What sparked the birth of the PG Era?

[Doomsday Device]

Ive had this in my mind for quite some time and now Im going to post this.

Honestly I believe that what Chris Benoit did in June 2007 ruined it for everyone. Its like wrestling before, and then after, that one moment.

After the Benoit deaths, Vince/WWE got tons of unwanted media attention about the situation. No surprise there. Several months after that wrestling got a bit safer and safer. Enter the PG Era. The company began to be under the microscope and Vince thought better to clean things up. At least for a few years for things to cool down. Now its all about family-friendly entertainment. The Divas wear gowns all the way down to their ankles, no curses, no beer drinking, no blood. No wonder Austin doesnt want to be a Raw Host, and is not interested in make appearances any time soon. He just wouldnt fit in right now!

I am always for wrestling before entertainment, but in your opinion what do you believe began all of this.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

I think it really all came to fruition when Linda McMahon announced that she was running for senate. All of her opponents used The Attitude Era as a way of showing bad publicity for her. Vince brought the PG Era in so Linda could win a senate seat. If she does win, We wont see the end for a couple of years. However, if she doesnt, The PG Era will end almost immediately. So, Yeah, It really all started when Linda announced her campaign for Senate.

 

[BigGintheCG16]

please lose, linda!

 

[Doomsday Device]

I agree.

I saw Linda McMahon live on CNN a few months ago talking about her Senate run. Then to her left they were showing some footage of Kane giving her the Tombstone piledriver!!

It may be both Linda's run and the Benoit deaths. That and perhaps the parent's letters to Vince to please show a more family-friendly show finally got to Vince.

Also, the audience (like myself) who watched in the 80's and 90's are much older now and most may not be watching. So Vince needs to make the product more appealing to kids to gain new viewership.

 

[MasterShakeIz4Real]

I think it's a combination of both. When Benoit did what he did, Vince had to tone things down just a bit in order to get the media off his back. And when Linda began her run for Senate, he just turned it into overdrive and got rid of blood, language, the hottness of divas (I haven't see Mickie James phat butt in a skirt in so long I'm goin' through withdrawals. =( ) all the stuff that made WWE tolerable, and he locked it all in the safe. So yeah I agree with both ideas. And as you said, Stinger, if Linda wins, get ready for a LOOOOOOOOOONG haul with this era.

 

[theHeadliner]

John Cena politicked for it, and he's the number one "Good Old Boy" in Vince's eyes, as well as Linda's senate race. Benoit might have triggered some ideas of change but it wasn't solely based on him. If anything, they'd tighten up their drug policy because Benoit doing what he did had nothing to do with the TV presentation.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Probably after the Benoit incidents because after the bad publicity they got, they needed to start over. I remember reading somewhere that WWE had wanted to distance themselves from the Attitude Era's product a while back anyhow because they were more family friendly before that and now they are once again. Linda's election may have had something to do with it too, and multiple people probably requested it enough times that it finally happened. People gripe about the PG era a lot, but in the long run I think it can do good for the company because a lot of the kids now watching with their families will grow up as fans and keep watching if a second attitude era begins, just like those of us who grew up watching Hogan and stuck around when the attitude era began.

 

[wrestler36]

I always thought it was because of UFC. Dana White did such a great job promoting UFC and making it mainstream with The Ultimate Fighter TV show and making it legal in many states, that he took a big chunk away of that 17-35 or whatever demographic. The older audience wanted to see REAL fighting and not 'rassling.' Kids can still watch wrestling and not worry about whether it's real or fake and have huge influence on the purchase of figures, video games, t-shirts, whatever. I think the attitude era ran its course of over the top storylines and violence, that people wanted to see 'real' and that's what UFC offered. Just my opinion. If TNA starts bringing in an audience consistently, it will be interesting to see how WWE reacts...

 

[Big Ol' Buckta AIDS]

Chris Benoit's death didn't have anything to do with it. The WWF/E has always been a family driven product. With the the end of WCW and Linda's senate run, Vince really had no reason to keep the E as an adult driven product.

 

[RatedRSuperstar]

The only reason WWE decided to go PG was the fact that Linda wanted to run for senate. Although I'm not a fan at all of the PG era, it was a good thing to help Linda run for senate and possibly win.

The Benoit thing may have had something to do with it, but I doubt they would change their product just because someone decided to kill his family, then himself, but you never know.

I heard rumors that Cena had wanted to turn WWE PG, and honestly, if that's the case, it wouldn't suprise me, because Cena does target the younger kids, and Vince probably wanted to sell even more Cena merch. A bell rings in Vince's head, turn the product PG, that means more merch selling from the kids. The kids are happy, Vince is happy because he gets the $$$, and Cena's happy because it was his idea. Now I don't know if that's actually the case, but if it was Cena's idea, that's probably what happened.

But remember, this PG thing isn't permanent, it's only temporary..

 

[Doomsday Device]

With this candy-coated version of Cena for the past 5 years its hard to believe he was a heel once. The guy made a good heel. And got good heat from the crowd

 

[cole924]

I'm going to say... Benoit's death and a combination of how sports entertainment is run today.


I'll throw this out there... the way athletes are getting brain damage from concussions also hurt the WWE's cause. Hell, even football is basically PG. NHL, NFL, etc. are protecting their players from concussions and I kind of see that happening in the WWE as well. That's only a small role, but it at least helps the PG cause.

I know that doesn't play a role w/ curse words and blood, but I at least think it plays a role in the violence. It's rare that you see a violent match like the old HIAC matches.

 

[snowdogg438]

So by all of your logic a senate run and benoit deaths caused the wwe to go back to the pg rating they had in the 80's and 90's.

It couldn't possibly be the cycle of wrestling that happens every ten or so years. Wrestling was huge in the 80's with kida and adults, then they fell off in the early 90s. A switch to a kid friendly show was made. And in a few years they had started to rebuild the audience and ecw caused them to alter their on-air content to stay ahead.

ECW is gone, WCW is gone, TNA isn't competion. There is no need for over the edge adult storylines. Kids will be the future fans of wrestling, and when they hit teenage years and want something more edgy the wwe will evolve itself again into a more adult themed show to satisfy those viewers and usher in another golden age of wrestling.

For those of you bitching about how the pg rating is ruining the product, realize it isn't going away anytime soon. Just ride it out like those of us that were WWF fans from 93ish til 96.

 

[jushiroitachi]

So by all of your logic a senate run and benoit deaths caused the wwe to go back to the pg rating they had in the 80's and 90's.

It couldn't possibly be the cycle of wrestling that happens every ten or so years. Wrestling was huge in the 80's with kida and adults, then they fell off in the early 90s. A switch to a kid friendly show was made. And in a few years they had started to rebuild the audience and ecw caused them to alter their on-air content to stay ahead.

ECW is gone, WCW is gone, TNA isn't competion. There is no need for over the edge adult storylines. Kids will be the future fans of wrestling, and when they hit teenage years and want something more edgy the wwe will evolve itself again into a more adult themed show to satisfy those viewers and usher in another golden age of wrestling.

For those of you bitching about how the pg rating is ruining the product, realize it isn't going away anytime soon. Just ride it out like those of us that were WWF fans from 93ish til 96.

The pg era is killing the wwe. WWE is becoming even more garbage and crap everyday. Wrestling isnt what it used to be ever since 2001. Wrestling to me is Dead b.c of a combination of things. Wrestling died in 2001. 1996-2001 are the best years of wrestling. vince has lost it and has company is going to go under. He better hopes tna doesnt become competition. The only reason I watch wwe is b.c of jericho and cm punk. If it wasnt for them, i wouldnt watch it. I only watch raw and thats it. Smackdown and ecw has became shit. WWE is trash now. Wrestling has died b.c of vince.

 

[goodlay]

Even if WWE was TV-14 right now though, there are still numerous problems. WWE as a whole product is stale, whether it's creative, booking, the promos, or even the wrestling. WWE being TV-14 wouldn't fix that. Yeah, we would get rid of the cheesy and kiddy Raw segments, but it wouldn't fix the many underlying issues in WWE currently.

 

[cole924]

The pg era is killing the wwe. WWE is becoming even more garbage and crap everyday. Wrestling isnt what it used to be ever since 2001. Wrestling to me is Dead b.c of a combination of things. Wrestling died in 2001. 1996-2001 are the best years of wrestling. vince has lost it and has company is going to go under. He better hopes tna doesnt become competition. The only reason I watch wwe is b.c of jericho and cm punk. If it wasnt for them, i wouldnt watch it. I only watch raw and thats it. Smackdown and ecw has became shit. WWE is trash now. Wrestling has died b.c of vince.

You are going to have to back up all of this w/ actual facts or all you are doing is bitching and complaining. Please, validate what you wrote.

I partially agree with everyone and partially agree with snowdogg's perspective. I think there is a happy medium here that the majority is electing to ignore. Wrestling is down right now, there is no doubting that. I think when Benoit died, it made things very real for the wrestling business. That made the process of the cycle back to PG rating a bit quicker. I also think that storylines would have become stale if they stuck to the attitude era. It was probably beneficial that the WWF went PG because when they go back, we might have another prodigious spike in ratings. However, to do that.. we need competition. TNA will not bring that. Let time pass and let the process evolve. That's probably the best case scenario for the business of wrestling. You can't have the attitude era for 20+ years. It wouldn't work. You also can't have the PG rating for very long either.

We'll see where it goes from here. All we need is a few big guys to step up like Steve Austin and Rock did and we'll be right back to the glory days.


edit: I do also think booking/creative/etc. needs to get a lot better.

 

[snowdogg438]

The only reason I watch wwe is b.c of jericho and cm punk. If it wasnt for them, i wouldnt watch it. I only watch raw and thats it. Smackdown and ecw has became shit.

I'm confused, you only watch WWE because of CM Punk and Jericho. Who are smackdown superstars. But you say you never watch anything other than Raw. So how is it that you are a huge fan of CM Punk if you never watch him. If you contradict yourself so quickly in your post how can any of us take you seriously.

And WWE is down right now, because of lack of real competition and new star power. D-X, John Cena, Randy Orton are all stale. Give it a few years. After a few years od star building, and another lame duck cartoonish era like we had in 92-95. WWE might find it's nitche again.

 

[only1soe]

I have always heard wrestling has a 7 year cycle. There is no way WWE would continue going attitude for 15 years straight. It just wouldn't work.

There are a bunch of reasons that likely played a reason why WWE went PG from the Benoit murders, to WWE going more main stream and even Linda running for Senate.

Vince has said a million times he will always do whats best for "Business." You can watch video of him from 10 years ago going head to head with Costas in favor of the attitude era type booking.

The main reason for the current PG deal is for sure economic. The economy has been in the crapper and Vince knows that targeting kids is the safe bet. Parents will pay to entertain their kids cause they love them. 20 something guys are not likely to spend their extra money on wrestling when many of them maybe on unemployment.

If someone like the original ECW was around testing the waters in different areas and Vince thought he could make more money in a different direction he would go that route for sure. What Vince is doing right now is a safe bet and he hasnt had to do anything more but play it safe since there has been no competition.

 

[RKOPrincess2010]

So by all of your logic a senate run and benoit deaths caused the wwe to go back to the pg rating they had in the 80's and 90's.

It couldn't possibly be the cycle of wrestling that happens every ten or so years. Wrestling was huge in the 80's with kida and adults, then they fell off in the early 90s. A switch to a kid friendly show was made. And in a few years they had started to rebuild the audience and ecw caused them to alter their on-air content to stay ahead.

ECW is gone, WCW is gone, TNA isn't competion. There is no need for over the edge adult storylines. Kids will be the future fans of wrestling, and when they hit teenage years and want something more edgy the wwe will evolve itself again into a more adult themed show to satisfy those viewers and usher in another golden age of wrestling.

For those of you bitching about how the pg rating is ruining the product, realize it isn't going away anytime soon. Just ride it out like those of us that were WWF fans from 93ish til 96.

^ This is basically what I think. Like other posters mentioned it's sort of a cycle. The PG era can't stay forever and neither can the Attitude era. So like Snowdogg said we'll just have to wait the PG era out.

 

[JuviJuiceIsLoose]

The WWE has been "PG" since the very beginning. With the exception of the Attitude Era.

In entertainment, in order to be successful you have to appeal to everyone.

ECW only went after the Male 18-34 market, and now they're out of business.

AOL/Time Warner didn't want WCW or any kind of wrestling programming on their networks because it wasn't family friendly enough.

I've always said that people complaining about the "PG Era" can't be over 21 years old.

The only recollection they have of wrestling is the Attitude Era.

They have no idea about Superstars airing on Saturday Mornings right after cartoons.

Why do you think it aired on Saturday Mornings? So that kids can watch.

The WWE/WWF has always catered to kids. From the toys, video games, to the ice cream bar.

Which, BTW, is the Best Damn Ice Cream Bar you'll ever have in your life!!!

 

[bowdring123]

i honestly do not think of the benoit story bringing on the pg era, lets not forget, the wwe was already in the pg era, his last match was schedualed for benoit vs morison, or dreamer, cant remeber, anyways he was on ecw, and ecw was not "extreme championship wrestling" it was a "training ground" for younger/ up-and-coming stars, it was cena, cena drew in all these younger fans, and vince knew he couldnt be doing the things he was doing, blood, gore, swearing, he would lose viewers, or so he thinks, bringing up the benoit thing is completely irrelavent to this thread, look at the past wrestler deaths, suicides, and homicides, if you think benoit caused this or in ur words, "spoiled it for everyone" is a mere childish, selfish thing to say, let benoit rest in peace!

 

[WWEWrestleFest]

Even if WWE was TV-14 right now though, there are still numerous problems. WWE as a whole product is stale, whether it's creative, booking, the promos, or even the wrestling. WWE being TV-14 wouldn't fix that. Yeah, we would get rid of the cheesy and kiddy Raw segments, but it wouldn't fix the many underlying issues in WWE currently.

i agree. as a long time fan, wwe started to suck around 2000, and when they bought wcw, it seemed like raw lost some of it's magic. in 2002, it got so bad, after watching my whole life, i stopped watching for years. i only just stared watching again about two months ago.

it was definitely "for kids" during it's greatest era, the rock 'n wrestling era. when saturday night's main event was the flagship show and there were only four ppv's per year. but it was still entertaining.

granted, i was a kid then. now in my late 20's, when i watch old wrestling tapes, i still enjoy it, but it might be because of the nostalgia factor. but they still had adult storylines, like ric flair claiming he slept with liz before savage. or the mega powers breaking up because savage was jealous of hogan and liz.. who hasn't had that happened to them once in their life, you know? it's realistic, it's believable, it's entertaining.

wwe does suck, but i don't think it has to do with the pg rating.

 

[WWEWrestleFest]

The WWE/WWF has always catered to kids. From the toys, video games, to the ice cream bar.

Which, BTW, is the Best Damn Ice Cream Bar you'll ever have in your life!!!

oh my god, they were freaking awesome! honestly, even without the wwf/e license, i'm surprised dreyer's or ben and jerry's or someone doesn't make an ice cream bar like that today.

 

[supersrc]

The only reason WWE decided to go PG was the fact that Linda wanted to run for senate. Although I'm not a fan at all of the PG era, it was a good thing to help Linda run for senate and possibly win.

The Benoit thing may have had something to do with it, but I doubt they would change their product just because someone decided to kill his family, then himself, but you never know.

I heard rumors that Cena had wanted to turn WWE PG, and honestly, if that's the case, it wouldn't suprise me, because Cena does target the younger kids, and Vince probably wanted to sell even more Cena merch. A bell rings in Vince's head, turn the product PG, that means more merch selling from the kids. The kids are happy, Vince is happy because he gets the $$$, and Cena's happy because it was his idea. Now I don't know if that's actually the case, but if it was Cena's idea, that's probably what happened.

But remember, this PG thing isn't permanent, it's only temporary..

There is an article on the wrestlezone website that has an interview from cena and yes he did state the PG thing was his idea to vince.

So id have to say cena is because of the pg era, and no one has benefited more from going pg then cena, guys like MVP and Kennedy would have thrived in a more edgey wwe, HBK and Undertaker would thrive anywere due to thier history and respect from the fans, but cena is the only supersrtar to really benefit from PG.

Vince did it for the merch money but he overlooked something more important the kiddy merchandise and thats rating and ppv buys, and eventually Vince is going to get desperate for ppv buys and rating, when he reaches that point cena and pg will be in trouble.

 

[Big Ol' Buckta AIDS]

There is an article on the wrestlezone website that has an interview from cena and yes he did state the PG thing was his idea to vince.

So id have to say cena is because of the pg era, and no one has benefited more from going pg then cena, guys like MVP and Kennedy would have thrived in a more edgey wwe, HBK and Undertaker would thrive anywere due to thier history and respect from the fans, but cena is the only supersrtar to really benefit from PG.

Vince did it for the merch money but he overlooked something more important the kiddy merchandise and thats rating and ppv buys, and eventually Vince is going to get desperate for ppv buys and rating, when he reaches that point cena and pg will be in trouble.

Post a link to that interview and then I'll believe you.