The Attitude Era remains famous for its wild and unpredictable storylines and not all are remembered fondly.
Arguably WWE’s most popular and unpredictable period in history, it straddled the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Its crowning glory arguably came at WrestleMania 14 in 1998 when Stone Cold Steve Austin, with the help of Mike Tyson, became WWE Champion.
That was much to the angst of Mr McMahon, the character behind company owner Vince McMahon, that was born around the same time.
McMahon often placed himself at the centre of storylines during the Attitude Era, winning championships and having major WrestleMania matches – and not always against Austin.
In 1999, he was busy battling The Undertaker and his Ministry of Darkness when, at the Backlash pay per view, his daughter Stephanie McMahon was ‘kidnapped’ by the menacing Taker and his band of cohorts.
In scenes that are now enough to make you wince a little, Stephanie was detained by Undertaker and, incredibly, tied to a ‘symbol’ resembling a crucifix, though WWE were understandably careful to avoid using that or similar terms on television.
Nonetheless, poor Steph was carried to the ring by the John Bradshaw Layfield, Farooq, Mideon and Viscera before the Ministry commenced a bizarre sacrificial-style ‘black wedding’ ceremony on an episode of Monday Night Raw.
Speaking on Backstage Pass, Layfield has discussed how surreal the whole segment was, and the stark warning good friend Farooq – Ron Simmons – gave him as they, nervously and on-edge, made their way down the ramp carrying the daughter of their boss.
“Me and Ron were the ones who carried Stephanie on the cross,” he explained. “So I was certainly a part of it, I was the delivery mechanism!
“Ron’s sitting there looking at me and in that James Earl Jones voice he goes: ‘Don’t drop her! Just don’t drop her.’
“She’s tied up, she can’t do anything, so we’ve got to make sure we take care of her, we’ve got to load her in the ring, stick her head under the rope. We’re making sure we take care of Stephanie!”
The younger McMahon was, not unsurprisingly, nervous head of the segment, too, with former WWE agent Gerald Brisco chiming in: “I’m sitting the production meeting, and I glance over at Stephanie and seeing the reactions on her face [when we said] ‘we’re going to tie you to a cross and then we’re gonna drag you out there.’
“Give her credit, she was fantastic.”
While millions tuned in around the world to see the bizarre storyline play out, the thousands in attendance at the arena on the night itself were, Layfield – who won multiple championships as JBL – added: “I think they were freaked out. I was in the first Buried Alive match when we buried The Undertaker, and people thought we’d killed him!
“It wasn’t that much with the crucifixion, or whatever you call this, because it was a symbol, it wasn’t a cross!
“People were looking at it like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ It was kind of weird.”
Austin would end up thwarting the ‘ceremony’ which, in true WWE style, Vince McMahon turned out to be in on all along as the major villain of the storyline, his own daughter used as a would-be pawn.
Stephanie later stood up against what was arguably an even more distasteful storyline pitch for WWE by her dad – Vince being portrayed as the father of her baby.
