Is the WWE Abandoning Its New PG Image?

It has long been reported that for at least the duration of Linda McMahon's Senate run in the state of Connecticut, the WWE would be toning down its levels of violence and sexuality in a major way.

For awhile, the company stuck to this plan.

True, the females of the company still run around in skimpy outfits, and the industry as a whole is still making money off of brutality, but for the most part, the plan had been working.

However, in recent weeks, fans have seen unprecedented levels of aggression and violence pouring from their television screens each and every time Mike "the Miz" Mizanin and Bryan "Daniel Bryan" Danielson are in the ring.

Each and every week on RAW in the past month or so, fans have seen Miz (and normally other wrestlers) brutally attack Bryan, often two or three on one at a time, ordinarily leaving him in a heap in the middle of the squared circle.

Don't misconstrue what I'm saying here. I know that wrestling is "fake," in so much as NASCAR isn't a real sport. In either case, the participants are putting their careers or even their lives on the line each and every time that they suit up for action.

But this evening on the show, fans saw the violence taken to a whole new level when Mizanin and cohort Alex Riley double-teamed Bryan right in the middle of the ring after a match.

Over and over, Bryan was struck in the face, head and body with both open handed slaps and punches. He was kicked repeatedly, all the while being restrained by Riley. Bryan's face was raked repeatedly, and his hair pulled to boot. Only after the attack was over did two referees enter the ring to check on Bryan's condition.

I'm sure in reality, he was perfectly fine, and was simply selling the attack. However, to many fans, younger children being the prime example, the attack looked shockingly real.

Like many viewers, I expected the obligatory run-in of another wrestler or even a group of referees in order to stop the onslaught. Instead, the WWE televised what amounted to a three minute mugging.

On a personal level, I have been a wrestling fan for roughly twenty years, and have never truly had an issue with the violent aspect of it. It's a physical line of work, and I understand that at times, some points need to be hammered home.

But I can categorically say that this was the first time in all my years of watching wrestling that I have been truly appalled by something that I saw. And that is a statement that holds a great deal of weight given all of the things that have taken place in the business over the course of the last few decades.

If the company is being mindful of what voters will think of McMahon come Election Day, this display did little to quiet her detractors.

In the end, these incidents will give her opponent Richard Blumenthal yet another round of ammunition for attacking McMahon's character through the company that she has sometimes been a public face of in the past, but is trying so hard now to distance herself from.

And in a Senate race that is shaping up to be as close as this one is, factors like these cannot be ignored.