How deep of a program can wrestlers make with each other in PG

[dwith73]

It seem's to me that people enjoy watching wrestling if not just for the wrestling, but the story lines that go with them. Honestly though, how intense can they make a storyline between 2 wrestlers in PG, and make people care, or at least interesting. Like for instance when Kofi freaked out on Legacy, and Orton, and totally smashed the hell out of the race car. That was intense, and made people tune in to see what was going to happen next.

So now that we are in full blown PG era in WWE, and you have less chair shot's, and violence on one another. How are the wrestler's supposed to play it off as like an apponent making them bleed, or a chair shot. They are personal attacks, and breed great story lines.

Major story lines are critical in keeping people focused on watching the programming. Smackdown is useless now, that their are edited to the max when it airs. People are going to get tired of the show's stopping in mid match to have a doctor come out and patch the wrestler up so the blood can't be seen.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for preserving wrestlers health, but PG is getting a little over bearing. You also can't tell me that kicking someone in the face with a boot off the rope, or HHH hitting someone with a sledge hammer(regardless if his hand is guiding or not) that thing's like that are for PG television. It is still showing Violence to the younger kid's that watch.

What do you think about the whole PG era as a WHOLE?

 

[Nate DaMac]

This comes up all the time and honestly, it's getting quite unbearable. The PG Era really has no impact on the storylines, it just means that Creative has to actually put thought into the story, instead of just constantly pushing the line to see what they can get away with. Take CM Punk for example. He has managed to excel beyond belief, even in this PG Era, because he has charisma. HHH, Cena, Orton, etc. They have all done just fine with the storylines they've been handed. When storylines suck, they have very little to do with the tv rating. Look at TNA, they can do a lot more with their show since it isn't PG, but it's still really bad.

 

[FromTheSouth]

Hey! Look! Another thread about PG era! What a surprise.

Honestly, a story line can get just as deep as it could during Attitude. It's just that instead of necrophilia, creative has to write a story. Orton and HHH had a very personal, well written feud in PG that had nothing to do with sex, giving birth to human hands, or live sex celebrations.

Storylines can go just as deep in this era as they could in any other. Shows like The West Wing had plenty of well written storylines, arcing plots, and deep characters without ever having to crucify anyone. Most TV shows are PG and do just fine. Wrestling is nothing more than a TV show. If creative wants to make something interesting, they can, regardless of rating.

 

[rocksuperstarkaos]

The PG Era sucks, but the superstars are only as good as the writing, what I don't get is, this PG Era is a little weird because if you go on the WWE Corporate website, 77% of the people who watch WWE are 18+ if that's the case what do we need a PG Era for anyway?

 

[dwith73]

I have been a huge fan of WWF/WWE since the early 90's. Their product was solid, and gimmics were cool. I'm sorry but WWE mark's seem to have a logical answer all the time for anything that anyone may bring up in a negative aspect for WWE. Why was the attitude era so immensly popular, because it was crazy, and geared for adult's Not PG, it was straight up in your face 14+ years of age, and it was awesome. I remember the rating's back during the attitude era were in the high 6's. Now they are in the high 3's, quite a drop since the headling guy's like Austin, and The Rock decided to find other avenues of entertainment.

Is there even 1 WWE mark, that agree's that WWE is alot less entertaining in the PG era?

 

[dwith73]

The PG Era sucks, but the superstars are only as good as the writing, what I don't get is, this PG Era is a little weird because if you go on the WWE Corporate website, 77% of the people who watch WWE are 18+ if that's the case what do we need a PG Era for anyway?

Honestly to me wrestling, and the moves of wrestling alone showing an act of violence with every move tell's me that it can't be rated PG.

 

[Sharp_Shooter]

Because you have millions of kids walking around with Cena & 619 T shirts. Gotta keep it clean. But I agree with FromtheSouth. Ever seen a Disney movie? That's some of the best writing in the business. But I don't think the writing's that bad. I have more of a problem with the performances in the ring. Stone Cold would thrive in this era. He would just have to save the bird flipping.

 

[rocksuperstarkaos]

I have been a huge fan of WWF/WWE since the early 90's. Their product was solid, and gimmics were cool. I'm sorry but WWE mark's seem to have a logical answer all the time for anything that anyone may bring up in a negative aspect for WWE. Why was the attitude era so immensly popular, because it was crazy, and geared for adult's Not PG, it was straight up in your face 14+ years of age, and it was awesome. I remember the rating's back during the attitude era were in the high 6's. Now they are in the high 3's, quite a drop since the headling guy's like Austin, and The Rock decided to find other avenues of entertainment.

Is there even 1 WWE mark, that agree's that WWE is alot less entertaining in the PG era?

It's definitely a lot less entertaining, I've been watching since the late 80's, but It's not worse because of the PG Era (Although that may have a bit to do with it) It's worse because after WCW folded there was no competition and the writing got lazy, now, you have writers who know nothing about wrestling (Aside from maybe a couple) They don't hire people with wrestling knowledge, they're more concerned with there schooling, if there were actual wrestling fans on creative then I'm sure things would work out a lot better then they are now.

 

[rocksuperstarkaos]

Because you have millions of kids walking around with Cena & 619 T shirts. Gotta keep it clean. But I agree with FromtheSouth. Ever seen a Disney movie? That's some of the best writing in the business. But I don't think the writing's that bad. I have more of a problem with the performances in the ring. Stone Cold would thrive in this era. He would just have to save the bird flipping.

But you can still have kids walking around with those, Cena and Rey are the heroes in those roles, I have nothing against keeping it clean, but the fact is you have a much bigger margin of 18+ year olds watching then you do children

 

[Mr_billy]

The golden age of wrestling, the 80's was pretty much PG, so they can do awesome things. Check out every single Macho MAn program from that era, it was golden. if they are going to have poor promo's that is what Managers are for, managers would upgrade the era.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

If the wrestlers and creative team can work well with each other, then can make some good story-lines even if they are PG rating. I think the CM Punk and Rey feud have been pretty good. They worked the Shawn Michaels and Undertaker feud very well for PG. PG is just a rating, it isn't a way of life.

The attitude era was good, but after awhile it was just edgy story-lines with curse words, and hardcore brawls. Kinda killed the realistic aspect of the illusion of sports entertainment. PG may have segments directed towards the kids, but they aren't out of hand with these story-lines. They aren't having cameras in all sorts of parts of the building, and no one knowing that they were on them. They opps, someone found out they had a sneak attack going on.

PG is what we are at right now, that's how the audience is. Having the Undertaker kidnap stone cold, and try to impale him really doesn't cut it anymore. And yea, I know we are going to talk about Hornswoggle, but that isn't as bad as riduculous story-lines. Remember how bad the Gothic Undertaker got? It just wasn't realistic television. He can start fire anywhere he wanted, he can sacrifice anyone, and it just sucked.

Let's like put too much on the PG era, If your still entertained, your entertained.

 

[Davi323]

What the heck does the PG rating have to do with storytelling? Are you telling me that you can't possibly tell a prolonged wrestling story without blood, swearing, chairshots to the head, etc? Are you that unimaginative? As other posters have stated, wrestling used to be all PG, and they had extended storylines. The Randy Savage/Ricky Steamboat feud, was PG, was almost PERFECTLY done, and lasted many months. Seriously, this is how wrestling used to be, all the time. They will get along just fine. I love how everyone is trying to claim the PG rating is going to do this, going to do that, and they get into panic mode, when their fears are completely unfounded.

 

[HHHDiedForOurSins]

Like others have said, the PG rating really has no bearing on storylines. If anything it makes the talent go all out and try harder to work around the restrictions. Good storytelling is good storytelling, no matter the conditions.

I personally think some of the best and most personal WWE rivalries in the past decade or so have came since they went PG 2 years ago: Shawn Michaels v Chris Jericho, CM Punk v Jeff Hardy, Triple H v Randy Orton, Undertaker v Shawn Michaels etc. The CM Punk/Rey stuff lately is another good example.

Look at TNA right now, they can have blood, foul language, unprotected chair shots to the head, women stripping etc, but can you honestly say they've had any feuds/rivalries as intriguing/personal as the ones mentioned above?

 

[manstis1804]

The only thing that can really build a feud these days is history. Cena and Orton have history, so the tension is always there. Same with former evolution members, same with Edge and Jericho, HBK and Taker, you can go on and on. History creates deep feuds when you can't go that deep with them all at once.

 

[dwith73]

If the wrestlers and creative team can work well with each other, then can make some good story-lines even if they are PG rating. I think the CM Punk and Rey feud have been pretty good. They worked the Shawn Michaels and Undertaker feud very well for PG. PG is just a rating, it isn't a way of life.

The attitude era was good, but after awhile it was just edgy story-lines with curse words, and hardcore brawls. Kinda killed the realistic aspect of the illusion of sports entertainment. PG may have segments directed towards the kids, but they aren't out of hand with these story-lines. They aren't having cameras in all sorts of parts of the building, and no one knowing that they were on them. They opps, someone found out they had a sneak attack going on.

PG is what we are at right now, that's how the audience is. Having the Undertaker kidnap stone cold, and try to impale him really doesn't cut it anymore. And yea, I know we are going to talk about Hornswoggle, but that isn't as bad as riduculous story-lines. Remember how bad the Gothic Undertaker got? It just wasn't realistic television. He can start fire anywhere he wanted, he can sacrifice anyone, and it just sucked.

Let's like put too much on the PG era, If your still entertained, your entertained.

I don't see it as a another tv show. I see it as wrestling with some entertainment thrown in. NOt entertainment with some wrestling thrown in. WWE is trying to establish it as a enterntainment like his movies, but wrestling is a sport, and should be NOTICED as such.

 

[wushady]

Hey! Look! Another thread about PG era! What a surprise.

Honestly, a story line can get just as deep as it could during Attitude. It's just that instead of necrophilia, creative has to write a story. Orton and HHH had a very personal, well written feud in PG that had nothing to do with sex, giving birth to human hands, or live sex celebrations.

Storylines can go just as deep in this era as they could in any other. Shows like The West Wing had plenty of well written storylines, arcing plots, and deep characters without ever having to crucify anyone. Most TV shows are PG and do just fine. Wrestling is nothing more than a TV show. If creative wants to make something interesting, they can, regardless of rating.

I agree with you a 100% I grew up watching wrestling with my father in the '80's. During the attitude era I was in my late teens early twenty's and I did enjoy most of it. Although there was a lot of sexually based and other racy storylines no son would feel comfortable watching with their father and vice versa. Now I can watch it with my own child and nephew who is obsessed with Cena and not feel uncomfortable. The attitude era was a great at the time, but as a parent and uncle I'm glad they went PG.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

The old WWE was founded upon the antics and rivalries of a PG Era. To ask how deep a program can wrestlers make with each other in PG is like how good can any other television show be with the TV PG rating.

Really, the sky is still the limit.

Even in this modern society your product can still look good without graphic storylines, nubile women and the excess profanity.

So far Raw has not stopped talking about how it is the longest running show on television. Just like any other show (ex. Flinstones) it catches snags and does something different with its product. Remember when The Flintstones used to run cigarette ads? Oh yeah it happened and like I said it was a phase.

WWE is no different. We had the Golden Years, then the Attitude Era, and now the PG Era (if you don't count the Ruthless Agression Era in between.) It's just another 5-10 year mark and they will change it again if they feel it's necessary.

 

[arashikage20]

The problem isn't the PG rating. The problem is mostly in the creative side. Part of the problem is that they have gotten lazy in writing. That isn't the only problem with creative. The stories are rushed. Back in the days of the late 80's and into the early 90's you had four ppvs per year. There was a break after WrestleMania. The writing was written backwards. Meaning that after say WM4, creative decided what they wanted for WM5 and wrote everything from WM5 being the climax of stories and wrote everything backwards from that.

Good compeling stories need time to develop. Unfortunately, with there being monthly ppvs, the luxury of letting things develop no longer exists. Case in point is going back to WM. It was the big end to feuds and stories (most of the time). It was also a platform to launch some of the new feuds. Now, you get half the WM card played out one or two more times over the next two months. How are you supposed to enjoy that?

The bottom line is that the PG era can work as long as creative actually learns to be creative and storylines are given a chance to build. Unfortunately, WWE makes so much money by having a large number of ppvs, that they will never cut back to allow proper time for a story to build up.

 

[WWE Manster03]

I'm gonna go ahead and just say it. The Attitude Era ruined pro wrestling as we know it today. Yes it was entertaining and yes it was geared towards a more mature audience. Guess why? The younger generation that grew up watching was still there, and as such WWE/WCW/ECW had to become edgy to stay with the times. Hip Hop/Howard Stern/Girls Gone Wild commercials/and a funny thing called internet porn were starting to become huge and controversial draws in that time. The wrestling companies had to become edgy to compete. Now that audience, us, has grown up and a VERY large part of the viewing audience left because wrestling wasn't the cool thing anymore. So what does WWE do? They go back to step 1 and start recruiting another generation of fans. Wrestling is very much like the economy, in that it moves in a cycle pattern. It goes from point A to a point at the very top, then reverts back to point A and starts all over again. PG has NOTHING to do with it. The storylines that were told in the Attitude Era were basically things off of the Jerry Springer Show(I'm talking to you Val Venis/Kaientai). The writing staff is just lazy and full of people that don't really understand wresling, that is why you get these soap opera type storylines now, because that is what these writers know. If these writers were in the Attitude Era, we would be relegated to dick and fart jokes(again)...Sad thing is, most of the IWC would probably cream their pants if that happened because they mark out for that kind of shit..

Rant over. lol Flaming can begin in 5,4,3,2,1......go

 

[Kliq]

I hate to say it, but WWE fails to keep my attention versus TNA right now. Shawn Michaels was the sole reason I watched the WWE, and once he left I gave them a shot to keep my viewership. There is nothing on Raw worth watching. Tonight I tuned in to Impact at 7pm central and watched all two hours without switching over. At 9 when TNA ended, I switched over to watch the final hour of Raw. I see Cena making that stupid face as Batista refuses to face him. I then see Sheamus cutting a horrible promo. I turned the channel to CW and watched Seinfeld.

So what does PG have to do with any of this? If the writers weren't so focused on creating a PG product, the promo by Sheamus might have been interesting. Instead, it was boring and cheesy. Cena is a PG poster child and nothing any of them can do could peek my interest.

--What did I enjoy watching tonight? TNA. I loved seeing Team 3D vs. The Band in a street fight. I loved seeing JJ attack Sting in the rafters. Was there blood in any of that? No, screw blood. It isn't about the blood or cussing. It is about pro wrestling on a more mature level. I don't care about Batista playing the stereotypical cowardly heel and Cena being the disgustingly adorable face, or hear Sheamus repeat what happened the week before and talk like he is 15 years old to cater to the children.

---How deep could they make a feud in PG? They could make a damn good one. A good feud doesn't need cussing or blood. Unfortunatly WWE doesn't care about making a good mature feud that older fans could respect watching. I feel embarassed watching anything the WWE has to offer because I know they are just trying to peddle their action figures and sweatbands to 9 year old boys. It is a fairy tale over there, and no one can say differently because all you have to do is watch. I don't understand how anyone 18+ could honestly sit through a two hour Raw without feeling sick to their stomach at how "lame" the programming is, and I hate using the word "lame" but it does its job here.

 

[pessimism101]

The PG rating is most definitaly NOT to blame here. There are many factors to blame here including the writers (or even the people responsible for those writers) and too many pay-per-views. But, to answer the question, the storylines can be as deep as the writers and the wrestlers make them. If two wrestlers click well together, there's nothing stopping them from making an awesome storyline. Having said that, the writers need to recognize who clicks well together.

As for the writers, I don't know if they're being lazy with their writing or their bosses are shooting down their writing for not being appropriate enough. Back in the 80's, the PTC and other similarly ******ed groups weren't as negative about the WWE (as far as I know) as they were in the 90's. My guess is that the WWE fears pushing more mature storylines in case these idiotic groups decide to cause an uproar about the content and, therefore, the WWE is going safe by offering cartoonish storylines that appeal to everyone under the age of 6. The Attitude Era was not the worst thing for the WWE... idiot people who are too stupid and too lazy to do their jobs and censor what their own children are watching (and then complain about it) are the worst thing to happen to the WWE.

 

[AllanC]

apparently not, the WWE isnt doing so well right now, i mean rating wise of course, the WWE is full of kid favorites, they have completely forgot about us wrestling fans...if they made PPV's maybe a tv 14 rating, then maybe things would go a little better, look having an Extreme Rules ppv, and not having blood in it, just seems like a waste of $50...im tired of seeing a fan favorite win over a heel, just so the kids can go home happy that Cena won over Batista...then runs over Swagger in an attempt to steal the spot light away from everyone....to conclude, PG is just that, for the kids....a little bit of violence, with a bunch of lame commentary and horrible acting....

 

[CLB 03]

This is my first post. Everyone keeps making the pg rating out like you are watching spongebob or disney movies. That is a G rating. I looked up the ratings

G- little or no violence, no sexual dialogue or situations, no strong language

PG- infrequent course language, some suggestive dialogue ans situations, moderate violence

14- strong course language, intense violence, sexual dialogue and situations

There is still alot you can with that. Stone Cold could say hell ya, Rock could make a few jokes. Markinting to kids is smart. Who do you think spends more money, a single guy or a guy that takes his kids to the show. Once you pay for tickets, rey masks, cena shirts, hardy armbands ( back in when the PG started) They are gonna make you more. On guy with a fake belt doesn't come close to that.

 

[mister_b1LL]

Well considering the last few programs we've had since PG Era started, I'd say none can last more than a few months consecutively. Even one of the most compelling storylines of 2009, the Triple H/Orton angle, only lasted from the Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania. It just seems that the only thing the writers do to change up the rivalry to keep it fresh is add a stip to the match, and it's always the same stips (last man standing, no holds barred, things of the like).

The feuds I like are usually the ones that have a lot of good stuff IN BETWEEN the matches. For example, Eddie and Rey's feud in 2005 lasted from April to October and with the exception of the Ladder Match at Summerslam and a cage match which both happened near the end of the feud, all the matches they had were normal singles matches. But it was the stuff that built up the feud that made it worthwhile television; Eddie's insatiable need to defeat Rey, finding out Eddie was Dominic's birth father, breaking up their tag team, all that stuff.

If creative could find good ways to develop feuds in between matches, programs could have the potential to go for a while.

 

[D-Man]

Come on, guys... ENOUGH about the PG era already.

Some of you actually said that wrestling is a "violent sport" so that automatically constitutes something worse than a PG rating?? So I guess the Power Rangers, He-Man, Thundercats, GI Joe, Pokemon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, Superman, X-Men... all of these shows should be rated R, correct? After all, there's fighting in those shows, too.

You guys are so warped if you actually think that blood, gore, weapons, and other crap like that truly makes a determination as to what is a good wrestling product versus a bad wrestling product. The funniest part is that TNA is promoting the SHIT out of violence, racy storylines, sex, and blood, but their storylines and product have been atrocious for months. Meanwhile, the WWE product is the best it's been in years... yes, I said it... YEARS.

So to answer the original poster, the PG Era does NOT negatively affect the WWE's storylines. Apparently, they're doing just fine.