The Attitude Era is both one of the most beloved and one of the most heavily criticized eras in all of professional wrestling. It was a special time for the WWE as it seemed like the company had truly taken over the world. There were a lot of moments that led up to the beginning of The Attitude Era, but it was Vince McMahon’s speech on the December 15th, 1997 episode of Monday Night Raw that truly introduced the era to the world.
Vince McMahon directly addressed the audience and let everyone know what they could expect watching Raw as the show moved forward. Many unforgettable moments and many stars were created in the years that followed and many people still refer to The Attitude Era as the greatest era ever. Here we are 18 years later looking back on Vince McMahon’s speech and there’s something about it that still seems so very special.
You can watch Vince McMahon give the speech that introduced The Attitude Era above and also read a transcript below.
“It has been said that anything can happen here in the World Wrestling Federation, but now more than ever, truer words have never been spoken. This is a conscious effort on our part to “Open the Creative Envelope”, so to speak, in order to entertain you in a more contemporary manner. Even though we call ourselves “Sports Entertainment” because of the athleticism involved, the keyword in that phrase is “Entertainment”. The WWF extends far beyond the strict confines of sports presentation into the wide open environment of broad based entertainment. We borrow from such programs niches like soap-operas, like “The Days of Our Lives”, or, music videos such as those on MTV, Daytime talk-shows like “Jerry Springer” and others, cartoons like “The King of The Hill” on FOX, Sitcoms like “Seinfeld”, and other widely accepted forms of television entertainment. We, in the WWF, think that you, the audience, are quite frankly, tired of having your “intelligence insulted”. We also think that you’re tired of the same old simplistic theory of “Good Guys VS Bad Guys”. Surely the era of “The super-hero urge you to say your prayers and take your vitamins” is definitely, passe. Therefore, we’ve embarked on a far more innovative and contemporary creative campaign, that is far more invigorating and extemporaneous than ever before. However, due to the live nature of “RAW” and the “WarZone”, we encourage some degree of parental discretion, as relates to the younger audience allowed to stay up late. Other WWF programs on USA, such as “The Saturday Morning LiveWire”, and “Sunday Morning Superstars”, where there’s a 40% increase in the younger audience obviously, however, need no such discretion. We are responsible television producers who work hard to bring you this outrageous, wacky, wonderful world known as the WWF. Through some 50 years the World Wrestling Federation has been an entertainment main-stay here in North America, and all over the world. One of the reasons for that longevity is: As the times have changed, so have we. I’m happy to say that this new vibrate, creative direction has resulted in a huge increase in television viewership, for which we thank the USA Network and TSN for allowing us to have the creative freedom. But most especially, we would like to thank you, for watching. RAW and the WarZone are definitely the cure for the common show.”
