Smackdown in 2003 was rated TV-PG with DLV. Today's WWE is simply TV-PG. TV-PG DLV and TV-PG are different.
Smackdown in 2003-04 had Al Wilson/Dawn Marie storyline, Mud bikini matches, Brock Lesnar beating a cripple (Zach Gowen) to a bloody pulp etc, Vince McMahon saying 'rape' in promos etc (Undertaker/McMahon storyline).
Today's PG WWE is completely different from PG Smackdown of that era.
They don't need to. They just need better writing and booking. PG isn't the issue, its the writing. You can write plenty of good storylines and characters with a PG rating. You don't need sex and swearing to make the WWE better..
Punks SES was some of the best storylines in the WWE, and that is PG. Why do you need a MA 14 rating? You just need writing that has continuity and makes sense.
No. It will always be PG. Vince McMahon only turned WWE into the Attitude Era, a TV-14 rated show because he had to compete with another company and he had to do crazy shit, not only that, WWE was also a solely owned company of Vince.
Today, there are no competitors on vinces level. There are also share holders pushing vince to make as much money as possible. How do they do that? With tonnes of merchandise including toys, which they only get if the show is PG and all the philantropy endeavours they have with make a wish, be a star, susan g komen, special olympics etc.... all of that comes with PG rated product.
The moment they change the rating is the moment they have less deals and have less money.
The best you can hope for is the moments when WWE goes PG-13 ish when they have guys like Lesnar and Taker (i'm expecting the cell match to get bloody) aswell as Rock and Austin and any other attitude era part timers.
No they won't scrap the PG rating because doing so would be too big of a gamble for them to try at a time when they may very well be in actual financial danger. Making the show more edgy and violent will cause them to loose a good chunk of the fans they are still holding on to. Like it or not Cena really is a HUGE deal in WWE. Kids love him and a good chunk of the audience are parents who bring their little ones to watch people like Cena. Have Cena come out and start cussing up a storm and giving people the finger or beating people to a bloody pulp would make those parents turn their kids away thus losing audience members and loosing a big chunk of their merchandise sales. Very few grown adults buy Cena gear for themselves unless they have kids and they all dress up together.
A few Diva's have even openly said that they wouldn't want to wrestle in the WWF during the 90s and early 2000's because of how they were treated as sex objects. If they started putting the Diva's in bra and panties matches or something then for one they would complain and two you'd see the feminists come running talking about how the women are treated as nothing more than sex acts. There goes another lawsuit and/ loss of sponsorship. Even though the most popular females in WWE history were the ones who never wrestled or couldn't wrestle worth a damn they would still cry foul if WWE didn't let the women wrestle today and forced them to walk out in lingerie or something.
Them changing to a TV-14 adult themed show again MIGHT work but it might not. Wrestling itself is still considered stupid by most of society and Im not sure if even the Attitude Era would be pulling in the same ratings right now as they did back in the day.
Them trying that out would be a HUGE gamble. It would literally either elevate the company to somewhat of its former glory of sink the company completely. That's a gamble that I don't think they are willing to make.
Yeah the booking is shit now and was amazing back then.
The point is you could book the current WWE like you did the RA and its still PG and would make the current product much better with out scrapping the PG rating.
Well for 1, WWE would be seen as still the person who has created the program. It doesn't matter if the brand is super are, WWE are still making a non PG show. Which would cost them sponsorship and partnership deals
Í think like many people were saying the PG rating isn't so much of a problem. Smackdown during the Attitude and ruthless aggression eras were PG and they still were able to get away with a lot. The problem is that WWE's philosophy has changed since then. They try to appeal to every demographic which doesn't really work.
Yep. Two different kind of PG's. Compare today's "PG"" with the PG of 2003. Same listing, but completely different products with a huge increase in cheese factor these days.
WWE are very proud and forceful that they are PG. They view the AE as something of an embarrassment even if they know its the only reason people keep watching.
At what point will people realize that going to TV14 isn't going to change anything if it doesn't mean that good writing and booking doesn't follow suit? You can have a great product with a PG rating. TNA has piledrivers and blood and a TV-14 rating and... well I don't need to go any further.
They dug themselves so deep in a hole with those kid friendly sponsors like Mattel and being a publicly traded company that we most likely won't ever see an edgy product again. They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it.
Agree with the SD 2003 argument. TVPG-DLV would be a happy medium for today's product. That was PG done right. Problem is it's been 7 years and they STILL haven't done it the right way on a frequent basis. They completely alienated tv's most important demo the males 18-49 y/o. So why remain PG when you're not gonna do it right and it clearly hasn't worked? Sponsors? Last I checked sponsors were dropping like flies from 98-2001 and they did okay. Breaking Bad and Walking Dead get sponsors, better ones then WWE has(which played a big role in WWE's lousy TV deal, lack of high-end sponsorship, so going PG wasn't the answer after all).
What do overprotective moms and dads, a select number of television executives and the IWC all have in common? They're the only groups on EARTH that give a shit about about TV Parental Guidelines.
Not as long as it draws in money for Vince I guess. What a dream it would be if it does go back to TV-14! Real question is...what would the content entail and would you like it?
Don't see it happening any time soon and honestly the show being PG does not necessarily leads to the bad booking and storylines we currently have. They can still write some great stories with well made characters set up to equally great booking and have the show be PG. There is no excuse for how subpar the booking is really.
There was just a storyline going on about how Dolph was fucking Lana, Rusev was fucking Summer Rae, Summer Rae was trying to fuck Dolph, and Rusev and Dolph may have fucked at some point I don't know. I wouldn't call that kid friendly. This past RAW the Wyatt family may have murdered Randy Orton who knows. What more do you want that would be classified as "ADULT"? Swear words? Because I'll tell you that guys sound cringe worthy as hell when they try to force bitch, damn, and ass into their promos. Do you want Triple H to start cutting promos about his cock? I don't.
More important question is why people under the age of 13 are watching wrestling after 22:00 on a Monday Night?. Anything on television after 22:00 should be TV-14 or above.
I sure hope not. PG is the way of the future. As a father, I like being able to watch WWE without having to worry about my daughter walking in on something crude or overly violent. WWE in 2015 is fun for the whole family, the way it was meant to be.
People like you and me are the audience Vince has wanted all these years, he has catered to the families. He knows the kids are going to ask Mom and Dad for that Dean Ambrose T-shirt, the John Cena hat, even those ice cream bars CM Punk desperately wanted to be honored with.
Besides, people who want to see TV-14 will complain it's not like the Attitude Era of old, which worked for just more than the sex and violence. The writing, the storylines, the making sure that everyone had a role in the show made it worth watching.
Next time you watch a WWE event, either live or on TV, scan the crowd. Look at how many young people are there. If you are able to, compare it to wrestling shows of other products (Lucha, ROH, TNA, etc) and their audience. Major difference, WWE caters to children and their parents.
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