The 10 best Superstars from the Attitude Era

#2 Mr. McMahon

Evil personified.

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.