The Attitude Era allowed wrestlers to experiment with bolder new gimmicks to feed what the audience wanted. WWE completely changed course by delivering an edgier product and attempting to keep the fans feeling that anything could happen. Quite a few outstanding performers found the right character to reach new heights.

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WWE became a powerhouse during this time by setting new ratings and PPV records during the era. Vince McMahon went all in with the TV-14 rating and mindset for the product tailoring towards an adult audience. Each of the following wrestlers benefited from the Attitude Era time by having the best gimmicks of that chapter in WWE.

10 The Undertaker (American Badass)

The gimmick of The Undertaker had so many changes, but The American Badass became a cult fan favorite. Most preferred the dead man persona since it was the bigger part of his career before and after. However, the American Badass was a fun change of pace to make Undertaker human.

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WWE granted Undertaker’s wish to come back from an injury riding a motorcycle and talking like himself as opposed to playing into the supernatural gimmick. The American Badass felt like a perfect gimmick for the time since Undertaker watched to ditch the outlandish character for realism during that stint.

9 Too Cool

WWE found unexpected magic when the trio of Rikishi, Brian Christopher and Scotty 2 Hotty became one of the hottest acts of the Attitude Era. Rikishi’s dancing skills became a moment that fans wanted every week with all three members of Too Cool breaking it down.

Royal Rumble 2000 was an all-time great show, yet Too Cool dancing during the Rumble may have received the biggest pop. Rikishi turning heel ended the group too early before fans were ready to give up such a beloved trio.

8 Kurt Angle

The heel persona of Kurt Angle as an arrogant Olympic gold medalist always bragging about his accomplishments. Angle has even talked about wanting to play babyface since he was viewed as an American hero for winning his medal with a broken neck.

Vince McMahon knew fans would naturally hate him and channeled into for an all-time great rookie year. Angle was over enough as a heel to win the WWE Championship during the most competitive time before his first year in WWE even ended.

7 The Brood

It is hard to judge The Brood historically as a gimmick or as a successful act at all since it ended so soon. However, Attitude Era fans loved the trio of Edge, Christian and Gangrel playing the vampire characters with their amazing fire entrance and spitting blood in the air.

Edge bringing this back all these years later and getting huge love for it shows that The Brood may be the most popular WWE gimmick that lasted less than a year. The presentation made all three wrestlers feel like something we’ve never seen before in wrestling.

6 Mr. McMahon

WWE took a huge chance by making Vince McMahon a heel authority figure character to feud with Steve Austin. Vince was mostly a face broadcaster that ended up becoming an all-time villain. The new evil boss character even saw him demanding to be called Mr. McMahon.

This act did get run into the ground as the Attitude Era went on, but there is no arguing against the importance to WWE’s success. McMahon played the perfect heel to go back and forth with Austin and help craft arguably the greatest WWE storyline ever.

5 The Rock

The Rock had a failed a New Generation Era run as a babyface and turned heel to join the Nation of Domination at the end of it. However, it was the Attitude Era where Rock found his voice and became an all-time great performer for WWE

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Rock didn’t hide his ego and loved to crack jokes at the expense of others with the act being so entertaining that he had to change it from a heel gimmick to a babyface one. WWE had fans chanting along to Rock’s catchphrases and going crazy the second his entrance theme song played.

4 Team Xtreme

WWE created three new stars by placing the Hardy Boyz and Lita together to form Team Extreme. A mutual passion for high-risk moves and death-defying stunts led to them being a perfect fit. Matt and Jeff were already getting known for being the best ladder match wrestlers.

However, Lita doing a moonsault and other top rope moves felt equally impressive since she was the first woman to do that in WWE. All three young talents were on the path to becoming stars, but the Team Xtreme act sped that up with a tremendous gimmick to make them stars together.

3 Three Faces Of Foley

Mick Foley not only had one great gimmick during the Attitude Era, but he actually thrived in four characters. The three faces of Foley stage featured fans loving that he went back and forth between Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack all having the same charm.

WWE even had him wrestle under his real name and just playing himself at the end of the run. Fans loved Foley’s genuine endearing personality. The three bolder gimmicks worked so well because fans knew Foley was at the core tapping into different sides of himself.

2 D-Generation X

Few gimmicks ever felt as perfect for a specific era as D-Generation X in the Attitude Era. Shawn Michaels was getting ready for a heel role and decided to pitch working with his friends Triple H and Chyna. The group evolved into more than a heel act breaking the rules.

Fans loved the rebellious actions of DX along with the edgy humor for the time. Triple H leading a face version of DX with Chyna, X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws was a tremendous gimmick for the Attitude Era. DX were treated like rock stars every single week.

1 Steve Austin

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin had the defining gimmick of the Attitude Era as the lead wrestler to usher in change. Austin did things no one else did in wrestling like flipping others off, drinking beer and picking fights with anyone that was even remotely near an authority position.

The audience tuned in weekly to see what Austin would do next, from driving to the ring on a Zamboni to making Vince McMahon pee his own pants. Austin was what everyone wanted from the Attitude Era as someone without a filter that kept us guessing.