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Austin vs. DX

Watching the Monday Night War on the network and the episode on DX puts the attitude era solely on the shoulders of DX.  I was just getting back into wrestling thanks to Stone Cold as a 15 yr old in 97, so here's my question: who was more representative of "attitude" Austin or DX?   There's literally nothing in this episode about Austin but he was giving the finger long before the crotch chops became popular.   So is this simply HHH producing a personal history reflection?

​Come on now, there's still another bazillion episodes of this show left for them to contradict the points they made in the earlier episodes.  They have plenty of time left to say it was all Austin.  But the DX thing is a bit of retcon that has been percolating into WWE history for the past decade or so, with the new company line being that the DX invasion stuff was what turned around the war.  History is written by those who are banging the boss's daughter, as they say. ​

Comments

  1. Evolution may be a mystery, but HHHistory is not.

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  2. I'm attending Smackdown live next week in Biloxi, MS and you can bet Zeb will have a prominent role on the show. That town LOVES him, especially the military group I'm a part of since he's a Vietnam vet.

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  3. I really like Zeb until he turns into 'Murica Man. :-/

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  4. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomerySeptember 9, 2014 at 9:31 PM

    Well there was nothing abou tAustin because I think the format of the show focuses specifically on one subject per episode, but the DX stuff really had HUNTOR all over it, because only he is delusional enough to think Billy Gunn was a key asset to winning the Monday Night War.

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  5. They were a part of it but they never even have a platform without Austin. It was all Austin Turning the tide and everyone knows that.

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  6. I like him being around just because he's a manager and WWE using more of them is always a good thing.

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  7. Hmm let's see: Jerry Springer on RAW...in 2014...terrible Bella acting...and a McMahon in the center of it all...and a BUNNY kicking a wrestlers ass...someone is definitely trolling all of us. It may very well be a clashing of the minds that we're witnessing....I'm scared...

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  8. One of the many reasons I have no interest in any WWE produced documentaries or docuseries docuseries. I'm happy just watching the matches.

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  9. And who would he be? I would like to know more about Paul the person, and you seem like a good friend of his that'd be able to help me understand who he is. So, if you could please elaborate id be ever so grateful.

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  10. Lesnar retaining all depends on whether they want their top champ part time. If they want a full time guy Rollins cashes in.

    Either way I'm super hyped for the show. On paper it looks fantastic.

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  11. Good points, but there are also many positive things going on as well.

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  12. It just makes me laugh ... Chyna was the most over one in the group. They were important, of course ... but man.

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  13. I'm surprised they did an episode focused on Foley. I'm surprised he wasn't more than "just some goof with a sock on his hand who didn't do much".

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  14. In total agreement. Better card than SummerSlam IMO.

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  15. Very true but good things can be quickly overshadowed by repeated ignorance. We've reached the point of Mcmahon making the same mistakes repeatedly. I question if he even cares anymore.

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  16. Depends which ones they are and if Vince/HHH feels the need to change history boost their ego. For example, the ECW documentary is really good.

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  17. Now we need Seth and Dean to get the HiaC slot.

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  18. Larry Zbyszko is writing history?

    Wake me when Pillman gets his due.

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  19. The 411ization of the BoD continues.

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  20. DX were midcard. Entertaining and overmidcard, but midcard. They keep selling that thing where they had the tank at Nitro like some major event in the Monday night wars. No it wasn't. Nobody cared about that skit until they bought WCW and started putting it on DVDs.

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  21. I was fairly young at the time so take it for what its worth, but I don't even remember the DX at Nitro thing at all. I've seen it in a hundred docs by this point, but I have no recollection of seeing it as a kid, though I remember everything that Austin did and remember vividly changing the channel when I heard that Mankind was going to wn the title. I think the DX invasion angle is a lot cooler and seems more important in retrospect than it was at the time.

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  22. I don't understand what you're saying. If you're trying to say I came from there id like to politely rebuff your statement for it is patently false. Perhaps you could use a fedora.

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  23. I think Rikishi needs more recognition....

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  24. The Nitro invasion is pretty low on the totem poll as far as DX moments are concerned and what I remember most.

    The night after WrestleMania with X-PAC debuting and the Outlaws joining in, the Nation impressions, the Raw street fight, Rocks promo on Chyna, the ladder match, helping Mick win the WWF Title are all more imprinted on my brain as a fan than the Nitro invasion.

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  25. The way I see it is with WWF(E) winning the war, of course the DX invasion shit gets a lot more attention than it deserves. Had WCW won, Im guessing Bischoff calling out Vince and winning their "match" by forfeit would be seen as a huge deal on WCW's Monday Night War Dvd's....

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  26. I never saw the big deal about the Nitro invasion thing, but I did really like DX in 1998. I even bought the shirt.

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  27. Speaking of that, I think Jericho would have been a much better reveal of the driver that ran down Austin than Rikishi was.

    Jericho still had a lot of momentum as a face but he would have been a much better heel.

    Oh, and Rikishi's run in the 2000 Rumble was great.

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  28. Jericho badly needed some kind of character motivation and it would have fit in perfectly with how Jericho debuted opposed to The Rock and would have had some kind of motivation to isolate him from his rivalry from Austin. It would have made for much more interesting, compelling TV even though Austin and Jericho had kinda lousy chemistry with each other.

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  29. I was happy to see Mick get an entire show devoted to him and how he helped the war, but overall this long awaited show is just one big sad jerk-session. I'll eat my words if the next episode is all about Sting or Goldberg (and it BETTER be Sting), or WCW in ANY way other than the same 5 clips of Bischoff, but it's probably just gonna be one about Austin and then Vince Wins, The End.

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  30. Uh oh, Cesaro did the Swing! Now he's gonna get jobbed out for getting too over!

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  31. By the time they'd been matched up in big PPV matches in 2002 Austin had lost whatever groove he had found in 2001. Going back to face seemed like it took some wind out of his sails while lack of building up Jericho as a heel in 2001/2002 hurt him.


    They had some really good Raw matches in 2001.


    Considering Jericho was spilling coffee on Kane, him being the guy who ran over Austin would have massively been a step up. Not to mention the clues pointed to him. Long blonde hair and he had debuted shortly before Austin was run down.

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  32. Yeah, the DX Invasion was funny, but it was just a one-off gag, and certainly didn't leave a lasting impression the way Austins' stuff did. Hell, I can think of plenty of other things *DX* did that were more notable.

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  33. The Monday Night Wars has been a big, jumbled mess so far. The 1st episode was ok, but each one since then has bounced all over, confusing the timing and importance of things. The D-X episode was the worst. (Could somebody tell these guys the difference between a "tank" and a "jeep"?) The narrative so far is that the NWO was a big deal, but that it took Triple H escaping from HBK's shadow to build D-X into an army that almost single-handedly won the war, and that it was D-X's example that convinced Vince to embrace Attitude, and that Austin was popular, Mick Foley popped a few big ratings before his body broke down and he retired, and oh yeah the Rock was there too.

    I assume upcoming episodes will focus on Austin vs McMahon, the Montreal Screwjob, the Higher Power, the Rock, and McMahon eventually buying WCW. The only WCW stuff I see them covering will be the fall of the company, Russo, and David Arquette. No one who didn't experience it all at the time will come away with any coherent insight into what it all means, and that the moral of it all was OMG the Attitude Era rulez and relive it all on The Network $9.99 $9.99 $9.99

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  34. I think he is saying that you are being a butt.

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  35. Yeah, annoyed they do so much focus on DX but I'm sure when we get to the focus on Austin/McMahon, they'll point out that's what made folks watch and should be a fun ride.
    Looking forward to the Bret Hart one as it still stuns how badly WCW dropped the ball with him.

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  36. In high school in 1998-99, just about everybody was doing a crotch chop. And if you weren't wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt on campus, you were in a DX shirt or n.W.o shirt (black and white, red and black, and occasional L.W.O too). Wrestling was on top of the friggin' world during that time.

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  37. I miss Dean Ambrose. I hear WWE is speeding him along for a Monday following NOC return.

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  38. He should be done filming by then.

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  39. Depends on where you're starting the timeline. Until his retirement, Shawn was the second most over person on the planet behind Austin, and, like, inches behind Austin. I've never seen heel heat night-to-night like '97-'98 Shawn could bring.


    That said, most of the so-called "Attitude Era" is post-Shawn, so…

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  40. davidbonzaisaldanamontgomerySeptember 10, 2014 at 1:58 AM

    As a kid, I never knew why my mom was pissed when I'd do a crotch chop and yell SUCK IT! I thought suck it was just a word-salad phrase, I didn't know it actually meant fellatio.

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  41. Uggh. The slant and bias in that DX episode of the Monday night War was insane. They are really downplaying Austing's influence in these first 4 episodes, which is odd considering it's almost impossible to overstate his impact.

    I got a kick out of HBK trying to talk about being sick of the "cartoon" style of WWF so he asked to be put with Hunter. Um, Shawn, I know you were a druggie back then but Austin vs. the Hart Foundation, the Nation of Domination, Undertaker, the gang wars, Foley vs. HHH, Sable, Sunny, and Goldust (all stuff going on in 97 before DX) was hardly "cartoonish." WWF was already changing a great deal.

    Then we hear (and see a graphic) that DX was the reason that Raw started to rise in the ratings in the Fall. Couldn't have been red hot Austin and the beginnings of Austin/McMahon. Nope, all HHH and DX.

    Then we once again hear how DX was the reason Raw finally beat Nitro in the ratings. Really? Because I sure thought it was the first ever Austin/McMahon match that put them over the top (even if it was a bait and switch).

    And finally (and this one made me actually laugh and roll my eyes) HHH tells us that WCW was so scared of WWF, they were running shows right nearby and allegedly gave away tons of free tickets. Um...no. Actually Nitro was selling out in 98 in almost every venue. The electronic signs during the DX Invasion were digitally manipulated by WWF to show WCW having tickets available and even offering free tickets.

    You know the first episode wasn't too bad, but each succeeding episode has been getting worse and worse for offering a slanted history.

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  42. The DX Army were almost certainly the backbone of the midcard in 98 and as mentioned were actually behind Austin (obviously), McMahon, Foley, Taker, Kane and Rock in terms of importance.

    However the 97 version was certainly innovative and during the period between Summerslam 97 and Wrestlemania 98 they were red hot and all over the product - still secondary to Austin in terms of popularity I'll give you - but still an absolutely game changing and innovative group.

    Though as many have mentioned, this DX was more about DX Shawn than the group itself. Guy was killing it on the mic during that period. I'll always be of the belief that that Shawn for that six months was one of the greatest characters ever on TV - shame that doing it any longer would probably have killed him though.

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  43. How DARE they overstate DX's importance in the DX episode!

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  44. Funny you say that - I remember NWO shirts being major business at school, but *never* DX.

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  45. We absolutely need a Sting or Goldberg episode. I'm so tired of the wwe only giving credit to the nWo for wcw's dominance. Sting, Luger, DDP and especially Goldberg were mega over. Also, they want to spin that the nWo was only over when it was the three man version but the wolfpac was HUGE. WWE's version seems to be, "Ted was so mean and Eric was an idiot but got lucky with the nWo, which was hot for a few months but once they added Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell, everyone hated the nWo and wwe finally won again forever and ever amen."

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  46. I think that fella is being quite rude.

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  47. I for sure remember the DX Nitro invasion and being blown away by it but it wasn't one of the things my friends and I buzzed about like the nation impression or the triple h/rock ladder match.

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  48. It's not a HHH ego thing so much as a typical wrestling politics thing. HHH is one of the guys running the company and Austin is a legend that the company is on speaking terms with but who isn't under any sort of contract that I know of and isn't afraid to criticize the company in his podcasts or on Twitter, so as a result, HHH and his buddies were the backbone of the Attitude Era and Austin was there and made everybody some money, too.

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