Brian Damage
This week’s selection is the top five underrated stars of the WWF’s Attitude Era. Who were stars in the WWF’s Attitude Era that didn’t get the credit they deserved for being over in a time when Stone Cold, The Rock, Sable, DX and Mr. McMahon ruled that period of time? They were not necessarily main event stars, but stars nonetheless.
Brian
Honorable Mentions: Too Cool, Rikishi, Gangrel
5. D Lo Brown
D Lo Brown was…in my opinion…vastly underrated as both a wrestler and overall performer during the Attitude Era. He was a definite workhorse for the company during a time when wrestling took a backseat to more adult oriented content. D Lo was a solid upper mid card wrestler in the WWF holding various titles. I feel he isnot talked about nearly as much as he should be for all the hard work he put in during that time.
4. Terri Runnels
While not a wrestler, Terri contributed a great deal during this timeframe as a valet/manager and personality. From managing the Hardy Boyz, to being the leader of P.M.S., having an affair with Val Venis and even briefly winning the Hardcore title…the “Horny Little She Devil” (as Jim Ross lovingly referred to her as) was a very big part of the Attitude Era.
3. Val Venis
Who would’ve thought that a wrestling porn star gimmick would get over as big as it did? That is exactly what happened in the case of Val Venis. I remember going to a Monday Night Raw show and Venis wrestled a dark match before the actual show. He hadn’t yet debuted for the company, but his vignettes were airing for his arrival. When Venis came out for that dark match…the crowd in attendance erupted in cheers. You just knew that Sean Morley was going to be a star and he was.
2. The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust
Dustin Runnels really shined during this point in his career. He had broken away from his wife Terri/Marlena and took on Luna Vachon as his new manager. He became more twisted and bizarre as a character and it fit in perfectly with all the other crazy characters of this period.
1. The Godfather
After years of portraying different gimmicks like Papa Shango and Kama Mustafa…Charles Wright really found his niche playing The Godfather. It was a character that Wright played to perfection utilizing his mic skills and charisma to get over with fans. It also didn’t hurt that he brought out a line of scantily clad women with him called ‘The Ho Train.’
You can read all previous Top Five pieces here.
Ring the Damn Bell 
For me,
1. D-Lo Brown (just a solid worker who had some underrated matches and had a nice splash)
2. Test (The SummerSlam ’99 match between him and Shane McMahon I think is an overlooked gem)
3. Big Boss Man (His late ’99 heel run is one of the best and most fun despite the horror that was the Kennel from Hell match)
4. Crash Holly (one of my favorites and certainly fun to watch as his 24/7 Hardcore matches were never boring)
5. Too Cool (they were over and entertaining as hell)
Honorable Mentions: PMS (minus Meat), Sexual Chocolate Mark Henry, Val Venis, & the Godfather.
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Fully agree on D-Lo, he was one of those wrestlers like X-pac/123 kid during the new generation era that you could trust to work safe in the wing, do some good moves, selling and putting over upcoming or established wrestlers and open the show up and getting the crowd excited. Top midcarder for sure.
Val and Godfather are the exact sort of gimmicks and personality that fitted right in with the attitude era, with the crowd, the more raunchy and adult oriented times regardless of whether you liked them or not. Some of their stuff hasn’t aged well but they were over for the reasons they were at the time and i did enjoy them when i was a kid watching WWF at the time.
Teri i think is so overlooked on how good of a worker she was, she took everything WWE gave her and made it work, made me take note of her, but Sable, Chyna and Sunny ended up overshadowing her for the reasons they did. She’s the perfect example to me that not every woman needs to wrestle in wrestling, that they can and do do other stuff as well. I’m glad we are away from the panty and strip matches and other stuff WWE did back then, but i do feel there is this pressure and specification from many fans or people in the industry that every women in wrestling should be in the ring wrestling or having mostly wrestling skills or the look of one. I still remember Stacy Keibler, torrie Wilson fondly from the aggression era because they had personalities, worked hard and did as much as they did with what little WWE gave them.
Steve Blackman was a real highlight for me, was so straight laced, so not like everyone else there but you could clearly see he was who he was and he stood out for me a lot.
Fully agree Ninvoid99 on Crash Holly and Too Cool, Crash took the hardcore title and made it very entertaining to watch with the locations he went to, what he did in the matches and his gimmick.
Too Cool were great and watching them do their stuff was always a highlight of any show or PPV they were in outside of the main event stuff.
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How can you forget Terri Runnels and her forever hard nipples. Arguably the most teasing babe in WWE History.
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