the Hower Power 😂

I loved the attitude wra at the time, and I really always felt like it was so much better than wrestling today...but I recently went back and watched 3 years worth of raw episodes....it doesn't hold up. Sure there is a handful of highlights, but the shows as a whole are pretty poor

People who hate on the AE are either modern fans, people who only like workrate or sensitive crybabies Current era sucks

Ministry Taker is my favorite Taker. So evil

didn't they still have way too many squash matches.... or not really ??

No

#9 because it made vince money and that is all he cares about

It’s so cool to hate the Attitude Era nowadays.

"The worst era" "Omnipotent semen" and Shawn Michaels & God vs The McMahons are now online...

It’ll always be the best in my opinion

Find alot of this funny especially since it's not too long ago Simon was defending aews antisemitic angle straight after real life incidents. Oh but it's aew so that's ok

If your feelings and emotions are going to get hurt watching a wrestling show, maybe you shouldn't watch it.

the whole "Vince is a creep" angle aged very poorly

I feel like racism accusations for the Attitute Era are really REALLY overstated. I only really consider Goldust's and X-Pac's blackfaces as the incidences that really crossed the line. I don't even really consider the NOD faction as WWE being racist as it was their take on America's race relations, however uncomfortable it was for everyone. On the other hand in Ruthless Aggression, you got Triple H's openly racist promos on Booker T on the lead up to Wrestlemania 19, Vince McMahon saying N word in national TV. They also had their NOD style race baiting gimmicks like Theodore Long's Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson schtick back in 2003/2004. Or John Cena cutting a "all Mexican-Americans are illegal immigrants" promo on Eddie Guerrero once. And many others. But yeah, the Attitude Era is the only era in WWE that touched on uncomfortable racial stuff apparently.

We romanticize the past. The Attitude era is awesome if you only focus on the great stuff and ignore the lame stuff. And there was in fact a lot of cringey, unfunny, and boring moments.

None of these are legitimate reasons because you're applying modern over-sensitivity to a product which is twenty five years old. It was a different time.

Yall are just too sensitive

Why? Why are you Britts so offended by everything? Doesn’t that get exhausting, every day, finding something new to be offended about? That’s got to be emotionally draining. Try not doing it for a week and see how you feel. This is why you lost the revolutionary war. Good grief grow a set.

The era where WWE had high ratings and cultural relevance. Yeah, it's still the best Era and I say that as someone who prefers the Ruthless Aggression Era.

1990-1997 were by far my favorite WWF years. Montreal Screwjob ended my happiness for the product for at least a few years.

Having watched the Attitude Era as it happened.....it wasn't anywhere near as perfect as people claim it was. There was a lot of greatness but there was a LOT of bad booking, dumb angles and terrible matches.

Some elements of past ENTERTAINMENT are not meant to be judged by a modern eye, but enjoyed and appreciated with an open and accepting mind.

Marks

1 reason why people need to stop being butthurt over media made in the 90s... It wasn't made in the modern day stop trying to hold it up to the same standards... There ya go

also remember they did a lot of show long stories, and if you weren't into it, it made it for another long show....