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| The catalyst Photo Credit: WWE.com |
-- @wrestlespective
Around the time of In Your House: Final Four, the WWF was being shellacked by WCW and unaware of where to go. The common fable at this point was that no one saw Steve Austin as "the guy" just yet, one with some definite truth just before Wrestlemania 13. Yet it is natural to see the growing pains of a new era. To be honest, these pains are more apparent in a show like Final Four than in a show a year prior or a year after. Or maybe I'm just bitter about Marc Mero taking up pay-per-view time.
It is extremely easy to point out Austin's wildness, the man that generates the Attitude Era, and how altogether awesome it is. Jason Mann's quote above isn't really any new information to any of us who grew up in the Attitude Era and eventually consumed and gobbled every little bit of wrestling knowledge the internet has thrown at us. But it somehow is even more fascinating being on the precipice of these events as they happen. It is even more fascinating to be confused by Flash Funk's green spandex in contrast to the radical (i.e. EDGY in 1997 wrestling speak) element of the Nation of Domination.
Yet it is hard to see exactly where in time the product shows full-on signs of its shift. Is it when they embrace more outside of the ring action? Is it when they willfully let Vader bleed all over the place? Is their need to apologize for Austin's actions evidence of playing on the line with edge but also trying their damnedest to keep old era absurdities like a Western Union blimp?
I suppose this is like watching a period piece for a story that you know the ending from history. I guess that makes this is a historical prequel in some regard. Maybe a lot like Star Wars, complete with awkward "Furnas and Lafon won't be here by year's end" minutia. Less Hayden Christensen, though.
Around the time of In Your House: Final Four, the WWF was being shellacked by WCW and unaware of where to go. The common fable at this point was that no one saw Steve Austin as "the guy" just yet, one with some definite truth just before Wrestlemania 13. Yet it is natural to see the growing pains of a new era. To be honest, these pains are more apparent in a show like Final Four than in a show a year prior or a year after. Or maybe I'm just bitter about Marc Mero taking up pay-per-view time.
It is extremely easy to point out Austin's wildness, the man that generates the Attitude Era, and how altogether awesome it is. Jason Mann's quote above isn't really any new information to any of us who grew up in the Attitude Era and eventually consumed and gobbled every little bit of wrestling knowledge the internet has thrown at us. But it somehow is even more fascinating being on the precipice of these events as they happen. It is even more fascinating to be confused by Flash Funk's green spandex in contrast to the radical (i.e. EDGY in 1997 wrestling speak) element of the Nation of Domination.
Yet it is hard to see exactly where in time the product shows full-on signs of its shift. Is it when they embrace more outside of the ring action? Is it when they willfully let Vader bleed all over the place? Is their need to apologize for Austin's actions evidence of playing on the line with edge but also trying their damnedest to keep old era absurdities like a Western Union blimp?
I suppose this is like watching a period piece for a story that you know the ending from history. I guess that makes this is a historical prequel in some regard. Maybe a lot like Star Wars, complete with awkward "Furnas and Lafon won't be here by year's end" minutia. Less Hayden Christensen, though.
