Attitude Era The Attitude Era was a period in the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) and professional wrestling history that began as a direct result of the Monday Night Wars and culminated with the conclusion of the Wars in 2001 . Similar to the 1980 s wrestling boom , the Attitude Era was a surge in the popularity of professional wrestling in the United States from the late 1990 s to early 2000 s , as television ratings and pay - per - view buy - rates hit record highs . The Attitude Era was defined by a radical shift in programming content . In contrast to the more traditional , family - friendly content that was common in WWF programming , the Attitude Era sought to attract the young adult demographic by transforming the product into an edgier and more controversial form of entertainment . Traditionally heroic characters were replaced with disaffected anti - heroes and family friendly storylines were replaced with controversial stories based on shock value , similar to the " Trash TV " genre popularized in the 1990s . Overview . The Attitude Era began in the mid - to - late 1990s , and ended in the somewhat in the early 2000s . The WWF / E has variously given " Stone Cold " Steve Austin ' s victory in the King of the Ring 1996 tournament , the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997 , and Austin ' s WWF Championship victory over Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV on March 29 , 1998 , as the starting point of the era . In March 2001 , World Championship Wrestling ( WCW ) was bought out by the WWF , concluding the Monday Night Wars . On April 1 , 2001 at WrestleMania X - Seven , Austin , who had been synonymous with the Attitude Era , embraced his long time archenemy Vince McMahon after defeating The Rock to become WWF Champion once again , turning heel and concluding a rivalry which had lasted since 1997 . Finally , in May 2002 , usage of the WWF logo used to represent the company ' s " Attitude " promotion became prohibited as the result of a legal battle between the company and the World Wildlife Fund over the rights to legally use the initials " WWF " . The exact time period that the Attitude Era spanned between the mid - to - late 1990s and the early 2000s is essentially undefined , leaving observers to draw their own conclusions as to the starting and ending points of the era within those loose boundaries . The 1996 King of the Ring tournament saw Stone Cold Steve Austin ' s first usage of " Austin 3 : 16 " which began the WWF ' s transition to an edgier product . During his second tenure with the WWF , Jake Roberts was promoted as a " Cinderella " story . Having defeated alcoholism and at the time been preaching the Bible around the country , Roberts became a face ( fan favorite ) and was considered the likely winner of the 1996 King of the Ring . At the event , Roberts was defeated by Austin and with the upset victory over Roberts , Austin mocked Roberts ' recital of the biblical passage John 3 : 16 by saying , " 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 your John 3 : 16 . . . Austin 3 : 16 says I just whooped your ass ! " Austin ' s defiance of authority and social morals proved to be very popular amongst the fans , and " Austin 3 : 16 " became the major marketing juggernaut for the WWF during the Monday Night Wars . 1997 was also a pivotal year in the Attitude Era . The year was notable for Steve Austin ' s rivalry with Bret Hart , which culminated with Austin ' s rise to prominence , the USA vs Canada storyline by The Hart Foundation , as well the feud between Hart and Shawn Michaels . The feud between Hart and Michaels was particularly notable in that the two men had serious real - life issues with one another . The conflict behind the scenes spilled out into their on - screen storyline , with both men making pointed personal remarks in interviews that were often rooted in these legitimate issues . The Attitude Era proved to be a huge marketing success for the WWF , drawing in a previously unaccounted for young adult demographic that allowed them to successfully cripple competitor WCW by defeating them in the ratings wars . Within two years , WCW had become so unsuccessful that it lost its primetime television deal . During this same period , the WWF had become so financially powerful , that McMahon was able to buy the company from AOL Time Warner at a dramatically reduced valuation . Initiation . During the Monday Night Wars , a ratings battle between the WWF ' s Monday Night Raw and WCW ' s Monday Nitro , Nitro was defeating Raw in the ratings as WCW President Eric Bischoff famouly put it , " 84 weeks in a row " . In response , the WWF would transform itself from a family - friendly product into a more adult orientated product . This era was spearheaded by Vince McMahon and WWF head writer Vince Russo , who drastically changed the way professional wrestling television was written . Russo ' s booking style was often referred to as Crash TV — short matches , backstage vignettes , and shocking television . Vince McMahon would also use the real - life controversial events of the Montreal Screwjob incident to flesh out his character of the selfish , manipulative , and self - centered " Mr . McMahon " , a corrupt evil - owner caricature fixated on destroying the lives of disobedient employees and ensuring the dominance of his hand - picked heel champions . The resulting feud between Austin and Mr . McMahon became the central storyline of the Attitude Era , propelled by Austin ' s profanity - laded tirades against McMahon and McMahon ' s increasingly violent and corrupt retaliations against Austin . Against this backdrop , other adult - oriented stories and characters were introduced , including D - Generation X , a crew prone to innuendo and mischief . Female sexuality was introduced in this era , with characters like the blonde bombshell Sable leading the pack of athletic , attractive female wrestlers and valets who had story lines of their own which usually involved bikini matches and contest that punctuated the success of the Attitude Era , so much so that Playboy Magazine took notice and signed Sable , the first female in the company to pose nude for the widely popular mens publication in the April 1999 issue , and it was the best selling issue the company had seen in ten years . It started a trend and many other women in the company have coveted the opportunity and posed for Playboy , generating quite a buzz not only in the world of professional wrestling but in the Hollywood entertainment sector as well . In the weeks leading up to WrestleMania XIV , McMahon announced that former boxing champion Mike Tyson would be the Special guest enforcer in the WWF Championship main event at WrestleMania . Steve Austin , who won the 1998 Royal Rumble after eliminating The Rock , interrupted McMahon in his presentation of Mike Tyson on Raw the night after , reason being that he objected McMahon ' s reference to Tyson as " the baddest man on the planet . " Austin flipped off Tyson , which led to Tyson shoving Austin and the two fighting until being separated and subdued by Tyson ' s and McMahon ' s security . This resulted in an irate McMahon to publicly disapprove of the prospect of Austin as his WWF Champion . For the following weeks , Tyson aligned himself with D - Generation X , a group led by Austin ' s opponent at WrestleMania , WWF Champion Shawn Michaels . Throughout the WWF Championship match , Tyson bickered with both Austin and Michaels , who was upset that Tyson wasn ' t doing everything possible to ensure that Austin would be unsuccessful . In the closing moments of the match Austin countered Michaels ' finishing Sweet Chin Music and executed his finisher , the Stone Cold Stunner . Austin then covered Michaels , which was followed by Tyson himself counting the pin - fall . With this , Tyson turned on Michaels and D - Generation X as Austin became the new WWF Champion . Following the victory , a distraught Michaels confronted Tyson , who then knocked out Michaels with a right - handed punch as Austin celebrated . Austin vs . McMahon . On the " Raw " after Austin won the WWF Championship , Mr . McMahon presented him with the newly designed WWF Championship belt and informed Austin he did not approve of his rebellious nature and that if he didn ' t conform to society and become his image of what a WWF Champion should be , Austin would face severe consequences . Austin gave his answer in the form of a Stone Cold Stunner to McMahon . This led to a segment a week later where Austin had pledged a few days prior in a meeting to agree to McMahon ' s terms , appearing in a suit and tie , with a beaming McMahon taking a picture of himself and Austin , his new corporate champion . The entire thing was a ruse by Austin who in the course of the segment proceeded to tear off the suit , telling McMahon it was the last time he ' d ever be seen dressed like this . Austin punched McMahon in the " grapefruits " , and took another picture with McMahon grieving in pain . The following week on April 13 , 1998 , Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr . McMahon were going to battle out their differences in an actual match , but the match was declared a no contest when Dude Love interrupted the entire thing . On that night " Raw " defeated " Nitro " in the ratings for the first time since June 10 , 1996 . Meanwhile , several popular characters emerged on " Monday Night Raw " that would establish consistently high viewing from fans : The Rock , after not winning over the fans as the face Rocky Maivia , was making a new name for himself as a member of the Nation of Domination , and later as a singles performer , and Triple H , who after Shawn Michaels left due to back injuries , took control of D - Generation X and recruited the New Age Outlaws and X - Pac , who had just returned to the WWF after his two - year tenure with WCW as a member of the nWo , into his new " D - Generation X Army " . Later that night , Kane won his first major title from Stone Cold Steve Austin in the first - ever First Blood match . Later that night , Vince McMahon won the 1999 Royal Rumble match when the Rock taunting Steve Austin , allowing McMahon to throw him over the top rope . Later on , Stone Cold Steve Austin is run down in the parking lot and taken out of the WWF for 10 months . The story was done to give Austin time off for legitimate surgery that was needed to repair long term damage to his neck , some of which related back to an injury inflicted by Owen Hart in 1997 after a botched piledriver . Debuts , firsts and departures . Also that night , Big Show won his first WWF World title during the Triple Threat Match between The Rock and Triple H .