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The Undertaker formed a new "Unholy Alliance" with Big Show, Mideon and Viscera, which led to two [[World Tag Team Championship (WWE)|WWF Tag Team Championship]] reigns for Big Show and Undertaker. This group came to an end when The Undertaker suffered a [[Glossary of professional wrestling#Legit|legit]] injury in September and was written out by quitting, rather than taking a match ordered by Mr. McMahon.<ref name="WWF SmackDown! - 09/23/1999">{{cite web|url=http://www.pwwew.net/tv/smackdown/990923.htm|title=WWF SmackDown results|publisher=PWWEW.net|accessdate=March 21, 2013|date=September 23, 1999}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=March 2018}}
==Mick Foley
[[File:Mick Foley 2008.jpg|right|thumb|[[Mick Foley]] ]]
[[Mick Foley]] played three different personas during this era: Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack. While Mankind was his main persona in WWF and Cactus Jack was previously used in his days in WCW, Japan and independent circuits, Dude Love was inspired by a character Foley created when he and his high school friends did [[backyard wrestling]] in his hometown of [[Long Island]]. As he had been in his previous days in different wrestling circuits, Foley, the "Hardcore Legend" was often involved in the Attitude Era's most violent and dangerous matches, including [[Professional_wrestling_match_types#Boiler_Room_Brawl|boiler room brawls]] and [[Hardcore wrestling|hardcore matches]] with sharp objects. The image of Foley being thrown and falling 20 feet from the top of the Hell in a Cell by The Undertaker at the [[1998 Hell in a Cell match|1998 King of the Ring]] is synonymous with the era, along with [[Jim Ross]]' commentary of "as God is my witness, he is broken in half".{{CN|date=January 2018}}
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On January 4, 1999 on ''Raw Is War'', he won his first WWF Championship from The Rock with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin. This match is also known as the turning point in ratings of the [[Monday Night Wars]] as it favored WWF until the end of the wars and led to the downfall of WCW. That night, WCW attempted to sabotage ''Raw''{{'}}s rating by announcing the result of the match on ''Nitro'', but their plan backfired when Nielsen ratings indicated that over 600,000 households changed the channel to watch the victory and shifted the ratings for the night in WWF's favor.<ref>{{cite book|last=Foley|first=Mick|title=Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling|publisher=HarperCollins |date=2001-07-01|isbn=0-00-714508-X|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=R.D.|title=WrestleCrap: True Stories of the World's Maddest Wrestlers|isbn=1-84454-071-5|author2=Baer, Randy|publisher=Blake Publishing|date=2004-10-01|page=201}}</ref>
==
[[File:Owen Hart 1997.jpg|thumb|right|Owen Hart in 1997]]
Near the beginning of the Attitude Era in late 1997, [[Bret Hart]] left WWF due to a contract dispute and joined WCW. He was soon followed by family members [[Jim Neidhart]] and [[Davey Boy Smith]]
Owen Hart was aligned with the [[Nation of Domination]] for much of 1998, winning the European Title along the way. After the dissolution of the stable, Hart began teaming with [[Jeff Jarrett]]. In the storyline, Hart quit
Hart died on May 23, 1999 at the [[Over the Edge (1999)|Over the Edge]] pay-per-view event. In an elaborate entrance routine that he had performed before, Hart (as The Blue Blazer) was to be lowered to the ring slowly from the rafters, with intent to perform a pratfall from a few feet above the ring. When the harness failed, Hart instead fell 78 feet into the ring, striking the top rope with his chest, leading to his death minutes later from internal bleeding as a result of blunt force trauma. The company made the controversial decision to continue the event to its completion after the incident. On the next evening's ''Raw Is War'', all storylines were suspended and the entire show was presented as a tribute to Hart, with other superstars sharing their memories of him between exhibition matches.
==The
===Lita===
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[[Sable (wrestler)|Sable]] made her WWF debut at [[WrestleMania XII]] in March 1996, escorting [[Triple H|Hunter Hearst Helmsley]] to the ring as he took on the returning [[The Ultimate Warrior|Ultimate Warrior]]. Sable's first major angle involved her real-life husband, who debuted at WrestleMania XII as "Wildman" [[Marc Mero]]. Sable, however, quickly eclipsed both her husband and rival Sunny in popularity, leading to the reinstatement of the [[WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010)|WWF Women's Championship]] as well as the promotion's hiring of more female wrestlers. Sable was one of the first females to compete in such specialty matches as evening gown matches, inter-gender tag team matches, and strap matches, competed in the first-ever WWF bikini contest against [[Jacqueline Moore|Jacqueline]], and was also the first female talent to be on the cover of ''[[Playboy]]''. Sable became the first WWF female to refer to herself as a "Diva" during the April 19 edition of ''Raw Is War'' in 1999; the term shortly thereafter becoming the official title for WWF's female performers.
==D-Generation X==
[[File:Chyna and Triple H.jpg|thumb|right|[[Chyna]] (right), acted as an enforcer for [[Triple H]] (left) and Michaels in 1997, then remained allied with the larger incarnation of the stable until 1999]]
The night after [[WrestleMania XIV]], [[Shawn Michaels]]
▲The night after [[WrestleMania XIV]], Shawn Michaels begin a four-year hiatus from in-ring wrestling to recuperate from a back injury. Triple H cut a promo claiming that he was taking over D-Generation X and had ejected the absent Michaels for "dropping the ball" over the Tyson incident and had recruited the [[New Age Outlaws]] ([[Road Dogg|"Road Dogg" Jesse James]] and [[Billy Gunn|"Bad Ass" Billy Gunn]]) and [[Sean Waltman|X-Pac]] into the "DX Army". On April 28, 1998, ''Nitro'' was held at the [[Norfolk Scope]] in [[Norfolk, Virginia]], while ''Raw'' was held nearby at the [[Hampton Coliseum]] in [[Hampton, Virginia]]. With the ongoing war between WWF and WCW, the DX Army decided to initiate an immediate "invasion" of ''Nitro''. The DX Army drove to the Norfolk Scope in an army [[Jeep]], challenging WCW head [[Eric Bischoff]]. Soon after, the DX Army appeared at [[CNN Center]] (as well as WCW's stand-alone Atlanta offices) to call out WCW owner [[Ted Turner]]. The stable's popularity continued to grow, and they were eventually [[Push (professional wrestling)|pushed]] as [[antihero]] fan favorites, much like their contemporaries Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
[[File:Sephanie_WWF_-_King_of_the_Ring_2000_cropped.jpg|thumb|170px|Stephanie McMahon with the WWF Women's Championship during the [[King of the Ring (2000)|2000 King of the Ring PPV Event]]]]
{{main|The McMahon-Helmsley Faction}}
On the November 29, 1999 episode of ''[[WWE Raw|Raw Is War]]'', Stephanie McMahon was set to [[kayfabe|marry]] [[Test (wrestler)|Test]], but Triple H interrupted the ceremony. He played a video on the ''[[Jumbotron|titantron]]'' showing himself marrying a drugged Stephanie at a drive-through chapel in [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]]. This led to a match at [[Armageddon (1999)|Armageddon]] between Triple H and Mr. McMahon with the stipulations being that if Triple H won, he would receive a WWF Championship title shot on ''Raw Is War'', whereas, if Vince was victorious, Triple H would sign an [[annulment]]. Triple H won the match, and afterwards, Stephanie turned on her father to align with her new husband.
The next night on ''Raw Is War'', Triple H and Stephanie announced the inception of the McMahon-Helmsley Era
The Faction interfered in title matches where Triple H might lose his WWF Championship, either intentionally causing a disqualification or attacking opponents behind the referee's back. The Faction evolved during the period of its existence and dominance into an alliance between the stable, D-Generation X and a resurrected Corporation. Mid-card and lower card Superstars, such as the Hardy Boyz, became targets of the faction as part of their efforts to protect Road Dogg and Billy Gunn's WWF Tag Team Championship. The group also helped Stephanie win the [[WWE Women's Championship (1956–2010)|Women's Championship]] from Jacqueline and assisted X-Pac in his ongoing feud against Kane.
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Steve Austin's return in September 2000 serve as a catalyst for the dismantling of the Faction, and by late 2000 the Faction had effectively lost relevance. However, the following year saw Austin joined Triple H, Stephanie and Mr. McMahon to form [[The Power Trip]]. On May 21, 2001, Triple H was sidelined by a tear in his left [[quadriceps muscle]], which kept him out of action for a year and kept him out of [[The Invasion (professional wrestling)|The Invasion]] storyline.
==
Many WCW wrestlers, who were unhappy with the backstage environment and [[workplace politics]] of the promotion, jumped ship to the WWF once the latter began gaining ground in the ratings war.
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In January 2000, [[Chris Benoit]], [[Eddie Guerrero]], [[Dean Malenko]] and [[Perry Saturn]] left WCW for the WWF. Benoit had just defeated [[Sid Vicious (wrestler)|Sid Vicious]] for the [[WCW World Heavyweight Championship]] at [[Souled Out 2000]] on January 17, but the decision was reversed after it was revealed that Sid's foot was under the ropes while he tapped out to the [[Crippler Crossface]]. The quartet made their TV debut on the January 31 episode of ''Raw'' as audience members and backstage guests of Mick Foley before attacking the New Age Outlaws. They were offered a chance to "win" contracts by defeating members of D-Generation X in a series of three matches. Despite losing all three matches, they were "given" WWF contracts by Triple H in exchange for betraying Foley. The quartet became known as [[The Radicalz]].
==
[[Matt Hardy|Matt]] and [[Jeff Hardy]], dubbed as members of "[[The Brood (professional wrestling)|The New Brood]]" faced off against Edge and Christian in the first ever tag team ladder match, dubbed the "Terri Invitational Tournament" at [[No Mercy (1999)|No Mercy]] in October 1999. The Hardys won the match and the services of [[Terri Runnels]] as their manager. The Hardys then declared that they were no longer the New Brood – they were "[[The Hardy Boyz]]".
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