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World Wrestling Federation.
The Attitude Era is here.
WE ARE CLOSED!
[Until the Brian case is finished.]
We do not accept CAW's. We certainly do not accept superstars that haven't been in WWF & ECW nor WCW. NOTE: You do have to pay a 90gg fee. If you can't donate to WWF than you'll have to figure out another way to get in :L.
WWF's History.
Beginning/Capitol Wrestling Corporation
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a boxing match in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1925, while working with Tex Rickard (who despised wrestling to such a degree that he prevented wrestling events from being held in the third Madison Square Garden in New York City) he started promoting boxing in the Garden. The first match during their partnership was a light heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.
A few years earlier, around 1920, former professional wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had come up with a revolutionary concept. He decided to take wrestling to a higher level, bringing it out of back alleys and rough areas into sporting arenas. At the time, pro wrestling consisted primarily of mat grappling; and while the sport had flourished a decade earlier under Frank Gotch, the fans had since grown tired of the painfully deliberate pace of the bouts. However, Mondt discovered a solution that would completely transform the industry, as he convinced Lewis and Sandow to implement a new form of wrestling that combined features of boxing, Greco-Roman, freestyle and lumber-camp fighting into what he deemed “Slam Bang Western-Style Wrestling.” His next move was to form a promotion with Ed Lewis and Billy Sandow. They persuaded a lot of wrestlers to sign contracts with the newly named 'Gold Dust Trio'.
Eventually, the trio dissolved and the promotion did also, after a disagreement over power. Mondt formed partnerships with several promoters. When Jack Curley was dying, Mondt knew that New York wrestling would fall apart. Realizing this he gained help from several bookers, one of these being Jess McMahon.
Together, Jess and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). The company had offices in both Washington, D.C. and New York.[3] There is not a lot of information on the early days of the CWC, but it is known that it joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1953.
Mondt had been using Antonino Rocca as a main eventer. He was successful in the role and Mondt was pleased to have him as part of the company. Unfortunately, Mondt was unable to keep Rocca happy.
In 1953, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's other associates, brought in Vincent J. McMahon to replace his father Jess (this was around the time the CWC became a territorial member of the NWA). They controlled all of the Northeastern wrestling circuit.
Vince Sr. and Toots Mondt were a formidable combination: within a short time, they controlled around 70% of the NWA's booking—given what a far-reaching organization the NWA was, that was a significant achievement. Mondt taught Vince Sr. about booking and how to work in the wrestling industry. This was the start of the wrestling revolution.
In 1956, the CWC signed a deal with WTTG Channel 5 to air live professional wrestling shows.
World Wrestling Federation
In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sportings Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Sports from his father and associates (Gorilla Monsoon and Arnold Skaaland were given lifetime employment with World Wrestling Federation, and all three minority holders received cash payments). The elder McMahon had already established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA by recognizing that pro wrestling was more about entertainment than sport.
The NWA was not the only wrestling outfit in operation; the American Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an official NWA member, and controlled the US Northern Midwest. But in neither instance did the defecting member attempt to undermine, and destroy, the territory system that had been the foundation of the industry.
The first step of McMahon's attempt to go national was to sign AWA superstar Hulk Hogan, who, due to his appearance in Rocky III had a national recognition. To play Hogan's nemesis, he signed North Carolina badboy Roddy Piper, and also Jesse Ventura (although Ventura never wrestled in the WWF at that point).
Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional Northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF. The WWF bought off talent all around Canada and U.S. including the likes of the British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation who were based with Stampede Wrestling. Eventually in the 1980s, WWF was able to sign Dusty Rhodes who had been a legend during the regional territory days.
The younger McMahon had an even bolder ambition: the WWF would tour nationally. Such a venture, however, required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking sports entertainment concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on Closed-circuit television) that McMahon marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.
The concept of a wrestling super card was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running Starrcade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed circuit locations. However, McMahon wanted to take the WWF to the mainstream, targeting the public who were not regular wrestling fans. He drew the interest of the mainstream media by inviting celebrities such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event. MTV, in particular, featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming at this time, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.
There were attempts in the Deep South to keep the legacy of the regional territory system alive. Several regional territories in the Deep South merged together to form Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Starrcade and The Great American Bash were the Jim Crockett Promotions version of WrestleMania. However JCP had trouble competing against the WWF. JCP even ran a few shows outside its regional base. The promotion was sold off becoming WCW, which ended up becoming the main competition for the WWF until 2001.
The Golden Age
The new formula of what McMahon deemed sports entertainment was a resounding financial success at the original WrestleMania in 1985. The WWF did incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his All-American babyface hero, Hulk Hogan, for the next several years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for professional wrestling.
In addition to Hogan, there were other muscular singles stars who were making their mark in the WWF including "Macho Man" Randy Savage , the Ultimate Warrior, Ricky Steamboat, and Paul Orndorff. Not only did WWF have a dominant singles division, the tag team division had a myriad of excellent teams such as The Rockers, Demolition, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, and The Fabulous Rougeaus. In 1987, the WWF would also add more to the company's success and produced what was considered to be the pinnacle of the entire 1980s wrestling boom, WrestleMania III.[4] Thanks to the success of WrestleMania, additional pay-per-views were produced such as SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series. The Survivor Series stressed the elimination tag format. The Royal Rumble had a 30-man battle royal which, in 1993, would stipulate where the winner faces the WWF Champion at that year's WrestleMania. SummerSlam became the major hit of the summer. This era was noted for some of its excellent matches. Some memories included the Hogan vs. Warrior bout at WrestleMania VI in the SkyDome, Steamboat vs. Savage Intercontinental Title match at WrestleMania III and Hogan vs. Andre the Giant at that same pay-per-view.
Monday Night Raw
Under Eric Bischoff, World Championship Wrestling, the new name for NWA super territory Jim Crockett Promotions after its purchase by Ted Turner in 1988, began using its tremendous financial resources to lure established talent away from the WWF. In 1995, Bischoff upped the ante, creating WCW Monday Nitro, a cable show on Turner's TNT network, to directly compete with the WWF's flagship show, WWF Monday Night RAW. Eventually, on the strength of its newly-acquired WWF talent and the groundbreaking nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF in television ratings and popularity.
McMahon responded by stating that he could create new superstars to regain the upper hand in the ratings war, and at the same time tightening contracts to make it harder for WCW to raid WWF talent. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were elevated to the top of the card, gaining popularity based mostly on the excellence of their in-ring abilities, a far departure from the Hogan era. Despite this, the WWF was losing money at a rapid rate. WCW's reality-based storylines drew attention away from the WWF's.
However, from mid 1998 until late 2000, The WWF gained the upper hand mostly with big stars like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as big factions like D-Generation X. That era during the WWF was known as the "Attitude Era."
In 2004, WWE published a DVD entitled The Monday Night War, which chronicles the battle between the two organizations.
The Death Of Owen Heart.
On May 23, 1999, WWF wrestler Owen Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri, during a WWF pay-per-view event. Hart was in the process of being lowered into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena when a malfunction occurred. He fell 78 feet, landing chest-first on the top rope, throwing him into the ring. Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The WWF aired a special broadcast the next night, entitled Raw Is Owen, where many wrestlers broke character and expressed their grief over Hart's death. Hart's widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.
The End of Attitude Era
The Attitude Era is considered to have ended after WrestleMania X-Seven following a slow decline in ratings.[5] Despite this, the WWF kept most of their audience in this transitional period, fueled with a combination of new factors leading to a fresh product. For one, Chris Kreski took over head writer duties after Vince Russo left for WCW. Kreski was admired by many for heading a creative process that had well-planned storylines. Some of the more remembered angles from this time were Triple H vs. Cactus Jack feuding over the WWF Title, the Triple H/Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon love triangle, and the TLC feud between the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, and the Dudley Boyz. At the same time, injuries to Steve Austin and the Undertaker allowed WWF to focus on new stars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, Rikishi, and Edge and Christian.
In late 2000, WWF Raw is War moved from the USA Network to TNN. This coincided with the return of Steve Austin, after being out for close to a year due to injury. Despite having their biggest star back, the WWF's ratings started to slowly decline. Chris Kreski left the company, and Stephanie McMahon became the head writer. Despite this, the WWF presented what is considered by many to be one of their greatest single cards of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven, headlined by the Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF title. At the end of the show, Vince McMahon helped give Steve Austin the win, turning him heel in the process. Austin went on to form a union with Triple H called The Two-Man Power Trip, which carried WWF storylines for most of the Spring. But just as the next phase of the WWF began, the WWF lost two of their top stars, Triple H and Chris Benoit, to injuries. It was during this period that ratings took a serious blow, arguably due to the deaths of WCW and ECW, Steve Austin's heel turn and the absence of some big names.
Beginning/Capitol Wrestling Corporation
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a boxing match in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1925, while working with Tex Rickard (who despised wrestling to such a degree that he prevented wrestling events from being held in the third Madison Square Garden in New York City) he started promoting boxing in the Garden. The first match during their partnership was a light heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.
A few years earlier, around 1920, former professional wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt had come up with a revolutionary concept. He decided to take wrestling to a higher level, bringing it out of back alleys and rough areas into sporting arenas. At the time, pro wrestling consisted primarily of mat grappling; and while the sport had flourished a decade earlier under Frank Gotch, the fans had since grown tired of the painfully deliberate pace of the bouts. However, Mondt discovered a solution that would completely transform the industry, as he convinced Lewis and Sandow to implement a new form of wrestling that combined features of boxing, Greco-Roman, freestyle and lumber-camp fighting into what he deemed “Slam Bang Western-Style Wrestling.” His next move was to form a promotion with Ed Lewis and Billy Sandow. They persuaded a lot of wrestlers to sign contracts with the newly named 'Gold Dust Trio'.
Eventually, the trio dissolved and the promotion did also, after a disagreement over power. Mondt formed partnerships with several promoters. When Jack Curley was dying, Mondt knew that New York wrestling would fall apart. Realizing this he gained help from several bookers, one of these being Jess McMahon.
Together, Jess and Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). The company had offices in both Washington, D.C. and New York.[3] There is not a lot of information on the early days of the CWC, but it is known that it joined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) in 1953.
Mondt had been using Antonino Rocca as a main eventer. He was successful in the role and Mondt was pleased to have him as part of the company. Unfortunately, Mondt was unable to keep Rocca happy.
In 1953, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's other associates, brought in Vincent J. McMahon to replace his father Jess (this was around the time the CWC became a territorial member of the NWA). They controlled all of the Northeastern wrestling circuit.
Vince Sr. and Toots Mondt were a formidable combination: within a short time, they controlled around 70% of the NWA's booking—given what a far-reaching organization the NWA was, that was a significant achievement. Mondt taught Vince Sr. about booking and how to work in the wrestling industry. This was the start of the wrestling revolution.
In 1956, the CWC signed a deal with WTTG Channel 5 to air live professional wrestling shows.
World Wrestling Federation
In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent K. McMahon, founded Titan Sportings Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Sports from his father and associates (Gorilla Monsoon and Arnold Skaaland were given lifetime employment with World Wrestling Federation, and all three minority holders received cash payments). The elder McMahon had already established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA by recognizing that pro wrestling was more about entertainment than sport.
The NWA was not the only wrestling outfit in operation; the American Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an official NWA member, and controlled the US Northern Midwest. But in neither instance did the defecting member attempt to undermine, and destroy, the territory system that had been the foundation of the industry.
The first step of McMahon's attempt to go national was to sign AWA superstar Hulk Hogan, who, due to his appearance in Rocky III had a national recognition. To play Hogan's nemesis, he signed North Carolina badboy Roddy Piper, and also Jesse Ventura (although Ventura never wrestled in the WWF at that point).
Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional Northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF. The WWF bought off talent all around Canada and U.S. including the likes of the British Bulldogs and The Hart Foundation who were based with Stampede Wrestling. Eventually in the 1980s, WWF was able to sign Dusty Rhodes who had been a legend during the regional territory days.
The younger McMahon had an even bolder ambition: the WWF would tour nationally. Such a venture, however, required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking sports entertainment concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on Closed-circuit television) that McMahon marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.
The concept of a wrestling super card was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running Starrcade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed circuit locations. However, McMahon wanted to take the WWF to the mainstream, targeting the public who were not regular wrestling fans. He drew the interest of the mainstream media by inviting celebrities such as Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper to participate in the event. MTV, in particular, featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming at this time, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection.
There were attempts in the Deep South to keep the legacy of the regional territory system alive. Several regional territories in the Deep South merged together to form Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Starrcade and The Great American Bash were the Jim Crockett Promotions version of WrestleMania. However JCP had trouble competing against the WWF. JCP even ran a few shows outside its regional base. The promotion was sold off becoming WCW, which ended up becoming the main competition for the WWF until 2001.
The Golden Age
The new formula of what McMahon deemed sports entertainment was a resounding financial success at the original WrestleMania in 1985. The WWF did incredible business on the shoulders of McMahon and his All-American babyface hero, Hulk Hogan, for the next several years, creating what some observers dubbed a second golden age for professional wrestling.
In addition to Hogan, there were other muscular singles stars who were making their mark in the WWF including "Macho Man" Randy Savage , the Ultimate Warrior, Ricky Steamboat, and Paul Orndorff. Not only did WWF have a dominant singles division, the tag team division had a myriad of excellent teams such as The Rockers, Demolition, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, and The Fabulous Rougeaus. In 1987, the WWF would also add more to the company's success and produced what was considered to be the pinnacle of the entire 1980s wrestling boom, WrestleMania III.[4] Thanks to the success of WrestleMania, additional pay-per-views were produced such as SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series. The Survivor Series stressed the elimination tag format. The Royal Rumble had a 30-man battle royal which, in 1993, would stipulate where the winner faces the WWF Champion at that year's WrestleMania. SummerSlam became the major hit of the summer. This era was noted for some of its excellent matches. Some memories included the Hogan vs. Warrior bout at WrestleMania VI in the SkyDome, Steamboat vs. Savage Intercontinental Title match at WrestleMania III and Hogan vs. Andre the Giant at that same pay-per-view.
Monday Night Raw
Under Eric Bischoff, World Championship Wrestling, the new name for NWA super territory Jim Crockett Promotions after its purchase by Ted Turner in 1988, began using its tremendous financial resources to lure established talent away from the WWF. In 1995, Bischoff upped the ante, creating WCW Monday Nitro, a cable show on Turner's TNT network, to directly compete with the WWF's flagship show, WWF Monday Night RAW. Eventually, on the strength of its newly-acquired WWF talent and the groundbreaking nWo storyline, WCW overtook the WWF in television ratings and popularity.
McMahon responded by stating that he could create new superstars to regain the upper hand in the ratings war, and at the same time tightening contracts to make it harder for WCW to raid WWF talent. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were elevated to the top of the card, gaining popularity based mostly on the excellence of their in-ring abilities, a far departure from the Hogan era. Despite this, the WWF was losing money at a rapid rate. WCW's reality-based storylines drew attention away from the WWF's.
However, from mid 1998 until late 2000, The WWF gained the upper hand mostly with big stars like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as big factions like D-Generation X. That era during the WWF was known as the "Attitude Era."
In 2004, WWE published a DVD entitled The Monday Night War, which chronicles the battle between the two organizations.
The Death Of Owen Heart.
On May 23, 1999, WWF wrestler Owen Hart fell to his death in Kansas City, Missouri, during a WWF pay-per-view event. Hart was in the process of being lowered into the ring from the rafters of Kemper Arena when a malfunction occurred. He fell 78 feet, landing chest-first on the top rope, throwing him into the ring. Hart was transported to Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The WWF aired a special broadcast the next night, entitled Raw Is Owen, where many wrestlers broke character and expressed their grief over Hart's death. Hart's widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.
The End of Attitude Era
The Attitude Era is considered to have ended after WrestleMania X-Seven following a slow decline in ratings.[5] Despite this, the WWF kept most of their audience in this transitional period, fueled with a combination of new factors leading to a fresh product. For one, Chris Kreski took over head writer duties after Vince Russo left for WCW. Kreski was admired by many for heading a creative process that had well-planned storylines. Some of the more remembered angles from this time were Triple H vs. Cactus Jack feuding over the WWF Title, the Triple H/Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon love triangle, and the TLC feud between the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, and the Dudley Boyz. At the same time, injuries to Steve Austin and the Undertaker allowed WWF to focus on new stars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, The Dudley Boyz, The Hardy Boyz, Rikishi, and Edge and Christian.
In late 2000, WWF Raw is War moved from the USA Network to TNN. This coincided with the return of Steve Austin, after being out for close to a year due to injury. Despite having their biggest star back, the WWF's ratings started to slowly decline. Chris Kreski left the company, and Stephanie McMahon became the head writer. Despite this, the WWF presented what is considered by many to be one of their greatest single cards of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven, headlined by the Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF title. At the end of the show, Vince McMahon helped give Steve Austin the win, turning him heel in the process. Austin went on to form a union with Triple H called The Two-Man Power Trip, which carried WWF storylines for most of the Spring. But just as the next phase of the WWF began, the WWF lost two of their top stars, Triple H and Chris Benoit, to injuries. It was during this period that ratings took a serious blow, arguably due to the deaths of WCW and ECW, Steve Austin's heel turn and the absence of some big names.
----
We will continue history. Attitude Era will not be over It will die until this guild dies.
