Monday Night wars - end of PG?

[slimmshady]

If and when tna arise to the level of the wwe, what do you think is the biggest thing wwe could do to counteract tna? For me personally, I belive that wwe will scrap the PG era eventually, if tna actually turns out to be a huge thorn in wwe's a**e. And the biggest thing they might do to symoblize, if you like, the end of the PG era is to turn their top dog, john cena, into a major heel. Just as they transformed austin from a blonde headed goody-two shoes into the controversial, beer drinking, texas rattlesnake all those years back, they will do something similar to one of the their top guns and seen as cena is the biggest at the moment in this era, he will get the thumbs up. What do you guys think will happen?

 

[theHeadliner]

They won't change anything this soon. Linda's senate race is riding on a family friendly WWE product. Her opponents to this day still bring up the stupid stuff they did during the attitude era and use it against her so she needs a clean product in the present day to support her claim. Vince is too arrogant to think TNA will be a serious threat this soon. Give him 6 months to a year to scope out the situation and see if TNA has made real improvements in both show production, ratings, and buys. If there has been vast improvements on the TNA side of things, Vince might consider some change, only after Linda's Senate race is over.

 

[Mr. TM]

If TNA is ever to compete?

Well that is an interesting thought, would WWE begin to push the boundaries? I could see it, but instead of going in that path, WWE should instead improve their writing staff. They know that kids make a huge market, but they have yet to have shown writing that mars many other shows out their marketed towards kids.

WWE has shown patterns of not being able to improve their product, instead, yes, tuning the heat up on it, and using cheap angles that are damaging, yet show huge gains. So yes, I am sure the WWE will once again attract these angles that formed the era of attitude.

 

[Jetspete]

Why does anyone think TNA can rise to the level of the WWE? A month ago they were holding house shoes in skating rinks (see scranton, PA). The WWE is as good as it has ever been, and no, this will not mean the end of the PG era. Even if TNA gets strong ratings Monday, one week does not a wrestling organization make. The WWE changed its organizational philosophy to start making its product family friendly, and if you have not noticed arenas are selling out and merchandising is doing well. The company stock has only risen since the new philosophy. So no, TNA will not force the WWE to lose "pg." the only thing that might force wwe to go back to the "attitude era" would be a shift in the fan base.

 

[Kanye South]

No. If TNA somehow, possibly, took their promotion to the top and started fucking the WWE sideways, then the PG Era would not be over. There are alot of reasons. Linda's Senate crap wouldn't be successful if Mickie James came to the ring with a potato chip and two dimes covering her body, and if Batista's best promo consisted of "FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckBitchCockSperm". Another reason would be that the WWE wouldn't need it. They proved on Monday with the Bret Hart/Vince/HBK thing that they could destroy TNA when they're at their a-game. And the last reason is that the WWE needs to stop relying on profanity and nudity to get ahead. They need to learn how to fucking write a storyline before they go back to the Attitude Era.

And stuff.

 

[theBusiness]

i've been thinking about this topic for months and im glad someone actually sees this similar to me. i've come to the conclusion that if tna becomes a legit threat, heel john cena will take wwe on his back. his inevitable heel turn HAS to be a wrestlemania moment, preferably closing one. If this were the case, I see it happening more next year than this upcoming year, but you never know. after all of this is written in history, it will be ironic because of the similarity of hogans nwo heel turn and cenas eventual heel turn. the first one was executed by the company that failed and the second one will be executed by the company that succeeded

 

[slikrik84]

There was one huge reason why WCW was able to go to war with WWF/E,
TURNER!!
It was Ted's bankroll that allowed the battles to get so rough.
As good as a product TNA might put out,It has nowhere near the pocketbook to compete with Vince!!
And not to sound mean...as long as a good amount of TNA talent is most comprised of WWE/WCW castoffs....they'll never be taken seriously.

How long have you been watching wrestling? Just about every wrestler has been a "castoff" at one time or another.

Mean Mark in WCW was a mid-carder at best with a lame gimmick... goes to the WWE and becomes the guy that has never lost at wrestlemania.

Oz in WCW was a lame wrestler and WCW castoff, but went to WWE and became heavyweight champion as Diesel and then was a main component in a revolutionary wrestling movement called the NWO.

Stunning Steve Austin was a mid-carder in WCW and then got fired via fax by WCW and landed in the WWF to become one of the biggest (if not the biggest) names ever.

Wrestling is way better when there are two legitimate companies that are creating and trashing talent... it allows for things to not get stale. WWE knows this and that's why they tried to do separate brands, but that is really lame and the reason why much of the attitude/nwo era fanbase no longer watches faithfully.

Nothing was more exciting than having no idea what would happen on Raw or Nitro... now, it's so predictable its unreal!

I remember the first Nitro seeing Lex Luger walk out when I thought that he worked for WWF, or Scott Hall come out of the crowd when I thought that he worked for WWF, or what about seeing Rick Rude on both shows at the same time! That was exciting! The product got stale because old stars wouldn't move over, and I have to say after seeing that X-pac, Nash, Hall, Hogan, and others are going to be at TNA Live on Monday... I'm somewhat excited to see a reunion, but I hope that it's a short one.

TNA has a lot of talent with Styles, Angle, Wolfe, Daniels, Lashley, and others. If they can get RVD, Jeff Hardy, and a couple of others on board that are out there... they will have my televisions attention on Monday night... and Raw won't.

I'd still rather see Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan or Sting vs. Scott Steiner than watch John Cena run through some guy that you know doesn't have a chance in the first place. I'd rather see a NWO Reunion (as long as its one night) then continue to watch Triple H and Shawn Michaels try to act like they're still thirty... even though I do think both are still two of the best wrestlers, their antics seem to get tiresome... and the sad part is, they are really the best part of the show.

I'm all about seeing guys switch companies and get repackaged. Think about this... Before Steve Austin left WCW... he lost three times to... Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Sound like a guy thats going to go set the world on fire in the other company? I think not. However, if there had not been two companies... he may never have been.

 

[Doomsday Device]

Lets not forget that right before the 1996 Monday night wars began, WWE was very cartoonish, until the competition bit Vince in the ass. He had to take lots of risks and extreme measures for him to make his company survive. If he did it once, he'll do it again. Vince will do whatever it takes to beat the competition. Especially if he's driven to the edge, which theres no sign of that happening yet.

Someone here mentioned that perhaps WWE has stayed with this PG era because Linda is running for senate office, that makes sense.

For those who pray for things to stay as they are keep praying because wrestling (especially WWE) never stays with just one style forever.

 

[Mr_billy]

PG is not the issue. The big reason the attitude era worked was the ability to cut a convincing promo. The Rock would have been electrifying as a Teddy Bear, he was just that charismatic. Austin, could cut a good promo, HHH, good promo. Honestly, watch story lines. That's what makes a good show, if it was just wrestling, ROH would be the top company, Benoit would have had a Samartino length reign. So if they just stepped up the writing for some of the feuds, they'd have no problem.

 

[GBALLA]

I agree with what the headliner had to say. Its way to early to see what TNA is going to do, even after the 1/4 show, they need time to see what type of damage they can do. Plus the elections are not for a while, so there is no chance anything will happen until then. of course something unexpected could happen which would change his mind, like TNA getting better rating than raw on monday, but highly unlikely.

 

[chidodger]

I think that if TNA can compete, and eventually beat WWE in ratings, WWE will be forced to drop the PG rating. However, it's all on TNA, meaning that they MUST be able to compete with WWE on a weekly basis.

I agree with others, though, that WWE may help out TNA a great deal due to it's current boring product which accounts for 90% of all 3 brands in my opinion.

TNA can't become "old WCW" and hope it's audience grows with stale wrestlers, and corny/boring storylines and fueds. TNA needs to, not so much become old ECW, but look at old ECW and learn from what they did to grow as a company and get people interested. The smartest thing Paul Heyman did with ECW, is he let the wrestlers make it personal. TNA needs to let all these guys go in the ring, be themselves to a certain drgree, acknowledge the competition (WWE), and people will take notice.

ALSO-they need to get a normal square wrestling ring.

By doing those things, TNA will force the WWE to drop the PG rating, as well as hornswoggle, abe washington show, useless "divas" that steal airtime, and every other corny/boring/stale/ fued, storyline and performer that is ruining the WWE today. Although I'm not a fan of TNA, I hope they succeed and grow as a company, and give us fans another historic MONDAY NIGHT WAR!

 

[RatedRSuperstar]

I seriously doubt the WWE sees TNA as a real threat to them. Because, right now, TNA gets ratings equal to ECW or Superstars, and in no way is TNA ready to start a war against the WWE. They should make time to get their ratings up, improve their storylines, THEN after that, when they get their ratings to 2.0 or higher, then they might be ready to start a monday night war. but to me, it seems like they're just rushing into it, and that is a BAD idea. RAW will completely kill TNA in the ratings, making their ratings worse than what they already are, and hopefully they'll realize that competing against RAW this soon was a bad idea.

Anyway, I would like to see WWE go back to TV-14, but it won't happen since Linda is running for senate. But, WWE shouldn't be worried, I'll be tuning in to RAW this week, as always.

 

[BladeRunner]

I think I've realized what happened. The PG thing, yeah that's a big deal. It's a big part of why some people stopped watching wrestling. Whether you defend PG, or hate PG, it's made a TON of wrestling fans angry.

But what's really going on, imo, is that WWE's storylines nowadays just aren't what they once were.

It seems to me, that if the storyline is good, it doesn't matter if it's G for General Audiences, or R rated, people will want to see it if it's done well.

I know I'm generally in the minority just by liking TNA even a little bit, but the thing about TNA is, it's generally had an "overall storyline". What I mean by this is, if you missed 3-5 months of TNA, because it's got a very large overarching storyline, you still might get it when you come back.

With WWE, it feels completely random imo. It has no rhyme or reason, it's like they're throwing it together literally every week instead of thinking it through.

You need an overall story-arc that builds. Things need layers.

WWE sometimes gets that, when they throw out fake news to makes you guys think there's more to stuff than there is. Like I think that the whole "Sheamus is good friends with HHH" is a complete fabrication thrown out there by WWE to appeal to the smarks to make them think that they know what's going on. (Now that's just a theory, but I am truly convince they do actually do that at various points) This is what I'm talking about, things need multiple layers, they need depth, they need long term meaning.

If WWE can do that for the majority of it's stuff, whether on TV or in the "wrestling rumors" for the smarks, if you combine that with the sheer power it has anyway, it can prove it's value.

 

[Rzarectah]

I belive that wwe will scrap the PG era eventually, if tna actually turns out to be a huge thorn in wwe's a**e

You basically answered your own question. I think the only chance for Vince to stop being a pussy and start putting out a entertaining, contreversial, quality product is if TNA does first. If TNA does what WWF did back in the day, then Vince will get his head outta his ass and start pushing his younger talent quicker, and start having bigger feuds with exciting heel/face turns.

 

[Rzarectah]

I belive that wwe will scrap the PG era eventually, if tna actually turns out to be a huge thorn in wwe's a**e

You basically answered your own question. I think the only chance for Vince to stop being a pussy and start putting out a entertaining, contreversial, quality product is if TNA does first. If TNA does what WWF did back in the day, then Vince will get his head out of his ass and start pushing his younger talent quicker, and start having bigger feuds with exciting heel/face turns