Obdurancy: Why Your Thoughts on This "PG Era" May Be Misinformed

It's just so annoying; fans finds just about any excuse to bash the WWE all because of a content rating. When they hear a curse word, they say things like, "PG just flew out the window," when they see blood, they just flip out. How many fans out there have these misconceptions of the WWE?  Why is this so troubling to fans everywhere? What is this, a fad? Did it might just occur to some that there's more to PG than kids and John Cena?

First of all, the Attitude Era is NEVER coming back. You can whine, moan, and cry all you want, but the bottom line is, it's gone, gone, GONE. I mean, some of you actually started getting into wrestling WHEN the Attitude Era was in its reign. Did anyone know that the WWE was, technically, PG before all of that? 

LET.

IT. 

GO.

With the current rosters and lack of creative storylines, I'm pretty sure bringing it back would bring about worse consequences than the WWE already has now. It amazes me how so many people think that "TV-14" is going to make the WWE better. It amazes me how everybody thinks that TV-14 is "real wrestling."

Now--I'm just going to get this out of way, the WWE isn't about KIDS! TV-PG was implemented because of demographical research and the negative hype concerning content seen in the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras. For demographics, we see PG bringing not just kids, who drag their parents along, but a eclectic type of people, a family atmosphere. With this, the WWE's raking in money from all directions from a multitudinous demographic.

The content and quality of the WWE might not be good, but financially speaking, the WWE has prospered pretty well from this content rating. If the WWE just centered on 18+ year-olds, we might not have a WWE to complain about. "But, wrestling isn't for kids," why shouldn't wrestling be for kids? Why should everything be limited to older people who only care for things like blood and cursing? Many say they got into wrestling as a child, how would you feel if some teenage hardcore wrestling fan told you that wrestling wasn't for kids at the time when you were at that age?

For all that negative hype, what did we see the in the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression Era, besides great character development and storylines? Well, there were injuries and deaths, in addition to the steroid allegations and complaints over the content at the time, like blood, cursing, and sexually-suggestive themes. The WWE's overall image was already tarnished with all the fighting of parental groups, government implementation, and loss of advertisers. What better way to get back on their side by cleaning themselves up?

Now, those aforementioned elements were not exactly required in a wrestling promotions, those are creative additives--stuff you don't really need. Since when did all of that make a wrestling promotion? I admit, blood would only be useful to provide emphasis on certain match-types, like chair-matches or something, but other than that, what else is it good for? If you want edgier content, go watch CZW. If you're just a hardcore wrestling fan..... yeah, go watch CZW or old ECW tapings.  You don't need all of that in order to be a good wrestling promotion. Some complain about the WWE for what is now, and yet they're still watching it. They know how the ol' saying goes: "If you don't like it, don't watch it." 

The problem with the WWE concerns the negligence of the quality of the entertainment: with so much money coming in from merchandise, show buy-rates, and lack of industry competition (the WWE's fan base and the fact that it's the largest in the industry) the creative team could write just as many lazily written storylines as possible. All they needed to do was generate money. It's not about kids, it's all about money in the end.

"Ching, ching
Bling, bling
Cut the chatter
You ain't talking money,
Then your talking don't matter"

As was said before, the WWE was PG before the Attitude Era; you had the Golden Age and the New Generation eras. Some parents, who were fans of wrestling at that time, wanted to introduce their kids into something they experienced when they were younger. Now, they turn on the TV for their kids, they see all of what was going on in the Attitude Era/Ruthless Aggression Era, and what do they do? Well, whatever was on the screen, it sure wasn't something they watched as children. The parents refused to their children to watch all of this because it was so violent. It didn't focus much on the traditional, unadulterated aspects of wrestling--it wasn't what they wanted their children to see, so until the WWE underwent some change, they weren't going to expose their kids to it. It was a family atmosphere for them in the mid 1900's, why can't it be one now?

I'm not saying that the Attitude Era was bad or anything, I'm saying that people have just as many misconceptions of parents as much they do PG or kids. 

The WWE calls this a way forward because it's trying to go back to what it once was. In the 1980's, kids and adults alike couldn't get enough of Hulk Hogan, today we have John Cena. Truth be told, they weren't exactly the best, in fact, they weren't good at all, but they were needed in the company to appeal to the youth and families alike, and, yes, to get money.

It's not the fault of a content rating for the decay of the WWE, the WWE brought it in with good intentions. As for execution, that's where the WWE fails; they were brought more, but they didn't deliver: they generated money ten-fold, but they sacrificed entertainment quality.

To be honest, I don't believe there is a PG Era. I think that was just created by some disgruntled wrestling fans just to deride the WWE for not having blood or cursing or for having to see John Cena.