It's known that the WWF's attempt in 98-99 to go for a more "adult" style with increased violence and more sexual-based storylines was a dismal flop. Kids werent allowed to watch, families were turned off, and most of the teen/young adult audience saw it as a cheap attempt to get attention, and just kept watching WCW and ECW. But what if it had suceeded, and became one of the most profitable periods in the company's history?
The big issue with Attitude storylines is that shit just didn't make any sense. The writers apparently were taking cues from Hollywood movies and stuff, but they lacked the capacity to maintain continuity long term. Stories would just end in the middle of the plot or there'd be so many twists and turns that it was impossible to follow. ECW had the benefit of having one guy direct all the stories, thus being able to keep a consistent plan. WCW took the more traditional wrestling route so the stories rarely got more complex past "face hates heel they fight". Which yeah isn't going to cut it for a Hollywood blockbuster it's been good enough for the wrestling business for the last 100 years.
Also, had the Attitude experiment caught on, you certainly wouldn't have had Bischoff poach Austin, Taker, Kane, Mankind or the Rock over to WCW by mid '99.
Well Taker would have always stayed with the WWF. I mean he stayed with them until McMahon sold the whole thing off a few years back. Austin and Foley might have been harder to sway into the WCW considering how much they hated Bischoff as a person. Austin at least seemed to realize business was business when he signed with WCW. Foley however seems perfectly happy to work in Japan rather than work for WCW.
Oh yeah I do remember that moment.
As for Benoit, what is he up to nowadays?
He does a lot of backstage stuff for Bret Hart's Canadian indy promotion. He occasionally shows up to do a match, but they're very slow compared to a lot of American stuff these days. Which is understandable, not only is that more of their style he's been pretty candid about the issues he had over the years due to concessions. I remember in Eddie's book he said that Benoit would come back from matches and not remember having wrestled due to mini-blackouts. Which if ture, holy fuck that had to be some scary shit.
The one story I wish was brought up more is the fact that if the WWF didn't start to really go under HBK might never have gotten clean. By his own admission being more or less forced out of the environment that was enabling him is really the only thing that let him get his drug problems under control. Seeing him and Hall at fan events and stuff compared to what sort of condition they were in by '99 is frankly a little amazing.