Wrestling in late 90s

Don't listen to the memers that are under 18. Wrestling has never ever been socially acceptable

>>1932168
bump

>>1932168
>Would the current super hero movie fad be a good comparison?

Not exactly. Stuff like The Jerry Springer Show and what's considered ''trash TV'' was extremely popular and matched the weird end-of-the-century feeling people had. I was in middle and high school during the Attitude Era, so you have to remember that basically everybody who was my age was also old enough to remember when Hogan, Warrior, Macho and Sting were huge childhood favorites...so it was like wrestling was growing up with us (which is a stupid thing a teenager would think, but hey)....combined with the piles of money they were raking in, making appearances on TV, the Monday Night Wars, every tuesday morning you would have a cool dozen proto-memes to spout to your friends or whatever....it's an era that cannot be recaptured or happen again.

>>1932207
It looks pretty similar to what the Ruthless Aggression was here in Italy. When they started airing Smackdown in 2003, people were fucking NUTS. Since i don't think Attitude era shows never even aired here, that was "our" Attitude.

>>1932176
Have sex pinhead

>>1932168
It was pretty much the ultimate trash late 90s show hence why it did so well.

They then tried to cling onto that edge in the early 2000s but by that time most people had moved on from it, starting the WWE's slow decline.

I started watching casually in 1997, and was pretty much obsessed with wrestling by the end of 1999. Wrestling was a huge part of middle school and the first few years of high school for me. It was never really "cool" to be a wrestling fan in my town, although still more socially acceptable than it would be today. Everyone I knew almost exclusively watched WWF and thought WCW was shit.

The AE boom was kind of an offshoot of the general "trashy/edgy" direction mainstream pop culture was going in at the time. This was around the time nu-metal, Jerry Springer, South Park etc. were getting big. Wrestling's popularity wasn't something that existed in a vacuum. It was just a period where mainstream America was receptive to it for a few years.

Something younger fans might not realize is that Rock, even at the height of his popularity, never came close to how fucking over SCSA was throughout 98/99. From the perspective of a fan at the time, Rock was, at best, a distant #2.

Everything the Rock said became a pop culture catchphrase. Even the second tier of guys like Jericho were making late night talk show appearances.

>>1932168
Everyone was over at least somewhat.

It's bizarre to look back on old Raws and seeing shit like the Headbangers and Odd whatevers getting cheers and pops for doing basic wrestling moves

>>1932887
Also, backyard wrestling was a related phenomenon that peaked around that time, to the extent that a shit ton of the current generation of wrestlers are former yard tards. There was a huge backyard wrestling community online. If anything like that had been going on in my town I would have been all about doing it.

>>1932207
I completely agree with this. It's like the wrestling industry throughout the 90s was somehow perfectly tailored for our age group. By 1998 it was like, hey I used love this shit when I was a little kid and scared of Papa Shango, now I'm an edgy teenager and he's a pimp now and it's fucking awesome.

>>1932168
It's not necessarily that wrestling itself was popular back then. Back in the 90s, trashy tv in general was huge. WWF just happened to be trashy tv in the 90s, at least back then it was socially acceptable. Nowadays, you might as well be a brony if you're openly a WWE fan.

>>1932813
It's interesting how wrestling "booms" happen at different times in different parts of the world. 2003 was a relatively dead period for wrestling in the US. Cesaro was on some podcast recently talking about how wrestling became huge in Switzerland around the time it was at the lowest point in the US (mid-90s).

I was born in 1985....IMO one of the best years to be born as a wrestling fan. Why?

Even though I missed the Rock n Wrestling era with Hogan and co., I became a fan as a kid during one of the worst periods for wrestling ever: the early 90s New Generation era. I watched Bret, Shawn, Luger, Taker, Diesel, Razor and even fucking Doink, wide-eyed and ignorant of how shitty the product was at the time. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Then I became a teen...around the same time wrestling started to get edgy. WWE had Goldust, Mankind, NOD and others that made it clear they were getting rid of kiddie shit. WCW got the nWo and started shying away from cheesy shit like the Dungeon of Doom. PERFECT timing for me.

Then the Attitude Era reached its heights in the late 90s. Austin and Rock became megastars. DX and nWo were both HUGE. I was in high school around this time and let me tell you...hip hop, video games, girls, sports and wrestling were the top 5 hottest topics of discussion among most of the boys (I went to a majority-black school; I'm black). Not just some of the boys, damn near ALL of us were watching WWE and/or WCW. Every morning after a Raw/Nitro or PPV, you were guaranteed to hear loud discussions about what happened the night before. Dudes were PROUDLY wearing wrestling merch and even getting in trouble for it sometimes (I remember one dude tried to wear a Stone Cold "100% Pure Whoop Ass" shirt and had to change it). We quoted the wrestlers constantly. Even wrestling video games were huge; in particular No Mercy for N64 and Smackdown 1 and 2 for PS1.

For those few brief years, being a wrestling fan was considered acceptable by the general public for the most part. I'm glad I got to experience it.

>>1932813

Pensavo di essere solo qui

WWF was great when it was politically incorrect

they called out corporate bullshit, flipped fingers, had blood and sex live on tv

PG and SuperCena killed it.

>>1932887

Dude, watch the '02 Rumble. Watch the amount of camera flashes that go off when Rock poses on the turnbuckle. It is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

From 1997-2000, it was the biggest thing on TV. Literally everyone in America was watching.

>>1932958
Yeah man. Shawn Michaels was different, 1-2-3 Kid was X-Pac, Hogan was Hollywood Hogan, Sting was Crow Sting.

>>1933184
thanks based negro

It was popular enough that a lot of 18+ would talk about it in public.

I remember in the "monday night wars" era and up to 2002~~ WWF, talking with co-workers about raw and smackdown just fine after each episode, we even used to go to some sport pubs to watch ppvs, was a great time, no one was freak about it but it was some great fun, not knowing what will happen next, getting hype for your favorite wrestlers, a lot of lights and fire, it was just a fine show you know.

I don't think it can get more normie than that really.

>>1932813
>>1933196
siamo in 3

Ma io guardavo anche la WCW negli anni 90 con commento di Dan Peterson.

>>1932910
Dude....a while ago I watched an old New Age Outlaws match on youtube, and I almost got chills during their entrace because it was clear that at least 90% of the crowd was shouting the "oh, you didn't know?" routine

Watched another match where Too Cool and Rikishi made their entrance...you would have thought the crowd was popping for Austin

>>1933286

Grande!

Ma se ci scambiassimo qualche contatto (tipo skype) per formare un gruppetto di italiani per sparare qualche cazzata sul wrestling ogni tanto?

It was popular enough that wrasslers were on TV Guide covers and covers of popular magazines as well as appearing on non-wrestling TV shows.

It was everywhere for a time and was pretty fun.

When i was a kid you could get a Macho Man Randy Savage Ice Cream bar from any ice cream vendor in town

Kids in grade school where doing dx crotch chops saying suck it. Austin, rock and dx shirts where ever where, all the kids had that shit, Pokémon and looney toons merch

>>1933309
se l'altro vuole magari creo una chat intanto

skype mi fido meno perchè 4chan è sempre 4chan.

>>1933417

Vai

>>1932168
>Would the current super hero movie fad be a good comparison?

It was actually bigger than that if you can believe it.

When my middle school had a pep rally they played Diamond Dallas Page's music for the football team to come out (not Nirvana) and every single person there did the self high five.

A LOT of wrestlers were very popular even among casuals in a way that is forgotten about now.

For instance Raven as the WCW US Heavyweight Champion was nearly a household name. More people would have known about him than would know who AJ Styles is now.

>>1933423
Sei il primo che ha postato o il secondo?

Io sono il terzo

>>1933436
Raven was on the cover of the video game. Full time wrestlers can't get on the cover to the WWe game these days

>>1932207
Fucking this for me. I was a kid and loved wrestling. Watching all those larger than life heroes was fun. Naturally I stopped watching for a bit. Then in middle school I would watch casually but still wouldn't tell people I watched it then one day I was flipping through channels and I see this backstage segment when The Outsides threw Rey Mysterio like a dart into a trailer and I watched every week. SO of course I was an edgy teem by that time a wrestling as a whole get edgy just like me so it fit perfectly. My friends all stated watching it again too and we bonded or whatever, Shit was dope back in those days.

>>1932168
I remember being in 5th grade the year of WM 17, everyone in my class [at least the boys] loved the WWF and hated WCW. We would talk about how we were going to become wrestlers and be tag team champions together. We knew it was scripted but didn't care. Kids would get in trouble for imitating catch phrases and gestures. American Badass and My Way were everyone's favorite new songs. WWF merchandise was everywhere. Stone Cold, The Rock, Jericho, Taker, and DX, and even the APA, Edge and Christian, the Hardys and Too Cool were our heroes. Raw and SmackDown were the most exciting part of the week. We would beg our parents to spend like 40 dollars for a 3 hour PPV every month, but usually watch it on tape the next day from a friend who had bootleg cable.

Maybe it is a combination of being that age, the internet not really affecting the show, and the product actually being better and more accepted by the mainstream - but I don't see how I can ever again enjoy wrestling half as much as I did back then

>>1933492

>then one day I was flipping through channels and I see this backstage segment when The Outsides threw Rey Mysterio like a dart into a trailer and I watched every week

A lot of people talk about Hogan's heel turn as THE major WCW moment back then but to me, that backstage segment was an equally-important turning point in WCW. Seeing many of the wrestlers backstage in pandemonium after that nWo attack was surreal by WCW's then-cheesy standards. Nothing like that had ever happened before in the company. They really tried to sell the incident as being legit, and other than Steve 'Mongo' McMichael's questionable acting, it DID seem legit.

It was basically WCW's Pillman's Got A Gun, except less controversial. I had the pleasure of watching the Pillman segment the night it aired. I will NEVER forget the camera's close-up to Pillman's rage-filled face as he pointed the gun at Austin....and then the 'feed' cut out. My jaw fucking dropped because I totally bought into it as a kid. WWE changed for me forever that day. To see them go from cartoonish/moderate violence, to guns and possible murder, was mind-blowing to me.

>>1933439

Il primo che ha scritto in italiano, comunque ora vado a dormire ergo se apri una chat lasciala qua, darò un occhio domattina

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I want to say that one thing that helped wrestling in the late 90s was the Martial Arts wave of the early 90s was still being felt, and the new rising wave of interest in anime was coming on.

What does this have to do with wrestling? It aids in the suspension of disbelief. Young men who played fighting games and watched Bloodsport wanted to believe in the existence of Ki, Chi, and other mysterious powers. So when the Undertaker and Kane did all their supernatural shit there was a part of the audience that really wanted to believe.

>>1933424
i've never seen that spelled out i thought he was saying so hi-fi this whole time

>>1933591
Did you not notice he gave himself a self high five?

>>1933584
Vuoi capire come far sciogliere una ragazza che fa la difficile?

>>1933354
When Saturday Night Live had The Rock as a guest star, that's when I realized how popular he really was. Keep in mind SNL hadn't fallen off yet and was still somewhat of a big deal.

>>1933605
Ma che cazzo ahaha come siete arrivati dal wrestling alla figa? (Sono un quarto itanon)

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>walk down the street and get crotch chopped by random people
>teachers at school giving you the double middle finger at school
>mom would smash 2 cartons of OJ together before pouring some in my cup from both cartons at dinner
>dad gave me the "It doesn't matter what you think" treatment on a daily basis
>getting the wcw breakdown from that one kid who actually liked wcw the next day at lunch

everybody was on that shit.
and i just nostalgia'd remembering sitting on the floor watching watch raw like a little faggot.
>never feel that feel a gain

>that one kid who only watched WCW while everybody else watched WWF

No I don't care that Sting was in the rafters again.

>>1933184
1986 checking in. I agree with all of this. Thank you for the nostalgia trip anon.

Who else remembers getting in trouble for doing wrestling related shit in school?

Everyone talked about it in school

>>1933184

Born in 1986...it was truly the perfect times.

I remember the last day of 6th grade, all the boys stood outside the school and did the Road Dogg/Billy Gunn entrance speech.

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>1999
>Kids in school with pictures of muscular half naked dudes on their shirts
>This was completely normal and cool as fuck

>>1933591
And now you realize it's the Self High Five because DDP was all about self-motivation and going it alone against the odds.

>>1933622
Iirc, that was actually one of the highest-rated SNLs ever -- still might be up there.

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>'Member WWF Raw is War/WCW Monday Nitro?
>'Member Jerry Springer?
>'Member COPS?
>'Member Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie before they were shit?
I 'member.

>SNL
MADTV was shit loads funnier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q74LQugjIiY

>>1933184
Born in 88; can confirm all of this


Being a preteen while Austin was in his heyday was awesome; I was edgy enough to appreciate what I was seeing but still naive enough to think it was real.

Theres nothing like seeing austin stun mcmahon an thinking its real

>>1934365
Member when South Park was funny?
I don't.

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>>1934386
South Park is Based.

>>1933622
>Keep in mind SNL hadn't fallen off yet and was still somewhat of a big deal.
LOL

it had fallen off like five or six times by then, were you like 3 years old?

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>>1934385
>(You)

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>>1934392

>>1932168
When you went to school in the late 90s excluding 90s trope clique clothes the following were the clothes in school every week.
Wrestling either WWF or WCW shirts
South Park Shirts
And various bands but most prominent from my childhood were korn and slipknot.
And pokemon
It was on a level where everyone i knew watched south park, wwf/wcw/both, and pokemon.
Shit man 98 and 99 the feels were strong for a child man.
Sometimes i wish i was 16-19 during this time because i cant explain it 98 and 99 in general were amazing years

>>1934365
But seriously member the 90s
These member berries in this thread are at least good.

>>1933223
WWF was politically incorrect for the early-mid 2000s which is LONG after it hit a creative nadir it still hasn't recovered from.

Katie Vick is post-Attitude and quite possibly the most "edgy" thing McMahonLand has ever done...yet it's also considered one of the worst angles of all-time.

The whole Snitsky/Lita fiasco was in what, 2005? Edgy. Post-Attitude. Fucking Terrible.

(Poor Kane.)

>>1934386
>Not tryin, lyin, and smaller than Daniel Bryan.

>>1933417
Buondì. Sono il primo e per me la chat va bene. Dove la fai?

WWE went downhill when they put Stephanie in charge of the creative

>>1934393
SNL's reputation now is MUCH worse than it was back then

Back then people acknowledged that it was getting bad...but they still acknowledged that it was a major show, and it was still culturally relevant.

Nowadays most people want to take it out back and shoot it.

>>1934428

ecco
tinychat

dot
com
barra jiak9c

It was epic.

Every Tuesday in school most of the boys were talking about Raw and Nitro.

NWO and Austin 3:16 shirts were EVERYWHERE.

It wasn't "acceptable" by the mainstream because it was still wrestling, but also because the content was pushing the boundaries of tv at the time.

>>1934753
Nah you're way out of touch

>>1932168
Arent we do for another attitude era then? All the kids growing up with BMJ and Dean, due to a badass revamp?

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>>1932910
>>1933289

>>1935435
Yes, but it'll never happen because of SWJs, the fact that they're a publicly traded company, working with charities as a business strategy, etc.

The only thing that keeps me watching is the occasional great match/moment or laugh. It's like getting diminishing returns on your crack additions. Feels very bad, man.

>>1934412
it only really started becoming PC the last few years

>>1935411

I can name 5 SNL cast members from back then off the top of my head: Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph and Tracy Morgan. SNL was definitely still relevant, even though it had long stopped being funny

Nowadays? The only one I know of is Harambe...and I only know about her due to shenanigans outside the show

>>1932910

This. even the lower card and midcard guys were over as fuck. crowd pops for lower card guys with comedy gimmicks were louder than pops for most stars now.

wrestling was exciting as all hell if you were a fan.
It was a major time for the "hurr it's all fake!" types of people.
WWF had attitude era slowly on the rise but they were still too cartoonish and dramatic
WCW was trying to keep up but their only major talent pre-NWO was Flair and Sting
I grew up watching ECW and a little WCW on the side.
Wrestling got a lot of flack for being the "redneck sport" and wasn't too popular to people that didn't grow up with it.
At the very least PPVs were worth getting excited over.

>>1933651
Not gonna lie....even though I was team WWF, I would always switch channels during Raw's last commercial break or right after Raw ended, to see what was happening with Sting and the nWo. It seemed like Nitro would usually end a few minutes after Raw.

Back then we had TWO hot wrestling products.........today we have none. We were spoiled.......

>>1932887
>Something younger fans might not realize is that Rock, even at the height of his popularity, never came close to how fucking over SCSA was throughout 98/99. From the perspective of a fan at the time, Rock was, at best, a distant #2.

This is an exaggeration. I remember at the time both of them were liked a lot but yes Austin definitely was #1 but everyone already knows that. Don't act like Rock was that distant a number 2.

Now if you people want real facts I can tell you this. Foley was a lot more popular than you may think as Mankind. He was pretty damn popular. Possibly even #3 at one point. Undertaker was actually pretty distant compared to others on the roster. I'd say back then Foley was more popular and perhaps even Kane for a bit was more popular. Haitch is pretty much exactly what people say about him (very forced but still at least sort of popular and liked) and even the mid carders back then were a lot more popular than mid carders today are. The hardcore title for example was very over when WWF introduced it. I remember kids/teens back then loved it.

Another guy I remember being insanely over as a kid/teen was Goldberg. ECW as a brand was very over (more so than any single wrestler desu) and you would often hear ECW chants during hardcore moments in WCW and WWF.

>>1936099
ECW was the best in anti-establishment
Shane Douglas and Paul Heyman really knew how to rattle up the crowd in a good way back then.

>>1936099
Mankind was absolutely number 3.

>>1936099
Mankind was definitely big.

Especially when Mick released Have a Nice Day AND they did the This is Your Life segment with The Rock; and Mankind was part of the shift from WCW being dominant when he won the title on RAW.

>>1936099
>perhaps even Kane for a bit was more popular

Not "perhaps"....Kane was undoubtedly bigger than Taker in his early years

Taker was also booked as being weaker and more cowardly than Kane. There was a segment where Taker was on top of the ramp, and Kane walked up to him from the ring to confront him....and Taker backed up, then turned and walked away with Kane still chasing him slowly. I don't think Undertaker has ever retreated like that from anyone before, or since.

>>1934386
>>1934401
>never liking South Park
Well we all know which faggot got battered back in high school, don't we m8y?

I miss the Attitude Era

>>1934365
>Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie
>ever good
hello edgy potential school shooter

>>1937035
Beautiful People is a banger tune, junior.

>>1937042
Literally the only Manson song I like. Music video for it is pretty wicked, too.

>>1937055
It's the worse one. For what he did and was releasing at the time he has so many songs above beautiful people. And rob zombie is still making bangers

>>1935369

sono dentro

>>1932176
>Wrestling has never ever been socially acceptable
bullshit you faggot