No other era of wrestling is as heavily protected as The WWE Attitude Era. The WWE Attitude Era (1998-2001) is widely regarded by many wrestling fans as the best period ever in wrestling history.
The WWE Attitude Era had its highs such as the amazing storylines and feuds, 24/7 hardcore matches, and TLC matches, but it also had its lows such as racially insensitive angles and negative depiction of women as nothing more but “glorified eye candy”.
Here now are the top 5 most controversial moments of The WWE Attitude Era.
1. DX Mocks The Nation In Blackface - On a 1998 episode of Raw, all the members of DX came out mocking members of The Nation with Triple H, X-Pac, Road Dogg, and Billy Gunn in blackface and for the general white audience that thought this was funny, but to black wrestling fans like myself at the time, this wasn’t funny because this segment was not only extremely controversial, but was racially offensive to black people as a collective. I absolutely hated this segment so much.
Note: A year prior to this segment, DX spray painted racially offensive slurs of “n***a” and “go back to Africa” across The Nation locker room.
2. “Jungle Fever” - In 1998, there was a controversial “Jungle Fever” storyline involving a young black wrestler in Mark Henry and an older white woman in Mae Young. This storyline was not only a racially insensitive one, but because it also perpetuated this feministic narrative that “black men don’t love black women” and the fact that Mae Young got “pregnant” by Mark Henry was downright insulting and disgusting. I definitely hated that “Jungle Fever” storyline.
3. Negative Depictions Of Women - One of the most controversial moments of The WWE Attitude Era involved the negative sexist depictions of women as nothing more but “eye candy” for the predominantly male audience. Other negative sexist depictions of women were also very common by being featured in bikini contests, diva searches, bra-n-panties matches, and even pillow fights.
4. Vince McMahon Winning The WWE Title - In September 1999, Triple H was at the peak of his heel run taking out babyfaces such as The Rock who got in his way on his quest to win The WWE Championship, but he was involved in a major feud with the #1 babyface in The WWE at that time in Stone Cold Steve Austin that started in August of that year. On a September 16, 1999 episode Of Smackdown, Triple H faced Vince McMahon for The WWE Championship and this match for the most part was one-sided with Triple H dominating until Stone Cold Steve Austin attacked Triple H and stunned him and later dragging Vince on top of Triple H to get the 3 and win The WWE Championship in a move many saw as a very controversial one that brought a lot of heat to Vince. Now rumor has it that Super Shane could beat Kofi for The WWE Title, I damn sure hope that this doesn’t happen.
5. The Date Rape/Abduction Angle - In 1999, Stephanie McMahon was involved in an on-screen romantic angle with Test. The backstory of this angle was that the creative team at the time tried to stop their on-screen marriage because they didn’t have any ideas, but someone on the creative team had an idea of bringing Stephanie and Triple H together. And that’s what happened when Triple H paid a bartender in Stephanie’s bridal shower to put a date rape drug in Stephanie’s drink and later proceeded to abduct Stephanie and later married her on-screen in The Little White Chapel in Las Vegas. This angle was extremely controversial because of how negatively the angle was received by a lot of people. The creative team could’ve definitely come up with a better way of getting Stephanie and Triple H together, but Stephanie being drugged and abducted by Triple H was not the way to go about it.
The Conclusion - All in all, The WWE Attitude Era wasn’t perfect by any means because if we’re gonna talk about the positive things about it, but we also have to point out the negative things about it as well.
By Kwame Shakir
