1
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[announcer] <i>We greet you from ringside
for another great main event.</i>

2
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[crowd cheering]

3
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[announcer] <i>Whoo! Here we go!</i>

4
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<i>Believe me, Dr. Jerry Graham</i>

5
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<i>is not the favorite citizen in this arena.</i>

6
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[Vince McMahon]
We all have favorites as kids.

7
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[chuckles]

8
00:00:24,983 --> 00:00:28,361
My favorite was a performer
by the name of Dr. Jerry Graham.

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-[propulsive music playing]
-[McMahon] He wasn't a doctor, obviously.

10
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Big guy, bleached blond hair,

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and he would light a cigar
with a hundred-dollar bill.

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[announcer] <i>I have never known a guy</i>

13
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<i>that could make as many enemies
as Dr. Jerry Graham.</i>

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[McMahon] He was a heel,
in the parlance of our business.

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Maybe that's one reason why I liked him,
I don't know.

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'Cause I never liked the good guys.

17
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I wanted to be like him so badly,

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I convinced my stepmother
to dye my hair blond,

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and I learned to strut just like he did.

20
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"Yeah."

21
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"He doesn't walk. You know, he struts."

22
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[music fades]

23
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[McMahon] So, he sort of
took me under his wing.

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[compelling music playing]

25
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"You want to take a ride, kid?"
Boy, did I ever.

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He had this 1959 convertible.

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I'm riding shotgun.

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He's honking the horn
going through intersections

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regardless if the light was green or red,

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and it's like, "This is grand."

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"Man, I wanna live my life like this."

32
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He was just so flamboyant.

33
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So aggressive.

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And the hubris and, you know,
the color and all of that,

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it was like,
"Yeah, that's who I want to be."

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[compelling music rising]

37
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[music fades abruptly]

38
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-[audience clamoring]
-[commentator 1] <i>Are you kidding me?</i>

39
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[commentator 2] <i>Michaels?
Are you kidding me?</i>

40
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[commentator 1] <i>You gonna try to beat
Bret Hart with a sharpshooter? Yes, he is!</i>

41
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Ring the bell, ring the bell!

42
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[bell ringing]

43
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[Michael Landsberg]
In Montreal, in the Survivor Series,

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Bret Hart, "The Hitman,"
is counted out by Vince McMahon,

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and a brawl ensues afterwards.

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Unquestionably,
the most controversial bout

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in the history of wrestling.

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[Paul Levesque] The Montreal Screwjob.

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It just was so crazy surreal.

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That caused such inner turmoil

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within the business.

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The underground world,
what is now the internet world,

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got a hold
of the behind-the-scenes information,

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and that was spreading like wildfire.

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[Levesque] You're seeing
the reaction by people

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of something they should have
known nothing about.

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[Dave Meltzer] The fans knew
that Vince double-crossed Bret Hart,

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which was something very unprofessional
by the rules of professional wrestling.

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There's two sides to every story,

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but most people
did not side with Vince on that one.

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[crowd cheering]

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Listen, the Montreal Screwjob,
to me, as a Canadian,

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like, I fucking hated Vince. [laughs]

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Vince goes on television
and tries to explain it.

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He didn't come off very well.

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Bret screwed Bret.

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I have no sympathy whatsoever for Bret.

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[Levesque] The "Bret screwed Bret" speech,

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that begins a moment in time

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where reality takes front seat to fantasy,
and we begin to blur the line.

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[commentator 1] <i>And here comes
Vince McMahon to a rousing...</i>

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{\an8}<i>-They're being booed.</i>
-[commentator 2] <i>What?!</i>

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{\an8}[commentator 1] <i>They're booing
McMahon out of the building!</i>

74
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<i>What's going on? We'll be right back!</i>

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As a result of all this,
I have all this heat, as we call it.

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[commentator 2] <i>I wonder
if somebody's gonna knock the bejeesus</i>

77
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<i>out of Vince McMahon this week!</i>

78
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And so I thought, "Okay, Vince,
why not turn that into business?"

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Use now you as a character.

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[commentator 1] <i>Vince has not
endeared himself to this crowd.</i>

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[McMahon] I always
wanted to be a performer,

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but my dad wouldn't let me
in the business, much less <i>that.</i>

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He just thought,
"No, that's not what you want to do."

84
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I was like,
"Yeah, that's what I want to do."

85
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When it happened, it felt pretty natural.

86
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If you just show a little respect...

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[crowd booing]

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[Levesque] At that point in time,

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Vince McMahon creates
the Mr. McMahon character,

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the evil tyrant boss,

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and eventually, that would change
the trajectory of the business.

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[Michael Landsberg]
Let's talk about the business

93
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and the challenge
that you have received from WCW.

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If I look at cable listings
for January in one week,

95
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WCW is number one, number two,
number four, and number six.

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You're down at number 18.

97
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[tense music playing]

98
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[Meltzer] Through '97, WCW,
they were just so far ahead,

99
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and their product was better,

100
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so I'm just thinking
that this is just a domination,

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and it's gonna be like this
for the foreseeable future.

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{\an8}[announcer] <i>Bret Hart!</i>

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{\an8}I think once Bret Hart
made the transition and came over to WCW,

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I think if you were to put the rosters
side-by-side on a piece of paper,

105
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WCW was in a much better position
than WWE was.

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I wanted to dominate and win.

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If WWE went out of business
in the process,

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that would've been unfortunate,
but I wouldn't have felt bad about it.

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[announcer 1] <i>What is this?</i>

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[announcer 2]
<i>What a piece of work this guy is.</i>

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[announcer 1] <i>Ho, ho!
There it is! What is it?</i>

112
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[Mark Calaway] For years,
we were kind of stuck

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in that really young demographic,

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whereas WCW,

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they were hitting
that 18-to-34-year-old demographic

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with some really cutting-edge stuff.

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You know, 83 weeks of getting
our tails kicked in the ratings,

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it messes with your confidence,
it messes with your psyche,

119
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but it also lets you know that

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you gotta do something different.

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I knew if we didn't change,
we'd just get left behind.

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You're dealing with networks,

123
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and you're dealing with people
in the networks

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that are looking at you going,

125
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"Hey, these guys
are beating you in the ratings,

126
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and I see our talent on their show."

127
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"What's going on, guys?"

128
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[McMahon] You listen to the audience,
and you sort of feel it.

129
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It's time for a change.

130
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It was time for us to, uh,
take another step and evolve.

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[Bonnie Hammer]
When I started working with Vince,

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it was absolute war
between the two franchises.

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It'll be me and you, McMahon, in the ring.

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Vince decided that he wanted
to be known for pushing the envelope.

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For being bold,

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being a little crazy.

137
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{\an8}[Bischoff] Vince came out
and did an interview about this

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new way of producing WWE programming.

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We in the WWE think that you,
the audience, are, quite frankly,

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tired of having
your intelligence insulted.

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[Bischoff] Vince kind of teased all this
newness that was coming down the road,

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and I thought, "Yeah, whatever."

143
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"You're gonna come out
with another version of Doink the Clown

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and some evil dentist,

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and you're gonna
keep doing what you're doing."

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I didn't know that Vince
was making the decision

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to create the Attitude Era.

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[interviewer] Was there a distinctive
moment when the Attitude Era was born?

149
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[exhales] Yeah, there was.

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<i>♪ I think I'm cute, I know I'm sexy ♪</i>

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[announcer] <i>Well, here he comes, folks...!</i>

152
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[Prichard] One night,
Vince was not at our television taping,

153
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and Shawn Michaels
came down in bicycle shorts.

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Right before he went out, he stuffed
the front of his shorts with a sock.

155
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It was gauze. It wasn't a sock.

156
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It was gauze that I'd wadded up
from the trainer table.

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And I was just bouncing around,
gyrating, and stuff like that.

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Vince's reaction
was to call me the next day

159
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and tell me how unprofessional it was
and that he was fining me $10,000.

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And I said, "Okay,

161
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but you go back and watch it
and tell me that isn't funny."

162
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If we're talking about "entertainment,"
it was very entertaining.

163
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That was one of the things
that got us into the conversations of,

164
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"You know, we need to start going there."

165
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I felt like you can have respect
for this line of work,

166
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but you don't have to act
like it's freaking not weird.

167
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Suffice to say,
I weaseled my way out of the $10,000 fine.

168
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[Prichard] Vince was livid,

169
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but then three or four weeks later,
I remember Vince pointing to him,

170
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"Shawn Michaels. That's attitude."

171
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"That's what he is, he's got attitude."

172
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"We need more attitude."

173
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The Attitude Era was born.

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-[propulsive music playing]
-[siren blaring]

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[Prichard] The Attitude Era was
just this transformation that took place.

176
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I mean, we changed
how we presented our product.

177
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We got a little grittier.
We got a little dirtier.

178
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-We made it a little more raw.
-[yelling]

179
00:08:48,361 --> 00:08:51,364
People just go, "Oh, the Attitude Era.
Here's where it started. What it is."

180
00:08:51,447 --> 00:08:53,908
It was slowly bits and pieces over time.

181
00:08:53,991 --> 00:08:55,660
We are D-Generation X!

182
00:08:55,743 --> 00:08:59,664
-D-Generation.
-You make your rules, we will break 'em!

183
00:09:00,248 --> 00:09:05,294
D-Generation X is what we would call,
in sports entertainment, a faction.

184
00:09:05,378 --> 00:09:08,506
They were an offshoot of The Kliq.

185
00:09:08,589 --> 00:09:10,341
They were anti-authority,

186
00:09:10,424 --> 00:09:13,886
and there's something
about anti-authority at this time

187
00:09:13,970 --> 00:09:15,805
that really spoke to fans.

188
00:09:15,888 --> 00:09:19,892
And whether it was part of the fiction
or completely real, you didn't know.

189
00:09:19,976 --> 00:09:22,687
-This is going too far!
-[Michaels] And then the next thing...

190
00:09:22,770 --> 00:09:24,272
But you couldn't turn away.

191
00:09:24,355 --> 00:09:27,358
[Levesque] When Shawn and I
started doing D-X...

192
00:09:27,441 --> 00:09:31,571
[exhales] Man, most of the things
we were saying and doing,

193
00:09:31,654 --> 00:09:34,115
Vince was coming back and telling us,

194
00:09:34,198 --> 00:09:36,909
"Goddamn, you guys do that again,
and you're going to get fucked like..."

195
00:09:36,993 --> 00:09:39,662
You know, "USA's threatening
to take us off the air."

196
00:09:40,705 --> 00:09:44,250
But we're like, coming in the back,
and people are going crazy.

197
00:09:44,333 --> 00:09:45,376
[audience cheering]

198
00:09:45,459 --> 00:09:49,088
And then there's a flip moment in time
where all of a sudden it's,

199
00:09:49,171 --> 00:09:51,882
"Hey, that worked. Do that again."

200
00:09:51,966 --> 00:09:53,509
[announcer] <i>A fight bra.</i>

201
00:09:54,176 --> 00:09:56,637
[screaming] <i>What is... Oh my gosh!</i>

202
00:09:56,721 --> 00:09:59,682
[Calaway] We just finally
changed the writing

203
00:09:59,765 --> 00:10:02,727
to where it wasn't
for a 12-year-old demographic.

204
00:10:02,810 --> 00:10:06,230
It got into that
18-to-34-year-old-male demographic.

205
00:10:06,897 --> 00:10:09,859
Once that door was opened,
I marched right through it,

206
00:10:09,942 --> 00:10:11,235
because it was working.

207
00:10:11,319 --> 00:10:14,238
[Calaway] It was all about filling up
those arenas and stadiums,

208
00:10:14,322 --> 00:10:19,452
and, you know, it was like we could do
whatever we had to do to be the best.

209
00:10:19,535 --> 00:10:20,828
[glass shattering]

210
00:10:20,911 --> 00:10:23,789
-[audience cheering]
-[hard rock music playing]

211
00:10:26,459 --> 00:10:30,087
The biggest star of the Attitude Era
by far was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

212
00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,216
[Austin] Anytime you stick your head
in the ring with Steve Austin,

213
00:10:34,300 --> 00:10:37,136
bottom line is I'm gonna kick your ass.
Straight simple.

214
00:10:37,219 --> 00:10:38,095
[audience cheering]

215
00:10:38,179 --> 00:10:40,473
[Shoemaker] He was something
that we weren't used to seeing,

216
00:10:40,556 --> 00:10:45,853
this kind of foul-mouthed, roughneck,
blue collar, Southern badass.

217
00:10:46,687 --> 00:10:49,440
[Austin] When I first got into
the business of professional wrestling,

218
00:10:49,523 --> 00:10:54,278
I never had any designs
on being as successful as I would be,

219
00:10:54,362 --> 00:10:56,739
because I didn't know how far

220
00:10:57,406 --> 00:11:00,242
some ragamuffin
from Victoria, Texas, could take it.

221
00:11:01,035 --> 00:11:02,578
[announcer] <i>Introducing first...</i>

222
00:11:02,662 --> 00:11:04,914
[Shoemaker] Prior to WWE,
Steve Austin was a wrestler

223
00:11:04,997 --> 00:11:06,707
{\an8}in WCW.

224
00:11:06,791 --> 00:11:08,501
{\an8}But he got fired from WCW,

225
00:11:09,543 --> 00:11:11,087
so he winds up in ECW,

226
00:11:11,170 --> 00:11:15,383
sort of the punk rock-indy federation
in the pro wrestling world.

227
00:11:16,592 --> 00:11:19,095
[Austin] And walking into that federation,

228
00:11:19,178 --> 00:11:21,639
man, it was an eye-opener
and a hell of a scene.

229
00:11:22,306 --> 00:11:24,475
[announcer] <i>This is extreme!</i>

230
00:11:24,558 --> 00:11:27,812
-This is the ECW arena!
-[audience cheering]

231
00:11:27,895 --> 00:11:30,314
[Paul Heyman] ECW
was the necessary disruption

232
00:11:30,398 --> 00:11:33,818
of the pro wrestling/sports entertainment
industry.

233
00:11:33,901 --> 00:11:34,902
[audience cheering]

234
00:11:34,985 --> 00:11:37,613
[Heyman] No rules, no regulations.

235
00:11:37,697 --> 00:11:40,783
A testosterone and adrenaline-driven,

236
00:11:40,866 --> 00:11:45,705
no-holds-barred,
this-can't-possibly-be-legal,

237
00:11:45,788 --> 00:11:48,040
what-the-fuck-am-I-watching atmosphere.

238
00:11:48,874 --> 00:11:50,251
It was a mosh pit.

239
00:11:51,001 --> 00:11:55,423
[McMahon] ECW was a wild-ass
renegade-type promotion

240
00:11:55,506 --> 00:11:58,384
that attracted a niche, uh, audience,

241
00:11:59,093 --> 00:12:02,555
and it was... very unusual.

242
00:12:02,638 --> 00:12:04,223
[audience cheering]

243
00:12:04,306 --> 00:12:08,853
I greatly appreciated the promotion
and the promoter behind it.

244
00:12:08,936 --> 00:12:13,190
There ain't a mofo organization
in the world today

245
00:12:13,274 --> 00:12:16,277
like ECW!

246
00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:17,319
[audience cheering]

247
00:12:17,403 --> 00:12:19,905
Vince always saw everyone else

248
00:12:19,989 --> 00:12:25,786
{\an8}as a feeder system
to the major leagues of WWE.

249
00:12:25,870 --> 00:12:26,704
[indistinct]

250
00:12:26,787 --> 00:12:29,582
[Heyman] So I knew
we didn't have Steve for a long time,

251
00:12:30,291 --> 00:12:32,334
but we were gonna make it quality time

252
00:12:32,418 --> 00:12:35,588
for every moment that he was in ECW.

253
00:12:37,465 --> 00:12:39,925
[Austin] We achieved
a lot of success in a short time,

254
00:12:40,009 --> 00:12:43,554
and finally,
Vince took, uh, serious notice of me,

255
00:12:43,637 --> 00:12:46,432
and that's when I would go to WWE.

256
00:12:46,515 --> 00:12:49,894
{\an8}[commentator] <i>Stone Cold Steve Austin.
I love it, McMahon.</i>

257
00:12:49,977 --> 00:12:51,937
{\an8}[Austin] So I turned into
Stone Cold Steve Austin,

258
00:12:52,021 --> 00:12:57,276
and I became this
just trash-talking SOB from south Texas.

259
00:12:57,359 --> 00:12:58,652
It became very entertaining,

260
00:12:58,736 --> 00:13:02,031
and people started disliking me,
and we started gaining traction.

261
00:13:02,615 --> 00:13:03,866
Now, at that time,

262
00:13:05,201 --> 00:13:07,703
everybody knows
that Triple H was supposed to win

263
00:13:07,787 --> 00:13:09,705
that King of the Ring pay-per-view.

264
00:13:11,248 --> 00:13:14,752
But then Triple H got punished
because of what happened in the Garden.

265
00:13:15,544 --> 00:13:16,796
I hear a voice behind me.

266
00:13:16,879 --> 00:13:19,048
It's Vince. He goes,
"Hey, Steve, you got a second?"

267
00:13:19,131 --> 00:13:21,759
I'm like,
"Yeah. I guess so. You're the boss."

268
00:13:21,842 --> 00:13:25,387
He says, "Wanna let you know in two weeks,
you're gonna win King of the Ring."

269
00:13:25,471 --> 00:13:27,181
[announcer]
<i>...the King of the Ring tournament...</i>

270
00:13:27,264 --> 00:13:30,726
[Austin] We get to the pay-per-view,
I'm wrestling Marc Mero first.

271
00:13:30,810 --> 00:13:34,814
We do a move, he kicks me in the mouth,
you know, busts my lip wide open.

272
00:13:34,897 --> 00:13:38,317
I've gotta go to the hospital immediately
and get 14 stitches.

273
00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,445
Soon as I come back from the ambulance,
Michael Hayes comes up to me and goes,

274
00:13:41,529 --> 00:13:44,573
"Hey, man, you got
Jack "The Snake" Roberts in the final,

275
00:13:44,657 --> 00:13:46,951
and Jake just cut
a religious promo on you."

276
00:13:47,034 --> 00:13:50,454
The power above
is reaching down and lifting me up.

277
00:13:50,538 --> 00:13:52,957
And immediately I thought of Austin 3:16,

278
00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,376
because back in the day,
you'd watch football games,

279
00:13:55,459 --> 00:13:57,795
they would put John 3:16 signs
in the end zone.

280
00:13:58,754 --> 00:14:00,923
I go out there, work the match with Jake.

281
00:14:01,006 --> 00:14:02,132
You're pathetic!

282
00:14:02,216 --> 00:14:04,218
[commentators] <i>There it is!</i>

283
00:14:04,301 --> 00:14:06,554
[commentator] <i>One, two, and he got him!</i>

284
00:14:06,637 --> 00:14:08,472
-[bell ringing]
-[audience cheering]

285
00:14:08,556 --> 00:14:10,057
[commentator] <i>Stone Cold Steve Austin...</i>

286
00:14:10,140 --> 00:14:12,643
I go up to the microphone
and I just went out there

287
00:14:12,726 --> 00:14:14,186
and started running Jake down.

288
00:14:14,895 --> 00:14:19,483
You sit there, and you thump your Bible,
and you say your prayers,

289
00:14:19,567 --> 00:14:21,652
and it didn't get you anywhere.

290
00:14:22,945 --> 00:14:26,740
Talk about your Psalms,
talk about John 3:16.

291
00:14:27,491 --> 00:14:31,203
Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass.

292
00:14:31,287 --> 00:14:32,913
[audience cheering]

293
00:14:32,997 --> 00:14:35,207
[McMahon] When Steve said that, I went,

294
00:14:35,291 --> 00:14:37,543
"Oh my God.
Tell me he didn't just do that."

295
00:14:37,626 --> 00:14:40,754
"That may not play too well
you know, in the Bible Belt."

296
00:14:40,838 --> 00:14:42,756
-[audience booing]
-Piss off.

297
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:44,925
[Austin] And then I kept talking
and kept talking,

298
00:14:45,009 --> 00:14:48,262
and I could hear Vince in the background
'cause he was doing commentary,

299
00:14:48,345 --> 00:14:50,389
and I said,
"Oh man, I need a button on this promo."

300
00:14:50,472 --> 00:14:52,975
And so just out of the blue I said,

301
00:14:53,058 --> 00:14:56,812
"And that's the bottom line,
'cause Stone Cold said so."

302
00:14:56,896 --> 00:14:58,689
It was brilliant.

303
00:14:58,772 --> 00:15:00,441
It changed who he was

304
00:15:00,524 --> 00:15:02,735
and the perception
of who he was as a character.

305
00:15:02,818 --> 00:15:07,781
The next night, everywhere you looked
were Austin 3:16 signs.

306
00:15:08,407 --> 00:15:12,786
Austin 3:16 took over, and it was insane.

307
00:15:13,746 --> 00:15:17,249
When the Monday Night Wars started,
and we kept losing in the ratings,

308
00:15:17,333 --> 00:15:20,753
for a while, we understood it
because they had a really hot show.

309
00:15:20,836 --> 00:15:24,882
It was really fresh, and they had a lot
of great talent and some cool storylines,

310
00:15:24,965 --> 00:15:26,800
but as we started to ramp up,

311
00:15:27,384 --> 00:15:29,011
we really thought we had a better show.

312
00:15:29,094 --> 00:15:31,305
We're like,
"Man, what is up with these ratings?"

313
00:15:31,388 --> 00:15:34,391
"Someone's gotta be paying somebody off.
We got a better show than they do."

314
00:15:34,475 --> 00:15:37,811
[Prichard] At that point in time,
I remember Vince was like,

315
00:15:37,895 --> 00:15:40,147
"We need to do something here."

316
00:15:40,230 --> 00:15:43,233
"We need a way
to get a lot of eyeballs on us

317
00:15:43,317 --> 00:15:46,987
and do something in a really big way
for WrestleMania."

318
00:15:47,071 --> 00:15:48,989
And that's what we did.

319
00:15:49,073 --> 00:15:52,785
{\an8}At this time,
I would like to introduce to you

320
00:15:52,868 --> 00:15:55,746
a man who is simply

321
00:15:56,580 --> 00:16:00,084
the baddest man on the planet!

322
00:16:00,167 --> 00:16:01,585
Ladies and gentlemen,

323
00:16:02,169 --> 00:16:07,007
"Iron" Mike Tyson!

324
00:16:07,091 --> 00:16:09,677
[crowd cheering]

325
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:10,970
{\an8}[Bischoff] I get a phone call.

326
00:16:11,053 --> 00:16:13,222
{\an8}"You're never gonna believe
what they're doing next."

327
00:16:13,305 --> 00:16:15,140
I'm thinking, "Yeah, whatever."

328
00:16:15,224 --> 00:16:18,602
I was so ahead of him at that point,
I was like, "Whatever." I was arrogant.

329
00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,272
He goes, "They're bringing in Mike Tyson."

330
00:16:22,356 --> 00:16:24,817
I got uncocky real fast.

331
00:16:25,693 --> 00:16:28,237
[Prichard] The idea for bringing in
Mike Tyson came from Vince<i>,</i>

332
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,198
and Shane McMahon was heavily involved.

333
00:16:31,991 --> 00:16:33,784
[Shane McMahon]
We wanted a big personality,

334
00:16:33,867 --> 00:16:37,121
you know, someone extremely identifiable,
to be a part of WrestleMania,

335
00:16:37,204 --> 00:16:40,207
and there was at that time
no one bigger than Tyson.

336
00:16:40,290 --> 00:16:43,752
I believe he had gotten out of jail
about three years earlier.

337
00:16:43,836 --> 00:16:47,047
[interviewer] Knowing Mike Tyson's
baggage during the '90s,

338
00:16:47,131 --> 00:16:50,509
was it risky for WWE
to so fully invest in him?

339
00:16:50,592 --> 00:16:55,097
He hadn't been arrested for rape yet,
though, when we did that.

340
00:16:55,180 --> 00:16:57,266
-Right? He had?
-[man] Yeah, he had.

341
00:16:59,685 --> 00:17:02,604
[Costas] You know, Mike is not perhaps
universally approved of now,

342
00:17:02,688 --> 00:17:05,983
but he certainly... His public image
is certainly in a better place than it was

343
00:17:06,066 --> 00:17:07,067
at that point.

344
00:17:07,151 --> 00:17:09,945
[tense music playing]

345
00:17:11,613 --> 00:17:14,658
[Sharon Mazer] Wrestling at that level
is about generating heat.

346
00:17:14,742 --> 00:17:16,452
[crowd clamoring]

347
00:17:16,535 --> 00:17:18,662
[Mazer] Heat is what sells tickets.

348
00:17:19,538 --> 00:17:20,789
[commentator] <i>Here we go!</i>

349
00:17:20,873 --> 00:17:23,333
And heat doesn't have to be positive.

350
00:17:23,417 --> 00:17:24,543
Heat can be negative.

351
00:17:24,626 --> 00:17:27,504
Specifically,
I would like to thank Mike Tyson

352
00:17:27,588 --> 00:17:30,924
for being the media magnet that he is.

353
00:17:32,176 --> 00:17:35,220
Tyson being on pay-per-view
was a big deal.

354
00:17:35,971 --> 00:17:38,974
Mike would be the special guest referee

355
00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:42,311
between Stone Cold Steve Austin
versus Shawn Michaels.

356
00:17:42,394 --> 00:17:45,314
It's Mike Tyson, you know, like,
one of the biggest names in sports.

357
00:17:45,397 --> 00:17:49,359
And by then, you had to be blind
not to see Steve Austin was takin' off.

358
00:17:49,443 --> 00:17:53,322
Mike, I'll tell you this,
if you get in my face at WrestleMania,

359
00:17:53,405 --> 00:17:54,907
I'll knock your damn lights out,

360
00:17:54,990 --> 00:17:57,868
and you won't want to get
back in the ring ever again.

361
00:17:57,951 --> 00:17:59,369
And that's the bottom line.

362
00:17:59,453 --> 00:18:01,205
[audience chuckling]

363
00:18:02,414 --> 00:18:05,584
[Meltzer] At that point,
I thought that WCW, while still ahead,

364
00:18:05,667 --> 00:18:08,212
it's going to get very, very competitive.

365
00:18:08,295 --> 00:18:10,214
[announcer 1]
<i>It don't get no bigger than this.</i>

366
00:18:10,297 --> 00:18:13,050
<i>This is what our business is all about.</i>

367
00:18:13,133 --> 00:18:15,344
<i>It's about earning the opportunity</i>

368
00:18:15,427 --> 00:18:17,721
<i>to wrestle in the main event
at a WrestleMania.</i>

369
00:18:18,472 --> 00:18:20,224
-[announcer 2] <i>Look out!</i>
-[announcer 1] <i>Over!</i>

370
00:18:20,307 --> 00:18:21,892
[announcer 2] <i>Look out!</i>

371
00:18:21,975 --> 00:18:24,019
[announcer 1] <i>Look out, Mo! By God...</i>

372
00:18:24,103 --> 00:18:27,523
[Austin] In WrestleMania 14,
uh, Shawn had a real bad back,

373
00:18:27,606 --> 00:18:29,608
and so that match was very forgettable.

374
00:18:29,691 --> 00:18:32,194
[announcer 1]
<i>Michaels going for another kick. Austin...</i>

375
00:18:32,277 --> 00:18:34,780
<i>He got it! The stunner!</i>

376
00:18:34,863 --> 00:18:37,324
-[crowd cheering]
-<i>Mike Tyson in!</i>

377
00:18:37,407 --> 00:18:39,284
<i>Austin is the champion...</i>

378
00:18:39,368 --> 00:18:41,870
[Austin] The match wasn't good.
It wasn't anything to brag about.

379
00:18:41,954 --> 00:18:44,498
I remember afterwards,
I looked over at Vince and he goes,

380
00:18:44,581 --> 00:18:48,877
"Eh, Steve, don't worry about it.
From here forward, it starts."

381
00:18:49,837 --> 00:18:51,380
[McMahon] I would like to congratulate,

382
00:18:51,463 --> 00:18:55,008
uh, the new
World Wrestling Entertainment champion,

383
00:18:55,092 --> 00:18:57,970
who has an attitude, no doubt about that.

384
00:18:58,053 --> 00:19:03,725
Not one necessarily that all of us
here in the WWE necessarily appreciate.

385
00:19:04,601 --> 00:19:08,772
[Bischoff] The Mr. McMahon character,
at least in my mind, became a real thing

386
00:19:08,856 --> 00:19:12,776
after the Mike Tyson storyline
played itself out.

387
00:19:13,360 --> 00:19:16,363
Hey, Vince, are you...
Are you turning into a bad guy?

388
00:19:17,614 --> 00:19:19,241
[McMahon] I've always been a good guy.

389
00:19:19,324 --> 00:19:20,826
Oh, but they're booing you now.

390
00:19:20,909 --> 00:19:22,411
I'll always be a good guy.

391
00:19:22,494 --> 00:19:23,829
[reporter] Oh, okay.

392
00:19:23,912 --> 00:19:26,957
[announcer] <i>The owner of WWE,
Vince McMahon, makes his way to the ring.</i>

393
00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:27,958
[crowd booing]

394
00:19:28,041 --> 00:19:31,170
{\an8}<i>Quite honestly,
not the most rousing ovation.</i>

395
00:19:31,837 --> 00:19:35,716
[Levesque] At that point in time,
a feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin

396
00:19:35,799 --> 00:19:40,429
would ignite and would start
a battle between those two

397
00:19:40,512 --> 00:19:43,307
that would change
the course of the business.

398
00:19:43,390 --> 00:19:46,643
Nobody, especially Vince McMahon,

399
00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:50,063
tells Stone Cold Steve Austin what to do,

400
00:19:50,147 --> 00:19:51,607
and that's the bottom line.

401
00:19:51,690 --> 00:19:52,733
[crowd cheering]

402
00:19:52,816 --> 00:19:58,989
But all of that based on
blurring the lines of reality and fiction.

403
00:19:59,072 --> 00:20:01,575
[suspenseful music playing]

404
00:20:01,658 --> 00:20:06,663
You got to understand the power
that a Vince McMahon has, the control...

405
00:20:06,747 --> 00:20:10,375
[Calaway] You've got the eccentric
billionaire boss Vince McMahon,

406
00:20:10,459 --> 00:20:14,213
and then you've got the anti-system
Stone Cold Steve Austin,

407
00:20:14,296 --> 00:20:16,924
and they were perfect for each other.

408
00:20:17,007 --> 00:20:19,259
I will fire your ass!

409
00:20:19,343 --> 00:20:21,053
-[announcer 1] <i>Good God!</i>
-[announcer 2] <i>Whoa!</i>

410
00:20:21,136 --> 00:20:24,890
It was about a guy who was trying
to keep me down and control me,

411
00:20:24,973 --> 00:20:27,059
and it was about me
trying to buck the system.

412
00:20:27,142 --> 00:20:28,143
You stupid bastards.

413
00:20:28,227 --> 00:20:31,271
You ain't got the balls
to fire Stone Cold Steve Austin.

414
00:20:32,022 --> 00:20:33,815
[Austin, present day]
Any other era, I'm a heel

415
00:20:33,899 --> 00:20:36,068
because of what I'm doing,
the trash I'm talking.

416
00:20:36,151 --> 00:20:38,487
You're pathetic.
You're completely pathetic...

417
00:20:38,570 --> 00:20:41,073
[Austin, present day] But I was the guy
that brought the gray area

418
00:20:41,156 --> 00:20:42,950
to the business of professional wrestling,

419
00:20:43,033 --> 00:20:45,702
which is usually a black-and-white
type thing as far as love and hate.

420
00:20:45,786 --> 00:20:47,454
[crowd cheering]

421
00:20:48,163 --> 00:20:51,625
See, in my day,
there was a good guy and a bad guy.

422
00:20:52,668 --> 00:20:56,880
Vince Jr. made it the bad and the worse.

423
00:20:56,964 --> 00:21:00,008
There were no more good guys in wrestling.

424
00:21:00,092 --> 00:21:02,844
Society at that time
had taken a rougher edge.

425
00:21:02,928 --> 00:21:06,306
Society at that time had more attitude.

426
00:21:06,390 --> 00:21:11,603
That forced you to create characters that
fit into that gray area in the middle.

427
00:21:12,229 --> 00:21:14,940
[White] The fans did not want to see
good guys no more.

428
00:21:15,023 --> 00:21:17,901
Nobody wanna see a good guy,
even in the movies.

429
00:21:19,278 --> 00:21:23,323
Look at the video games
and the wrestling business.

430
00:21:23,407 --> 00:21:26,785
We cater to what is in front of us.

431
00:21:27,828 --> 00:21:29,621
You tap into that.

432
00:21:29,705 --> 00:21:31,164
That's big money.

433
00:21:31,248 --> 00:21:34,668
So Vince said,
"Hey, give me some of that money."

434
00:21:34,751 --> 00:21:38,005
We don't always set trends,
you know, we try to follow them.

435
00:21:38,755 --> 00:21:41,800
And back in those days, it was Wild West.

436
00:21:42,384 --> 00:21:46,680
[reporter] <i>Stone Cold Steve Austin,
who is as crude as he is mean.</i>

437
00:21:46,763 --> 00:21:49,224
<i>He's just about
the biggest thing in wrestling,</i>

438
00:21:49,308 --> 00:21:51,643
<i>worshiped by his fans.</i>

439
00:21:51,727 --> 00:21:53,979
He feels like smashing a beer bottle,
he does it.

440
00:21:54,062 --> 00:21:56,106
Feels like throwing up his middle finger,
he does it.

441
00:21:56,690 --> 00:21:58,191
-[groans]
-[commentator] <i>Oh no!</i>

442
00:21:58,775 --> 00:22:03,947
[Mazer] Some part of us really loves
watching the bad guys get over.

443
00:22:04,031 --> 00:22:08,452
Maybe the part of us that doesn't like
the fact that we have to behave ourselves.

444
00:22:08,535 --> 00:22:10,704
You can't go around shoving people.

445
00:22:10,787 --> 00:22:13,332
You can't go around insulting people.

446
00:22:13,415 --> 00:22:17,002
[announcer] <i>And Stone Cold
hammering away on the boss!</i>

447
00:22:17,085 --> 00:22:20,005
[Austin] People live vicariously
through those kinds of storylines

448
00:22:20,088 --> 00:22:22,716
and would love
to punch their boss in the mouth.

449
00:22:22,799 --> 00:22:26,136
You know, I got a chance
to literally and figuratively do that

450
00:22:26,219 --> 00:22:28,013
almost every Monday night on <i>Raw.</i>

451
00:22:28,096 --> 00:22:31,808
[announcer] <i>Oh boy, look out!
Austin downs McMahon again!</i>

452
00:22:33,268 --> 00:22:34,269
[sobbing]

453
00:22:34,353 --> 00:22:36,563
[Austin] I think the fans
responded strongly

454
00:22:36,646 --> 00:22:39,024
because he's such a strong character.

455
00:22:39,107 --> 00:22:41,568
He's just so over-the-top.
He's larger than life.

456
00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:44,029
He's easy to hate,
and he's also easy to love,

457
00:22:44,112 --> 00:22:45,489
but he's very easy to hate.

458
00:22:45,572 --> 00:22:46,865
[crowd clamoring]

459
00:22:46,948 --> 00:22:49,576
{\an8}[Prichard] Mr. McMahon, he's at the top.

460
00:22:49,659 --> 00:22:52,621
{\an8}So, any and everybody
that's not at the top

461
00:22:52,704 --> 00:22:54,373
hates the guy at the top.

462
00:22:54,456 --> 00:22:57,000
[announcer] <i>He's got
an entire collection of Corvettes.</i>

463
00:22:57,084 --> 00:23:01,421
Vince walks by with his custom suits
and his flaunting and everything.

464
00:23:02,589 --> 00:23:04,549
What's to like?

465
00:23:04,633 --> 00:23:06,426
He's easy to hate.

466
00:23:06,510 --> 00:23:07,928
Get that mic out of my face!

467
00:23:08,011 --> 00:23:11,473
It's my mic. I own that mic!
I own that camera! Cut it off!

468
00:23:11,556 --> 00:23:15,268
And he became the most hated character
in the history of the business.

469
00:23:15,352 --> 00:23:21,983
[crowd chanting] Asshole! Asshole!
Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!

470
00:23:22,067 --> 00:23:26,863
Mr. McMahon, of course, is a character
derived from, uh, Vince McMahon,

471
00:23:26,947 --> 00:23:29,825
and is a character of someone
I could relate to when I was growing up.

472
00:23:29,908 --> 00:23:31,118
[atmospheric music playing]

473
00:23:31,201 --> 00:23:33,912
Because when I was growing up,
I was, like, dirt poor.

474
00:23:34,704 --> 00:23:37,999
Coming from that environment,
I don't like rich people,

475
00:23:38,083 --> 00:23:41,044
because I was around some people
who thought they were better than me

476
00:23:41,128 --> 00:23:43,380
because they had "more money."

477
00:23:43,964 --> 00:23:47,008
So it felt like
you weren't anybody at all.

478
00:23:47,092 --> 00:23:48,135
You were a nobody.

479
00:23:49,010 --> 00:23:51,847
And you learn certain things.

480
00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:56,268
In those days,
I could fight, and loved to fight.

481
00:23:56,351 --> 00:23:59,396
If you could do that well,
now you're somebody.

482
00:24:00,313 --> 00:24:03,400
I was good at fighting,
but they would say,

483
00:24:03,483 --> 00:24:04,943
"You didn't fight fair!"

484
00:24:05,485 --> 00:24:06,695
You cheated!"

485
00:24:06,778 --> 00:24:08,697
[atmospheric music continues]

486
00:24:08,780 --> 00:24:10,782
"Yeah? I won." [chuckles]

487
00:24:10,866 --> 00:24:12,742
What the hell's the matter with you?

488
00:24:12,826 --> 00:24:15,620
[McMahon, present day] And so,
with my character, Mr. McMahon,

489
00:24:15,704 --> 00:24:20,125
I can play someone who intimidates,
because that was the way I grew up.

490
00:24:20,208 --> 00:24:22,377
That was the way
I thought rich people were.

491
00:24:22,461 --> 00:24:23,920
They'd try to intimidate you.

492
00:24:24,004 --> 00:24:25,422
You're gonna get it.

493
00:24:25,505 --> 00:24:27,924
[McMahon, present day]
I know how to be an arrogant person

494
00:24:28,008 --> 00:24:31,470
that just throws his weight around
and a bully. That sort of stuff.

495
00:24:31,553 --> 00:24:36,224
It's not my fault that I happen to be
a self-made billionaire!

496
00:24:36,308 --> 00:24:38,602
It was easy for me
to get into that character,

497
00:24:38,685 --> 00:24:42,230
because I knew
all the things that I disliked.

498
00:24:42,314 --> 00:24:44,608
Some people are rich.

499
00:24:44,691 --> 00:24:46,485
And you're not.

500
00:24:46,568 --> 00:24:48,195
[crowd booing]

501
00:24:48,278 --> 00:24:50,655
[Austin] He knows
how to manipulate a crowd

502
00:24:50,739 --> 00:24:53,533
as well or better
than anybody that's ever done it.

503
00:24:53,617 --> 00:24:54,784
[applause]

504
00:24:54,868 --> 00:24:56,995
Hell, I'm a real Texan now!

505
00:24:57,078 --> 00:24:59,247
[McMahon, present day]
I loved heat, as they call it.

506
00:24:59,331 --> 00:25:01,666
When you go out
and manipulate the audience

507
00:25:01,750 --> 00:25:03,627
and, you know,
they boo the hell out of you,

508
00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:06,505
you really want
to get that heat and feel it.

509
00:25:06,588 --> 00:25:09,007
You're not afraid of it.
It's like, go embrace it.

510
00:25:09,591 --> 00:25:11,343
This is what I think of Texas.

511
00:25:12,844 --> 00:25:14,221
[crowd exclaims]

512
00:25:14,304 --> 00:25:15,889
[McMahon] Such a great feeling.

513
00:25:16,515 --> 00:25:18,433
[Austin] Vince was a master
at making people care

514
00:25:18,517 --> 00:25:20,519
or making people hate him or feel emotion.

515
00:25:20,602 --> 00:25:23,271
Emotions are when you sell tickets.

516
00:25:23,355 --> 00:25:24,439
It's emotion.

517
00:25:24,523 --> 00:25:28,068
If you mash that button
so that you get emotion from people,

518
00:25:28,151 --> 00:25:29,986
they forget where they are.

519
00:25:30,070 --> 00:25:31,780
They're not at a movie theater
or an arena.

520
00:25:31,863 --> 00:25:34,282
They're right there looking at you.
It's one-on-one.

521
00:25:35,242 --> 00:25:36,660
That's when you know you have them.

522
00:25:36,743 --> 00:25:39,788
-[commentator] <i>Revel in it, Mr. McMahon.</i>
-I remember where I was...

523
00:25:39,871 --> 00:25:44,000
Performing is easy.
Being yourself is the more difficult part.

524
00:25:45,210 --> 00:25:48,505
[interviewer] And what similarities
do you share with Mr. McMahon?

525
00:25:49,172 --> 00:25:50,632
The character Mr. McMahon with me?

526
00:25:50,715 --> 00:25:52,968
-[interviewer] Yeah.
-None whatsoever.

527
00:25:53,969 --> 00:25:57,055
Mr. McMahon
is an extension of Vince McMahon,

528
00:25:57,138 --> 00:25:59,099
but blown way out of proportion.

529
00:25:59,683 --> 00:26:03,186
The difference between
Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon...

530
00:26:04,104 --> 00:26:06,356
[laughs] Probably not that much.

531
00:26:06,439 --> 00:26:09,442
Exactly the same person.

532
00:26:09,526 --> 00:26:11,069
It's not a far stretch.

533
00:26:11,152 --> 00:26:15,407
The character of Mr. McMahon
is really just Vince.

534
00:26:15,490 --> 00:26:18,577
He'll tell you different.
No, Mr. McMahon is Vince.

535
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:24,249
A lot of the promos and the diatribes
that have been cut on other people,

536
00:26:24,332 --> 00:26:27,919
I've had actually cut on me in real life.

537
00:26:28,003 --> 00:26:32,215
"Ah, I'd never say that." I said,
"Yeah, you would. You said it to me."

538
00:26:32,299 --> 00:26:35,093
[interviewer] Bruce claimed
that he's been on the receiving end

539
00:26:35,176 --> 00:26:37,262
of the Mr. McMahon in real life.

540
00:26:37,345 --> 00:26:38,471
[chuckles]

541
00:26:39,389 --> 00:26:42,434
[McMahon] I'm very,
very passionate about our business,

542
00:26:42,517 --> 00:26:46,271
and sometimes
that passion is a bit effusive.

543
00:26:46,354 --> 00:26:49,274
So, I probably can get
out of bounds a little bit.

544
00:26:49,357 --> 00:26:52,819
The Mr. McMahon character
is pretty close to Vince the man,

545
00:26:52,902 --> 00:26:55,363
but, obviously, highly exaggerated.

546
00:26:56,114 --> 00:26:58,533
The best characters in wrestling

547
00:26:58,617 --> 00:27:02,078
are guys at their core
with the volume turned up.

548
00:27:02,162 --> 00:27:04,956
What you saw from me as Stone Cold
was me with the volume turned up,

549
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:06,583
same with Vince.

550
00:27:07,584 --> 00:27:11,254
Much of great fiction is that funny line

551
00:27:12,297 --> 00:27:15,008
between reality and storytelling.

552
00:27:15,091 --> 00:27:20,263
Vince loved blurring that line
between fact and fiction.

553
00:27:20,347 --> 00:27:22,807
A lot of people
have confused through the years

554
00:27:22,891 --> 00:27:25,810
who my character was on television
and who I am.

555
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:29,731
It used to bug the hell out of me.
"I'm not that guy."

556
00:27:29,814 --> 00:27:33,026
And then I realized,
"It doesn't matter what you want, Vince."

557
00:27:33,109 --> 00:27:35,070
"It doesn't matter
how you wanna be perceived."

558
00:27:35,654 --> 00:27:37,864
"It's the way you are being perceived."

559
00:27:37,947 --> 00:27:39,658
Perception is reality.

560
00:27:39,741 --> 00:27:42,285
You can't change
the way people think about you.

561
00:27:42,869 --> 00:27:44,162
[commentator 1] <i>The double bird!</i>

562
00:27:44,245 --> 00:27:47,666
[commentator 2] <i>Pure hatred
driving Mr. McMahon!</i>

563
00:27:47,749 --> 00:27:51,586
Austin-McMahon,
that dynamic was just ridiculously good.

564
00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:53,630
You could make a great argument

565
00:27:53,713 --> 00:27:55,507
it's the greatest feud
in wrestling history.

566
00:27:55,590 --> 00:27:57,133
[crowd cheering]

567
00:27:57,217 --> 00:27:59,177
[Brian Gewirtz] The rise
of Stone Cold Steve Austin

568
00:27:59,260 --> 00:28:01,388
and Stone Cold versus Mr. McMahon

569
00:28:01,471 --> 00:28:05,141
is what generated
the huge amount of ratings for WWE

570
00:28:05,225 --> 00:28:09,312
that essentially ended the 83 weeks
of WCW beating them in the ratings,

571
00:28:09,896 --> 00:28:14,442
and, ultimately, like a tsunami,
overtook the wrestling business, period.

572
00:28:14,526 --> 00:28:16,403
It was the hottest thing in the world.

573
00:28:16,903 --> 00:28:19,614
[Bischoff] I say this, knowing it'll sound
like I'm putting myself over

574
00:28:19,698 --> 00:28:24,077
and being an arrogant prick,
but Vince took our formula,

575
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,454
decided he was going to do it,

576
00:28:26,538 --> 00:28:28,581
only he was going to do it better.

577
00:28:29,457 --> 00:28:30,417
And he did.

578
00:28:30,500 --> 00:28:34,963
There were so many things that we did
in WCW that WWE eventually replicated.

579
00:28:35,547 --> 00:28:39,926
D-X was nothing more
than a derivative of the nWo.

580
00:28:40,009 --> 00:28:44,973
The Mr. McMahon character
was a derivative of evil Eric Bischoff,

581
00:28:45,056 --> 00:28:46,683
was the evil boss.

582
00:28:46,766 --> 00:28:50,603
Come on, Vince. You gotta admit
you ripped me off on that one.

583
00:28:50,687 --> 00:28:52,689
Now, granted, you did it better.

584
00:28:52,772 --> 00:28:55,316
But, come on, who did it first?

585
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:59,863
If Eric Bischoff thinks that
he played the heel character before I did...

586
00:29:01,239 --> 00:29:04,951
Okay. If that were the case,
he sure as hell didn't play it as well.

587
00:29:05,034 --> 00:29:06,786
So, good for him.

588
00:29:08,246 --> 00:29:10,790
WWE was going to win inevitably.

589
00:29:10,874 --> 00:29:13,418
Vince McMahon, being the competitor he is,

590
00:29:14,043 --> 00:29:15,879
the fighter that he is,

591
00:29:15,962 --> 00:29:18,339
would have done whatever he had to do

592
00:29:18,423 --> 00:29:20,216
to ultimately win that fight.

593
00:29:21,217 --> 00:29:22,719
And I was coming up short.

594
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,055
{\an8}I was not focused on creative.

595
00:29:26,139 --> 00:29:29,017
The nWo angle was a couple years old now.

596
00:29:29,100 --> 00:29:31,102
It wasn't fresh anymore.

597
00:29:32,061 --> 00:29:33,897
Things that were going on in WWE

598
00:29:33,980 --> 00:29:39,235
with Mr. McMahon, and Steve Austin,
and others was new, was fresh,

599
00:29:39,819 --> 00:29:43,573
which caused the audience to shift over
and check out what they were doing.

600
00:29:44,491 --> 00:29:47,118
[Meltzer] Eric's big mistake was thinking,

601
00:29:47,202 --> 00:29:48,328
"Because I'm ahead,

602
00:29:48,411 --> 00:29:51,331
all I gotta do is go with these guys,
and I'll always be ahead."

603
00:29:51,414 --> 00:29:55,168
In wrestling, everyone's got a shelf life,
and you always have to make new stars.

604
00:29:55,251 --> 00:29:58,171
And Vince was trying
to make new stars because he had to.

605
00:29:58,254 --> 00:30:02,425
And that's the bottom line,
'cause Stone Cold said so.

606
00:30:02,509 --> 00:30:03,760
[crowd] Said so!

607
00:30:03,843 --> 00:30:05,053
[Meltzer] Vince got very lucky.

608
00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:08,097
Austin was an incredible,
incredible, incredible success.

609
00:30:08,181 --> 00:30:10,225
And then Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson comes.

610
00:30:10,308 --> 00:30:12,560
[Johnson] <i>Do you smell
what The Rock is cooking?</i>

611
00:30:12,644 --> 00:30:15,730
[crowd cheering]

612
00:30:16,439 --> 00:30:17,816
[announcer] <i>Ladies and gentlemen...</i>

613
00:30:17,899 --> 00:30:21,277
[Landsberg] <i>Great to welcome to the show
one of the fastest risers to the top</i>

614
00:30:21,361 --> 00:30:24,239
{\an8}<i>in the history of wrestling, The Rock.
Let's start off with your history.</i>

615
00:30:24,322 --> 00:30:27,534
{\an8}<i>When you broke in, you were packaged
as a part of a wrestling legacy...</i>

616
00:30:27,617 --> 00:30:29,953
{\an8}[Johnson] My grandfather
was High Chief Peter Maivia.

617
00:30:30,036 --> 00:30:30,995
{\an8}He was,

618
00:30:31,079 --> 00:30:35,291
in many ways, responsible
for putting the island of Samoa

619
00:30:35,375 --> 00:30:37,627
and Samoan athletes on the map.

620
00:30:37,710 --> 00:30:40,755
[announcer] <i>From the isle of Samoa,</i>

621
00:30:40,839 --> 00:30:45,093
<i>High Chief Peter Maivia!</i>

622
00:30:45,885 --> 00:30:49,514
[Johnson] My grandfather
wrestled for Vince McMahon Sr.,

623
00:30:49,597 --> 00:30:51,975
and then in the '80s, my dad came along,

624
00:30:52,559 --> 00:30:54,394
Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson,

625
00:30:54,477 --> 00:30:58,690
{\an8}and, along with Tony Atlas,
became the first Black tag team champions.

626
00:30:59,566 --> 00:31:02,026
[White] The Rock,
everything he do is just like his father.

627
00:31:02,110 --> 00:31:04,487
Walk like his father,
dress like his father.

628
00:31:04,571 --> 00:31:06,906
You didn't know better,
you'd think that was Rocky Johnson.

629
00:31:07,490 --> 00:31:11,786
[Johnson] I remember meeting
Vince McMahon Jr. when I was 11 years old.

630
00:31:11,870 --> 00:31:13,413
Looked down at me, "Good to meet you,"

631
00:31:13,496 --> 00:31:15,540
gave me a firm handshake,
and looked me in the eye.

632
00:31:15,623 --> 00:31:17,166
I'll never forget it.

633
00:31:17,250 --> 00:31:19,043
[announcer] <i>Here we go with a newcomer</i>

634
00:31:19,127 --> 00:31:23,256
<i>who's really made a name for himself
as of late, talking about Rocky Maivia.</i>

635
00:31:23,339 --> 00:31:26,634
[Prichard] When he came in,
we really promoted him

636
00:31:26,718 --> 00:31:29,721
as this third-generation guy
that you're gonna love.

637
00:31:29,804 --> 00:31:31,806
[announcer 1] <i>This guy
is gonna be phenomenal.</i>

638
00:31:31,890 --> 00:31:34,309
[announcer 2] <i>The first
third-generation superstar ever.</i>

639
00:31:34,392 --> 00:31:36,394
We shoved him down their throats.

640
00:31:37,979 --> 00:31:39,898
[announcer 3] <i>Uh-oh.
You hear the chant of...</i>

641
00:31:39,981 --> 00:31:42,817
-[crowd chanting] Rocky sucks!
-[announcer 3] "Rocky sucks."

642
00:31:42,901 --> 00:31:44,319
[crowd] Rocky sucks!

643
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:46,154
They hated him.

644
00:31:46,237 --> 00:31:48,156
[crowd booing]

645
00:31:48,239 --> 00:31:51,910
[McMahon] A lot of our audience, I think,
thought that this person was just, like,

646
00:31:51,993 --> 00:31:53,453
handed this opportunity,

647
00:31:54,037 --> 00:31:57,582
and no matter how hard
Dwayne worked in the ring,

648
00:31:57,665 --> 00:31:59,834
initially, people start booing him.

649
00:31:59,918 --> 00:32:03,671
[announcer] <i>I'm sick of hearing about
Rocky Maivia's old man. Who cares?</i>

650
00:32:03,755 --> 00:32:05,673
[crowd chanting] Rocky sucks! Rocky sucks!

651
00:32:05,757 --> 00:32:09,677
[Shoemaker] The fans hated The Rock
because WWE told us to love The Rock.

652
00:32:09,761 --> 00:32:12,805
And it took The Rock turning heel

653
00:32:12,889 --> 00:32:15,224
and acknowledging
that the fans were booing him

654
00:32:15,308 --> 00:32:17,477
for the fans to start to love him.

655
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:20,521
[group, chanting]
<i>We are the Nation of Domination!</i>

656
00:32:20,605 --> 00:32:22,398
[forceful rock music playing]

657
00:32:22,482 --> 00:32:27,070
[Johnson] The Nation of Domination
was a faction that was based on pride

658
00:32:27,153 --> 00:32:31,157
in being of color
and not being held down by the man.

659
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:35,745
[announcer] <i>The newest member of
the Nation of Domination, Rocky Maivia!</i>

660
00:32:35,828 --> 00:32:38,081
[Johnson] I talked to Vince, and I said,

661
00:32:38,164 --> 00:32:40,667
"I would just love
the opportunity to speak

662
00:32:40,750 --> 00:32:42,710
on why I'm joining the Nation,"

663
00:32:43,628 --> 00:32:46,172
and he said, "You got it."

664
00:32:47,340 --> 00:32:49,175
I got three words.

665
00:32:50,051 --> 00:32:52,553
"Die, Rocky, die."

666
00:32:53,346 --> 00:32:56,391
That's the gratitude I get
from you pieces of crap.

667
00:32:56,474 --> 00:32:59,978
I said, "It's not a Black or white thing.
It's a respect thing."

668
00:33:00,061 --> 00:33:01,646
"It's about me kicking your ass thing."

669
00:33:01,729 --> 00:33:06,150
This isn't about the color of my skin.
This is about respect.

670
00:33:06,234 --> 00:33:07,944
[crowd chanting indistinctly]

671
00:33:08,027 --> 00:33:10,446
[Johnson] Sometimes in our lives,
we find these moments

672
00:33:10,530 --> 00:33:13,116
where there's a shift and a click,

673
00:33:13,199 --> 00:33:17,704
and you go, "Man, there is
some real power behind that."

674
00:33:17,787 --> 00:33:23,084
Well, Rocky Maivia's a lot of things,
but "sucks" isn't one of 'em.

675
00:33:23,167 --> 00:33:27,672
And boom, just like that, within a month,
I became the hottest heel in the company.

676
00:33:27,755 --> 00:33:32,385
-...if you smell what The Rock is cookin'.
-[crowd] ...what The Rock is cookin'.

677
00:33:32,468 --> 00:33:35,096
[rock music playing]

678
00:33:35,179 --> 00:33:37,849
[Johnson] I remember having a conversation
with Vince and him saying,

679
00:33:37,932 --> 00:33:40,560
"I'm gonna make you WWE Champion."

680
00:33:40,643 --> 00:33:42,145
[announcer 1] <i>Sharpshooter!</i>

681
00:33:42,228 --> 00:33:43,604
<i>That's a sharpshooter!</i>

682
00:33:43,688 --> 00:33:45,023
[announcer 2] <i>Sharpshooter!</i>

683
00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:47,442
-[announcer 1] <i>Ref's gonna ring the bell!</i>
-[bell ringing]

684
00:33:47,525 --> 00:33:49,360
[crowd cheering]

685
00:33:49,444 --> 00:33:52,280
[Johnson] I said,
"You know, this is a really big deal."

686
00:33:52,363 --> 00:33:55,033
I said, "I'm first WWE champion of color."

687
00:33:55,116 --> 00:33:58,161
He said, "I know."
And he goes, "But I don't see that."

688
00:33:58,244 --> 00:34:00,413
[crowd cheering]

689
00:34:00,496 --> 00:34:04,333
Vince, and I know this for sure,
he was always about,

690
00:34:04,417 --> 00:34:08,713
"I don't care what color you are.
You could be black and green and purple."

691
00:34:08,796 --> 00:34:11,257
"You could be a unicorn
for all I give a shit." [laughs]

692
00:34:11,340 --> 00:34:14,802
"As long as you are drawing money,
you will be champion."

693
00:34:15,428 --> 00:34:17,638
[crowd cheering]

694
00:34:17,722 --> 00:34:22,894
It ain't got nothing to do with color.
It's not racism, it's business.

695
00:34:24,479 --> 00:34:27,148
He don't see Black. He don't see white.

696
00:34:27,231 --> 00:34:28,357
He sees only green.

697
00:34:28,441 --> 00:34:31,110
[crowd cheering]

698
00:34:32,111 --> 00:34:35,865
[Johnson] For people who knew WWE
at that time, the Attitude Era,

699
00:34:35,948 --> 00:34:37,533
it was a unique and special time,

700
00:34:37,617 --> 00:34:41,704
because it truly was
whatever you can imagine,

701
00:34:41,788 --> 00:34:42,830
we can do.

702
00:34:43,831 --> 00:34:44,749
And we did.

703
00:34:45,875 --> 00:34:47,335
[compelling music playing]

704
00:34:47,418 --> 00:34:51,255
[announcer 1] <i>Someone help!
Oh my gosh! Oh my God!</i>

705
00:34:51,339 --> 00:34:52,548
<i>Oh!</i>

706
00:34:53,466 --> 00:34:56,511
-[announcer 2] <i>Look out!</i>
-[announcer 1] <i>See what just happened!</i>

707
00:34:56,594 --> 00:35:00,098
[Prichard] The Attitude Era.
Man, it was a movement.

708
00:35:00,181 --> 00:35:03,810
Everywhere you went, you saw Austin 3:16,

709
00:35:03,893 --> 00:35:05,812
you saw DX.

710
00:35:05,895 --> 00:35:07,313
-Suck it, man.
-[all] Right!

711
00:35:07,396 --> 00:35:09,732
[Prichard] You saw The Rock.

712
00:35:09,816 --> 00:35:11,776
Everybody was in on it.

713
00:35:11,859 --> 00:35:15,530
[Meltzer] They were so popular.
Their merchandise was everywhere.

714
00:35:15,613 --> 00:35:18,616
The influence was all over the culture.

715
00:35:18,699 --> 00:35:22,245
We're gonna have WWE superstars
right here in the house.

716
00:35:22,328 --> 00:35:25,373
[announcer] <i>Ladies and gentlemen,
The Rock!</i>

717
00:35:25,456 --> 00:35:27,041
[Johnson] You invited The Rock

718
00:35:27,125 --> 00:35:30,294
{\an8}to speak
at the Republican National Convention?

719
00:35:30,378 --> 00:35:31,462
[audience cheering]

720
00:35:31,546 --> 00:35:34,465
Please welcome
the one, the only, Triple H.

721
00:35:35,299 --> 00:35:37,176
[Levesque] For a lot of us
in the Attitude Era,

722
00:35:37,260 --> 00:35:38,970
we went from being like,

723
00:35:39,053 --> 00:35:42,223
"Yeah, I'm a dude on TV
that people recognize occasionally,"

724
00:35:42,306 --> 00:35:44,684
to, "You can't go anywhere."

725
00:35:44,767 --> 00:35:47,812
It was getting out of control.

726
00:35:48,521 --> 00:35:50,523
They're making way more money now
than they did then,

727
00:35:50,606 --> 00:35:53,317
but as far as actual real popularity,
that was the peak.

728
00:35:53,901 --> 00:35:56,904
[reporter] <i>It's the entertainment
phenomenon of the '90s.</i>

729
00:35:56,988 --> 00:35:59,407
<i>A billion-dollar industry worldwide,</i>

730
00:35:59,490 --> 00:36:01,784
<i>a TV-ratings smash,</i>

731
00:36:01,868 --> 00:36:05,872
<i>a sport, of sorts,
that draws more teenage male viewers</i>

732
00:36:05,955 --> 00:36:07,498
<i>than Monday Night Football</i>

733
00:36:07,582 --> 00:36:09,417
<i>or World Series Baseball.</i>

734
00:36:10,293 --> 00:36:13,838
[announcer speaking indistinctly]

735
00:36:13,921 --> 00:36:17,508
[compelling music continues]

736
00:36:17,592 --> 00:36:20,011
[announcer speaking indistinctly]

737
00:36:20,970 --> 00:36:24,724
[Meltzer] People who remember that period,
that is a very fond memory,

738
00:36:24,807 --> 00:36:28,060
because wrestling really was
huge mainstream at that time.

739
00:36:28,144 --> 00:36:30,229
From a pure marketability standpoint,

740
00:36:30,313 --> 00:36:33,733
the product they were putting on was,
was awesome. It connected.

741
00:36:33,816 --> 00:36:36,569
Um, from a moral standpoint,
morals are morals,

742
00:36:36,652 --> 00:36:38,571
but it rubbed some people the wrong way.

743
00:36:38,654 --> 00:36:40,990
[reporter 1] <i>One true thing
about professional wrestling,</i>

744
00:36:41,073 --> 00:36:42,867
<i>millions of fans are pouring in.</i>

745
00:36:42,950 --> 00:36:44,911
<i>But this business has serious questions,</i>

746
00:36:44,994 --> 00:36:48,164
<i>some involving violence
and sexually explicit content.</i>

747
00:36:48,247 --> 00:36:51,334
[reporter 2] <i>Promoters would have you
believe that it's family entertainment.</i>

748
00:36:51,417 --> 00:36:55,504
<i>But if you've never been to a show
or never seen one on TV, watch one.</i>

749
00:36:55,588 --> 00:36:56,839
<i>You're in for a shock.</i>

750
00:36:57,590 --> 00:37:00,801
[Levesque] As performers, you're going
for whatever the biggest reaction is,

751
00:37:00,885 --> 00:37:04,847
and you're seeing these things
get bigger reactions than anything else.

752
00:37:04,931 --> 00:37:08,768
So you're going down that road of,
"I'm going to be edgy."

753
00:37:08,851 --> 00:37:11,187
I got two words for ya.

754
00:37:11,270 --> 00:37:13,189
"Suck it!" Yeah!

755
00:37:13,272 --> 00:37:15,316
[Levesque] It was a lot of fun
and a lot of freedom,

756
00:37:16,317 --> 00:37:20,863
but there's a lot of stuff online that
you can watch, where I go, like, "Oh..."

757
00:37:21,447 --> 00:37:23,950
"How did we ever
get away with that stuff?"

758
00:37:24,033 --> 00:37:26,744
You can take your pick
of either one of these hoes.

759
00:37:26,827 --> 00:37:31,582
[reporter 1] <i>Critics say WWE
blows away the envelope of good taste.</i>

760
00:37:31,666 --> 00:37:34,669
[reporter 2] <i>Perhaps no one
has been more critical of McMahon</i>

761
00:37:34,752 --> 00:37:38,214
<i>than</i> New York Post <i>columnist
Phil Mushnick.</i>

762
00:37:38,297 --> 00:37:40,299
They knew that they could
get away with everything.

763
00:37:41,092 --> 00:37:42,843
Not anything, everything.

764
00:37:43,636 --> 00:37:46,514
And they pushed it.
They pushed that for all it was worth.

765
00:37:47,098 --> 00:37:49,976
We're gonna go low,
and then we're gonna go lower,

766
00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:51,894
{\an8}and then we're gonna go lower.

767
00:37:51,978 --> 00:37:53,521
[gasps]

768
00:37:53,604 --> 00:37:56,357
{\an8}This was maybe a standard deviation

769
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,484
beyond what we were doing before,

770
00:37:58,567 --> 00:38:02,321
um, but it was still family-friendly.

771
00:38:02,405 --> 00:38:03,781
No one got killed.

772
00:38:03,864 --> 00:38:06,409
[announcer] <i>The Rock
is inside that casket!</i>

773
00:38:06,492 --> 00:38:08,160
There was, you know, no rape.

774
00:38:08,244 --> 00:38:10,997
Come on out, you rapist!

775
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,333
No use of knives or guns
or anything like that.

776
00:38:14,417 --> 00:38:15,334
[woman screams]

777
00:38:15,418 --> 00:38:18,796
[reporter] <i>Witness a recent
simulated castration scene.</i>

778
00:38:18,879 --> 00:38:21,340
[McMahon] So, it's still family-friendly,

779
00:38:21,424 --> 00:38:23,759
maybe for more of an adult family,

780
00:38:23,843 --> 00:38:25,803
not for young kids.

781
00:38:25,886 --> 00:38:30,057
They were doing the double-talk.
They'd say, "We're not marketing to kids,"

782
00:38:30,141 --> 00:38:32,685
when, in fact, their audience was kids.

783
00:38:32,768 --> 00:38:34,061
And so some people would go,

784
00:38:34,145 --> 00:38:37,481
"You've got a responsibility
to not be such a bad influence on kids."

785
00:38:37,565 --> 00:38:40,276
"We're not marketing to kids anymore.
That's what we used to do."

786
00:38:40,359 --> 00:38:41,569
All right, whatever.

787
00:38:41,652 --> 00:38:46,532
I think it was primarily
aimed at young males.

788
00:38:46,615 --> 00:38:48,868
Action figures, dolls.

789
00:38:48,951 --> 00:38:51,454
{\an8}These aren't being
bought by and enjoyed by adults.

790
00:38:51,537 --> 00:38:53,122
{\an8}These are for 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds.

791
00:38:53,205 --> 00:38:57,335
[Prichard] Frankly, the Attitude Era,
the kids embraced it.

792
00:38:57,418 --> 00:38:59,462
-Suck it!
-Suck it!

793
00:38:59,545 --> 00:39:02,673
They were seeing something
maybe they weren't supposed to see.

794
00:39:02,757 --> 00:39:08,512
So, the Attitude Era,
in many ways, probably attracted kids.

795
00:39:08,596 --> 00:39:12,516
Would I have let my kids watch it?
Yeah, I probably would have.

796
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:14,643
{\an8}It's a monster, is really what it is.

797
00:39:14,727 --> 00:39:17,063
{\an8}It's a nationwide monster
that's gotta be stopped.

798
00:39:17,146 --> 00:39:19,690
{\an8}The principal is entitled to his opinion.

799
00:39:20,775 --> 00:39:22,026
{\an8}I'm entitled to mine.

800
00:39:22,109 --> 00:39:25,112
We wholeheartedly
would want parents and everyone

801
00:39:25,196 --> 00:39:27,573
to exercise their freedom of choice.

802
00:39:27,656 --> 00:39:30,034
Damn it, it is America.
Go live in your world.

803
00:39:30,117 --> 00:39:33,704
Don't like us, click us off.
Don't watch us.

804
00:39:35,289 --> 00:39:41,879
Look, I... I was the one
certainly leading the charge in that,

805
00:39:41,962 --> 00:39:45,383
"Don't tell us to raise your children.
You need to raise them yourself."

806
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,385
"If they're influenced by TV,
that's your fault."

807
00:39:47,468 --> 00:39:50,679
Now, having a daughter, uh, I...

808
00:39:50,763 --> 00:39:54,475
Look, there are times
we probably could have been less...

809
00:39:54,558 --> 00:39:57,728
less objectionable towards our women.

810
00:39:57,812 --> 00:39:58,646
[chanting]

811
00:39:58,729 --> 00:40:03,651
It is time to stop your grinnin'
and drop your linen.

812
00:40:03,734 --> 00:40:04,568
[crowd cheering]

813
00:40:04,652 --> 00:40:06,153
[announcer] <i>Oh my!</i>

814
00:40:06,237 --> 00:40:10,783
We continued to consistently
go over the line in terms of taste.

815
00:40:10,866 --> 00:40:13,035
Uh, there were
a lot of questionable things.

816
00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:17,706
You look pretty good on your knees, Chyna.
It almost looks like a natural position.

817
00:40:18,457 --> 00:40:21,710
[Meltzer] It was exploitive of women
like you wouldn't believe,

818
00:40:21,794 --> 00:40:23,963
but that's what was selling,
and the audience was guys.

819
00:40:24,046 --> 00:40:26,340
Teenage guys seeing women like that,

820
00:40:26,424 --> 00:40:29,510
from a pure marketing standpoint,
it was, uh, very, very successful.

821
00:40:29,593 --> 00:40:33,222
The Attitude Era women
weren't really considered wrestlers.

822
00:40:34,432 --> 00:40:37,393
{\an8}Eye candy.
That's kind of what they were at the time.

823
00:40:37,476 --> 00:40:38,644
[feline roar]

824
00:40:38,727 --> 00:40:39,728
[whip cracks]

825
00:40:40,604 --> 00:40:44,233
{\an8}[Stratigeas] Sable was
the pioneer WWE diva, so to speak.

826
00:40:44,316 --> 00:40:47,236
She knew exactly what her role was.

827
00:40:48,487 --> 00:40:50,322
People know her as Sexy Sable,

828
00:40:51,115 --> 00:40:54,076
but she was also
athletically contributing to the show,

829
00:40:54,660 --> 00:40:57,079
which I think is overlooked,
because it wasn't normal,

830
00:40:57,163 --> 00:40:59,665
it wasn't acceptable,
it wasn't what the women did.

831
00:41:01,041 --> 00:41:03,961
You know, at the time, late '90s,
you had Jerry Springer.

832
00:41:04,044 --> 00:41:08,841
{\an8}[narrator] <i>Just when you thought
you'd seen it all, the bad get badder.</i>

833
00:41:08,924 --> 00:41:11,260
[Stratus] You had trainwreck television
that was happening.

834
00:41:11,343 --> 00:41:12,761
Howard Stern was huge.

835
00:41:12,845 --> 00:41:15,097
-I wanna bang Bonnie, Jill, and Brandy.
-[chuckle]

836
00:41:15,181 --> 00:41:17,892
The Attitude Era was a reflection
of what was going on in the world.

837
00:41:19,602 --> 00:41:20,895
I've got to question...

838
00:41:20,978 --> 00:41:24,398
[Prichard] Society at that time
was a lot sexier,

839
00:41:24,482 --> 00:41:26,484
and we were reflecting that in every way.

840
00:41:27,067 --> 00:41:28,402
Some of the things...

841
00:41:28,486 --> 00:41:29,570
Eh...

842
00:41:29,653 --> 00:41:34,992
Bra-and-panty matches, I'm not sure
that, uh, that would be suggested today.

843
00:41:35,576 --> 00:41:38,496
At that time,
that was what was on television.

844
00:41:38,579 --> 00:41:39,705
[crowd cheering]

845
00:41:39,788 --> 00:41:41,999
[Mazer] Vince McMahon is part of his time.

846
00:41:42,583 --> 00:41:46,086
The difference is
that he's in a distinctive position,

847
00:41:46,170 --> 00:41:48,839
where he reinforces those tendencies,

848
00:41:48,923 --> 00:41:53,761
rather than challenging or changing
or transforming them into something else.

849
00:41:53,844 --> 00:41:54,762
[crowd cheering]

850
00:41:54,845 --> 00:41:56,263
[McMahon] We more or less followed

851
00:41:56,347 --> 00:41:58,766
what was going on
in the entertainment business.

852
00:41:58,849 --> 00:42:01,602
A lot of times, the highest quarter-hour,

853
00:42:01,685 --> 00:42:05,189
the highest rating
in that segment were women.

854
00:42:06,148 --> 00:42:09,652
Much higher than some of the great matches
and things of that nature.

855
00:42:11,028 --> 00:42:12,738
We felt like we needed to be edgy,

856
00:42:12,821 --> 00:42:15,241
'cause that's what
television was at that time.

857
00:42:15,324 --> 00:42:17,826
And this is live TV,

858
00:42:17,910 --> 00:42:21,497
and there ain't a damn thing
Vince can do about this.

859
00:42:23,290 --> 00:42:26,961
[Stephanie] We'd always want
to serve our audience, so we did,

860
00:42:27,044 --> 00:42:30,881
and, of course, took it
maybe a little too far in some cases.

861
00:42:30,965 --> 00:42:32,132
-[cheering]
-[yells]

862
00:42:32,216 --> 00:42:34,218
[atmospheric music playing]

863
00:42:38,138 --> 00:42:39,473
[music fades]

864
00:42:40,307 --> 00:42:42,977
[Levesque] You can look back at it now
and say how crazy it was,

865
00:42:43,060 --> 00:42:45,980
You can look back and say,
"God, you should have never done that,"

866
00:42:46,063 --> 00:42:49,316
or, "That was so inappropriate," or, um...

867
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:50,442
It was.

868
00:42:50,526 --> 00:42:51,652
And, uh...

869
00:42:52,778 --> 00:42:55,948
Who's worse, the guy that did it
or the people that loved it? I don't know.

870
00:42:57,616 --> 00:42:59,868
[Ross] <i>Welcome to the</i> War Zone, <i>everybody!
I'm Jim Ross.</i>

871
00:42:59,952 --> 00:43:03,289
<i>I've been joined by James T. Gordon
here at ringside.</i>

872
00:43:03,372 --> 00:43:07,585
<i>The owner of World Wrestling Entertainment
is on his way...</i>

873
00:43:07,668 --> 00:43:09,378
[McMahon] Owen Hart,

874
00:43:09,461 --> 00:43:15,593
I am ordering you
to appear in this ring right now.

875
00:43:15,676 --> 00:43:17,261
[crowd cheering]

876
00:43:17,344 --> 00:43:19,221
[Lawler] <i>There he is, right there.</i>

877
00:43:19,305 --> 00:43:21,181
[Ross] <i>He's coming, but are we gonna see</i>

878
00:43:21,265 --> 00:43:23,058
<i>reporting for duty or for a fight?</i>

879
00:43:23,142 --> 00:43:24,727
[McMahon] After the problems I had

880
00:43:24,810 --> 00:43:26,228
with Bret Hart, I met with Owen.

881
00:43:26,312 --> 00:43:30,274
I said, "Do you want to stay with us,
or do you wanna leave with Bret?"

882
00:43:30,357 --> 00:43:32,693
He said, "Well, I'd like to stay."

883
00:43:32,776 --> 00:43:37,197
It's time for me to do what I have to do,

884
00:43:37,281 --> 00:43:42,661
and that is remain right here
in World Wrestling Entertainment!

885
00:43:42,745 --> 00:43:48,208
[Hart] When I went to WCW and Owen stayed,
nothing was the same anymore.

886
00:43:48,292 --> 00:43:50,252
He thought I was mad at him.

887
00:43:50,878 --> 00:43:53,672
If anything, I had great sympathy for Owen

888
00:43:53,756 --> 00:43:57,509
and felt badly that he was in
the predicament that he was in.

889
00:43:57,593 --> 00:44:00,429
Owen had nothing to do
with either me or Vince,

890
00:44:00,512 --> 00:44:02,139
but he was gonna pay for it,

891
00:44:03,057 --> 00:44:06,477
and they kind of humiliated his character

892
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:10,898
as often as they could
for quite a while to get at me.

893
00:44:11,732 --> 00:44:16,487
[McMahon] The hypothesis that we would do
something against Owen because Bret left

894
00:44:16,570 --> 00:44:18,739
only speaks to Bret's ego. [chuckles]

895
00:44:18,822 --> 00:44:20,699
Really, Bret?
You know, why would we do that?

896
00:44:20,783 --> 00:44:22,576
We don't care about you. You left.

897
00:44:22,660 --> 00:44:24,453
We're trying to make Owen a star.

898
00:44:24,536 --> 00:44:26,538
[Ross] <i>What? What is this?</i>

899
00:44:26,622 --> 00:44:28,999
[Hart] So they ended up
doing a storyline with him,

900
00:44:29,083 --> 00:44:31,418
where they said,
"You're gonna be the Blue Blazer again,

901
00:44:31,502 --> 00:44:34,546
and you're gonna be
this sort of clumsy oaf hero."

902
00:44:35,673 --> 00:44:37,591
[interviewer] May 23rd, '99.

903
00:44:39,677 --> 00:44:41,220
Can you talk about that day?

904
00:44:42,054 --> 00:44:43,180
That was Owen.

905
00:44:46,266 --> 00:44:47,434
[sighs]

906
00:44:48,227 --> 00:44:50,771
[somber music playing]

907
00:44:51,605 --> 00:44:55,526
{\an8}[Ross] <i>Folks, let's take you now
to an interview conducted earlier tonight,</i>

908
00:44:55,609 --> 00:44:57,695
{\an8}<i>and we got big problems out here.</i>

909
00:44:57,778 --> 00:44:59,613
{\an8}Blue Blazer, you got a big match tonight...

910
00:44:59,697 --> 00:45:03,575
{\an8}[Prichard] We were live
in a pre-taped interview of Owen.

911
00:45:03,659 --> 00:45:05,911
{\an8}We were going to drop Owen down,

912
00:45:05,994 --> 00:45:09,248
kind of like rappelling
from the top of the ceiling.

913
00:45:09,832 --> 00:45:11,667
Owen was to fly, so to speak,

914
00:45:11,750 --> 00:45:15,713
as we've done before,
from the rafters of the building.

915
00:45:16,296 --> 00:45:18,382
{\an8}[Prichard] I'm watching
the pre-tape interview,

916
00:45:18,465 --> 00:45:20,426
{\an8}and I hear someone say,

917
00:45:20,509 --> 00:45:22,386
"Owen's in the ring."

918
00:45:23,137 --> 00:45:25,764
I went, "What the hell is he doing?"

919
00:45:25,848 --> 00:45:29,768
I was on a flight,
and I could feel something.

920
00:45:30,394 --> 00:45:32,271
Something overcame me,

921
00:45:32,354 --> 00:45:36,608
and I can remember going,
"Something bad happened. I can feel it."

922
00:45:36,692 --> 00:45:39,153
[Ross] Ladies and gentlemen,
when you're doing live television,

923
00:45:39,236 --> 00:45:43,657
a lot of things can happen,
and sometimes they are not good.

924
00:45:43,741 --> 00:45:46,785
Uh, the Blue Blazer,
as we know is Owen Hart,

925
00:45:46,869 --> 00:45:51,415
was going to make a very spectacular,
superhero-like entrance from the rafters,

926
00:45:51,498 --> 00:45:53,959
and something went terribly wrong here.

927
00:45:54,793 --> 00:45:59,465
[McMahon] Thank God, for the audience,
that we were in a blackout.

928
00:45:59,548 --> 00:46:03,093
So they didn't really see it. Thank God.

929
00:46:03,886 --> 00:46:07,514
When the lights came up,
they saw Owen in the ring

930
00:46:07,598 --> 00:46:09,850
and medical personnel were working on him.

931
00:46:09,933 --> 00:46:13,187
We wondered whether or not,
"Could Owen be alive?"

932
00:46:13,270 --> 00:46:14,146
Uh...

933
00:46:14,229 --> 00:46:15,355
Surely he could be.

934
00:46:15,439 --> 00:46:17,316
Jerry Lawler back joining me here.

935
00:46:17,399 --> 00:46:21,153
King, I was just reiterating to the fans
this is not a part of the show.

936
00:46:21,236 --> 00:46:25,073
Uh, we're here to entertain and have fun,
but this is neither.

937
00:46:25,783 --> 00:46:29,787
No. It's, uh... It's...
It doesn't look good at all.

938
00:46:30,370 --> 00:46:34,792
Jerry Lawler came back and says,
"Bruce, I... I think he's dead."

939
00:46:34,875 --> 00:46:36,084
[somber music continues]

940
00:46:36,168 --> 00:46:38,670
I'm like... "No."

941
00:46:39,755 --> 00:46:41,131
You know, I was like...

942
00:46:42,341 --> 00:46:43,926
"How do you even say that?"

943
00:46:44,009 --> 00:46:45,636
[somber music continues]

944
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:49,097
[Prichard] The policeman that
was next to me, pulled me off to the side,

945
00:46:49,181 --> 00:46:53,227
and Vince was there, and he let us know
they pronounced him dead.

946
00:46:53,310 --> 00:46:58,857
I have the... unfortunate responsibility

947
00:46:59,691 --> 00:47:01,902
to let everyone know
that Owen Hart has died.

948
00:47:03,278 --> 00:47:08,116
Owen Hart has tragically died
from that accident... here tonight.

949
00:47:10,619 --> 00:47:14,039
The decision that, uh,
basically, I had to make,

950
00:47:14,122 --> 00:47:15,958
was whether or not the show goes on.

951
00:47:16,750 --> 00:47:19,336
The live audience
didn't really see what happened.

952
00:47:19,419 --> 00:47:22,297
Had they seen, no question,
you have to shut the show down.

953
00:47:22,965 --> 00:47:24,758
[Prichard] He didn't announce
to the live house

954
00:47:24,842 --> 00:47:27,261
'cause he just didn't think
that was the right thing to do.

955
00:47:28,178 --> 00:47:30,806
[McMahon] Those people came to see a show.

956
00:47:30,889 --> 00:47:32,850
They didn't come to see somebody die.

957
00:47:33,433 --> 00:47:35,561
And, me as a businessman, it's like,

958
00:47:35,644 --> 00:47:38,438
"Okay, let's continue on.
Let's continue the show."

959
00:47:38,522 --> 00:47:43,068
First off, Owen Hart,
I'm praying for you, buddy.

960
00:47:43,151 --> 00:47:44,570
[emotionally] And I am too.

961
00:47:44,653 --> 00:47:45,654
[sighs shakily]

962
00:47:45,737 --> 00:47:49,032
Val Venis, you've been chasing
these puppies around.

963
00:47:49,116 --> 00:47:50,659
Well, pal, I got news for you.

964
00:47:50,742 --> 00:47:53,537
Those are my puppies,
and they always have been.

965
00:47:53,620 --> 00:47:55,622
They never should have continued the show.

966
00:47:55,706 --> 00:47:56,540
[crowd cheering]

967
00:47:56,623 --> 00:47:59,501
[Meltzer] You know,
one of your buddies just died.

968
00:47:59,585 --> 00:48:02,129
Like, literally just died in this ring,

969
00:48:02,212 --> 00:48:06,508
and his blood is right there,
and we're going out there wrestling,

970
00:48:06,592 --> 00:48:09,469
trying to perform for this audience
that doesn't even know it,

971
00:48:09,553 --> 00:48:10,971
while we're brokenhearted.

972
00:48:12,431 --> 00:48:14,600
[Landsberg] What you do,
your business, is entertainment,

973
00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:17,185
and you allowed
the entertainment to continue

974
00:48:17,269 --> 00:48:19,021
with the blood of Owen Hart
still in the ring.

975
00:48:19,104 --> 00:48:21,064
I'm not sure
that's not disrespectful to Owen Hart.

976
00:48:21,982 --> 00:48:23,942
There were a lot
of negative comments, actually,

977
00:48:24,026 --> 00:48:26,194
as to whether or not
the show should have continued.

978
00:48:26,278 --> 00:48:29,364
{\an8}I actually know firsthand
from the wrestlers involved

979
00:48:29,448 --> 00:48:32,034
{\an8}that they wheeled my dead brother past...

980
00:48:32,659 --> 00:48:35,787
{\an8}right past all the wrestlers
and actually pushed wrestlers out the door

981
00:48:35,871 --> 00:48:38,457
{\an8}and said, "Go, go, go. You're on."

982
00:48:38,540 --> 00:48:42,419
Naturally, Bret's gonna feel like,
you know, like a brother should.

983
00:48:42,502 --> 00:48:46,590
He had every right to say
anything negative about our company.

984
00:48:46,673 --> 00:48:50,260
{\an8}I think if Vince McMahon had dropped
Shane McMahon from the ceiling,

985
00:48:50,344 --> 00:48:51,970
{\an8}uh, and he splatted on the mat,

986
00:48:52,054 --> 00:48:54,848
{\an8}I don't think he would've scraped him off
and set the next match up.

987
00:48:54,932 --> 00:48:58,268
Had it been me, not just my son,

988
00:48:58,352 --> 00:49:01,480
had it been me who was
"splatted on the mat," as Bret said,

989
00:49:01,563 --> 00:49:03,440
I would want the show to go on.

990
00:49:03,523 --> 00:49:07,444
So get me out of there, you know,
and let the show go on.

991
00:49:07,527 --> 00:49:11,114
I'd do it with me,
and to this day, I would.

992
00:49:11,198 --> 00:49:13,367
[somber music continues]

993
00:49:16,495 --> 00:49:19,331
[Hart] It really was very hard
for me to take at that time

994
00:49:19,414 --> 00:49:21,833
because I kept thinking that maybe it was...

995
00:49:22,501 --> 00:49:25,337
Maybe they murdered him to get back at me.

996
00:49:27,089 --> 00:49:28,423
[exhales emotionally]

997
00:49:29,549 --> 00:49:32,719
At 10:01 a.m. this morning,

998
00:49:32,803 --> 00:49:36,473
my legal counsel
filed a wrongful death lawsuit

999
00:49:36,556 --> 00:49:38,183
for my husband's death.

1000
00:49:38,266 --> 00:49:42,688
[McMahon] In terms of Owen, we settled
a lawsuit basically with his wife,

1001
00:49:42,771 --> 00:49:46,274
and then we find out,
which we thought all along,

1002
00:49:46,358 --> 00:49:48,026
it wasn't our fault.

1003
00:49:48,610 --> 00:49:52,280
{\an8}Unfortunately, the apparatus
they were using was defective,

1004
00:49:52,364 --> 00:49:54,658
{\an8}and the manufacturer
knew it was defective,

1005
00:49:54,741 --> 00:49:56,785
and then we sued the manufacturer.

1006
00:49:57,369 --> 00:50:02,791
[Hart] They investigated Vince and WWE
for a long time.

1007
00:50:02,874 --> 00:50:06,545
A policeman from Kansas City's,
uh, police department called me,

1008
00:50:06,628 --> 00:50:08,755
and he goes, "I promised you I'd call you,

1009
00:50:08,839 --> 00:50:11,091
and I'm calling to tell you
there's nothing criminal here."

1010
00:50:11,174 --> 00:50:13,343
"This was just a horrible accident."

1011
00:50:13,927 --> 00:50:19,099
And for me, when I heard that,
it was like, "Okay, it's an accident."

1012
00:50:19,182 --> 00:50:23,520
I basically, I think
in my heart of hearts, forgave Vince.

1013
00:50:24,730 --> 00:50:27,816
I had plenty of reasons
to have issues with Vince,

1014
00:50:27,899 --> 00:50:32,154
but they were on a professional level
and not a personal level.

1015
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:34,322
[music fades]

1016
00:50:35,699 --> 00:50:36,616
[crowd cheering]

1017
00:50:36,700 --> 00:50:39,745
[Landsberg] Do you think there will be
any changes in wrestling because of this?

1018
00:50:39,828 --> 00:50:42,456
{\an8}[Hart] I certainly hope so. We're not

1019
00:50:42,539 --> 00:50:45,292
so dead against the wrestling business,

1020
00:50:45,375 --> 00:50:48,670
but we are disappointed
in the drastic turn

1021
00:50:48,754 --> 00:50:50,881
that wrestling's taken
in the last two years,

1022
00:50:50,964 --> 00:50:54,176
and it's a shame that the fans
have sort of become wild dogs

1023
00:50:54,259 --> 00:50:57,596
that sort of want more
and more and more all the time.

1024
00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:01,391
At that point,
we're all pushing the envelope.

1025
00:51:01,475 --> 00:51:02,309
[crowd cheering]

1026
00:51:02,392 --> 00:51:04,436
-[announcer] <i>Look out!</i>
-[woman] <i>Oh my...</i>

1027
00:51:04,519 --> 00:51:06,813
[Calaway] Everybody's willing
to do whatever it takes.

1028
00:51:07,564 --> 00:51:09,608
No one's saying,
"I don't want to do that,"

1029
00:51:09,691 --> 00:51:11,026
or, "That's too dangerous."

1030
00:51:11,109 --> 00:51:12,235
[announcer] <i>Oh my...</i>

1031
00:51:12,319 --> 00:51:16,823
...but at some point, enough is enough.

1032
00:51:16,907 --> 00:51:18,950
[announcer 1] <i>He's burning! Put him out!</i>

1033
00:51:19,034 --> 00:51:21,703
[McMahon] We want to give
our fans what they want.

1034
00:51:21,787 --> 00:51:24,331
We're probably pushing it
as far as we can right now,

1035
00:51:24,414 --> 00:51:28,502
but who knows as it relates to the future?

1036
00:51:28,585 --> 00:51:31,505
[tense music rising]

1037
00:51:37,219 --> 00:51:38,386
[music fades]

1038
00:51:38,470 --> 00:51:42,432
[crowd chanting]
<i>Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit...</i>

1039
00:51:45,018 --> 00:51:47,312
[melancholy music playing]

1040
00:51:53,944 --> 00:51:57,823
[closing theme music playing]