>>18710088Vince was fighting for the existence of his company. WCW absolutely kicked their ass throughout the most of 1996 and Vince knew 1997 needed to be good to get their audience back.
Backstage it was the perfect combination of Vince, Ross, Patterson, Russo and Cornette working together to put the best possible story out.
What helped for Vince is that the seeds sowed in 1996 finally sprouted in 1997. Austin's rise to the main event, Bret's descent into darkness, Bearer's heel turn starting the slow burn debut of Kane, Mankind slowly turning babyface and introducing the three faces, Triple H gets put out of the doghouse and finally gets more of a push, Rocky Maivia turns heel and slowly becomes The Rock.
Vince's full-on focus on making sure the main event delivered was also strong. Everything about 1997's main event felt unpredictable, wild and exciting. RAW genuinely felt like an asylum where the inmates ran wild and everyone wanted to kill each other, but unlike WCW, Vince held the tightest of ships.
Add that the solidified main event going into 1998 got improved by Russo's great way of re-inventing most of the midcard to make the entire card entertaining.
1997 WWF was the best year creatively because Vince was backed into a corner and had to be smart.
