PG Era to stay

- Phil Mushnick wrote the following in The New York Post:

"Now that Linda McMahon lost, the WWE can revert to producing kid-targeting sleaze. Some figured the WWE’s TV shows went PG the last few months because the McMahons’ consciences bothered them."

For what it's worth, F4Wonline reports that WWE has no plans on doing away with PG programming because Linda lost.

The PG changes were originally made mainly because of WWE's relationship with Mattel. WWE is very happy with Mattel and nobody expects officials to do away with PG content.

thats gay, the PG stuff is rubbish, no blood and no swearing takes the realism out of wrestling

I don't blame the pg rating for the shite the WWE are turning it,its more to do with shitty or no storylines and to many gimmick PPV's.

There was only a brief period in wrestling when it was'nt PG yet good storytelling and less PPV's ment it was entertaining.

You'd think with the politics thing humped they would let go a little bit on the PG stuff.

You can get away with a lot under a PG rating,But for some reason the WWE have just not botherd to try and push the it to limits like they did back in the late 80's and through out the 90's.
The whole Daniel Bryan incident proved that,I've seen more violent things happen on PG rated films.Yet Bryan get's realesed for a short while to think about what he has done.

Gotta totally agree with you RP, Smackdown has ALWAYS been PG and look at how good that was on days gone by.

You have to blame the writers for not being able to come up with storylines that last longer than 2 weeks. But most of all you have to blame Vince for bringing in writers that know shit about wrestling and not giving a damn about anything but the guys that are in the main event(which is boring as fook anyway).

Not until they are forced to, ie the rating get so low they are in danger of being pulled from the network will they change things up.

Well that or until Vince/Steph/Linda are all killed in some freak accident.

The PG era isnt the worst thing about the WWE imo.

The fact that they havnt created any new stars, bar Edge since 2005 is the worst problem and the reason for them being so stale at the moment. Sheamus isnt a star no matter how badly they try and get him over on commentary because he just hasnt had a legitimate win over a main event star like a HHH, Cena or Orton, Swagger is doing nothing, same as Kofi, MVP and CM Punk (lets face it if he wasnt injured he'd still be in mid card) all of whom theyve tried to push over the years but have just pulled the rug from under their feet. They cant seem to create new stars which is a real shame because it has left people, like those Ive named, stagnated and us watchign varations of HHH, Orton and Cena matches or them squashing some up and comer. I really hope the Miz and Wade Barret get proper sustained pushes but from the evidence of the last time that Miz got momentum and he was squashed by Cena in about 5 mins, Im not holding my breath and Wade Barret seems like a short term solution to me because once Nexus is finished with the way hes been booked to rely on them to win matches and fight his battles I cant see him becoming a star. I know I bang on about him all the time on here but Bryan Danielson looks like hes getting a push which could see some long term investment and he seems to be plodding along at a good rate so Im hopeful for his future.

Sustained pushes need to be given to these wrestlers and not just stopped the first time they dont get a reaction because well lets face it everyone has an off night but when booked right I think anyone could become a star, look at Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, two of the most untalented guys ever but two of the biggest names of all time.

But getting back to my point the PG era has seen some really violent moments e.g. HHH's home invasion of Orton, Orton attacking Stephanie, Nexus original attack which even without the tie choking was still pritty violent etc.

So I honestly dont think that the lack of blood and unprotected chair shots etc is the worst thing about WWE, because well people moan about it being boring and uniteresting but surely some new talent would spruce it up and make it more interesting than just some guy getting his head battered by a chair and spilling his blood all over an arena?

With new talent means the booking has to be up to scratch and well the WWE writers cant seem book anything interesting at the moment but why not just keep it simple and have people fued over lets say being better than other person and at being the best at wrestling and over titles instead of "oh you blew up my limosine and ran over my nan" and all that crap which just makes it harder for themselves, because look through history at the best fueds and storylines, Stone Cold vs the Rock, each wanted the WWF title and to better than the other, simple storyline, Undertakers streak angle, people want to end it, simple storyline, Rock vs Hogan, Icon vs Icon simple, Bryan Danielson vs Samoa Joe over the ROH title and to be the best in the world, so simple. Just keep it simple and let the talent go out there and put on a good wrestling show which imo would be better than going out there doing ridiculous storylines or smashing heads with chairs and blood fly everywhere which is really a short term fix to a long term problem which can only be fixed by making new stars.

So to sum up, although it has it huge downsides like Cenas superman gimmick, gimmick ppvs like Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber being severely hurt by the lack of blood, JBL being called poopy and CM Punk and Bryan Danielson not being allowed to be let loose on the microphone, PG isnt the worst thing about the WWE and as it still have us some great moments, Taker/HBK, Punk vs Hardy etc and isnt the worst thing about WWE which is shit writers and lack of new talent and stars.

The fact that they havnt created any new stars, bar Edge since 2005

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Jeff Hardy became the most over babyface in America in 2008/9.
Bobby Lashley was getting a monster push.
CM Punk with Jeff became a top-liner for a brief period.

Problem is, the two they've really invested in both left WWE, and Punk got a punishment burial. It looks like they've created no-one, because none of the ones who've been pushed are in the main event currently. And the push they gave Lashley, imagine what could have happened if someone with genuine talent had got that.


I honestly dont think that the lack of blood and unprotected chair shots etc is the worst thing about WWE

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I completely agree with this. Just having sheamus cut himself isn't going to automatically make him a standout wrestler.



when booked right I think anyone could become a star, look at Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, two of the most untalented guys ever but two of the biggest names of all time.

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Not always. Hoagn and Warrior both had charisma. The guys WWE pull out of development have bugger all, someone like Benoit was an amazing wrestler, had no charisma and wasn't a successful world champ at all. Shelton Benjamin is another, you can book him as perfectly as you want to, but without the ability to make people care about what you do, it essentially means nothing.

Plus, as much as it pains me to say it, Hogan could actually wrestle. If you can, check out some of the stuff he did in Japan - he did half the stuff he could do in America because he didn't need to.

PG isn't the problem; having a wrestler bleed all over the place doesn't make it entertaining, just look at Flair in TNA.
When people talk about how much better wrestling was in the past there is a lot of nostalgia as part of the reason. There were some awful matches and storylines in the attitude era but they're often conveniently forgotten

Jeff Hardy became the most over babyface in America in 2008/9.
Bobby Lashley was getting a monster push.
CM Punk with Jeff became a top-liner for a brief period.

Problem is, the two they've really invested in both left WWE, and Punk got a punishment burial. It looks like they've created no-one, because none of the ones who've been pushed are in the main event currently. And the push they gave Lashley, imagine what could have happened if someone with genuine talent had got that.

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Thats what Im saying that they don have any fo these guys in their main events and are instead falling back on the "old guard" of Taker, HHH (out injured I know but still lets face if he wasnt there would be a very slim chance that he wouldn't be in the main event of some kind), Cena and Orton which, I dont know about you guys but its very boring and stale to me.

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Not always. Hoagn and Warrior both had charisma. The guys WWE pull out of development have bugger all, someone like Benoit was an amazing wrestler, had no charisma and wasn't a successful world champ at all. Shelton Benjamin is another, you can book him as perfectly as you want to, but without the ability to make people care about what you do, it essentially means nothing.

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Alright yer I take that back as that was a stupid thing to say really but I think that with the right, sustained push 9 times out of 10 most people can get over. Where a guys positives can be shown above his negatives like what they did what WCW did with Goldberg when he was squashing in about 3 minutes flat and kept him off the microphone which is what WWE didnt do and thats what hindered him in his WWE run. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule like Lashley and others that I cant really think of at the moment.

dwindow wrote:

thats gay, the PG stuff is rubbish, no blood and no swearing takes the realism out of wrestling

What you have to remember is that WWE has pretty much always been PG, at least since the early 80s if not earlier. The Attitude era with it's blood, swearing and concussion-inducing chair shots was the exception not the norm for WWE. So really WWE in just reverting to type after a brief period of madness.

As others have already said it's not the rating that's the problem, it's creative minds not pushing the boundaries. I think that possibily WWE played it safe in the past year or so because Linda was campaigning and they were sensitive to criticism. As she's lost they might try and push the boundaries a little more but still stay within the PG rating.

And as far as 'realism' is concerned: remember that the Attitude era gave us such 'realistic' storylines/angles as The Ministry of Darkness, Val Venis having his penis cut off with a samurai sword and Goldust getting pregnant and giving birth to a plastic hand.