The Attitude Era Thread Vol 1

[BUTT]

Really glad I chose to watch Flair-Rey on Nitro rather than Austin-Show. Raw didn't have anyone going into a pool.

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555710494626955271

 

[BruiserBrody]

I know y'all don't like Corny, but him reading old Russo show ideas for Shotgun may bring u around for a few mins.

- Jerry Lawler does the WWF version of "Weekend Update"
- Yokozuna is weighed and then jobbers are added to a scale until they match the weight. Then Yoko faces them in a handi cap match.
- Shotgun Title. Sort of like the WCW Block matches. One tough guy fights to prove he's the toughest SOB on Shotgun.
- Hire a ref with big breasts. Russo for the win!
- Strip tease match. A wrestler has to bring his wife or GF to ringside. When he takes a bump, she loses a piece of clothing.
- Fans call the spots - the fans shout out moves and the wrestler has to try it on their opponent.
- Lights out match. House lights go down and the fans flash lights are the only thing lighting the match. (PRE CELL PHONE lights being common!)
- Oddest one may be "Beat the Snake" You have to beat Jake Roberts in 3 mins or less. In 1997!
- MANY others.....

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Okay, but the Yoko one and the Shotgun title could've been good

 

[Valeyard]

--Lawler doing a Weekend Update would be funny two nonconsecutive times.
--The Yoko thing is kinda awesome and would rebuild him perfectly.
--Shotgun title isn't a bad idea, honestly. Make the show more unique and no doubt means guys like Vader or Austin kill people.
--Titty ref is something I'm shocked never happened but we got titty EMT so I guess eh.
--Striptease match must've turned into the Topless Top Rope match they did a couple times where if a guy is thrown over the top the girl with him takes off clothing, the loser then has to get topless. HHH got the big heat for being the only one to see BB's tits.
--Spot calling and literal lights out are fucking stupid and the epitome of something ECW would do better.
--Give Jake a push, why not? I know he was fucked up but he wasn't Gang Warz or the Sultan or something.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

The Jake one sounds fine... he was known for his short-arm clothesline and DDT. He wasn't a guy at his age that needed to be going even 7-10 minutes in the ring. Let him annihilate some jobbers doing what the fans want to see and then once a legitimate opponent steps in it becomes, "Oooh... can Jake pull this off now that he's in the ring with ____?"

Again, basic, simple storytelling isn't a bad thing if looked at through non-"wrasslin' angle" glasses. It's the Hollywood Trope equivalent of Good Guy mows through 2-3 mooks then runs into the Big Bad's Bodyguard.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Jake was already back for a year by this point and was back to being fucked up. He was fat and his nostalgia run was done. He literally worked 4 matches for WWF in 1997. He put over HHH twice, was a body for the Rumble and won a random house show match vs the Goon.

He was supposed to be on the creative team, but showed up to TV 8 hours late and Vince got rid of him.

This was the era where the Godwins were driving him one day and he made them go to the ghetto to buy drugs....while doing the God saved me gimmick.

--

I'll counter with a legend of the week gimmick for Tito, Valentine, Snuka etc to face a mid card geek in a 3 min challenge.

@King of Summer Kamala : "Brody WCW had Valentine under contract!"

 

[Valeyard]

Heel Jake extends his career and gives some potentially fun things to the midcard. His ceiling might not be much higher than Shotgun exclusive but I think you could weave him into the Taker/Paul Bearer feud on some level and have it work.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Heel Jake extends his career and gives some potentially fun things to the midcard. His ceiling might not be much higher than Shotgun exclusive but I think you could weave him into the Taker/Paul Bearer feud on some level and have it work.

He was less than 2 years away from the bloated Legends of Wrestling mess. I don't think we need to pretend it was 1987. They tried in 1996 and within 6 months he was feuding with an announcer and then shunted from storylines.
"Can we get Jake sober enough to tape 2 nights of TV a month?" wasn't really a question they needed to ask anymore by the later stages of 1996 when Bret Hart came back to ramp up Steve Austin's push and give RAW a pulse.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Only place I could see Jake working in Attitude Era is as a manager and he didn’t accept that managing was what he was best suited to do until he was almost physically unable to do that.

Jake was lobbying for one last run as late as the mid 2010s!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Former WWF Magazine photographer Tom Buchanan posts a great/horrible Russo story.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Oh, that Russo, wanting that gang of degenerates to be photographed doing degenerate things

 

[Tino Standard]

Implying Chyna had a dick would have been dumb, but if you look at what they ended up doing, it was perfectly in line with their characters. The guys all looked like shit-stirring degenerates behind the flag and Chyna looked like a humorless badass in front. It was fine.

 

[Valeyard]

That's really tame.

Best Tom Buchanan story is the time he had Akeem fall on him, though. Second to anything ECW invasion.

 

[JN News]

I loved Edge's matches against Gangrel before The Brood formed and after The Brood split. I also liked the mixed tag team match at WWF SummerSlam 1998 where Edge & Sable beat Marc Mero & Jackie Moore. I think Sable, as popular as she was, was able to get Edge over with the fans, whereas the kind of gimmick that Edge had back then.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I loved Edge's matches against Gangrel before The Brood formed and after The Brood split. I also liked the mixed tag team match at WWF SummerSlam 1998 where Edge & Sable beat Marc Mero & Jackie Moore. I think Sable, as popular as she was, was able to get Edge over with the fans, whereas the kind of gimmick that Edge had back then.

My oldest female cousin on the farm was big into country livin' mixed with fashionable clothes but when casually viewing RAW w/ her idiot cousin (ME!) she dug the Brood and called the Hardyz "scrubs". She never had any goth leanings.

/Random memory

 

[BruiserBrody]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1559965854187409409

Bearded Todd in the Corporate Ministry as the 3rd Stooge!

 

[BruiserBrody]

Corny shares more Russo ideas:

- Mero and Sable (Corny shits on Sable again. Jim, She drew a million dollars! Stop) Sable is abused by Marc, so she turns to a babyface for help. (Maybe Dude Love) only for Sable to swerve the face and aid Marc in the match.
Bonus story from Jim. He calls Mick to tell him the plan for Mania he Foley vs Mero (97) and Foley pauses and replies.... "I'm not sure anyone ever asked you this, but can I maybe not be on Mania?" See Foley's first book for more on how much Mero's WWF contract irked him.
- Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon align with JAPAN forming a Stable with Yokozuna and (wait for it.....) The Patriot!
(To be fair to Russo, the North Americans were All Japan Vets... I can sort of see it,)
- Flash Funk joins Ahmed Johnson to fight the Nation. Funk denounces the gimmick. Mark Henry eventually joins Funk and Johnson vs Nation.
- Fake Razor becomes "a real Italian gangster" with Tom Brandi
- Brakkus "will get over due to the fans wanting to look like him"
- Droz is a suicidal crazed NFL player. He was cut due to his behavior and now want to take it out in the WWF.
- Honky Tonk Man - Russo says cut him, he's not going to get over in 1997.
- Fatu - We repackaged him several times. Move along. (Corny mentions in the early 2000s Vince went to cut Rikishi. Afa, Rosey and Jaamal all went with Fatu for some reason and instead of cutting Fatu, Vince gave everyone contracts.)
- Bart Gunn.- Keep him, but I have no ideas for him. Lousy promo.
- Barry Windham turns on Bradshaw and becomes a redneck bounty hunter.
- Erik Watts (apparently still under contract in late 96) "He has elite potential"
- Yoko joins the Hart Foundation.
- Billy Gunn, Roadie join The Elite (DX working name) Maybe add Erik Watts too. Brian Christopher fits as well.
- Sunny joins the Elite (If the men abuse her) - That's Russo not me saying that....


-

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

- Flash Funk joins Ahmed Johnson to fight the Nation. Funk denounces the gimmick. Mark Henry eventually joins Funk and Johnson vs Nation.
- Fake Razor becomes "a real Italian gangster" with Tom Brandi
- Honky Tonk Man - Russo says cut him, he's not going to get over in 1997.

The first two could have worked, the last one is accurate as fuuuuuuuck

 

[Aero]

Did Flash Funk ever have a feud or storyline? Can't think of anything off the top of my head.

 

[Valeyard]

Chyna scared the Funkettes out of the company.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561390411293270016

 

[BruiserBrody]

Very odd booking for a babyface. Sable isn't even amused. They ran the bit of "man storms into topless Sable's locker room 2 different times on Raw" (Mero yanks her out of the locker room with her leather straps down to drag her to the ring)

 

[Valeyard]

Austin was at the time a very odd babyface though.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1561895134794596356

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1562328742843666433

 

[Valeyard]

That's got to be a gimmick outfit.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I'll contend that Spike/Molly could've been the nerdy version of Macho/Liz... should've gotten them married

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

IRT Brian Gewirtz's new memoir about his time in WWE.

Give us some stories/highlights?

Chapter on Vince Russo's aborted WWE comeback in the spring/summer of 2002 is interesting as well. Russo's big pitch was a Eric Bischoff Vs SHANE McMahon feud, based on their real life hatred of each other, bro. This was when no one was sure if Bischoff was even going to come back to wrestling.

He also wanted to strip The Undertaker of the World Title for no reason (ala the WCW reboot he did in April 2000) and have a tournament won by RVD. Russo was adamant that the tournament was a great idea because he ran by his teenage son and all of his friends.

Another idea was for DX to reunite because Russo thought he could get "Chyner" back in WWE and Road Dogg was almost done his prison sentence. Idk Road Dogg even went to jail but maybe it's related to this?

Tipping point was Russo asked if Triple H Vs Chris Jericho had been done and Michael Hayes yelled out that that was the WrestleMania main event a few months before.

Basically, Gewirtz, Paul Heyman, Michael Hayes, Stephanie and Bruce Prichard were told to listen to Russo's ideas without judgment and relay them to Vince McMahon. Once Vince McMahon heard the ideas, he was so disgusted that he immediately demoted Russo then Russo quit.

(Although come to think of it...WWE DID do a Shane McMahon Vs Eric Bischoff feud in '03, yeah?)

 

[BruiserBrody]

IIRC the NEWZ sites at the time reported that Russo basically wanted to sign every big name FA (Scott Steiner) for a big mass debut.
I suppose that kind of stuff is in the wayback machine somewhere.