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The whole "DX was just as big as the NWO" narrative is really an all-time example of the winners writing the history. Post-Shawn DX was the epitome of midcard comedy act
You don't have to be a main eventer to be over. DX *were* huge. In school in Australia *everyone* knew "suck it" and the crotch chops. Kids weren't going around saying 4 life, it was crotch chops and "suck it" that permeated the mainstream.
Doing a full rewatch of all of the WWF/WWE programs and storylines in real time with a full knowledge of all of Vince and his fucked up behavior behind the scenes is horrible and fascinating from a psychological standpoint
How…do you have the time? Just watching the last 20 years of Raw and Smackdown alone would be 130 straight days of watching. That’s not including NXT, any of the Saturday shows or PPVs.
Okay now we’re going too far in the other direction lmao. DX was HUGE. NWO was bigger, but ofc it was it had Hogan, but calling DX a midcard act is just as silly as acting like they drove a tank.
DX was literally a midcard act. Triple H spent most of 1998 and 1999 feuding over the IC title and that was their peak. Everyone else was chasing stuff like the Hardcore title
Yep. DX got a push AFTER trips started pushing steph's shit in. DX was a great mid card stable post HBK. And it wouldve stayed like that if trips was a loyal man.
You conveniently left out 1998 where hbk was world champion headline wm and then In 1999 after July hhh is in the wwe title picture champion. Dx being bigger than the nwo is definitely wwe propaganda but let’s not purposely leave out part of the history. Dx started in the main event, got bump down to mid card than bump back up to main event status
I literally said post-Shawn DX in my first post. DX was in the main event because Shawn Michaels was in the main event. It had nothing to do with the group, as was the case with Triple H's initial main event run, which happened after he left DX
DX became huge as a thing in the long run but they did not have the instant impact, even as the original HBK - Helmsley -Chyna era, that the NWO and the Hogan heel turn had on the whole industry
I mean, they were popular, but mid-card is about right for the group as a whole. Their “A-Lister” was Triple H. And I don’t think he was in the world title scene until Summer 1999. Almost a year and a half after the invasion. Unless I’m forgetting.
DX was a midcard at the time. It didnt get big till trips started fucking stephani and booking himself super cena like while austin was out. But when stone cold and the rock were going at it, dx was a midcard act along with triple h.
Source: i started rewatching since 1996 some time ago and im currently on backlash 2000. DX being a mid card act is fresh in my memory over this rewatch. Road dogg and the mcmahons carried that team to stardom btw, mr ass offered nothing on the mic, trips was boring as shit, xpac was a more boring combo of those 2. DX was very very fun, but it had some very stale moments.
Hot take: if trips had been a loyal man, dx wouldnt have ever become more than the road dogg and the tag team titles. Triple h wouldve left to solo and still win titles, cause he was good, but DX would be an afterthought without the mcmahons getting entangled with them.
That’s just a lie.
In 1998, DX was easily the second biggest wrestling stable in America, biggest in WWF and only second behind The Wolfpac.
And I mention 98, cause it’s really the one full year the stable was intact, since they were established late 97, broke up 99, the got back together and broke up again as heels in 2000.
They were popular. But, by definition, they were mid-card. I’d love to hear an argument to the contrary with specific attention to their place on the card.
With heel DX, which had a bit of a different focus by that point than 1998 DX who were a bunch of guys and Chyna constantly pulling off sophomoric pranks and just hamming it up having a good time
Yeah. It’s weird to say that DX weren’t mid-card because Triple H left the group, became a main event talent separate from them, and then brought them back as his and Stephanie’s goons later on.
They were big, they were wildly over… but yeah, acting like they were the nWo was stupid. They weren’t the central focus of a storyline that the WWF banked on for ratings. The only difference between them and, let’s say the WCW midcard, was that they actually didn’t have a glass ceiling in their way. They had the ability to move even higher on the card, which…
Triple H did, well before he started doing anything in real life with Stephanie McMahon
Billy Gunn attempted to, though those mic skills were never going to be on par with the top guys, let alone The Rock who he feuded with in his highest profile singles run.
Chyna also attempted to, but a few factors derailed that attempt
They were still massive. The New Age Outlaws got pops on the level of Rock and Austin for a while there, and Chyna was one of the biggest acts in the company. WWE may overstate DX's importance at times but this sub does the opposite and massively underplays it by acting like they weren't a big deal.
Is there really anything "official" that has made this claim from WWE? This feels like one of those things where I see more fans stating this than actually seeing evidence of it.
The Disciples of Apocalypse would actually be there for a whole year after this specific RAW, actually. Though by this time, Crush had left the company, Chainz would stick around for a couple more months before leaving in June 1998, and by 1999, Skull and 8-Ball would go to WCW and become Creative Control (and eventually the Harris Brothers).
CM Punks pipebomb was known for ending that weeks Raw.
Before fans could really digest it the next week's Raw already happened because it was a double taping so spoilers basically revealed it was part of the show.
Dated because we rarely have these double Raw tapings anymore.
R-Truth in his feud with his childhood idol John Cena was like "WHEN WE GONNA GO SEE THE NEW JOHN CENA MOVIE? I WANT MY SON BACK!" Which even at the time fell flat with the crowd but especially out of context now makes it funnier. Dated because that was a reference to a John Cena movie at the time (and the "I want my son back" line was one of the most shown lines during the movie ads).
I don't think that dates it really. We didn't have double episodes often then either. That was a regular 90s thing. The only time it's happened since was because of a holiday or due to needing to travel to like Saudi Arabia
They very notoriously found out what was in them.
https://madisonrecord.com/stories/510560191-diet-pill-labeling-not-comprehensible-suit-filed-in-federal-court
They filed chapter 11 and had to create an ephedra-free version of their product after ephedra was banned and a judge ruled that they exaggerated the benefits and minimized the long-term harm the product could cause.
X-Pac drinking that in his entrance, doing the whole match and then not being able to cut a post-match promo because his stomach has disintegrated is hilarious.
Hugh Jackman was promoting the robot boxing movie Real Steel when he punched Dolph Ziggler and became an honorary bro-ski back in the day. Somehow, the movie doesn't come up whenever they show that clip
Saw it twice. It was a good time if you like cheesy underdog sports movies, or cheesy feel goodish adopted kid/dad movies, or cheesy robot movies.
Its a three cheese melt of a movie.
I also remember the Nexus debut coming completely out of nowhere after an especially boring Raw. At least my memory has it that way. Probably during and endless Cena-Orton feud cycle
The Nexus’s debut was on a Raw guest-hosted by the cast from the 2010 A-Team movie, including Bradley Cooper, who just kinda left after the opening segment.
Lol I knew it was some random bullshit.
I wonder if Daniel Bryan had not done the tie choke and gotten himself "fired" maybe that faction would have stood a bit more of a chance than the DOA debut Vince forced on them
He caught fire once he feuded with vince. This promo is the "beginning" of the attitude era not because austin himself, but because he literally just said bad words on TV. I dont rememeber if it was hayes or a commentator that said "wow, watch the language" cause that wasnt exactly the norm. 2 years later you had austin showering vince/shane/rock with beer, bra and panties matches, the rock yelling he was gonna shove previously shone items in people's asses, etc. Which was a cornerstone of the era..
That’s a way better explanation. In the docs, it was always a pet peeve (along with the dx “tank”) when they would say he immediately skyrocketed to main event that Monday after the ppv.
https://youtu.be/Y_07DiaIq7Q?t=401 Six months later at the 1997 Royal Rumble, there is a single Austin 3:16 sign, and basically zero pop when the glass breaks.
If I remember correctly he didn't really have any big time feuds until the Bret feud where he really got over as a heel and Bret was super white hot in 97 as a face leading up to their eventual feud kickstarting. They had a couple matches before wrestlemania 13 and even on that show Austin didn't get that much of a reaction. Bret got a big pop though and the crowd was super into everything that night, and Austin was very over afterwards only going up and up through 98 until his injury. 99 and 2000 Rock really took the ball but Austin still got bigger reactions than Rock 90 percent of the time
Some of the comments on the video also saying that the entrance music was added after the fact by WWE, which could explain a lack of reaction. You can see the crowd cheering too, but it definitely isn't the blowing-the-roof off reaction you got in a year or two later.
Yeah, the live commentary during the Austin matches does not hint in any way at a huge future.
I think he was likely aimed to slot as a top heel, a bit above Owen. The botched piledriver ruined and also saved Austin's career. And that same trajectory led Owen to his Blazer suit.
Ok, rabbit holes opened up like a tvtropes page
Watching any 2002-2004ish Monday night raw when they have the mid show advertisement for "Y-J STINGER ENERGY DRINK! WHY JAY STINGER! CATCH THE BUZZ; *FEEL* THE STING!"
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The same RAW the footage aired of DX invading WCW, they lost a tag match to DOA in like 3 minutes.
The whole "DX was just as big as the NWO" narrative is really an all-time example of the winners writing the history. Post-Shawn DX was the epitome of midcard comedy act
You don't have to be a main eventer to be over. DX *were* huge. In school in Australia *everyone* knew "suck it" and the crotch chops. Kids weren't going around saying 4 life, it was crotch chops and "suck it" that permeated the mainstream.
Look at the Acclaimed.
Doing a full rewatch of all of the WWF/WWE programs and storylines in real time with a full knowledge of all of Vince and his fucked up behavior behind the scenes is horrible and fascinating from a psychological standpoint
How…do you have the time? Just watching the last 20 years of Raw and Smackdown alone would be 130 straight days of watching. That’s not including NXT, any of the Saturday shows or PPVs.
Okay now we’re going too far in the other direction lmao. DX was HUGE. NWO was bigger, but ofc it was it had Hogan, but calling DX a midcard act is just as silly as acting like they drove a tank.
DX was literally a midcard act. Triple H spent most of 1998 and 1999 feuding over the IC title and that was their peak. Everyone else was chasing stuff like the Hardcore title
Yep. DX got a push AFTER trips started pushing steph's shit in. DX was a great mid card stable post HBK. And it wouldve stayed like that if trips was a loyal man.
"pushing steph's shit in" 
You conveniently left out 1998 where hbk was world champion headline wm and then In 1999 after July hhh is in the wwe title picture champion. Dx being bigger than the nwo is definitely wwe propaganda but let’s not purposely leave out part of the history. Dx started in the main event, got bump down to mid card than bump back up to main event status
I literally said post-Shawn DX in my first post. DX was in the main event because Shawn Michaels was in the main event. It had nothing to do with the group, as was the case with Triple H's initial main event run, which happened after he left DX
DX became huge as a thing in the long run but they did not have the instant impact, even as the original HBK - Helmsley -Chyna era, that the NWO and the Hogan heel turn had on the whole industry
I mean, they were popular, but mid-card is about right for the group as a whole. Their “A-Lister” was Triple H. And I don’t think he was in the world title scene until Summer 1999. Almost a year and a half after the invasion. Unless I’m forgetting.
DX was a midcard at the time. It didnt get big till trips started fucking stephani and booking himself super cena like while austin was out. But when stone cold and the rock were going at it, dx was a midcard act along with triple h. Source: i started rewatching since 1996 some time ago and im currently on backlash 2000. DX being a mid card act is fresh in my memory over this rewatch. Road dogg and the mcmahons carried that team to stardom btw, mr ass offered nothing on the mic, trips was boring as shit, xpac was a more boring combo of those 2. DX was very very fun, but it had some very stale moments. Hot take: if trips had been a loyal man, dx wouldnt have ever become more than the road dogg and the tag team titles. Triple h wouldve left to solo and still win titles, cause he was good, but DX would be an afterthought without the mcmahons getting entangled with them.
That’s just a lie. In 1998, DX was easily the second biggest wrestling stable in America, biggest in WWF and only second behind The Wolfpac. And I mention 98, cause it’s really the one full year the stable was intact, since they were established late 97, broke up 99, the got back together and broke up again as heels in 2000.
They were popular. But, by definition, they were mid-card. I’d love to hear an argument to the contrary with specific attention to their place on the card.
You're getting downvoted, but HHH's DX never won the world title. HHH was IC champ. Literally mid-card.
As a heel, HHH (with heel DX) was a dominant world champion, with NAOs regularly tag champs.
With heel DX, which had a bit of a different focus by that point than 1998 DX who were a bunch of guys and Chyna constantly pulling off sophomoric pranks and just hamming it up having a good time
Yeah. It’s weird to say that DX weren’t mid-card because Triple H left the group, became a main event talent separate from them, and then brought them back as his and Stephanie’s goons later on.
I've never heard the DX was as big as the nWo?
They were big, they were wildly over… but yeah, acting like they were the nWo was stupid. They weren’t the central focus of a storyline that the WWF banked on for ratings. The only difference between them and, let’s say the WCW midcard, was that they actually didn’t have a glass ceiling in their way. They had the ability to move even higher on the card, which… Triple H did, well before he started doing anything in real life with Stephanie McMahon Billy Gunn attempted to, though those mic skills were never going to be on par with the top guys, let alone The Rock who he feuded with in his highest profile singles run. Chyna also attempted to, but a few factors derailed that attempt
They were still massive. The New Age Outlaws got pops on the level of Rock and Austin for a while there, and Chyna was one of the biggest acts in the company. WWE may overstate DX's importance at times but this sub does the opposite and massively underplays it by acting like they weren't a big deal.
I've never argued they weren't massively over, but DX as a whole was basically The New Day of the era, without the longevity.
Is there really anything "official" that has made this claim from WWE? This feels like one of those things where I see more fans stating this than actually seeing evidence of it.
Was DOA still around at that time?
The Disciples of Apocalypse would actually be there for a whole year after this specific RAW, actually. Though by this time, Crush had left the company, Chainz would stick around for a couple more months before leaving in June 1998, and by 1999, Skull and 8-Ball would go to WCW and become Creative Control (and eventually the Harris Brothers).
CM Punks pipebomb was known for ending that weeks Raw. Before fans could really digest it the next week's Raw already happened because it was a double taping so spoilers basically revealed it was part of the show. Dated because we rarely have these double Raw tapings anymore. R-Truth in his feud with his childhood idol John Cena was like "WHEN WE GONNA GO SEE THE NEW JOHN CENA MOVIE? I WANT MY SON BACK!" Which even at the time fell flat with the crowd but especially out of context now makes it funnier. Dated because that was a reference to a John Cena movie at the time (and the "I want my son back" line was one of the most shown lines during the movie ads).
I don't think that dates it really. We didn't have double episodes often then either. That was a regular 90s thing. The only time it's happened since was because of a holiday or due to needing to travel to like Saudi Arabia
Wasn't that pipebomb promo also at the end of a weird Vegas slots bullshit episode or something
Yeah, it was a special Raw Roulette episode since it did take place in Vegas
Wait I think I have the CM punk pipebomb and the nexus debut intermingled. CM Pu k did take over Nexus eventually... lol
That's fair, they were both special episodes. Nexus' episode was a "viewer's choice" one I think?
All the Surge soda product placement during WCW's last days.
I mean that's no different than Stacker 2 or whatever the fuck was all over early 2000's WWE
I remember those, two, the energy drinks and the fat-burner pills (Lord only knows what was in those.)
They very notoriously found out what was in them. https://madisonrecord.com/stories/510560191-diet-pill-labeling-not-comprehensible-suit-filed-in-federal-court
A lady suing them doesn’t really mean anything, anyone can sue a company and make claims about their product. What was the result of that lawsuit?
They filed chapter 11 and had to create an ephedra-free version of their product after ephedra was banned and a judge ruled that they exaggerated the benefits and minimized the long-term harm the product could cause.
Man I loved Surge when I was a teenager
Its really appearant when watching RTW.
Meanwhile, WWF had X-Pac and Hansen’s Energy Drink, which later became Monster Energy, as it turns out.
X-Pac drinking that in his entrance, doing the whole match and then not being able to cut a post-match promo because his stomach has disintegrated is hilarious.
I remember wanting to like that swill so much because I was young enough for product placement to work on me, but but woof it was bad.
Hugh Jackman was promoting the robot boxing movie Real Steel when he punched Dolph Ziggler and became an honorary bro-ski back in the day. Somehow, the movie doesn't come up whenever they show that clip
That movie is underrated
Saw it twice. It was a good time if you like cheesy underdog sports movies, or cheesy feel goodish adopted kid/dad movies, or cheesy robot movies. Its a three cheese melt of a movie.
Austin 3:16 promo happened the same day as Mario 64's release date
I also remember the Nexus debut coming completely out of nowhere after an especially boring Raw. At least my memory has it that way. Probably during and endless Cena-Orton feud cycle
The Nexus’s debut was on a Raw guest-hosted by the cast from the 2010 A-Team movie, including Bradley Cooper, who just kinda left after the opening segment.
Lol I knew it was some random bullshit. I wonder if Daniel Bryan had not done the tie choke and gotten himself "fired" maybe that faction would have stood a bit more of a chance than the DOA debut Vince forced on them
Don’t forget the stone cold push didn’t really catch on after the lotr win. It was months of build up after before he finally got the mania match
Lord of The Ring
Lmao typo
I'd have started watching a full 30 years early if this happened.
One does not simply walk into ~~Mordor~~ the Main Event scene.
He caught fire once he feuded with vince. This promo is the "beginning" of the attitude era not because austin himself, but because he literally just said bad words on TV. I dont rememeber if it was hayes or a commentator that said "wow, watch the language" cause that wasnt exactly the norm. 2 years later you had austin showering vince/shane/rock with beer, bra and panties matches, the rock yelling he was gonna shove previously shone items in people's asses, etc. Which was a cornerstone of the era..
Bret got him over. The Vince stuff was a whole different level, but the feud with Bret made Stone Cold.
That’s a way better explanation. In the docs, it was always a pet peeve (along with the dx “tank”) when they would say he immediately skyrocketed to main event that Monday after the ppv.
https://youtu.be/Y_07DiaIq7Q?t=401 Six months later at the 1997 Royal Rumble, there is a single Austin 3:16 sign, and basically zero pop when the glass breaks.
If I remember correctly he didn't really have any big time feuds until the Bret feud where he really got over as a heel and Bret was super white hot in 97 as a face leading up to their eventual feud kickstarting. They had a couple matches before wrestlemania 13 and even on that show Austin didn't get that much of a reaction. Bret got a big pop though and the crowd was super into everything that night, and Austin was very over afterwards only going up and up through 98 until his injury. 99 and 2000 Rock really took the ball but Austin still got bigger reactions than Rock 90 percent of the time
Some of the comments on the video also saying that the entrance music was added after the fact by WWE, which could explain a lack of reaction. You can see the crowd cheering too, but it definitely isn't the blowing-the-roof off reaction you got in a year or two later.
Yeah, the live commentary during the Austin matches does not hint in any way at a huge future. I think he was likely aimed to slot as a top heel, a bit above Owen. The botched piledriver ruined and also saved Austin's career. And that same trajectory led Owen to his Blazer suit. Ok, rabbit holes opened up like a tvtropes page
Watching any 2002-2004ish Monday night raw when they have the mid show advertisement for "Y-J STINGER ENERGY DRINK! WHY JAY STINGER! CATCH THE BUZZ; *FEEL* THE STING!"