I could write an epic tragedy about WWE’s relationship with comedy.
Through the years they’ve had a near endless fleet of some of the most gifted physical specimens through their doors, who have an overabundance of natural charisma, a killer instinct for timing & playing off a crowd, and years of training on houses shows where every day is substitute teacher day. Yet trying to find anything in the attitude era that isn’t “lol women, foreigners & the gays” is like panning for gold in a river of turds.
The Attitude Era is very exciting, mostly because a hot crowd makes any wrestling show exciting, but it’s also, for the most part, TOO MUCH, MAN. That being said there were some real comedic gems on reflection and, to be clear, this isn’t a list of botches or things that are so bad they’re funny, christ we’d be here all day, this is a list of times where WWE or a wrestler tried to be funny, and succeeded in the actual way that they intended. That eliminates a LOT of competition.
Warm up your chuckle gear, because these are the 10 Funniest WWE Moments of the Attitude Era.
10. And I’m Gonna Get You Too Rhyno (Raw – August 13, 2001)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3RoNU1xEdk
Ok sure, when you take out slut-shaming, 95% of Y2Js attitude era promos are him just saying the word “again”, but let’s be clear, Chris Jericho’s long-term rivalry with Stephanie McMahon is a thing of legend, mostly because you can tell that they’re actually deeply in love, but since Triple “Billy Zane in Titanic” H is always around and controlling their lives they’re forced to turn that love into hatred.
It’s actually very nuanced, and if I remember right it was actually booked by Arthur Miller, who originally coined the term ‘Trashbag Ho’ in the Crucible. The pinnacle of their verbal jousting was in 2001 on the August 13th episode of Raw. Therein sits the classic bait-and-switch line, “at Summerslam I’m going to take care of the smelly, greasy, nasty animal… and I’m gonna get you too rhyno” before the next 10 mins becomes a relentless bagging on Stephanie for having cosmetic work done.
It’s borderline stuff, but what really makes it work is Stephanie’s face selling the whole thing. She’s complicit in the bit and her excellently timed outrage sparks major heat. Bonus points for this segment also being the one where Rock shows up and says that Booker T thinks 2+2 is Thomas Jefferson, which is also the only thing from that rivalry that still holds up. And speaking of the great one…
9. But My Name’s Billy (Heat – July 11, 1999)
I really tried to limit myself to having just one entry featuring The Rock, because during the Attitude Era, the man turned out zingers like Mr Kipling turns out exceedingly good cakes. Call me a heretic but I actually think Rock does his best promo work in the ruthless aggression era but that’s another story for another list. There’s a fairly strong contender in the promo rock cut on all 5 of his opponents at Armageddon 2000 where he slaughters Triple H especially, but in terms of someone being absolutely ruined, to the point where it may have done actual career damage, it has to be the promo he cut on Billy Gunn on the heat before SummerSlam 99.
He pretends to be Billy talking to God, sad about how he absolutely sucks before the immortal response “bob” “but my name’s billy” “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS”. Bonus points as well for this being the first time the rock actually used this catchphrase. First and best.
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