Hitman84
01-23-2006, 12:00 PM
I recently received the Bret Hart DVD for my birthday (best birthday present ever!) and kinda got thinking back to 1997; the days when I watched WWF full time (actually because we had cable and the Sky Sports channel). Before you groan at the mention of Bret Hart and 1997 in the same sentence; thinking this is another thread about Montréal, it isn't. Montréal will be mentioned, but isn’t the main focus of this thread.
I'm not sure about the rest of you; but I see 1997 as kind of a transition period for the WWF from 'the New Generation' to 'the Attitude Era', and therefore the WWF would have needed a way to take their cartoon character gimmick wrestlers like Isaac Yankem DDS, Bob 'Sparkplug' Holly, Goldust and others and repackage them to make their characters and gimmicks credible for the kinds of storylines they were going to write during the Attitude Era which I'll say, for argument's sake, was anything between WrestleMania XIV and getting the 'F' out.
It is for this reason that I refer to 1997, but more specifically the period between Survivor Series 1996 and WrestleMania XIV in 1998, as the Year of the Tweener. All the way through 1997 we had Super Faces getting heel heat and Super Heels getting face heat. This was definitely the case at WrestleMania 13 – Bret Hart had always considered himself as a face but, when he and Stone Cold did the double turn in their match, he effectively became a tweener rather than a heel. The WWF were trying to get him over as a heel in the US but, as there were still Americans who cheered for him and as he was a super face in Canada and Europe, you can't help but agree he was a tweener. The same is true for the rest of the Hart Foundation.
Another example is the Undertaker. A super heel in the early 90s, but a super face by the time 1997 came along. You'll notice if you watch his 1997 matches that he would get face pops one night, and heel pops the next. During his match with Bret Hart at the One Night Only PPV in Manchester, UK, the fans were cheering him and booing Bret, and then five minutes later booing him and cheering Bret. Looking back on it all, it seems very hard to know who the WWF were setting up as the faces and heels in their matches – every match I watch from that year seems to be tweener vs. tweener as opposed to face vs. heel.
As mentioned, Stone Cold is another obvious example – a wrestler who acted like a heel, but got face pop after face pop. Then there was Rocky Maivia: a face when he debuted in November 1996, but by Summerslam 1997 we were beginning to hear the 'Rocky sucks!' and 'Die, Rocky, Die!' chants. The last example I give is that of Degeneration-X – a heel stable, set up to oppose the Hart Foundation, but by Montréal, they were being cheered as if they were super faces even though they continued to act like heels in the ring and on the mic.
1997 must have been a tough year for the WWF – the ratings war with WCW notwithstanding, and then there were the contract negotiations with Bret and not knowing whether he was leaving, then of course there was Montréal. Having said all this, though, 1997 was perhaps also the best year for the WWF. Whether it was intentional or not, if we hadn't have had this ambiguity as to which wrestlers were supposed to be faces or heels, then the WWF wouldn't have had a firm enough platform from which to launch the attitude era in 1998, by which time each tweener had been designated a role as face or heel.
So, was 1997 the Year of the Tweener? I think it was. Was it necessarily a good thing? I'm not sure – the whole HBK vs. Bret backstage beef ruined things to a certain degree as they could have had many more amazing matches before Bret was forced out, which would have made 1997 a much better wrestling year. Yet without the events of 1997, the Attitude Era may not have been as good.
That's my tuppence worth, anyway, what do the rest of you think?
Hitman84
I'm not sure about the rest of you; but I see 1997 as kind of a transition period for the WWF from 'the New Generation' to 'the Attitude Era', and therefore the WWF would have needed a way to take their cartoon character gimmick wrestlers like Isaac Yankem DDS, Bob 'Sparkplug' Holly, Goldust and others and repackage them to make their characters and gimmicks credible for the kinds of storylines they were going to write during the Attitude Era which I'll say, for argument's sake, was anything between WrestleMania XIV and getting the 'F' out.
It is for this reason that I refer to 1997, but more specifically the period between Survivor Series 1996 and WrestleMania XIV in 1998, as the Year of the Tweener. All the way through 1997 we had Super Faces getting heel heat and Super Heels getting face heat. This was definitely the case at WrestleMania 13 – Bret Hart had always considered himself as a face but, when he and Stone Cold did the double turn in their match, he effectively became a tweener rather than a heel. The WWF were trying to get him over as a heel in the US but, as there were still Americans who cheered for him and as he was a super face in Canada and Europe, you can't help but agree he was a tweener. The same is true for the rest of the Hart Foundation.
Another example is the Undertaker. A super heel in the early 90s, but a super face by the time 1997 came along. You'll notice if you watch his 1997 matches that he would get face pops one night, and heel pops the next. During his match with Bret Hart at the One Night Only PPV in Manchester, UK, the fans were cheering him and booing Bret, and then five minutes later booing him and cheering Bret. Looking back on it all, it seems very hard to know who the WWF were setting up as the faces and heels in their matches – every match I watch from that year seems to be tweener vs. tweener as opposed to face vs. heel.
As mentioned, Stone Cold is another obvious example – a wrestler who acted like a heel, but got face pop after face pop. Then there was Rocky Maivia: a face when he debuted in November 1996, but by Summerslam 1997 we were beginning to hear the 'Rocky sucks!' and 'Die, Rocky, Die!' chants. The last example I give is that of Degeneration-X – a heel stable, set up to oppose the Hart Foundation, but by Montréal, they were being cheered as if they were super faces even though they continued to act like heels in the ring and on the mic.
1997 must have been a tough year for the WWF – the ratings war with WCW notwithstanding, and then there were the contract negotiations with Bret and not knowing whether he was leaving, then of course there was Montréal. Having said all this, though, 1997 was perhaps also the best year for the WWF. Whether it was intentional or not, if we hadn't have had this ambiguity as to which wrestlers were supposed to be faces or heels, then the WWF wouldn't have had a firm enough platform from which to launch the attitude era in 1998, by which time each tweener had been designated a role as face or heel.
So, was 1997 the Year of the Tweener? I think it was. Was it necessarily a good thing? I'm not sure – the whole HBK vs. Bret backstage beef ruined things to a certain degree as they could have had many more amazing matches before Bret was forced out, which would have made 1997 a much better wrestling year. Yet without the events of 1997, the Attitude Era may not have been as good.
That's my tuppence worth, anyway, what do the rest of you think?
Hitman84