The 1990s Wrestling Boom was a period in Professional Wrestling in North America where it received unprecidented tv ratings, Pay Per View buys and media attention, even dwarfing the 1980's wrestling boom. The 1990s boom is also referred to as the Second Golden Age and The Attitude Era

Before The Boom

In the early 1990s The state of wrestling in The U.S. and Canada was changing for the worse. The 1980's boom ended and TV ratings and Pay Per View buys were decreasing. THe World Wrestling Federation and National Wrestling Alliance were not as popular as they once were and the American Wrestling Association folded.

World Championship Wrestling officially split from the NWA in 1991, becoming a completely separate entity. Due to this NWA was reduced to having no television inside the United States.

The WWF made a series of costly mistakes, including the World Body building federation.

The WWF owner Vince Mcmahon would be brought to trial on charges of distributing steriods in 1994 This hurt wrestlings image and lead to boycotts.

In 1993 WWF would drop the old Prime Time Wrestling on the USA Network and begin live TV feeds of a new show called Monday Night Raw.

Around the same time Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and other WWF stars would sign with WCW helping them to be seen as a threat to WWF's long dominance in the wrestling industry.

The Monday Night Wars begin

In 1995 WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff asked owner Ted Turner to start a television show on a weeknight on Prime Time
Turner agreed and WCW Monday Nitro was born. The show debuted on Setember 4 1995 with its first match being between Brian Pillman and Jushin Liger. Lex Luger made a surprise return to WCW at the end of the broadcast, challenging then WCW champion Hogan to a match the next week.

For most of the next few months Raw and Nitro traided ratings victories with eatch other, getting generally in th 2.0 and bove range.

This would soon change with one of the msot famous wrestling storylines ever.

The NWO

The boom reached its full height beginning with the New World Order storyline. The storyling began on memorial day 1996. Scott Hall "invaded" a WCW telecast and acted as if he represented WWF. Hall had just recently been released from WWF along with his good friend Kevin Nash. Hall declaired "War" on WCW and said there were others that would join him.

Nash would show up on Nitro the next week. The two promised a third man that would join them in the future. Rumors spead that the third man would be Lex Luger, Roddy Piper, Sean Waltman, or Hogan among others.

Montreal Screwjob

In 1997, the WWF was in financial trouble. Their World Champion Bret Hart had signed a big contract with them that was a huge strain on their financial resources. WWF decided to cancel the contract. Bret Hart was asked to lose the Championship to Shawn Michaels, but refused. Vince set up the match to supposedly be a DQ finish, but when it really happened Earl Hebner called for the bell while Bret Hart was in a Shawn Michaels sharpshooter. These events have continued to divide wrestling fans to this day. Some think Vince McMahon and the WWF were right, some think Bret was right, some think it was a shoot, others think it was a work.

Mr. McMahon

Vince McMahon turned heel and became the evil boss character Mr. McMahon. Eventually Stone Cold Steve Austin and McMahon would feud. It started when Austin was going for the World Title and he brought in Mike Tyson. For all of 1998, Vince kept attempting to take Austin's belt and eventually succeeded in vacating the belt. Austin and McMahon would continuously feud for years with McMahon firing Austin numerous times, though Austin would always return to give him another stunner no matter what McMahon had done.

DX

During 1997, Shawn Michaels and Triple H formed a stable known as D-Generation X. While there were numerous other members, eventually Michaels had a back injury, ending his active career for a few years. Triple H and other DX members would be involved in skits such as an invasion of WCW.