The Attitude Era is often considered the greatest era of WWE in its entire history. With a star-studded roster and the buzz behind the Monday Night Wars, it was a hugely exciting time to be a professional wrestling fan.
While the Montreal Screwjob itself is considered to be the start of the Attitude Era, this will look at the ten events following Survivor Series 1997, due to the commercial hyping up the switch to “Attitude” airing at that event, rather than before it. The first ten Attitude Era PPVs were certainly a mixed bag, with this switch to a new era not spurring an immediate improvement in PPV quality.
10 In Your House 20: No Way Out Of Texas 1998
The main event of this show was a thrown together brawl with Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie battling DX along with Savio Vega. It was decent, but felt very random. Tanaka vs Pantera would have been better if it weren’t for Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher burying the performers on commentary.
The rest of the event was just bland, making it one of the more boring shows of the Attitude Era.
9 In Your House 19: D-Generation X 1997
After the exodus of the likes of Bret Hart, WWE’s roster felt quite thin once again, with this being the worst way to officially kick off the Attitude Era. The New Age Outlaws defeated an aging and poor Legion of Doom, Triple H battled an even more past-it Sgt Slaughter in an awful Boot Camp Match, and the main event was riddled with interference despite there being no belief that Ken Shamrock would defeat Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship.
In an interesting note, Steve Austin would battle The Rock prior to them both being huge stars, and they made the most of their five minutes with a decent IC Title bout.
8 In Your House 23: Fully Loaded 1998
The Rock vs Triple H for the IC Title was very good, with the pair wrestling to a 30-minute time limit draw, and the Hart Dungeon Match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock was fun despite lasting for less than five minutes. However, the rest of the show was poor.
Mark Henry defeated Vader, further damaging the latter’s legacy in WWE, Val Venis vs Jeff Jarrett was an uninspiring opener, The DOA defeated LOD in a boring contest, and whilst the main event saw Kane & Mankind battle Steve Austin & Undertaker in a star-studded affair, it felt like nothing more than a Raw main event.
7 In Your House 21: Unforgiven 1998
This felt like a filler PPV, even with some half-decent action. The focus on Triple H vs Owen Hart was on a caged Chyna above the ring, taking away from their match. The poor NWA invasion continued with The “Midnight Express” taking on the Rock N’ Roll Express in a terrible bout, and the seemingly never-ending poor match streak between the New Age Outlaws and LOD continued.
Undertaker and Kane had an average rematch from WrestleMania, and the main event between Dude Love and Steve Austin was the only major highlight as they closed the show with a fun brawl.
6 In Your House 22: Over The Edge 1998
This was an up and down show, closed off with a tremendous WWE Title match between Dude Love and Steve Austin, in which Austin overcame insanely stacked odds to emerge victorious.
The Nation vs DX should have been far better than it was, given who was involved, The Rock vs Faarooq should have been a passing of the torch but was overbooked, and Kane vs Vader was slow and plodding.
5 In Your House 24: Breakdown 1998
This wasn’t necessarily a bad PPV but it wasn’t a great one either. The Rock vs Ken Shamrock vs Mankind inside a cage was very good, Bradshaw and Vader had a stiff brawl despite WWE having zero stock in Vader by this point, and Owen Hart vs Edge proved to be a strong opener.
Other matches had a very middling feel, such as the main event Handicap Match which saw the Brothers of Destruction defeat Steve Austin. It had some decent storytelling but wasn’t really good enough to main event an entire PPV.
4 Royal Rumble 1998
The undercard of this show was pretty poor aside from The Rock vs Ken Shamrock. Vader vs Goldust was a lackluster way to start the show, Jerry Lawler joked about the smaller competitors in a mini-six man tag match, and the LOD fought the New Age Outlaws in another poor addition to their series.
The Rumble match was decent considering how thin the roster was, and it would be the start of Steve Austin’s ascent to the top of WWE as he won the match. The main event Casket Match was strong, but it was mired by Shawn Michaels receiving an injury that would rule him out for four years.
3 King Of The Ring 1998
Whilst there were some poor matches on this card, it was helped out by the legendary encounter between Mankind and The Undertaker, which will forever live on as one of the most iconic Hell in a Cell matches in history, with the cagematch.net rating showcasing just how well-recieved the match was.
There were some other positives too, with a solid contest between X-Pac and Owen Hart, a rewarding King of the Ring victory for Ken Shamrock, and a surprising result in the main event as Kane won the WWE Title from Steve Austin. Overall, the show had enough to be well worth watching, but there were some poor parts here and there.
2 WrestleMania 14 1998
Aside from a horrendous opening battle royal, this show was solid to good at worst all the way through. Matches like Tanaka vs Aguila and Triple H vs Owen Hart perhaps weren’t WrestleMania quality, but they were still decent.
The Undertaker and Kane would finally square off in their brother vs brother rivalry, which felt huge, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie would win a Dumpster Match against the New Age Outlaws, and Steve Austin overcame Shawn Michaels with the help of Mike Tyson in a great main event to win his first WWE Championship.
1 SummerSlam 1998
The Oddities vs Kai En Tai was expectedly bad, but aside from that this was a fantastic PPV from top to bottom. Ken Shamrock took on Owen Hart in a strong Lion’s Den Match, Triple H and The Rock wrestling a classic IC Title Ladder Match, and Steve Austin battled The Undertaker in a big time main event.
Even the lesser matches on the card were solid, with Edge & Sable taking on Jacqueline and Marc Mero, and X-Pac taking on Jeff Jarrett in a Hair vs Hair Match. It was certainly the best of the first 10 Attitude Era PPVs.