Dont Try This At Home

We all hear the warnings at the beginning of wrestling programming. We all hear the stories of injuries caused by those who try to imitate wrestler and the moves they perform in the ring and there have been severe cases of accidental death/murder. With this in mind we can see why WWE has turned its focus to TV-PG programming. But the question posed to me by Marc McPherson, who at some point will write an article or two for this blog, is "Can or will WWE ever go back to TV-14?"

What made the change

WWE had been TV-14 for years and was at its highest ratings during the attitude era but at some point in time WWE decided that its best to change. For me this moment was when the Chris Benoit tragedy/incident occurred. 

This incident brought so much bad publicity to the WWE ball game that they had to completely remove all existence of him from record until recently on an episode of Main Event. But this was only the beginning. 

Everyone remembers the blood pouring down Austin's face, everyone remembers the brash trash talking from The Rock, everyone remembers Undertaker crucifying Austin, "killing" his parents and attacking his brother. So let me ask would these moments have been as memorable for good reasons if Austin hadn't bled? If Rock spoke politely to everyone? Of course not and this is one of the issues a lot of fans have now a days. 

A lot of today's fans believe the product has become to watered down, to child friendly and to some extent I can agree. But is this not a good thing in some ways? In my opinion blood had become too much of a common thing and there were only so many times I could be shocked by certain events. Why would we need controversy all the time? 

So now we come to today's product. We have more child friendly characters such as The Funkasaurus and Khali. We have more child friendly programmes such as Saturday Morning Slam (where head shots and any move above the neck is not allowed) and of course we have less violence in certain matches. While this is annoying long time "fans" it is bring in the company huge revenue. The WWE has gained more profit every single year since they have gone TV-PG. Is this not a good thing? Will this not lead to bigger budget productions etc? This boom in revenue is due to sponsors. WWE has sponsors who are only within the company business due to the fact they are now child friendly. If WWE was to go back to TV-14 they would lose profits and could quite realistically lose a lot of fans. 

Lets just take a look at WWE's outside work;

• Make-A-Wish Foundation
• Be-A-Star
• Tribute to the troops
• National Guard charities
• Susan G

Now with this in mind, does it not make sense that WWE stays PG? All of these companies are very family orientated. WWE provides free tickets to events for members of the armed forces and quite often give free tickets to be-a-star and make-a-wish members. So why would WWE give up the opportunity for positive publicity after the appalling Benoit moment? They wouldn't! It's just that simple.

For one moment lets just imagine WWE hadn't turned TV-PG. Would CM Punk pouring Paul Bearer's "ashes" be so shocking or would we have just got used to these moments? Would we have been so attached to characters like Undertaker and Kane who give us that much loved nostalgia moments. Would we all be amazed at the physicality of Brock Lesnar's matches or would we still expect more?

This can be linked to Hollywood. Back in the 60's horror films were timid in comparison to today's product. If they had tried to make Adam West's Batman as realistic as Christian Bales one no one would have paid attention and it most likely would have been removed from TV. The public back then didn't want realism but now they do.

TV SHOWS ARE LIKE WRESTLING. THEY ARE BASED OFF OF PEOPLES REACTIONS AND ARE AIMED AT WHAT THE MAJORITY WANT. The majority of people do not want their kids seeing people bleed or get hurt and while most people would say "don't watch," WWE have said well we will give you what you want. 

My thoughts

WWE has some of the most vast fan bases and as JR put it;

" You can impress someone all of the time but you cant impress everyone all of the time"

What WWE is doing now is great. By taking the rating to PG they have given themselves another glass ceiling and as we all know, the greatest moments come from breaking through that glass ceiling. They have made themselves a nice box to stay within and they can now let stars try and push those limits in order to get a reaction.

WWE did something astounding in the 80's. They had the rock and wrestle connection. They did it again in the 90's with the attitude era (THEY EVEN JOKED ABOUT CENSORING) and then in 00's with the "ruthless aggression" era. All of these timelines have something in common. THEY STEPPED UP THE COMPANY.
What people need to remember is that WWE first and foremost is a company. A companies goal is to make profit. WWE wants profit and by being PG that's what they get by working with all these other groups and gaining fans via free tickets and good publicity.  When WWE is happy with their situation and happy with their profit they provide fans with better products.

Take it with a pinch of salt but I believe that this PG boom will slowly die off just as the other eras have and they will begin to create an edgier show and they have already started that by producing darker characters such a Bray Wyatt and letting CM Punk drop the pipe bomb.

So can WWE ever go back to being officially TV-14? I don't think so. Will we get edgier viewing as time goes on? YES,yes we will.