If WWE can slap a logo on it, some kid is going to beg their parents to buy it for them. It's just the way things work. Most grown-ups will only buy their children things they deem appropriate for their age, so making sure it appeals to all ages means WWE will sell more stuff. It's basic business. WWE is a big part of mainstream pop culture, but it used to be considered a niche product, especially during the Attitude Era.
A-list celebrities eventually stopped wanting to be associated with the black sheep of the entertainment world, so WWE and WCW took whatever it could get. Congrats to the Chicago Cubs on a long-awaited and well-deserved WorldSeries win. We got you something for the celebration Being associated with pro wrestling wasn't something anyone in the spotlight wanted to advertise, but when the company went PG, celebrities began showing up again.
Every time a team wins a championship, Triple H sends the players a WWE title with their logo on the side plates. Every team proudly displays these belts in pictures for the media, which is invaluable free advertising.
Renee Young was sent to interview Harrison Ford, J. Probably not. WWE wants to be seen as a legitimate entertainment company, and in order to do that, it had to change into a more family-friendly entity to attract bigger names. One of the biggest hallmarks of the Attitude Era was the level of violence. In addition to all of the dangerous things wrestlers were expected to do like take chair shots to the head, they were expected to bleed on a regular basis.
Whether it happened the hard way or from a razor blade to the head, most wrestlers found themselves covered in crimson at least once a month, if not more often. Some wrestlers have developed large patches of scar tissue on their foreheads from blading so often, while others have suffered issues related to concussions and other injuries suffered from being put in dangerous situations.
Even if it was beneficial for the company from a public relations standpoint, banning things like blading, chair shots to the head, piledrivers and other dangerous moves, WWE made it much safer for its wrestlers to work. This has ensured Superstars will have longer, more fruitful careers without worrying as much about the kind of toll it will take on their body later in life. Wrestling will always be hard on a person, but the company has done a lot of things to improve the way it affects people down the line.
In order to make the company PG, WWE had to do away with certain things some fans like, but you can always find whatever you miss about the old days on the indy scene where restrictions are looser and small companies do whatever it takes to gain exposure. Daniel Bryan may be the best example of WWE's change in attitude toward wrestler safety. Had his situation happened during the '90s, he would have been back on the road within weeks of his last concussion, maybe sooner.
Management didn't want to risk putting his health in danger unless it was sure his body could handle it. Whether this was done out of fear of looking bad or genuine care for Bryan's safety doesn't matter because it was the right decision for him and his family.
Kids are the target audience for toys and merchandise. But the PG Era is now 11 years old, meaning any child born at the start is nearly in the PG bracket while kids who were 10 and above are now of legal drinking age. Tastes may have matured, and WWE's aesthetic may no longer be considered cool as the young fans grow older. WWE's lack of mature storytelling causes these fans to look elsewhere to satisfy their hunger for more adult-oriented content, and the cycle can't sustain itself without enough new young fans.
This shows younger viewers aren't sticking around anyway, despite being catered to by the PG rating, and a move to TV programming designed for young adults is more fitting. Variety reported the top most-watched television shows of , and with programs like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead among the top, it proves PG isn't the majority content rating.
Avengers: Endgame just broke the all-time worldwide box office record, and nearly every film in the top that isn't a Disney cartoon is PG—the modern industry standard, which is trending more toward R than down to G.
No matter how much WWE likes to portray itself as a catch-all entertainment show with a little for everyone, it's still about people fighting each other, which lends itself much more to the PG environment. The company should follow the trends of the biggest franchises in pop culture like Star Wars and Marvel and sit comfortably in the TV middle-ground that parents can feel safe letting their children watch, and teens and older can better connect with.
The key demographic of adults —fans noticeably above the PG rating—will inevitably compare the two shows and see WWE is hokey next to AEW's edgier content.
Jon Moxley raising hell with foul language is a much closer modern analogy to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin than Becky Lynch, whose primary insult is to call people a "dope. The new stars made or classic matches on the biggest stage always get compared to the past. Prior violent matches or shocking moments were normal in the Attitude Era, since they tried to replicate it every single week for better or worse. WWE gets more bang for their buck out of the wilder moments despite not featuring them as regularly.
The star power is just no longer the same and WWE seems to want it that way. No wrestler is anywhere near being as important as the company, which keeps making profits with this game plan. Ten days away and the US Champion has not been told whether he will be on the show or not. Joey is a writer with a decade of experience writing about sports, entertainment, and pop culture. Pro wrestling is his strongest passion with a lifetime fandom and countless live shows attended.
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