Original subtitles

[announcer] We greet you from ringside for another great main event.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Whoo! Here we go!

Believe me, Dr. Jerry Graham

is not the favorite citizen in this arena.

[Vince McMahon] We all have favorites as kids.

[chuckles]

My favorite was a performer by the name of Dr. Jerry Graham.

-[propulsive music playing] -[McMahon] He wasn't a doctor, obviously.

Big guy, bleached blond hair,

and he would light a cigar with a hundred-dollar bill.

[announcer] I have never known a guy

that could make as many enemies as Dr. Jerry Graham.

[McMahon] He was a heel, in the parlance of our business.

Maybe that's one reason why I liked him, I don't know.

'Cause I never liked the good guys.

I wanted to be like him so badly,

I convinced my stepmother to dye my hair blond,

and I learned to strut just like he did.

"Yeah."

"He doesn't walk. You know, he struts."

[music fades]

[McMahon] So, he sort of took me under his wing.

[compelling music playing]

"You want to take a ride, kid?" Boy, did I ever.

He had this 1959 convertible.

I'm riding shotgun.

He's honking the horn going through intersections

regardless if the light was green or red,

and it's like, "This is grand."

"Man, I wanna live my life like this."

He was just so flamboyant.

So aggressive.

And the hubris and, you know, the color and all of that,

it was like, "Yeah, that's who I want to be."

[compelling music rising]

[music fades abruptly]

-[audience clamoring] -[commentator 1] Are you kidding me?

[commentator 2] Michaels? Are you kidding me?

[commentator 1] You gonna try to beat Bret Hart with a sharpshooter? Yes, he is!

Ring the bell, ring the bell!

[bell ringing]

[Michael Landsberg] In Montreal, in the Survivor Series,

Bret Hart, "The Hitman," is counted out by Vince McMahon,

and a brawl ensues afterwards.

Unquestionably, the most controversial bout

in the history of wrestling.

[Paul Levesque] The Montreal Screwjob.

It just was so crazy surreal.

That caused such inner turmoil

within the business.

The underground world, what is now the internet world,

got a hold of the behind-the-scenes information,

and that was spreading like wildfire.

[Levesque] You're seeing the reaction by people

of something they should have known nothing about.

[Dave Meltzer] The fans knew that Vince double-crossed Bret Hart,

which was something very unprofessional by the rules of professional wrestling.

There's two sides to every story,

but most people did not side with Vince on that one.

[crowd cheering]

Listen, the Montreal Screwjob, to me, as a Canadian,

like, I fucking hated Vince. [laughs]

Vince goes on television and tries to explain it.

He didn't come off very well.

Bret screwed Bret.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Bret.

[Levesque] The "Bret screwed Bret" speech,

that begins a moment in time

where reality takes front seat to fantasy, and we begin to blur the line.

[commentator 1] And here comes Vince McMahon to a rousing...

-They're being booed. -[commentator 2] What?!

[commentator 1] They're booing McMahon out of the building!

What's going on? We'll be right back!

As a result of all this, I have all this heat, as we call it.

[commentator 2] I wonder if somebody's gonna knock the bejeesus

out of Vince McMahon this week!

And so I thought, "Okay, Vince, why not turn that into business?"

Use now you as a character.

[commentator 1] Vince has not endeared himself to this crowd.

[McMahon] I always wanted to be a performer,

but my dad wouldn't let me in the business, much less that.

He just thought, "No, that's not what you want to do."

I was like, "Yeah, that's what I want to do."

When it happened, it felt pretty natural.

If you just show a little respect...

[crowd booing]

[Levesque] At that point in time,

Vince McMahon creates the Mr. McMahon character,

the evil tyrant boss,

and eventually, that would change the trajectory of the business.

[Michael Landsberg] Let's talk about the business

and the challenge that you have received from WCW.

If I look at cable listings for January in one week,

WCW is number one, number two, number four, and number six.

You're down at number 18.

[tense music playing]

[Meltzer] Through '97, WCW, they were just so far ahead,

and their product was better,

so I'm just thinking that this is just a domination,

and it's gonna be like this for the foreseeable future.

[announcer] Bret Hart!

I think once Bret Hart made the transition and came over to WCW,

I think if you were to put the rosters side-by-side on a piece of paper,

WCW was in a much better position than WWE was.

I wanted to dominate and win.

If WWE went out of business in the process,

that would've been unfortunate, but I wouldn't have felt bad about it.

[announcer 1] What is this?

[announcer 2] What a piece of work this guy is.

[announcer 1] Ho, ho! There it is! What is it?

[Mark Calaway] For years, we were kind of stuck

in that really young demographic,

whereas WCW,

they were hitting that 18-to-34-year-old demographic

with some really cutting-edge stuff.

You know, 83 weeks of getting our tails kicked in the ratings,

it messes with your confidence, it messes with your psyche,

but it also lets you know that

you gotta do something different.

I knew if we didn't change, we'd just get left behind.

You're dealing with networks,

and you're dealing with people in the networks

that are looking at you going,

"Hey, these guys are beating you in the ratings,

and I see our talent on their show."

"What's going on, guys?"

[McMahon] You listen to the audience, and you sort of feel it.

It's time for a change.

It was time for us to, uh, take another step and evolve.

[Bonnie Hammer] When I started working with Vince,

it was absolute war between the two franchises.

It'll be me and you, McMahon, in the ring.

Vince decided that he wanted to be known for pushing the envelope.

For being bold,

being a little crazy.

[Bischoff] Vince came out and did an interview about this

new way of producing WWE programming.

We in the WWE think that you, the audience, are, quite frankly,

tired of having your intelligence insulted.

[Bischoff] Vince kind of teased all this newness that was coming down the road,

and I thought, "Yeah, whatever."

"You're gonna come out with another version of Doink the Clown

and some evil dentist,

and you're gonna keep doing what you're doing."

I didn't know that Vince was making the decision

to create the Attitude Era.

[interviewer] Was there a distinctive moment when the Attitude Era was born?

[exhales] Yeah, there was.

♪ I think I'm cute, I know I'm sexy ♪

[announcer] Well, here he comes, folks...!

[Prichard] One night, Vince was not at our television taping,

and Shawn Michaels came down in bicycle shorts.

Right before he went out, he stuffed the front of his shorts with a sock.

It was gauze. It wasn't a sock.

It was gauze that I'd wadded up from the trainer table.

And I was just bouncing around, gyrating, and stuff like that.

Vince's reaction was to call me the next day

and tell me how unprofessional it was and that he was fining me $10,000.

And I said, "Okay,

but you go back and watch it and tell me that isn't funny."

If we're talking about "entertainment," it was very entertaining.

That was one of the things that got us into the conversations of,

"You know, we need to start going there."

I felt like you can have respect for this line of work,

but you don't have to act like it's freaking not weird.

Suffice to say, I weaseled my way out of the $10,000 fine.

[Prichard] Vince was livid,

but then three or four weeks later, I remember Vince pointing to him,

"Shawn Michaels. That's attitude."

"That's what he is, he's got attitude."

"We need more attitude."

The Attitude Era was born.

-[propulsive music playing] -[siren blaring]

[Prichard] The Attitude Era was just this transformation that took place.

I mean, we changed how we presented our product.

We got a little grittier. We got a little dirtier.

-We made it a little more raw. -[yelling]

People just go, "Oh, the Attitude Era. Here's where it started. What it is."

It was slowly bits and pieces over time.

We are D-Generation X!

-D-Generation. -You make your rules, we will break 'em!

D-Generation X is what we would call, in sports entertainment, a faction.

They were an offshoot of The Kliq.

They were anti-authority,

and there's something about anti-authority at this time

that really spoke to fans.

And whether it was part of the fiction or completely real, you didn't know.

-This is going too far! -[Michaels] And then the next thing...

But you couldn't turn away.

[Levesque] When Shawn and I started doing D-X...

[exhales] Man, most of the things we were saying and doing,

Vince was coming back and telling us,

"Goddamn, you guys do that again, and you're going to get fucked like..."

You know, "USA's threatening to take us off the air."

But we're like, coming in the back, and people are going crazy.

[audience cheering]

And then there's a flip moment in time where all of a sudden it's,

"Hey, that worked. Do that again."

[announcer] A fight bra.

[screaming] What is... Oh my gosh!

[Calaway] We just finally changed the writing

to where it wasn't for a 12-year-old demographic.

It got into that 18-to-34-year-old-male demographic.

Once that door was opened, I marched right through it,

because it was working.

[Calaway] It was all about filling up those arenas and stadiums,

and, you know, it was like we could do whatever we had to do to be the best.

[glass shattering]

-[audience cheering] -[hard rock music playing]

The biggest star of the Attitude Era by far was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

[Austin] Anytime you stick your head in the ring with Steve Austin,

bottom line is I'm gonna kick your ass. Straight simple.

[audience cheering]

[Shoemaker] He was something that we weren't used to seeing,

this kind of foul-mouthed, roughneck, blue collar, Southern badass.

[Austin] When I first got into the business of professional wrestling,

I never had any designs on being as successful as I would be,

because I didn't know how far

some ragamuffin from Victoria, Texas, could take it.

[announcer] Introducing first...

[Shoemaker] Prior to WWE, Steve Austin was a wrestler

in WCW.

But he got fired from WCW,

so he winds up in ECW,

sort of the punk rock-indy federation in the pro wrestling world.

[Austin] And walking into that federation,

man, it was an eye-opener and a hell of a scene.

[announcer] This is extreme!

-This is the ECW arena! -[audience cheering]

[Paul Heyman] ECW was the necessary disruption

of the pro wrestling/sports entertainment industry.

[audience cheering]

[Heyman] No rules, no regulations.

A testosterone and adrenaline-driven,

no-holds-barred, this-can't-possibly-be-legal,

what-the-fuck-am-I-watching atmosphere.

It was a mosh pit.

[McMahon] ECW was a wild-ass renegade-type promotion

that attracted a niche, uh, audience,

and it was... very unusual.

[audience cheering]

I greatly appreciated the promotion and the promoter behind it.

There ain't a mofo organization in the world today

like ECW!

[audience cheering]

Vince always saw everyone else

as a feeder system to the major leagues of WWE.

[indistinct]

[Heyman] So I knew we didn't have Steve for a long time,

but we were gonna make it quality time

for every moment that he was in ECW.

[Austin] We achieved a lot of success in a short time,

and finally, Vince took, uh, serious notice of me,

and that's when I would go to WWE.

[commentator] Stone Cold Steve Austin. I love it, McMahon.

[Austin] So I turned into Stone Cold Steve Austin,

and I became this just trash-talking SOB from south Texas.

It became very entertaining,

and people started disliking me, and we started gaining traction.

Now, at that time,

everybody knows that Triple H was supposed to win

that King of the Ring pay-per-view.

But then Triple H got punished because of what happened in the Garden.

I hear a voice behind me.

It's Vince. He goes, "Hey, Steve, you got a second?"

I'm like, "Yeah. I guess so. You're the boss."

He says, "Wanna let you know in two weeks, you're gonna win King of the Ring."

[announcer] ...the King of the Ring tournament...

[Austin] We get to the pay-per-view, I'm wrestling Marc Mero first.

We do a move, he kicks me in the mouth, you know, busts my lip wide open.

I've gotta go to the hospital immediately and get 14 stitches.

Soon as I come back from the ambulance, Michael Hayes comes up to me and goes,

"Hey, man, you got Jack "The Snake" Roberts in the final,

and Jake just cut a religious promo on you."

The power above is reaching down and lifting me up.

And immediately I thought of Austin 3:16,

because back in the day, you'd watch football games,

they would put John 3:16 signs in the end zone.

I go out there, work the match with Jake.

You're pathetic!

[commentators] There it is!

[commentator] One, two, and he got him!

-[bell ringing] -[audience cheering]

[commentator] Stone Cold Steve Austin...

I go up to the microphone and I just went out there

and started running Jake down.

You sit there, and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers,

and it didn't get you anywhere.

Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16.

Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass.

[audience cheering]

[McMahon] When Steve said that, I went,

"Oh my God. Tell me he didn't just do that."

"That may not play too well you know, in the Bible Belt."

-[audience booing] -Piss off.

[Austin] And then I kept talking and kept talking,

and I could hear Vince in the background 'cause he was doing commentary,

and I said, "Oh man, I need a button on this promo."

And so just out of the blue I said,

"And that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so."

It was brilliant.

It changed who he was

and the perception of who he was as a character.

The next night, everywhere you looked were Austin 3:16 signs.

Austin 3:16 took over, and it was insane.

When the Monday Night Wars started, and we kept losing in the ratings,

for a while, we understood it because they had a really hot show.

It was really fresh, and they had a lot of great talent and some cool storylines,

but as we started to ramp up,

we really thought we had a better show.

We're like, "Man, what is up with these ratings?"

"Someone's gotta be paying somebody off. We got a better show than they do."

[Prichard] At that point in time, I remember Vince was like,

"We need to do something here."

"We need a way to get a lot of eyeballs on us

and do something in a really big way for WrestleMania."

And that's what we did.

At this time, I would like to introduce to you

a man who is simply

the baddest man on the planet!

Ladies and gentlemen,

"Iron" Mike Tyson!

[crowd cheering]

[Bischoff] I get a phone call.

"You're never gonna believe what they're doing next."

I'm thinking, "Yeah, whatever."

I was so ahead of him at that point, I was like, "Whatever." I was arrogant.

He goes, "They're bringing in Mike Tyson."

I got uncocky real fast.

[Prichard] The idea for bringing in Mike Tyson came from Vince,

and Shane McMahon was heavily involved.

[Shane McMahon] We wanted a big personality,

you know, someone extremely identifiable, to be a part of WrestleMania,

and there was at that time no one bigger than Tyson.

I believe he had gotten out of jail about three years earlier.

[interviewer] Knowing Mike Tyson's baggage during the '90s,

was it risky for WWE to so fully invest in him?

He hadn't been arrested for rape yet, though, when we did that.

-Right? He had? -[man] Yeah, he had.

[Costas] You know, Mike is not perhaps universally approved of now,

but he certainly... His public image is certainly in a better place than it was

at that point.

[tense music playing]

[Sharon Mazer] Wrestling at that level is about generating heat.

[crowd clamoring]

[Mazer] Heat is what sells tickets.

[commentator] Here we go!

And heat doesn't have to be positive.

Heat can be negative.

Specifically, I would like to thank Mike Tyson

for being the media magnet that he is.

Tyson being on pay-per-view was a big deal.

Mike would be the special guest referee

between Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Shawn Michaels.

It's Mike Tyson, you know, like, one of the biggest names in sports.

And by then, you had to be blind not to see Steve Austin was takin' off.

Mike, I'll tell you this, if you get in my face at WrestleMania,

I'll knock your damn lights out,

and you won't want to get back in the ring ever again.

And that's the bottom line.

[audience chuckling]

[Meltzer] At that point, I thought that WCW, while still ahead,

it's going to get very, very competitive.

[announcer 1] It don't get no bigger than this.

This is what our business is all about.

It's about earning the opportunity

to wrestle in the main event at a WrestleMania.

-[announcer 2] Look out! -[announcer 1] Over!

[announcer 2] Look out!

[announcer 1] Look out, Mo! By God...

[Austin] In WrestleMania 14, uh, Shawn had a real bad back,

and so that match was very forgettable.

[announcer 1] Michaels going for another kick. Austin...

He got it! The stunner!

-[crowd cheering] -Mike Tyson in!

Austin is the champion...

[Austin] The match wasn't good. It wasn't anything to brag about.

I remember afterwards, I looked over at Vince and he goes,

"Eh, Steve, don't worry about it. From here forward, it starts."

[McMahon] I would like to congratulate,

uh, the new World Wrestling Entertainment champion,

who has an attitude, no doubt about that.

Not one necessarily that all of us here in the WWE necessarily appreciate.

[Bischoff] The Mr. McMahon character, at least in my mind, became a real thing

after the Mike Tyson storyline played itself out.

Hey, Vince, are you... Are you turning into a bad guy?

[McMahon] I've always been a good guy.

Oh, but they're booing you now.

I'll always be a good guy.

[reporter] Oh, okay.

[announcer] The owner of WWE, Vince McMahon, makes his way to the ring.

[crowd booing]

Quite honestly, not the most rousing ovation.

[Levesque] At that point in time, a feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin

would ignite and would start a battle between those two

that would change the course of the business.

Nobody, especially Vince McMahon,

tells Stone Cold Steve Austin what to do,

and that's the bottom line.

[crowd cheering]

But all of that based on blurring the lines of reality and fiction.

[suspenseful music playing]

You got to understand the power that a Vince McMahon has, the control...

[Calaway] You've got the eccentric billionaire boss Vince McMahon,

and then you've got the anti-system Stone Cold Steve Austin,

and they were perfect for each other.

I will fire your ass!

-[announcer 1] Good God! -[announcer 2] Whoa!

It was about a guy who was trying to keep me down and control me,

and it was about me trying to buck the system.

You stupid bastards.

You ain't got the balls to fire Stone Cold Steve Austin.

[Austin, present day] Any other era, I'm a heel

because of what I'm doing, the trash I'm talking.

You're pathetic. You're completely pathetic...

[Austin, present day] But I was the guy that brought the gray area

to the business of professional wrestling,

which is usually a black-and-white type thing as far as love and hate.

[crowd cheering]

See, in my day, there was a good guy and a bad guy.

Vince Jr. made it the bad and the worse.

There were no more good guys in wrestling.

Society at that time had taken a rougher edge.

Society at that time had more attitude.

That forced you to create characters that fit into that gray area in the middle.

[White] The fans did not want to see good guys no more.

Nobody wanna see a good guy, even in the movies.

Look at the video games and the wrestling business.

We cater to what is in front of us.

You tap into that.

That's big money.

So Vince said, "Hey, give me some of that money."

We don't always set trends, you know, we try to follow them.

And back in those days, it was Wild West.

[reporter] Stone Cold Steve Austin, who is as crude as he is mean.

He's just about the biggest thing in wrestling,

worshiped by his fans.

He feels like smashing a beer bottle, he does it.

Feels like throwing up his middle finger, he does it.

-[groans] -[commentator] Oh no!

[Mazer] Some part of us really loves watching the bad guys get over.

Maybe the part of us that doesn't like the fact that we have to behave ourselves.

You can't go around shoving people.

You can't go around insulting people.

[announcer] And Stone Cold hammering away on the boss!

[Austin] People live vicariously through those kinds of storylines

and would love to punch their boss in the mouth.

You know, I got a chance to literally and figuratively do that

almost every Monday night on Raw.

[announcer] Oh boy, look out! Austin downs McMahon again!

[sobbing]

[Austin] I think the fans responded strongly

because he's such a strong character.

He's just so over-the-top. He's larger than life.

He's easy to hate, and he's also easy to love,

but he's very easy to hate.

[crowd clamoring]

[Prichard] Mr. McMahon, he's at the top.

So, any and everybody that's not at the top

hates the guy at the top.

[announcer] He's got an entire collection of Corvettes.

Vince walks by with his custom suits and his flaunting and everything.

What's to like?

He's easy to hate.

Get that mic out of my face!

It's my mic. I own that mic! I own that camera! Cut it off!

And he became the most hated character in the history of the business.

[crowd chanting] Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!

Mr. McMahon, of course, is a character derived from, uh, Vince McMahon,

and is a character of someone I could relate to when I was growing up.

[atmospheric music playing]

Because when I was growing up, I was, like, dirt poor.

Coming from that environment, I don't like rich people,

because I was around some people who thought they were better than me

because they had "more money."

So it felt like you weren't anybody at all.

You were a nobody.

And you learn certain things.

In those days, I could fight, and loved to fight.

If you could do that well, now you're somebody.

I was good at fighting, but they would say,

"You didn't fight fair!"

You cheated!"

[atmospheric music continues]

"Yeah? I won." [chuckles]

What the hell's the matter with you?

[McMahon, present day] And so, with my character, Mr. McMahon,

I can play someone who intimidates, because that was the way I grew up.

That was the way I thought rich people were.

They'd try to intimidate you.

You're gonna get it.

[McMahon, present day] I know how to be an arrogant person

that just throws his weight around and a bully. That sort of stuff.

It's not my fault that I happen to be a self-made billionaire!

It was easy for me to get into that character,

because I knew all the things that I disliked.

Some people are rich.

And you're not.

[crowd booing]

[Austin] He knows how to manipulate a crowd

as well or better than anybody that's ever done it.

[applause]

Hell, I'm a real Texan now!

[McMahon, present day] I loved heat, as they call it.

When you go out and manipulate the audience

and, you know, they boo the hell out of you,

you really want to get that heat and feel it.

You're not afraid of it. It's like, go embrace it.

This is what I think of Texas.

[crowd exclaims]

[McMahon] Such a great feeling.

[Austin] Vince was a master at making people care

or making people hate him or feel emotion.

Emotions are when you sell tickets.

It's emotion.

If you mash that button so that you get emotion from people,

they forget where they are.

They're not at a movie theater or an arena.

They're right there looking at you. It's one-on-one.

That's when you know you have them.

-[commentator] Revel in it, Mr. McMahon. -I remember where I was...

Performing is easy. Being yourself is the more difficult part.

[interviewer] And what similarities do you share with Mr. McMahon?

The character Mr. McMahon with me?

-[interviewer] Yeah. -None whatsoever.

Mr. McMahon is an extension of Vince McMahon,

but blown way out of proportion.

The difference between Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon...

[laughs] Probably not that much.

Exactly the same person.

It's not a far stretch.

The character of Mr. McMahon is really just Vince.

He'll tell you different. No, Mr. McMahon is Vince.

A lot of the promos and the diatribes that have been cut on other people,

I've had actually cut on me in real life.

"Ah, I'd never say that." I said, "Yeah, you would. You said it to me."

[interviewer] Bruce claimed that he's been on the receiving end

of the Mr. McMahon in real life.

[chuckles]

[McMahon] I'm very, very passionate about our business,

and sometimes that passion is a bit effusive.

So, I probably can get out of bounds a little bit.

The Mr. McMahon character is pretty close to Vince the man,

but, obviously, highly exaggerated.

The best characters in wrestling

are guys at their core with the volume turned up.

What you saw from me as Stone Cold was me with the volume turned up,

same with Vince.

Much of great fiction is that funny line

between reality and storytelling.

Vince loved blurring that line between fact and fiction.

A lot of people have confused through the years

who my character was on television and who I am.

It used to bug the hell out of me. "I'm not that guy."

And then I realized, "It doesn't matter what you want, Vince."

"It doesn't matter how you wanna be perceived."

"It's the way you are being perceived."

Perception is reality.

You can't change the way people think about you.

[commentator 1] The double bird!

[commentator 2] Pure hatred driving Mr. McMahon!

Austin-McMahon, that dynamic was just ridiculously good.

You could make a great argument

it's the greatest feud in wrestling history.

[crowd cheering]

[Brian Gewirtz] The rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin

and Stone Cold versus Mr. McMahon

is what generated the huge amount of ratings for WWE

that essentially ended the 83 weeks of WCW beating them in the ratings,

and, ultimately, like a tsunami, overtook the wrestling business, period.

It was the hottest thing in the world.

[Bischoff] I say this, knowing it'll sound like I'm putting myself over

and being an arrogant prick, but Vince took our formula,

decided he was going to do it,

only he was going to do it better.

And he did.

There were so many things that we did in WCW that WWE eventually replicated.

D-X was nothing more than a derivative of the nWo.

The Mr. McMahon character was a derivative of evil Eric Bischoff,

was the evil boss.

Come on, Vince. You gotta admit you ripped me off on that one.

Now, granted, you did it better.

But, come on, who did it first?

If Eric Bischoff thinks that he played the heel character before I did...

Okay. If that were the case, he sure as hell didn't play it as well.

So, good for him.

WWE was going to win inevitably.

Vince McMahon, being the competitor he is,

the fighter that he is,

would have done whatever he had to do

to ultimately win that fight.

And I was coming up short.

I was not focused on creative.

The nWo angle was a couple years old now.

It wasn't fresh anymore.

Things that were going on in WWE

with Mr. McMahon, and Steve Austin, and others was new, was fresh,

which caused the audience to shift over and check out what they were doing.

[Meltzer] Eric's big mistake was thinking,

"Because I'm ahead,

all I gotta do is go with these guys, and I'll always be ahead."

In wrestling, everyone's got a shelf life, and you always have to make new stars.

And Vince was trying to make new stars because he had to.

And that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cold said so.

[crowd] Said so!

[Meltzer] Vince got very lucky.

Austin was an incredible, incredible, incredible success.

And then Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson comes.

[Johnson] Do you smell what The Rock is cooking?

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen...

[Landsberg] Great to welcome to the show one of the fastest risers to the top

in the history of wrestling, The Rock. Let's start off with your history.

When you broke in, you were packaged as a part of a wrestling legacy...

[Johnson] My grandfather was High Chief Peter Maivia.

He was,

in many ways, responsible for putting the island of Samoa

and Samoan athletes on the map.

[announcer] From the isle of Samoa,

High Chief Peter Maivia!

[Johnson] My grandfather wrestled for Vince McMahon Sr.,

and then in the '80s, my dad came along,

Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson,

and, along with Tony Atlas, became the first Black tag team champions.

[White] The Rock, everything he do is just like his father.

Walk like his father, dress like his father.

You didn't know better, you'd think that was Rocky Johnson.

[Johnson] I remember meeting Vince McMahon Jr. when I was 11 years old.

Looked down at me, "Good to meet you,"

gave me a firm handshake, and looked me in the eye.

I'll never forget it.

[announcer] Here we go with a newcomer

who's really made a name for himself as of late, talking about Rocky Maivia.

[Prichard] When he came in, we really promoted him

as this third-generation guy that you're gonna love.

[announcer 1] This guy is gonna be phenomenal.

[announcer 2] The first third-generation superstar ever.

We shoved him down their throats.

[announcer 3] Uh-oh. You hear the chant of...

-[crowd chanting] Rocky sucks! -[announcer 3] "Rocky sucks."

[crowd] Rocky sucks!

They hated him.

[crowd booing]

[McMahon] A lot of our audience, I think, thought that this person was just, like,

handed this opportunity,

and no matter how hard Dwayne worked in the ring,

initially, people start booing him.

[announcer] I'm sick of hearing about Rocky Maivia's old man. Who cares?

[crowd chanting] Rocky sucks! Rocky sucks!

[Shoemaker] The fans hated The Rock because WWE told us to love The Rock.

And it took The Rock turning heel

and acknowledging that the fans were booing him

for the fans to start to love him.

[group, chanting] We are the Nation of Domination!

[forceful rock music playing]

[Johnson] The Nation of Domination was a faction that was based on pride

in being of color and not being held down by the man.

[announcer] The newest member of the Nation of Domination, Rocky Maivia!

[Johnson] I talked to Vince, and I said,

"I would just love the opportunity to speak

on why I'm joining the Nation,"

and he said, "You got it."

I got three words.

"Die, Rocky, die."

That's the gratitude I get from you pieces of crap.

I said, "It's not a Black or white thing. It's a respect thing."

"It's about me kicking your ass thing."

This isn't about the color of my skin. This is about respect.

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

[Johnson] Sometimes in our lives, we find these moments

where there's a shift and a click,

and you go, "Man, there is some real power behind that."

Well, Rocky Maivia's a lot of things, but "sucks" isn't one of 'em.

And boom, just like that, within a month, I became the hottest heel in the company.

-...if you smell what The Rock is cookin'. -[crowd] ...what The Rock is cookin'.

[rock music playing]

[Johnson] I remember having a conversation with Vince and him saying,

"I'm gonna make you WWE Champion."

[announcer 1] Sharpshooter!

That's a sharpshooter!

[announcer 2] Sharpshooter!

-[announcer 1] Ref's gonna ring the bell! -[bell ringing]

[crowd cheering]

[Johnson] I said, "You know, this is a really big deal."

I said, "I'm first WWE champion of color."

He said, "I know." And he goes, "But I don't see that."

[crowd cheering]

Vince, and I know this for sure, he was always about,

"I don't care what color you are. You could be black and green and purple."

"You could be a unicorn for all I give a shit." [laughs]

"As long as you are drawing money, you will be champion."

[crowd cheering]

It ain't got nothing to do with color. It's not racism, it's business.

He don't see Black. He don't see white.

He sees only green.

[crowd cheering]

[Johnson] For people who knew WWE at that time, the Attitude Era,

it was a unique and special time,

because it truly was whatever you can imagine,

we can do.

And we did.

[compelling music playing]

[announcer 1] Someone help! Oh my gosh! Oh my God!

Oh!

-[announcer 2] Look out! -[announcer 1] See what just happened!

[Prichard] The Attitude Era. Man, it was a movement.

Everywhere you went, you saw Austin 3:16,

you saw DX.

-Suck it, man. -[all] Right!

[Prichard] You saw The Rock.

Everybody was in on it.

[Meltzer] They were so popular. Their merchandise was everywhere.

The influence was all over the culture.

We're gonna have WWE superstars right here in the house.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, The Rock!

[Johnson] You invited The Rock

to speak at the Republican National Convention?

[audience cheering]

Please welcome the one, the only, Triple H.

[Levesque] For a lot of us in the Attitude Era,

we went from being like,

"Yeah, I'm a dude on TV that people recognize occasionally,"

to, "You can't go anywhere."

It was getting out of control.

They're making way more money now than they did then,

but as far as actual real popularity, that was the peak.

[reporter] It's the entertainment phenomenon of the '90s.

A billion-dollar industry worldwide,

a TV-ratings smash,

a sport, of sorts, that draws more teenage male viewers

than Monday Night Football

or World Series Baseball.

[announcer speaking indistinctly]

[compelling music continues]

[announcer speaking indistinctly]

[Meltzer] People who remember that period, that is a very fond memory,

because wrestling really was huge mainstream at that time.

From a pure marketability standpoint,

the product they were putting on was, was awesome. It connected.

Um, from a moral standpoint, morals are morals,

but it rubbed some people the wrong way.

[reporter 1] One true thing about professional wrestling,

millions of fans are pouring in.

But this business has serious questions,

some involving violence and sexually explicit content.

[reporter 2] Promoters would have you believe that it's family entertainment.

But if you've never been to a show or never seen one on TV, watch one.

You're in for a shock.

[Levesque] As performers, you're going for whatever the biggest reaction is,

and you're seeing these things get bigger reactions than anything else.

So you're going down that road of, "I'm going to be edgy."

I got two words for ya.

"Suck it!" Yeah!

[Levesque] It was a lot of fun and a lot of freedom,

but there's a lot of stuff online that you can watch, where I go, like, "Oh..."

"How did we ever get away with that stuff?"

You can take your pick of either one of these hoes.

[reporter 1] Critics say WWE blows away the envelope of good taste.

[reporter 2] Perhaps no one has been more critical of McMahon

than New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick.

They knew that they could get away with everything.

Not anything, everything.

And they pushed it. They pushed that for all it was worth.

We're gonna go low, and then we're gonna go lower,

and then we're gonna go lower.

[gasps]

This was maybe a standard deviation

beyond what we were doing before,

um, but it was still family-friendly.

No one got killed.

[announcer] The Rock is inside that casket!

There was, you know, no rape.

Come on out, you rapist!

No use of knives or guns or anything like that.

[woman screams]

[reporter] Witness a recent simulated castration scene.

[McMahon] So, it's still family-friendly,

maybe for more of an adult family,

not for young kids.

They were doing the double-talk. They'd say, "We're not marketing to kids,"

when, in fact, their audience was kids.

And so some people would go,

"You've got a responsibility to not be such a bad influence on kids."

"We're not marketing to kids anymore. That's what we used to do."

All right, whatever.

I think it was primarily aimed at young males.

Action figures, dolls.

These aren't being bought by and enjoyed by adults.

These are for 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds.

[Prichard] Frankly, the Attitude Era, the kids embraced it.

-Suck it! -Suck it!

They were seeing something maybe they weren't supposed to see.

So, the Attitude Era, in many ways, probably attracted kids.

Would I have let my kids watch it? Yeah, I probably would have.

It's a monster, is really what it is.

It's a nationwide monster that's gotta be stopped.

The principal is entitled to his opinion.

I'm entitled to mine.

We wholeheartedly would want parents and everyone

to exercise their freedom of choice.

Damn it, it is America. Go live in your world.

Don't like us, click us off. Don't watch us.

Look, I... I was the one certainly leading the charge in that,

"Don't tell us to raise your children. You need to raise them yourself."

"If they're influenced by TV, that's your fault."

Now, having a daughter, uh, I...

Look, there are times we probably could have been less...

less objectionable towards our women.

[chanting]

It is time to stop your grinnin' and drop your linen.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Oh my!

We continued to consistently go over the line in terms of taste.

Uh, there were a lot of questionable things.

You look pretty good on your knees, Chyna. It almost looks like a natural position.

[Meltzer] It was exploitive of women like you wouldn't believe,

but that's what was selling, and the audience was guys.

Teenage guys seeing women like that,

from a pure marketing standpoint, it was, uh, very, very successful.

The Attitude Era women weren't really considered wrestlers.

Eye candy. That's kind of what they were at the time.

[feline roar]

[whip cracks]

[Stratigeas] Sable was the pioneer WWE diva, so to speak.

She knew exactly what her role was.

People know her as Sexy Sable,

but she was also athletically contributing to the show,

which I think is overlooked, because it wasn't normal,

it wasn't acceptable, it wasn't what the women did.

You know, at the time, late '90s, you had Jerry Springer.

[narrator] Just when you thought you'd seen it all, the bad get badder.

[Stratus] You had trainwreck television that was happening.

Howard Stern was huge.

-I wanna bang Bonnie, Jill, and Brandy. -[chuckle]

The Attitude Era was a reflection of what was going on in the world.

I've got to question...

[Prichard] Society at that time was a lot sexier,

and we were reflecting that in every way.

Some of the things...

Eh...

Bra-and-panty matches, I'm not sure that, uh, that would be suggested today.

At that time, that was what was on television.

[crowd cheering]

[Mazer] Vince McMahon is part of his time.

The difference is that he's in a distinctive position,

where he reinforces those tendencies,

rather than challenging or changing or transforming them into something else.

[crowd cheering]

[McMahon] We more or less followed

what was going on in the entertainment business.

A lot of times, the highest quarter-hour,

the highest rating in that segment were women.

Much higher than some of the great matches and things of that nature.

We felt like we needed to be edgy,

'cause that's what television was at that time.

And this is live TV,

and there ain't a damn thing Vince can do about this.

[Stephanie] We'd always want to serve our audience, so we did,

and, of course, took it maybe a little too far in some cases.

-[cheering] -[yells]

[atmospheric music playing]

[music fades]

[Levesque] You can look back at it now and say how crazy it was,

You can look back and say, "God, you should have never done that,"

or, "That was so inappropriate," or, um...

It was.

And, uh...

Who's worse, the guy that did it or the people that loved it? I don't know.

[Ross] Welcome to the War Zone, everybody! I'm Jim Ross.

I've been joined by James T. Gordon here at ringside.

The owner of World Wrestling Entertainment is on his way...

[McMahon] Owen Hart,

I am ordering you to appear in this ring right now.

[crowd cheering]

[Lawler] There he is, right there.

[Ross] He's coming, but are we gonna see

reporting for duty or for a fight?

[McMahon] After the problems I had

with Bret Hart, I met with Owen.

I said, "Do you want to stay with us, or do you wanna leave with Bret?"

He said, "Well, I'd like to stay."

It's time for me to do what I have to do,

and that is remain right here in World Wrestling Entertainment!

[Hart] When I went to WCW and Owen stayed, nothing was the same anymore.

He thought I was mad at him.

If anything, I had great sympathy for Owen

and felt badly that he was in the predicament that he was in.

Owen had nothing to do with either me or Vince,

but he was gonna pay for it,

and they kind of humiliated his character

as often as they could for quite a while to get at me.

[McMahon] The hypothesis that we would do something against Owen because Bret left

only speaks to Bret's ego. [chuckles]

Really, Bret? You know, why would we do that?

We don't care about you. You left.

We're trying to make Owen a star.

[Ross] What? What is this?

[Hart] So they ended up doing a storyline with him,

where they said, "You're gonna be the Blue Blazer again,

and you're gonna be this sort of clumsy oaf hero."

[interviewer] May 23rd, '99.

Can you talk about that day?

That was Owen.

[sighs]

[somber music playing]

[Ross] Folks, let's take you now to an interview conducted earlier tonight,

and we got big problems out here.

Blue Blazer, you got a big match tonight...

[Prichard] We were live in a pre-taped interview of Owen.

We were going to drop Owen down,

kind of like rappelling from the top of the ceiling.

Owen was to fly, so to speak,

as we've done before, from the rafters of the building.

[Prichard] I'm watching the pre-tape interview,

and I hear someone say,

"Owen's in the ring."

I went, "What the hell is he doing?"

I was on a flight, and I could feel something.

Something overcame me,

and I can remember going, "Something bad happened. I can feel it."

[Ross] Ladies and gentlemen, when you're doing live television,

a lot of things can happen, and sometimes they are not good.

Uh, the Blue Blazer, as we know is Owen Hart,

was going to make a very spectacular, superhero-like entrance from the rafters,

and something went terribly wrong here.

[McMahon] Thank God, for the audience, that we were in a blackout.

So they didn't really see it. Thank God.

When the lights came up, they saw Owen in the ring

and medical personnel were working on him.

We wondered whether or not, "Could Owen be alive?"

Uh...

Surely he could be.

Jerry Lawler back joining me here.

King, I was just reiterating to the fans this is not a part of the show.

Uh, we're here to entertain and have fun, but this is neither.

No. It's, uh... It's... It doesn't look good at all.

Jerry Lawler came back and says, "Bruce, I... I think he's dead."

[somber music continues]

I'm like... "No."

You know, I was like...

"How do you even say that?"

[somber music continues]

[Prichard] The policeman that was next to me, pulled me off to the side,

and Vince was there, and he let us know they pronounced him dead.

I have the... unfortunate responsibility

to let everyone know that Owen Hart has died.

Owen Hart has tragically died from that accident... here tonight.

The decision that, uh, basically, I had to make,

was whether or not the show goes on.

The live audience didn't really see what happened.

Had they seen, no question, you have to shut the show down.

[Prichard] He didn't announce to the live house

'cause he just didn't think that was the right thing to do.

[McMahon] Those people came to see a show.

They didn't come to see somebody die.

And, me as a businessman, it's like,

"Okay, let's continue on. Let's continue the show."

First off, Owen Hart, I'm praying for you, buddy.

[emotionally] And I am too.

[sighs shakily]

Val Venis, you've been chasing these puppies around.

Well, pal, I got news for you.

Those are my puppies, and they always have been.

They never should have continued the show.

[crowd cheering]

[Meltzer] You know, one of your buddies just died.

Like, literally just died in this ring,

and his blood is right there, and we're going out there wrestling,

trying to perform for this audience that doesn't even know it,

while we're brokenhearted.

[Landsberg] What you do, your business, is entertainment,

and you allowed the entertainment to continue

with the blood of Owen Hart still in the ring.

I'm not sure that's not disrespectful to Owen Hart.

There were a lot of negative comments, actually,

as to whether or not the show should have continued.

I actually know firsthand from the wrestlers involved

that they wheeled my dead brother past...

right past all the wrestlers and actually pushed wrestlers out the door

and said, "Go, go, go. You're on."

Naturally, Bret's gonna feel like, you know, like a brother should.

He had every right to say anything negative about our company.

I think if Vince McMahon had dropped Shane McMahon from the ceiling,

uh, and he splatted on the mat,

I don't think he would've scraped him off and set the next match up.

Had it been me, not just my son,

had it been me who was "splatted on the mat," as Bret said,

I would want the show to go on.

So get me out of there, you know, and let the show go on.

I'd do it with me, and to this day, I would.

[somber music continues]

[Hart] It really was very hard for me to take at that time

because I kept thinking that maybe it was...

Maybe they murdered him to get back at me.

[exhales emotionally]

At 10:01 a.m. this morning,

my legal counsel filed a wrongful death lawsuit

for my husband's death.

[McMahon] In terms of Owen, we settled a lawsuit basically with his wife,

and then we find out, which we thought all along,

it wasn't our fault.

Unfortunately, the apparatus they were using was defective,

and the manufacturer knew it was defective,

and then we sued the manufacturer.

[Hart] They investigated Vince and WWE for a long time.

A policeman from Kansas City's, uh, police department called me,

and he goes, "I promised you I'd call you,

and I'm calling to tell you there's nothing criminal here."

"This was just a horrible accident."

And for me, when I heard that, it was like, "Okay, it's an accident."

I basically, I think in my heart of hearts, forgave Vince.

I had plenty of reasons to have issues with Vince,

but they were on a professional level and not a personal level.

[music fades]

[crowd cheering]

[Landsberg] Do you think there will be any changes in wrestling because of this?

[Hart] I certainly hope so. We're not

so dead against the wrestling business,

but we are disappointed in the drastic turn

that wrestling's taken in the last two years,

and it's a shame that the fans have sort of become wild dogs

that sort of want more and more and more all the time.

At that point, we're all pushing the envelope.

[crowd cheering]

-[announcer] Look out! -[woman] Oh my...

[Calaway] Everybody's willing to do whatever it takes.

No one's saying, "I don't want to do that,"

or, "That's too dangerous."

[announcer] Oh my...

...but at some point, enough is enough.

[announcer 1] He's burning! Put him out!

[McMahon] We want to give our fans what they want.

We're probably pushing it as far as we can right now,

but who knows as it relates to the future?

[tense music rising]

[music fades]

[crowd chanting] Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit...

[melancholy music playing]

[closing theme music playing]