Julian Cannon is back for another post, this time is to reflect on the WWE current PG era product, and the response of Linda McMahon’s failed senate campaign from 2009-2012. Good thing that she lost both times because she wasted about 100 million dollars (can we have Tidus o’ neal and Darren Young say “millions of dollars” please)
I thought I’d write about something that almost blew up Twitter last night among wrestling fans as soon as it was announced that Linda McMahon had failed in her attempt to get elected to the US Senate. Almost as one, wrestling fan asked the question: “Is the PG Era over?” Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but no. Like it or not, “PG” wrestling is here to stay.
I’d be lying if I said that I’d always been happy with “PG” wrestling, because it wasn’t what I loved to watch in the late 90’s. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that today’s wrestlers have to be more talented in order to work in the business. They can’t just haul out a steel chair and smack someone in the head repeatedly to get the crowd involved in their match. They have to use more of their character and wrestling ability. I’m not saying that some of the guys in the Attitude Era weren’t talented, because they were, but they had other ways to get that “shock factor”. The current WWE superstars rarely, if at all, have that opportunity, so they have to use other things.
WWE’s product isn’t suffering because of the PG rating: it’s suffering from a lack of fresh, creative ideas. The rating of your show is no excuse for producing mediocre storylines and expecting fans to react in the same way they did a decade ago. It simply won’t happen. Society isn’t the same as it was during the Attitude Era and the 93-97 era. Many People don’t watch wrestling (or TV in general) the way they used to 10-15 years ago. DVR, TiVo and Sky+ all let us choose when we sit down to watch Raw/Smackdown. In fact, that technology is a godsend sometimes, especially since Raw has gone to 3 hours. But for me, I still watch Raw and Smackdown because I’m still a dedicated fan to professional wrestling no matter what’s going on backstage.
The other reason why “PG” is here to stay is down to one simple fact: money. WWE makes a boat load of cash from merchandising deals with various companies and as a publicly traded entity; they have a responsibility to their shareholders to make as much money as they can. Put yourself in the shoes of a shareholder. Would you care if the product was crap, but you were making money? Of course you wouldn’t. At the end of the day, it’s about making money. As long as WWE are doing that with a “PG” product, nothing will change.
I reckon that WWE needs to start building more “superstars” who are at the level that John Cena and CM Punk is at. Those of you who have read my posts in the past know that I’m not a fan of Cena’s character, but the problem is that as soon as someone says “PG Era” they think “John Cena”, so all the frustration gets fired his way, which isn’t fair. It’s not his fault that he’s seen as the poster boy and the biggest star in the business today; it’s WWE’s fault for not building up enough stars at his level to share the load. Granted, they’ve started to do that in the last 18 months or so with the likes of Sheamus and CM Punk and Randy Orton, but those guys aren’t “there” yet.
I’m not a businessman or wrestling promoter. I’m just a fan and I know what I’d like to see, but the fact is that for everyone on the internet who bitches that WWE aren’t “doing things the way they should”, there’s another 10/20 people who are quite happy with what they’re watching. The people who hate “PG” wrestling are in the minority. Fact. Until that changes, WWE’s product will continue to be family-friendly and the rest of us will just have to deal with it
And also, the only reason whyWWE went to the attitude era is because of a few things:
1.WCW was kicking their ass in ratings every week.
2.ECW’s involvement
3. Im sorry to say it but if there was not for vince russo, the feuds of the attitude era from 97-99 would have not existed
So in my conclusion, there is no need for the attitude era to come back because that era had great feuds, but it did not have 10/10 match quality that it did before, plus after the attitude era, we got to see match of the year quality matches on PPV.
I rest my case for now
