10 Attitude Era stars who are underrated by fans

Since its inception, Professional Wrestling has acted as a mirror of the society that created it. During World War II, for example, wrestling saw a slew of heels who all happened to hail from Germany. The most famous of these men was Baron Von Raschke, who is remembered as one of the top bad guys of the era.

Then, in the 1970s, with grindhouse films and more gory fare available at the box office, wrestling grew bloodier. The foreheads of the men who worked this era, like Abdullah the Butcher, are a roadmap of deep scars and furrows from all the blading.

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In the 1980s, at the height of the cold war, 'Russian' wrestlers like Nikita Koloff were there to offend the sensibilities of the fans.

However, several events conspired to make the 1990s different. The end of the cold war led to a more complex understanding and view of global politics, meaning promoters could no longer get instant heat by having a bad guy foreign wrestler or a good guy dressed in the American flag.

Another major blow to wrestling was when Vince McMahon admitted--which no other promoter had ever done--that wrestling was a performance and not a competitive sport. He did this to avoid many restrictions put on him by state athletic commissions, but the end result was kayfabe was officially dead.

And finally, the steroid scandal had not brought down any one promotion but did lead to a great deal of negative press about sports entertainment in general. In this environment, fans dwindled. Worse, many top stars of the WWE headed for the greener--as in money green--pastures of Ted Turner's new WCW promotion.

The WWE was in a tight spot. They couldn't match the WCW's finances, and they had lost many established stars, so they built their promotion around WCW mid carders and new, young talent like the Rock.

With some research, the WWE discovered that their new demographic was mainly males age 14-36. The programming changed, tailored to appeal to this audience. Bad language and aggressive behavior became the norm.

During this era, we had Stone Cold Steve Austin, Degeneration X, and The Rock. However, there were many talented wrestlers working for WWE at this time who never truly caught on with fans despite being quite talented.

Here are ten Attitude Era stars who were sorely underrated.

#1.Val Venis

Simply put, Val Venis had the best body in WWE during the Attitude Era. While there were many chiseled superstars of this era, such as Triple H and Sid Vicious, Venis's physique was several notches above.

Sean Morley, the man who played the Venis character, was no stranger to the squared circle when he made his WWE debut. He had wrestled in Japan, Canada, and Puerto Rico prior to signing with the WWE. His most successful run had been with Mexican promotion CMLL, where he was a masked luchadore named Steele. Steele held the CMLL heavyweight championship for a time, the only singles big belt he would ever win.

Once he joined WWE, it was thought by head writer Vince Russo that he was too 'plain' and a 'guy in tights' would never get over with the new Attitude Era audience. So, he was turned into the world's longest running sexual innuendo, Val Venis.

Val Venis the wrestling porn star was featured prominently on WWE programming for a time, being one of the top mid-card wrestlers under contract. However, despite some success he never truly broke into the main event. His most famous, or infamous if you prefer, moment came when he was nearly castrated by Kaientai because of some impropriety with their manager's kayfabe wife.

Venis would eventually retire the porn star gimmick and join Right to Censor. He spent some time as Chief Morley, a precursor to Baron Corbin's gimmick, but that also fizzled out.

Val Venis would end his time with the WWE without ever breaking into the main event picture.

Why he was so underrated: Venis's cheesy, outlandish gimmick overshadowed his impressive physique and surprisingly scientific wrestling skills. A six foot four man, sculpted like a Greek God, who could pull of a perfect Fisherman's bridge suplex should have accomplished more.

#2. Ivory

The state of women's wrestling in the WWE reached a bleak low prior to and during the early part of the Attitude Era. Things were so bad that Allundra Blayze/Madusa switched to WCW while still the WWE's champion. Her dumping the title into the trash can live on Nitro is considered one of the major shots fired during the Monday Night War.

After Madusa's departure, women's wrestling became filler or an afterthought, at best. Most of the matches involved women trying to strip clothing off of each other or wrestling in mud, or some other contrivance designed to show off their bodies.

However, the WWE always has an eye toward the future, and they realized that sooner or later fans would yearn for something more than just filler women's matches. To that end, they hired several experienced, trained wrestlers, like Terri Power, Miss Texas, and Ivory.

Ivory cut her teeth on the GLOW promotion--which now has a Netflix series base upon it--and actually received training from Mexican legend Mando Guerrero for the role. She even won the Glow championship, which was a crown rather than a title belt.

When Ivory signed with WWE, they initially didn't know what to do with her because there were so few women under contract who could actually keep up with her in the ring. She was first one of Godfather's 'ladies of the night,' and then became Mark Henry's girlfriend. When the WWE finally allowed her to wrestle, the fans responded quite well. Here was a woman with beauty AND wrestling talent.

Ivory would end up joining the Right to Censor stable--a common fate for overlooked Attitude Era stars--and had a memorable feud with Chyna. Her multiple reigns as Women's champion would have been more impressive had she actually faced world-class talent instead of the re-purposed valets and models she often had to face.

Why she was underrated: Ivory was in the right place at the wrong time. One can only imagine how successful she's have been in the Women's Evolution era. Alas, a lack of good competition and the WWE's emphasis on gimmick underwear matches held her back.

#3. Two Much/Too Cool

During the Attitude Era, WWE would often put undersized wrestlers together in a tag team. One such team was "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher, and "Too Hot" Scott Taylor, known collectively as Two Much.

Brian Christopher was Jerry Lawler's son, but there was little warmth between the two of them. Lawler was often embarrassed by his son's antics. While Christopher was a very skilled wrestler--probably better than his father in the ring--he got into a great deal of trouble backstage and with law enforcement. Thus, Lawler insisted that his son break into the WWE on his own, with no help from Lawler or any acknowledgment of their real life relationship.

Two Much never really caused much sensation. They were the Jobber to the Stars tag team, wrestling a lot on television but rarely, if ever, winning. WWE believed they could do more with a different gimmick, and they were rebranded as wanna be 'hip hop' stars, Too Cool.

The gimmick was supposed to make them despised heels, but they were so funny in their execution that Too Cool became quite popular babyfaces. When Scotty performed his signature 'worm' maneuver, the fans would leap to their feet and spell out the word as he hopped around the ring.

Too Cool was so popular that the WWE even added Rikishi to the group to boost the latter's popularity. Seeing the three-man group dance after a victory is one of the fonder memories of Attitude Era fans.

However, it all came crashing down when Brian Christopher was busted for trying to bring drugs across the Canadian border. He was fired, and while Scotty too Hotty stuck around for several years he was never as compelling of a character on his own.

Too Cool was over for a time, but they are often forgotten when fans reminisce about the Attitude Era.

Why they were underrated: Too Cool had a comedy gimmick that played well as a filler or change of pace from more 'serious' acts like Stone Cold Steve Austin, but fans never took them seriously as contenders.

#4. Steve Blackman

The story of Steve Blackman is rife with 'what might have beens.'

Blackman was a competitive bodybuilder and power lifter who transitioned to pro wrestling in 1986. After cutting his teeth on the independent circuit, he had several try out matches in the WWE in 1988, when it was still referred to as the WWF.

Blackman impressed WWE officials enough that they were going to give him a full time contract and a likely push. However, in South Africa during a wrestling tour he contracted the deadly disease Malaria.

He would be bedridden for nearly two years, and most of his impressive body builder's physique atrophied away. Though Blackman would eventually defeat the virus ravaging his body, he was a mere shell of his former self.

Because of the damage inflicted by Malaria, Blackman would never be able to re-attain his massive physique, so he focused on a different training style. He studied various forms of martial arts, especially Tae Kwon Do and the Malaysian art Escrima. Blackman also developed a new workout routine that gave him a chiseled appearance while still allowing him to retain the speed and agility he'd gained training in martial arts.

Blackman had been good friends with Owen Hart, so when it was time for him to return to wrestling he utilized his connections and made it back to the WWE. Steve Blackman had a tag title run and a hardcore title run, and was an attitude era fixture, but never broke into the main event.

Why he was underrated: Blackman had a martial artist gimmick when the WWE had also hired two prominent MMA stars; Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn. With the focus on these more famous and marketable men, Blackman was lost in the shuffle. Steve Blackman was also not the best mike worker, though he wasn't completely terrible he could never resonate with the fans.

#5. D Lo Brown

Acce Julius Conner adopted the name D Lo Brown as a tribute to his childhood friend Darren Lewis, who had died of cancer.

He cut his teeth in the New Jersey independent circuit before coming onto WWE's radar and added to their developmental system.

Brown was often forced to play a manager or valet for much of his early career, in spite of his obvious wrestling talent. This was done because many promoters and WWE officials believed D Lo's physique to be chubby and unimpressive. His break came when the team he managed, the Gangstas, left WWE's developmental territory.

D Lo was packaged as part of the Nation of Domination, and made his debut on Raw as an unassuming man in a suit standing behind Farooq, the leader of the Nation. The Black Separatist group was meant to be evocative of Louis Farrakhan, who had garnered a great deal of media attention for his views and propensity to dress and act like Malcolm X.

When WWE decided to cut down on the extraneous members of the NOD to save money, D Lo avoided the chopping block by virtue of his wrestling abilities.

D Lo was known for his tremendous agility and strength; He could pull off a Running Liger bomb, and could also perform a frog splash that would make Eddie Guerrero proud. Unfortunately, he was involved in an accident performing the running power bomb that permanently paralyzed wrestler Droz/Puke from the chest down.

D Lo held the European and Intercontinental championships simultaneously, one of a handful of men to perform such a feat. However, despite his hard work and dedication, D Lo would slip down the card slowly until he was finally released from the company.

Why he was underrated: D Lo Brown was always around bigger personalities, such as The Rock, Farooq, and Tiger Ali Singh. His ordinary appearance and strictly average mike skills only helped reinforce the notion that he was a minion or toadie and not a man in his own right.

#6. Molly Holly

Nora Benshoof was trained by a true technical wrestling legend, Dean Malenko. Rather than teaching her to be another 'bra and panties' female wrestler, Dean made certain that Benshoof was taught just as much as his male students.

Capitalizing on Benshoof's natural athleticism--she was a powerlifting champion and a gymnast--Malenko helped her become arguably the Attitude Era's most skilled female worker.

After her training, Benshoof first arrived in WCW as part of Macho Man Randy Savage's "Team Madness" stable. Though she was supposed to be a heel, fans were so impressed by the newly christened Miss Madness that they cheered her anyway. This led to WCW splitting her from Savage so she could become a singles star.

Miss Madness became Mona, and wrestled barefoot in a pageant dress. When WCW was bought out by rival WWE, Mona signed a contract with the new promotion and made her debut as one of the Holly Cousins stable.

Molly Holly is one of the few female superstars to hold the WWE's Hardcore title during the 24/7 title defense rule. She also held the women's championship and was strongly considered for an IC title run until McMahon nixed the idea and gave it to Chyna instead.

Her most famous moment was probably when her head was shaved at Wrestlemania, an unfortunate fate for such a talented worker.

Why she was underrated: Molly Holly debuted at a time when WWE had little emphasis on women's wrestling, preferring scantily clad 'Divas' instead. Had her career happened ten years later, she would likely have been a much bigger draw.

#7. Kaientai

Originally dubbed "Club Kamikaze," Kaientai was a pure Japanese stable that was brought in primarily to feud with Taka Michinoku, who was the WWE's Light heavyweight champion at the time.

Dick Togo and Sho Funaki performed a lot of beat downs and run-ins on Taka, but then oddly Michinoku would actually join the stable. Kaientai was part of an angle that drew a great deal of critisicm toward the WWE.

Their manager, Yamaguchi-san, was revealed to have a kayfabe wife, a gorgeous non wrestling Asian model. Val Venis had an affair with Mrs. Yamaguchi, and this drew a great deal of ire from Kaientai when the tape became public. Kaientai would kidnap Val Venis, strip him naked, and was about to perform castration surgery with a Katana when the lights went out and the program ended for the night.

Fans had to wait a week to find out Val's fate, and it was revealed that tabloid fodder John Wayne Bobbit--famous for having his member severed by his wife--saved Venis from a fate worse than death.

After the angle, WWE would fire all but Taka and Funaki. The two became a comedy act who were dubbed into English during their interviews. Taka would do all the talking, then hand the mike to Funaki, who--despite being seen to speak for several moments--would only utter one word, "INDEED."

Taka would eventually tire of the gimmick and head back to Japan, but Funaki remained with WWE and even still works for them as an announcer. It just seems like the group could have accomplished much more than they did.

Why they were underrated: The WWE's lightheayweight division was a pale imitation of WCW's Cruiserweight division, and most of the stars hired for it were either let go or repackaged. With so many other wrestlers and big stars around, Kaientai got lost in the shuffle.

#8. Al Snow

Al Snow actually wrestled for WWE under a mask in his early career, wrestling first as a knock off Luchadore Avatar, and then as a 'ninja' Shinobi.

WWE were quite impressed by Snow, who was not only a tremendous talent but was willing and able to share his knowledge with other performers. He was considered a leader in the locker room and praised for his great attitude.

At this point, WWE was heavily invested in ECW, and the two promotions engaged in a talent exchange. Steve Austin went to WWE, while Al Snow headed to ECW. Snow was a hit in ECW, especially after he said he was going to give everyone 'a little head' to get a push and came out with the mannequin head to the ring.

Al Snow and Head were expected to win the ECW championship, but then suddenly WWE wanted him back. He came in as part of the Job Squad, but quickly broke out on his own, feuding with Jerry Lawler among others. As part of Snow's gimmick, he would often slightly break kayfabe and drop insider terms during his interviews.

Snow was forced to stop using Head when a feminist group objected to action figures sold in Wal Mart that featured Al Snow with head. The feminist group believed that head was supposed to represent an actual severed head and branded the WWE as anti-woman.

Snow would remain with WWE for some time, but mostly kicked around the low to mid card without really getting a big break.

Why he was underrated: Al Snow was definitely over, but not in the way men like The Rock and Mick Foley were. His 'head' gimmick worked better in ECW, and he was always hampered by his laid back attitude because he never pestered officials and management in WWE for a bigger role.

#9. Stevie Richards

Stevie Richards worked a 'stuck in the 1980s' gimmick for ECW before turning into Raven's flunky, dancing Stevie.

Purely a comedy act, Richards nonetheless garnered a lot of fan support from the ECW audience. His hard work, entertaining persona, and technical ability made him a crowd pleaser in that promotion.

Richards would be hired by WCW to continue his role as Raven's henchman. Eventually he ended up working for WWE as part of the Blue World Order and Job Squad.

However, it was the Right to Censor gimmick that truly allowed Richards to shine. Right to Censor, or RTC, was meant to be a knock on the PTC, or Parent's Television Council. The PTC is the group that always protested the WWE's characters like Godfather and Val Venis, as well as ruined Saturday morning cartoons by successfully lobbying for a law that declared children's programming had to be mostly educational. It was in RTC that Richards truly came into his own. His top-notch mic skills and ability to stand out even among massively muscled men like Val Venis led to flirting with the main event picture, though he never really made it past the mid-card.

Why he was underrated: Stevie Richards is undersized for a heavyweight but too large to challenge for a light heavyweight title. Also, his numerous neck problems and surgeries led to a lot of time off from the ring, which hampered his ability to make an impact.

#10. Dean Malenko

Dean Malenko is probably the most skilled technical wrestler of all time. His gimmick was 'man of 1000 holds, a feat which he proved to a group of drunken wrestlers at a wrestling training camp.

If there was a wrestling hold, Dean knew it, and ten ways to counter it. He tried out for the WWE in the early 1980s but was told he was undersized. They did hire him, however--as a referee.

Not content to be a referee, Malenko would travel to Japan and Mexico, where smaller wrestlers are given more television time. It was in Japan that he met good friends Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho. Benoit had an in with WCW and worked hard to get the others there. In the interim, Guerrero and Malenko would head to ECW, where they put on a series of five star matches which were a far cry from the chair smashing and disorderly brawls usually offered on the brand.

Malenko did join WCW, and was not only a wrestler but also the head booker of the Cruiserweight division. His influence on wrestling are still seen today on 205 Live and NXT. Malenko would even become one of the Four Horsemen, an honor that still carries weight today.

Malenko and his fellows Benoit and Guerrero all asked for their releases from WCW long before the Monday night War had ended. While Malenko met with some success, he was put into a poorly received and creepy angle where he stalked Lita.

Eventually, injuries piled up and Malenko took a job as a road agent with WWE. Batista is among the superstars he groomed for the WWE.

Why he was underrated: Dean's no-nonsense personality struggled to shine amidst all of the insanity of the Attitude Era. Also, his neck fusion surgery led to pain and lack of mobility in the ring, shortening his career by several years at least.

There you have it; Ten underrated stars of WWE's Attitude Era. Questions or comments? Please leave them below the article and thanks for reading!