>>146668421997 is an amazing year for WWF, and one of their best ever. But only if you enjoy pro wrestling. If instead you just want to watch crash TV, then 1998 and 1999 I guess.
1997 is still the New Generation era btw. AE begins either after the Montreal Screwjob in November or after WrestleMania 14 when Austin wins the world title, depending on how you look at it. 1997 was (mostly) New Gen though.
Once WWF becomes crash TV, the angles at the top of the card can be a lot of fun, but the wrestling is de-emphasized a lot and every angle below the midcard gets really cringe and excessively sleazy. It can be a fun watch sometimes but it's mostly garbage. The PPVs were mostly shit during this era too (I'm talking 98 and 99). The focus was heavily on Raw and the TV ratings, not on building up to a good PPV. This gets corrected in the later years of the AE after Russo fucks off the kill WCW.
>>14669010Nope. Russo's influence was there but he wasn't writing the shows himself, nor had WWF gone crash TV, until December 15, 1997. Russo himself has confirmed that this was the first show he wrote. You can see the shift in Raw and WWF as a whole in December 1997 and of course in 1998, after Bret Hart left. I can only imagine Bret kept Russo on a leash somewhat in 97 as well, given how amazing the Hart Foundation storyline was in comparison to any stable Russo came up with (including the cringe DX). Russo was still just giving ideas in 96 and 97, that Vince would curate. By 98, Russo had free reign to do what he wanted to raise ratings at any cost, no matter the damage to the product and pro wrestling as a whole, long term.
Vince McMahon > Vince Russo
Eric Bischoff > Vince Russo
