During an episode of WWF RAW in 1997, Shawn Michaels was getting interviewed in the ring by Jim Ross and a pre-taped video of The Undertaker played on the titantron.
Vince McMahon & Undertaker weren’t in the building on that night, which resulted in HBK going into business for himself.
During the interview, Michaels got in JR’s face and did the Crotch Chops multiple times. He also talked trash about The Undertaker, which made The Phenom look bad because he wasn’t there to respond.
On his Something To Wrestle podcast, WWF Veteran Bruce Prichard revealed that Vince wasn’t happy with Shawn’s actions and slapped him with the biggest fine in World Wrestling Federation history:
“I think everyone backstage looked at that as, hey, Vince isn’t here, this is Shawn acting out, and it wasn’t a professional move. Just when you boil it all down, that’s it. It was unprofessional.
Vince was extremely livid about it and gave Shawn, at the time, the highest fine he’d ever fined anyone.
Several weeks, or maybe months or so later, he was talking about Shawn, and he was pointing to Shawn and the crotch chopping and all that, and he was like, ‘Ah, that’s attitude! That’s what we need more of! Attitude!’ And hence the Attitude Era was born!”
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