The Roid Rage
Getting Noticed By Management
A friend and I were discussing wrestling as always, and I had this odd realization about the Attitude Era. Most people would probably say it all started around the time Stone Cold came around.
The age old story is that at some point the fans got tired of the classic "Good Guy/ Bad Guy" routine, and the heels started to become the favorites of the crowd.
Some would say that It all started when D-X came out and talked about the whole MSG incident breaking kayfabe, or that it all started with Stone Cold after his famous "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass" comment, or maybe that it all really kicked off after the Montreal Screwjob. There are a lot of theories, and I am about to give you another one.
The Attitude Era in a lot of ways is defined as the time when the Heels became the heroes, and the lines between the good guys and the bad guys became blurred, and that is probably true. But when that actually started is the question. As I stated above some would consider it to be numerous things but I think it all began elsewhere, with another person. As I have come to this somewhat realization I am going to say that this person is the one who is really responsible in a lot of ways for the Attitude Era, this is the first guy who really showed us how good it is to be bad.
Who else could I be talking about but.............Razor Ramon. Surprised??? So was I. I had never thought of it until now but he really is the seed that was planted in our heads that grew into a love for the bad guys, and isn't it ironic? It was "THe Bad Guy".
Now you might be sitting there thinking "Rage, where the hell did you come up with that, what were you smoking, and where can I get some?" And all I have to say is that I'm not giving up any of my connections, so don't get your hopes up, there isn't enough to go around. But, I will explain this whole thing.
When you look back at it, Razor Ramon was introduced as a heel. They gave him the big vignettes, they made him out to be like this big Cuban bad ass who was going to come into the WWE and kill all the superstars over coke deals or something. He was a heel in every sense of the word, modeled after Brian De Palma's Scarface.
When he came in he was clearly booked as a heel. Went straight in costing Macho Man Randy Savage his title against Ric Flair, then went on to feud with Savage and Warrior as he teamed up with Flair. He was a heel all the way, and was successful as a heel in terms of getting people to dislike him. However, after a little while people started to grow fond of him(Keep in mind I was a kid at this time, I was experiencing it myself) even though he was not just "A" bad guy, he was THEBad Guy. Bottom line, he was cool. He had an impressive physique, wore a lot of gold, talked with an accent, had cool attire, and had a very impressive finisher.
It was hard not to like him, but we did regardless. Back in 1992-1993, that was unheard of. You didn't cheer for the bad guys, they're bad!!!! You cheer guys like Hogan and the Macho Man, and Ultimate Warrior, ya know, good guys. Not a dirty, low-down, no-good, double-crossing, cheating, lying, bad guy!!! But Razor slowly changed that. He was just such a great character it didn't matter anymore at some point and people really did get tired of being told who to cheer and who to boo. I think it was a love for "The Bad Guy" that made us all want to be a bit bad too.
If you look at the history of it, it wasn't until 1994 when Razor feuded with the 1-2-3 Kidd better known as X-Pac, Syxx, and Sean Waltman that the WWF noticed what was going on and they started to give him a slow face turn. The thing here though, is that they didn't mean for it to happen, they didn't do anything to make the fans like him, the fans just picked him. They then noticed that everyone was rallying behind this guy, and decided to make him a full fledged face which payed off as he became one of the most popular wrestlers to date.
If you want to go from there, Diesel and Shawn were the next ones that happened to as well. Started out heels, but the fans chose them as faces. But the Catalyst in it all was Razor Ramon. You could maybe argue it was the Undertaker, but his face turn was different than that, and was done around the same time as Razor, in 1994. So if you want you could say that those two were responsible, but I think more than the other it was Razor Ramon who helped give birth to what would become the Attitude Era.
The age old story is that at some point the fans got tired of the classic "Good Guy/ Bad Guy" routine, and the heels started to become the favorites of the crowd.
Some would say that It all started when D-X came out and talked about the whole MSG incident breaking kayfabe, or that it all started with Stone Cold after his famous "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass" comment, or maybe that it all really kicked off after the Montreal Screwjob. There are a lot of theories, and I am about to give you another one.
The Attitude Era in a lot of ways is defined as the time when the Heels became the heroes, and the lines between the good guys and the bad guys became blurred, and that is probably true. But when that actually started is the question. As I stated above some would consider it to be numerous things but I think it all began elsewhere, with another person. As I have come to this somewhat realization I am going to say that this person is the one who is really responsible in a lot of ways for the Attitude Era, this is the first guy who really showed us how good it is to be bad.
Who else could I be talking about but.............Razor Ramon. Surprised??? So was I. I had never thought of it until now but he really is the seed that was planted in our heads that grew into a love for the bad guys, and isn't it ironic? It was "THe Bad Guy".
Now you might be sitting there thinking "Rage, where the hell did you come up with that, what were you smoking, and where can I get some?" And all I have to say is that I'm not giving up any of my connections, so don't get your hopes up, there isn't enough to go around. But, I will explain this whole thing.
When you look back at it, Razor Ramon was introduced as a heel. They gave him the big vignettes, they made him out to be like this big Cuban bad ass who was going to come into the WWE and kill all the superstars over coke deals or something. He was a heel in every sense of the word, modeled after Brian De Palma's Scarface.
When he came in he was clearly booked as a heel. Went straight in costing Macho Man Randy Savage his title against Ric Flair, then went on to feud with Savage and Warrior as he teamed up with Flair. He was a heel all the way, and was successful as a heel in terms of getting people to dislike him. However, after a little while people started to grow fond of him(Keep in mind I was a kid at this time, I was experiencing it myself) even though he was not just "A" bad guy, he was THEBad Guy. Bottom line, he was cool. He had an impressive physique, wore a lot of gold, talked with an accent, had cool attire, and had a very impressive finisher.
It was hard not to like him, but we did regardless. Back in 1992-1993, that was unheard of. You didn't cheer for the bad guys, they're bad!!!! You cheer guys like Hogan and the Macho Man, and Ultimate Warrior, ya know, good guys. Not a dirty, low-down, no-good, double-crossing, cheating, lying, bad guy!!! But Razor slowly changed that. He was just such a great character it didn't matter anymore at some point and people really did get tired of being told who to cheer and who to boo. I think it was a love for "The Bad Guy" that made us all want to be a bit bad too.
If you look at the history of it, it wasn't until 1994 when Razor feuded with the 1-2-3 Kidd better known as X-Pac, Syxx, and Sean Waltman that the WWF noticed what was going on and they started to give him a slow face turn. The thing here though, is that they didn't mean for it to happen, they didn't do anything to make the fans like him, the fans just picked him. They then noticed that everyone was rallying behind this guy, and decided to make him a full fledged face which payed off as he became one of the most popular wrestlers to date.
If you want to go from there, Diesel and Shawn were the next ones that happened to as well. Started out heels, but the fans chose them as faces. But the Catalyst in it all was Razor Ramon. You could maybe argue it was the Undertaker, but his face turn was different than that, and was done around the same time as Razor, in 1994. So if you want you could say that those two were responsible, but I think more than the other it was Razor Ramon who helped give birth to what would become the Attitude Era.