The 10 best Superstars from the Attitude Era

The WWF's Attitude Era is recognised as being the most important time period for the wrestling business as a whole. In what would become an all-out assault on the company's Southern rivals, WCW, Vince McMahon changed the course of his television product with the inclusion of car crash TV, x-rated content and boundary-pushing violence.

While some fans might argue that other WWF/E periods were better in terms of entertainment value, there's little denying that from a business standpoint the Attitude Era was truly without compare. The Monday Night Wars brought professional wrestling to a level nobody could have predicted and both WWF and WCW owe it to their highly talented cohort of stars for making them the two companies to headline it all.

When it comes to ranking the 10 best WWF Superstars from the Attitude Era, everyone will undoubtedly have their own opinions. Nevertheless, here are, in this author's view, the 10 best Superstars from WWF's greatest ever era:

#10 Sable

Despite many of the principles of today's women's revolution being all but absent during the Attitude Era, WWF's female stars were still equally important back then in allowing the company to showcase a new attitude mixed with controversy and testosterone-fuelled chaos which was a key demand of their target audience at the time.

Rather than battling it out with the male competitors for the main event spot, WWF's women were there to provide a different kind of entertainment for the young males in attendance in particular. And while many Superstars would end up fulling this role over the years, the woman who arguably started off this trend was Sable.

Originally brought in as Marc Mero's manager/valet, the crowd slowly began warming to Sable more so than the man she was supposed to be getting heat for. Ever the eagle-eyed booker, Vince McMahon soon caught onto this and decided to place the onscreen couple in a feud. The general narrative was that Mero became more and more jealous of Sable's attention each week and prevented her from showcasing her ''skills'' to the audience.

Over a period of a few months, Sable gradually gained the confidence to stand up for herself and embrace what people loved her for. In a highly memorable scene on an episode of RAW, Sable would come to ringside in a gown and — much to the chagrin of Mero — drop it to the floor, revealing nothing but black handprints painted over her particulars.

Sable may not have put on any 5-star matches or wowed the fans with particularly great mic skills, but in many ways, the whole spirit of the Attitude Era itself can be seen as encapsulated in Sable's early career. Just as Mero was playing the role of party pooper, struggling to keep things child-friendly and sophisticated, Sable was performing the role of Vince McMahon, uncovering his company to a more risque form of entertainment and winning back control of the TV ratings from WCW in the process.

#9 Kane

In the wrestling community, the debut of Kane is generally considered as one of the greatest storylines the WWF/E has ever told. Back in 1997, before the Attitude Era was in full swing, Vince McMahon was struggling to keep his company from going out of business due to the sheer might of his Southern rival promotion, WCW. It was time for the WWF to try new things and bring in more captivating stars.

After months of Paul Bearer threatening to unearth a dark secret from Undertaker's past, Kane stormed into our lives by ripping off the door to the Hell in a Cell containing his big brother and tombstoning him to the mat.

The Kane vs. Undertaker story was the perfect accompaniment to the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1997/98. Their Wrestlemania 14 match had so much going for it that despite the involvement of Mike Tyson in the main event, fans were just as excited.

Kane's stature and appearance allowed him to delve right into the main event scene, first feuding with his brother the Undertaker before capturing the WWF Championship itself. The Attitude Era years showed us that despite his aggressive demeanour, the man playing the Kane character was also incredibly versatile.

Not only was he a brilliant single's competitor for many years, but he would also form some entertaining and at times rather humorous tag teams with the likes of X-Pac, RVD and Rikishi.

While his onscreen big brother is generally considered the greatest ever WWF Superstar, Kane also deserves high praise for his ability to stay relevant and engaging after all these years. Whatever he decides to do in the near future, there will always be a place somewhere in the WWE for the Big Red Machine.

#8 Goldust

For anyone who has only recently got themselves into pro-wrestling, it might be difficult to comprehend just how important a star Goldust was for the WWF back in the Attitude Era years. While today he is seen as little more than an ageing jobber, the unhinged son of Dusty Rhodes almost personified the very change of direction the WWF took around the 1997/98 period.

Goldust was originally introduced to the WWF in 1996 as a Hollywood obsessed, sexually ambivalent creep flanked by his manager Marlena. Various Superstars have spoken over the years about their reluctance to work with Goldust due to the way he would conduct himself during matches. Just go back and watch his mini-feud with Razor Ramon over the IC title to understand why.

During the Attitude Era, as WWF's content became more and more x-rated, the Goldust character would become even more bizarre and difficult to watch. After walking out on his wife, he was next placed in a mixed-gender tag team with the legendary Luna Vachon. Goldust informed the WWF audience that this was due to the fact that Luna understood him as a man and allowed him to explore his demented psyche as he saw fit.

In one memorable segment during Jerry Lawler's King's Court, Luna led Goldust to the ring on a leash wearing bondage gear. As the weeks went on, his costumes would continue to push the boundaries of acceptability; he even wrestled a match against Austin dressed as a giant baby.

The fact that Goldust never really touched the main event scene is an indication of how stacked the roster used to be back in those days. Any WWF fan could easily pick Goldust out of a lineup and consider him one of the signature personas within the company, despite never main eventing a signature PPV.

#7 The Undertaker

As far as wrestling careers go, few can claim to rival that of the Undertaker's in terms of sheer importance and relevance to the business. That being said, the Attitude Era, whilst still being a period of success for the Deadman, isn't generally considered to be his greatest hour.

Taker deserves to be on this list, but might not feature quite as high as other classifications that consider the history of the wrestling business as a whole. It's safe to say that the period between 1998-2001 was more of an experimental time for the Phenom, going through multiple character changes, some welcomed and others not so.

While the WWF transitioned from the New Generation to the Attitude Era throughout most of 1997, Taker had to battle to keep himself relevant with the arrival of new stars such as Stone Cold and The Rock. To his credit, Taker saw where the company was going and went along with it perfectly.

He was arguably at his most culturally relevant during his Ministry of Darkness phase, fitting in with the popular Goth movement sweeping America at the time. He would then go through an even more overt gimmick change in 2000 taking on the motorbike enthusiast, 'American Badass' persona. Along with Kane he also contributed to the impressive WWF tag team division as one-half of the Brothers of Destruction.

Certainly, in terms of in-ring work, Taker's best years were still to come, but there's no denying a legend of this magnitude, whatever era you're talking about.

#6 The New Age Outlaws

While WWF's main event talent was busy trying to wrestle back control of the TV ratings from WCW through in-ring and promo work, one team, in particular, was tasked with taking the fight to the Southern promotion in a much more literal sense. Originally set up as a three-person faction involving Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Chyna, D-Generation X would grow both in terms of numbers and cultural relevance with the arrival of the New Age Outlaws.

Billy Gunn and Road Dogg had already established themselves as big-time players by the time 1998 came around. Their feuds with Mick Foley and Terry Funk, as well as the legendary Road Warriors, placed them at the forefront of arguably the best tag-team division in wrestling history.

They conducted themselves with the kind of anti-authoritarian attitude that Vince McMahon must have been praying for at the time. They allowed the wrestling business as a whole to take itself altogether less seriously and helped fans acknowledge that as well as being a business that promotes fighting, sports entertainment is about letting off steam and providing a humorous escape from the stresses of everyday life.

Shortly after Wrestlemania 14, DX transitioned themselves into the 'DX Army' and provided us with one of the most memorable scenes of the entire Attitude Era when they 'invaded' WCW. Road Dogg and Gunn, along with their DX brethren, rode a tank right up to the doors of the arena where Bishoff and co. were filming an episode of Nitro. It was this kind of ballsy storytelling that encouraged fans to leave the NWO behind and come back to the company they once loved as kids during the 80s.

#5 Triple H

Despite what has been said in various Bret Hart interviews over the years, the influence of Triple H on the wrestling business cannot be denied. Much like the Undertaker, Helmsley could easily fit into more than one list of top 10 WWE Superstars, and while he might not have enjoyed his greatest period of success in terms of championships during the Attitude Era, these were the years in which fans got to see the evolution and growth of one of the best-loved competitors to ever lace up a pair of wrestling boots.

Brought in as the Connecticut blue blood 'Hunter Hearst Helmsley', the future COO soon found his feet after teaming up with Shawn Michaels in 1997. The pair were, in many ways, responsible for ushering in the kind of x-rated car crash TV that epitomised the Attitude Era itself.

By the time Wrestlemania 14 came around and Shawn Michaels was forced to take a leave of absence, Triple H brilliantly stepped into the role of leader of DX, making the group bigger and better in the process. It wouldn't be long before his talents as a singles star shone through and he eventually outgrew his DX team, battling alongside Stone Cold and The Rock as if this was always going to be his destiny.

Triple H would also take some highly important steps during this time, aligning himself, both personally and professionally, with the McMahon family and securing his future as one of WWE's most important individuals to this day.

Triple H amassed a whole series of championships between 98-2001 and helped bring some much-needed stability at the time after Austin's injuries forced him to take a more diminished role in 2000. Try as the doubters might, there's just no denying Hunter's deserved place on this list.

#4 Mick Foley

If there was an Oscar for the best supporting role given to a wrestler, that award would undoubtedly go to Mick Foley. Despite having a monster of a singles career of his own, the number of guys he has helped take the necessary step to becoming a main eventer is truly remarkable. And as anyone who knows their wrestling history will appreciate that the period from 1996-1998 was certainly a time when this kind of support was needed.

Debuting as Mankind, Foley began working with guys like Undertaker, Vader and Kane, helping all three to establish themselves as monster heels or babyfaces. Foley's ability to take bumps that other Superstars would have been reluctant to take helped create one of the most iconic matches of all time at the King of the Ring from 1998.

He and Undertaker redefined what it meant to have an 'extreme' match, with Foley being thrown off the top of the cell and chokeslammed through it. Undertaker came away from that match with a brand new aura, just one of the many examples of somebody walking away from a Foley match better than when they walked towards it.

To say Foley is versatile is also quite the understatement. He managed to entertain fans throughout the Attitude Era as three different characters, all able to complement his opponent in their own special way.

The crowning moment of his Attitude Era career came in early 1999 when he finally got his hands on the WWF Championship. After weeks of being denied the opportunity by the evil Mr McMahon and the Rock, Stone Cold marched to the ring to probably the greatest ever pop the company has seen, helping Foley become the company's champion, much to the dismay of the boss.

Fans might instinctively name other Superstars as having the greatest contribution to the company during the Attitude Era, but it's pretty safe to say that it wouldn't have been half as successful without the help of Mrs Foley's baby boy.

#3 The Rock

No single Superstar's career best mirrored the rise of the WWF during the early Attitude Era than the Rock's. In 1996, the future Hollywood legend was struggling to appeal to the fans as a corny, white-meat babyface that had no relevance to what was happening in popular culture at the time.

But with a few adjustments and a full embrace of the anti-authority, 'stick it to the man' mentality, both the WWF and the Rock had become universally popular entities by the middle of 1998.

Rock's heel turn and alignment with the Nation of Domination was a true turning point for the wrestling business as a whole. If the company had not ben facing the threat of WCW at the time, it's unsure whether management would have ever seen sense and gone with the character change. That's not to say that the man's talents wouldn't have eventually risen to the top, but without the WWF machine behind him, who knows where he would have ended up.

The Rock was also the perfect example of how the age-old heel/face dynamic of pro-wrestling didn't really fit during the Attitude Era. After a few months of berating the fans after his first heel turn, his taunts would become so popular that he would effectively spend the rest of his time with the company as a tweener — somebody who acts like a heel but gets babyface reactions.

Johnson would also have several key rivalries that helped define this era, including with Triple H, Ken Shamrock, Mick Foley and most importantly Steve Austin.

Terms like 'greatness' and 'legend' get thrown around quite often amongst wrestling fans, but when they are applied to the Dwyane 'The Rock' Johnson, you don't often hear too many objections.

#2 Mr. McMahon

As all fiction writers and filmmakers know — for every great story you need a hero and a villain. The Attitude Era might have been a time where the good vs. evil dynamic embraced many shades of gray, but throughout it all, the man fans consistently loved to hate was the evil boss, Mr. McMahon.

Vince McMahon Jr. has spoken in interviews about his childhood desire to be a professional wrestler. Despite growing up in the thick of the business, this never really came to pass, and he would instead have to settle for being the greatest behind the scenes mastermind of the industry's rise during the 80s.

However, after seeing off Bret Hart in unceremonious fashion in 1997, the man was free to embrace his inner devil, converting into a semi-professional in-ring competitor throughout the rest of the 90s and beyond.

The Attitude Era was originally built on a simple narrative: the fans were ready to embrace Stone Cold as their new hero, and the WWF management, led by McMahon, were prepared to do everything they could to prevent that happening. This led to a whole wealth of entertaining promo segments, video packages, and matches.

As an indication of just how important the feud between McMahon and Austin was for the company, on an episode of RAW which had the two facing off in the main event, the WWF finally scored their first ratings victory over WCW in nearly two years. The antics of these two men would eventually help the company cement a more permanent victory as the years went on.

Lest we forget, it was not only his feud with Austin that made McMahon such a brilliant heel. He also went about attacking other popular Superstars like the Rock and Mick Foley. His appalling treatment of his various family members was also a great way to build the ultimate amount of heel heat.

Vince might receive a fair amount of criticism from fans these days, but without his over the top involvement in the onscreen action of the WWF between 1997-2001, the Attitude Era simply would not have existed.

#1 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin

It may be a bit of an unoriginal thing to say, but Stone Cold Steve Austin was the greatest and most important Superstar of WWF's Attitude Era. After all, there's a reason why certain statements take on such an unoriginal and expected nature, some things in life are true and will forever remain that way.

In a period of time when WWF's top-tier talents like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were making their way over to WCW, Vince McMahon knew that his best line of attack going forward would be to embrace a new cohort of stars. Luckily, with Bishoff and co. so fixated on the New World Order, certain Superstars that had previously failed to make a name for themselves in the company were searching for opportunities in the WWF.

Steve Austin was one of those individuals. His early career was, like the Rock's, an example of how McMahon was still pretty out of touch with what was happening amongst his fanbase. Austin's 'Ringmaster' gimmick from 96 was failing to make many waves, but with a few simple tweaks, the Stone Cold character was soon born and the wrestling business was changed forever.

The first indications of how important Austin would prove to be came during his feud with Brian Pillman. In scenes that WWF fans had never seen the like of before, Pillman was forced to defend himself with a gun as a way of keeping the insane, self-destructive Austin at bay.

Things would only move from strength to strength following this when Stone Cold's course came into direct contact with Vince McMahon. The boss's attempts to keep Austin from holding the WWF Championship led to some of the greatest scenes ever to be showcased on RAW and Smackdown. Anyone who came close to this rivalry was also made the better for it, and with it, the WWF was truly off to the races.

It's difficult to list all of the shocking moments involving Austin during this period, but two, in particular, instantly come to mind. The first is when Vince was left urinating on himself after Stone Cold threatened to shoot him in front of the audience. The second was the infamous beer truck incident when the Corporation learned the hard way what it meant to aggravate the Rattlesnake too much.

Just as anyone who enjoyed Wrestling in the 80s owed their appreciation primarily to Hulk Hogan, those who sat through this highly entertaining period and beyond need to recognise the contribution of the one and only Stone Cold Steve Austin because, as we all know, there will simply never be another like him.

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