Maybe I am misinformed about what I said in my last paragraph.
And yet, I completely disagree about what you said regarding Cena fans knowing how to separate their own likes and dislikes and Cena haters not knowing it. So every Cena fan is an intelligent fellow, sane and practical, while every Cena hater is an idiot who doesn't understand the business. Dude I am sorry but you are only pretending to be practical here. You should admit that you simply love Cena to the point where you can't bear criticism against him. I am not against that, but just admit it.
You may be right about some Cena haters being blind to practicality. But to brand all Cena haters as blind and stupid and by implication all Cena fans as intelligent is simply ridiculous. I am not putting down Cena - all I wanted to say to the Cena haters was in fact, that, if they really thought Cena being the face of the company was such a bad idea, they should blame it on the WWE and not on Cena.
And oh, btw, even in the Attitude Era (which I can see you disliked), there were calls for more family-friendly and inclusive programming, from many quarters. And yet the WWE/F did its most successful business ever, in that era. Why? I am not from the USA so I am unaware of social trends in the USA as such. Do you mean to imply that society during the late 90s was okay with adult content and many actually loved it, and today the society wishes to revert to more family-friendly entertainment? I don't think so, as I said, even in the Attitude Era the parents and many other entities wanted the WWF to tone down, but they didn't and they were hyper successful.
In response to your comment that I am misinformed, I wish to ask you this - was Sammartino ever booed heavily (I don't know, maybe you do). was Hogan ever booed as the top face? Probably not. Though I think some of the crowd used to go dead on him during the later stages of his epic face run (early-mid 90s)? Did Austin ever get booed as the top face (don't tell me 2001, he was heel then). No he didn't. This I can confirm because I watched all of his run as top face (and don't tell me 1997 because he wasn't the top guy yet in 97). Weren't the fans during each of the corresponding eras, also a mix of adults and kids (though may be in differing proportions)? Why did these guys never get booed heavily by one section of the fans then? Don't tell me it wasn't cool to boo them but it's cool to boo Cena - that is just stupid!
You get my point?
And even if you say that Hogan DID get booed at some point in the early-mid 90s, it still proves my other point - that after a certain point any character become stale, at least according to some fans.
And how do you know this is the right time for WWE to be PG? I am not saying this is the wrong time - I am just asking you how you can assert that it is the right time? Why wasn't it the right time 10 years ago? Also, wasn't the time more right 5 years ago (when Cena hardly got a few boos except at events like ECW's ONS)? Do you have some data to back this? Or is it the right time only because you think so?
Lastly, have you observed that the WWE has slowly been turning away from PG in 2011? Very slowly, but they are doing it? So would you say now that it is the right time to turn a bit away, or would you criticize them?
The majority of Cena fans on here have a more intelligent argument than the Cena haters. Go back and look. Cena fans generally say "most wrestlers say Cena is good and he draws, thus he's good" Cena haters generally say "I don't like him, change his character". What do you want me to do? Give you a spreadsheet of the types of arguments in a statistical form? I don't love Cena to a point to where I can't stand criticism, I understand why WWE is doing what they do and it makes me wanna bang my head against the wall when people are so stupid as to think their individual opinion is more imporatant than what makes sense for the company and to bitch when the company does what's best for them. Again, I own NO Cena merchandise. Nothing, no DVDs, no shirts, nothing. I've spent probably 2,000 dollars on ROH in the past 7 years or so and only about 100 on WWE. I'm not some kid who loves Cena, I've been watching wrestling for a loooong time, I've been in a ring, I've talked to Harley Race and Terry Funk, I've helped take down the ROH set and ring. I'm not a bias WWE/Cena fan, I'm just able to seperate my opinion from a good decision the WWE should make. If I don't like what the WWE does, I at least understand why they did it and am smart enough to not bitch about it. Bitching about the WWE pushing Cena is like bitching that Coke isn't changed to light soda because you like light soda more. It's stupid beyond belief to bitch about something that makes sense for a company to do because it's not what YOU want.
What are you basing the WWE's success in the attitude era off of? Ratings? That's outdated. The attitude era changed with the times. Jerry Springer was popular then too. Plus WCW was hot, there was no UFC. Today WWE has restrictions due to Benoit, there is no WCW to help business in general grow, and there is UFC taking viewers, the internet and more channels segmenting the viewers even more. Just a lot more competition and things WWE has to deal with now. Not only that, but again, you're using a stupid ass argument. We aren't even talking about the attitude era. Are you saying that WWE should go back to being like the attitude era? Which would kill them financially after Benoit? What are you saying? Why are we even talking about it?
Also don't be so dumb to think that it's not cool to boo Cena. The audience isn't at all the same as it was for Sammartino, Hogan, or Austin. The audience was more uniform. One type of character got over with that audience one way or another. No you have about 75-85% mainstream and 25-15% smarks. So yea, for that small, SMALL segment of the audience, it is cool to boo Cena. In Sammartino's era, the WHOLE AUDIENCE felt the same way about pro wrestling. In Hogan's era the WHOLE AUDIENCE felt the same way about pro wrestling. In the Attitude era the WHOLE AUDIENCE cheered anti heros. In today's audience, you have a segmented audience that either loves to boo or loves to cheer absolute faces.
Think about this too. If 15-25 percent of the audience actually hated Cena, wouldn't that hurt sales? They don't, so they must actually like to boo him. If they do actually like to boo him, then that 15-25 percent is actually a lot lower of a percent to the point that their opinion doesn't even matter. See what I'm saying? It's incredibly stupid to assume that the people who boo him don't like it because the fact that they're even booing him means he makes them feel an emotion. The fact that his segments get high ratings, the fact that him on the marquee sells out arenas, and the fact that he sells the most merchandise and has sustained this means they aren't disliking him in a "I'm not gonna watch anymore" kind of way.
If people actually hated Cena they wouldn't boo him, and they wouldn't show up, and WWE would lose money, and Vince would change the character. Instead 100% of the audience cares a lot one way or another about him and makes a ton of noise, buys a ton of tickets, and buys a ton of merchandise.
As for Hogan getting booed. Yea he did, and he also didn't draw anywhere near as well at that time in his career. WCW started losing money with Hogan, so they turned him heel and brought in the nWo and then started making money. Cena is getting some boos but he's also generating a ton of money. Which shows it's not the same kind of dislike. PLUS WCW was a different company with southern "rasslin" roots. Cena is still in the same company. It's not like Cena went to ROH. He's still in WWE.
It's the right time for WWE to be PG because if they didn't, the media would slaughter them and they'd lose money. It wasn't the right time 10 years ago because they were making money doing what they were doing. It's the right time because since they've been PG they've made more money each year.
WWE is a publicly traded company, this means you can look at their books. Look at their balance sheet and income statements, they've made more money each of the past 3 years. That's how I know going PG is the right move for WWE. Plus they have people who are way more knowledgeable in business than anyone on here and that's their decision. I trust that's the right way to go.
See what I mean? I look at WWE annual reports, I look at their balance sheet, I do things to see what they need/want as a COMPANY before bitching. Bitching simply because you don't like something is like a kid bitching because they don't wanna eat broccoli. Even if you don't like it, it may actually be a good thing. I'm smart enough to research these things and figure out WHY, not just bitch.
That's the difference between Cena fans (on here) in general and Cena haters (on here) in general.
Also, no it hasn't been turning away from PG. I don't know what the fuck show you've been watching. It may be more Pixar than Disney but it's still PG. Read their annual reports if you REALLY want to see where they're going. Don't believe bullshit internet reports.
