WWE’s Attitude Era was a period that lasted from 1997 to 2001. A lot of people consider this to be the best era of wrestling, as it gave us stars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, and more.
It’s been over 25 years since the Attitude Era ended, yet many fans still miss it. While WWE’s transition to PG helped it become a multi-billion dollar company, it was the Attitude Era that helped it survive the Monday Night Wars against WCW and become the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.
Paul Heyman recently commented on the Attitude Era and said WWE copied it from ECW.
Paul Heyman Says Attitude Era Was Copied From ECW
During an interview with Catch Club, Paul Heyman called the Attitude Era a carbon copy of ECW. Most fans wouldn’t disagree with him, because before WWE started doing edgy content, ECW was already doing it with their shows. Here’s what Heyman said:
“ECW was the Attitude Era. The Attitude Era was based on ECW. The Attitude Era was a carbon copy of ECW. The Attitude Era was stolen from ECW. This entire multi-billion dollar conglomerate was built on the concepts that came out of the bingo hall in Philadelphia, which were all done by me and the people in ECW.”
Heyman later called ECW the best in the game, and that’s why he’s the only manager from the past who’s still going strong in wrestling.
One could argue that the Attitude Era wasn’t the peak of wrestling, and the reason most fans still swear by it is simply because of nostalgia. While there were good storylines, such as McMahon vs Austin, Undertaker vs Kane, there were also a lot of weird things, such as Mark Henry and Mae Young’s romance, the Kennel from Hell storyline, and other angles that simply got overlooked by fans.
Also read: AJ Styles Opens Up About WWE Coaching Role After Retirement
Paul Heyman Manages The Vision On WWE Programming
Over the years, multiple wrestlers have benefited from allying themselves with Paul Heyman. Stars like Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and more have been “Paul Heyman guys”, and there’s no doubt this partnership helped these stars.
Heyman currently manages The Vision stable in WWE, which was originally created by Seth Rollins. Many members of The Vision (Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, etc.) are sidelined due to injuries.
Main image credit: IMAGO / Icon Sportswire
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.