Would turning back to Attitude Era be more profitable?

[Ultra Awesome]

The Attitude Era (as much as it pains me to say) is NOT coming back anytime soon. The Attitude Era (to Vince) has served its purpose...and that purpose was to eliminate the competition (WCW & ECW). The post-attitude Era was the transaction to the PG era. Of course, Chris Benoit's death and Linda's run for senate had some to do with the coming of the Pg era but nevertheless the PG Era would have come eventually. Vince saw profit to be made in the kids. And thats exactly why he made WWE a "family (kid) friendly" show. During the Attitude Era, a lot of children werent aloud to watch WWE/F because it was to "graphic".

But now that the E has become more kid friendly, the parents have accepted it and let their children watch it. But the thing is children love to get spoiled and parents can't help but spoil their children. And wht do the children want? To dress like their heroes (Cena)...and this is where the merchandise comes in. This is what I believe to be the "purpose" of the PG era and returning the Attitude Era would only damage the merchandise profit because the parents will start to pull away the children from watching the WWE. And without children...this equals less merchandise profit.

The kids are easy prey for Vince, and I don't think he will give up this chance just to make "us" happy.

Would the Attitude Era's return bring more ppv buys? Maybe...but I think the reason ppv buys are low is because the matches are so stale and predictable. They give us the, "LAME...SEEN IT.." feeling. The good thing now is that the WWE is doing better for the RAW division now that they have NEXUS...but SMACKDOWN!, that needs a great deal of help...They have just gone way too stale...Big Show being one of the biggest face on smackdown?...really?

 

[Hazardous]

i did a thread on the intro to the attitude era, where i posted this video

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now can you tell me that a lot of the stuff he named is not going on again? no. because it is, but im not going to bitch about PG, what i want is better stories.
watched an episode of RAW from 1997, and this is when they only had ONE show, here were some of the stories going on in that one, 2h show

Undertaker trying to talk reason into Kane and not wanting to fight him.
Stone Cold and Owen Hart fued that went on for years
D-X and the Hart Foundation
Nation of Domination VS DOA vs Los boricuas gang war
The New Age Outllaws starting shit with everyone
The light heavyweight tournament.
there was a few others, but i forgot..

but those were all well thought out stories that led into PPV matches, and this was even BEFORE the "official" start of the attitude era.

that is for me what the WWE is missing. instead of 6 or 7 stories, they have one, maybe 2 that dominate a show. which then for the PPV's there is like one or 2 well planned matches, and the rest are "uhh.. lets have these guys fight it out" matches. bring in the format like that again, instead of Cena, Cena, Nexus, Cena. and i'll be content. i dont care if there is no blood, the swearing actually, you see more of it on TV now a days, you can say shit uncensored, and ass, bitch, but yeah, can do without i guess, just make the damn stories better! havent bought a WM since ric Flair's "retirment" just watch them all online now.

 

[Porter1989]

triple h is in creative. if stephanie were to take over yeah she will. but while she owns the place. u think she wont let triple h run the creative and prly half the company? think about it. yes we will have an edge on wwe programming again.

 

[martymcfly]

Honestly, i'm surprised that so many folks have fond memories of the attitude era. I did not personally care for it, since "attitude" in the end was more about adults acting like a bunch of hopped up juveniles, and degrading and humiliation seemed to cross lines way too many times. I think I had to turn the channel thinking "this is too stupid, are they going to ever do any wrestling tonight" more often during the attitude era than any other time.

 

[The Crock]

Are you serious? Hell no it wouldn't make the WWE more profitable! The WWE's entire audience are kids nowadays. Do you think their parents will let them watch Attitude Era-esque programming? No, not a chance those parents let their kids watch that. The issue with the WWE is that they just don't try as hard as they used to. They'll pick up sales eventually, and eventually they'll go away from PG... but there'll never be another Attitude Era.

 

[Morpheus101]

Honestly, i'm surprised that so many folks have fond memories of the attitude era. I did not personally care for it, since "attitude" in the end was more about adults acting like a bunch of hopped up juveniles, and degrading and humiliation seemed to cross lines way too many times. I think I had to turn the channel thinking "this is too stupid, are they going to ever do any wrestling tonight" more often during the attitude era than any other time.

Ah, sorry, but I miss the Attitude era. Neither Rock or Austin would have got away with 90% of the s**t they got away with during that time. Neither character would have been anywhere near as entertaining in the PG era. Don't get me wrong...it's not that I care to see blood and it's not that I care to hear the word "ass" on a regular basis. It was entertaining television though. I just wish that a happy medium could be found, to tell you the truth. While I accept that WWE is a business and that it makes a lot of money from marketing their product towards a much younger audience, I also believe that wrestling simply isn't meant for small children and should be aimed at those over a certain age.

Would turning back to the Attitude era be more profitable? Probably not, but a big part of me wishes that it'd happen.

 

[Hazardous]

i'll show you one of the BIGGEST changes from attitude era, to PG

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you REALLY think something like that would be said in the attitude era? now im not going to say taking all swearing out was a bad move and all that crap, but to resort to that? even for Jericho.. it did make me laugh at how childish it sounded.

another one, and im sure everyone knows what im talkin about here.. look at the Divas "Summertime Spectacular" match tonight.. WTF were they wearing?? are we back in the 50's or something? i understand PG and all, but WOW. even a couple years ago, you had like.. Torrie and Stacy, Trish ect in some nice looking bikini's. which, im not going to say they should be running around in thongs, but with what i saw tonight it's like they dont want people lookin at the divas at all!

 

[The Max Attack]

Increasing wrestling safety?

It's wrestling, it's not going to be safe.
It's not a damn nursery and these aren't babies.
There wrestlers and there supposed to take risk's

With concussions and neck and spinal problems. No the Attitude era does not need to come back. Look at that Era and look what happened to some of the Great Wrestlers of that Era... Most of them are either Dead or wishing they were due to all the risks that were taken. You can have great wrestling without taking chair shots, being put on fire, excessive blood loss and other things.

No ones health is worth enough money in the world, especially if they don't have to do anything that involves going overboard with what some idiot fan wants them to do. You don't have to go home to their families and explain to their kids why Daddy cant remember what their names are because he has been hit with a chair over 13 million times.

There is a difference between a calculated risk and a risk just to get fans to chant a stupid saying over and over. I applaud the WWE for taking wrestler health into the forefront and stopping some of the ridiculous stuff.

And besides the kids run this era anyway, you alienate the kids, you lose mega money. So it makes no sense at all to bring back the Attitude era. Its over. Move on with your lives. I surely did.

 

[Jacarr]

i just dont get why its PG, we were kids when we watched it, yet we sit here and insult kids' intelligence by saying they dont know this or that and etc; etc; etc; we were that young watching as well, they way i see it the PG-13 or 14 doesnt realy have an effect, who actually sits there and has their parents watch with them when its reccomended for parental guidance, nto saying parents didnt watch with us but come on, what the hells the difference if they sit with you or not, ur getting the same product

 

[theHeadliner]

Everybody keeps bringing up the Attitude Era like is was godsend. It was shock/smut tv and it only worked because WCW had standards they couldn't go beyond, and the WWF kept going lower and sleazier. The WWE has already set their new audience in place, and its young kids and most likely their parents watching with them. If parents saw the WWE was getting dirtier and racier they would pull the plug on their little kids watching. Wrestling got big in the late 90s, but it won't get like that again for a while cus it was a fad that came and went. They wouldn't pull in the older audiences they once had because interest was lost. Also, the characters were more interesting then. Today every guy is generic Jim.

 

[Max Headroom]

Ok.. first off, they wouldn't benifit YET. Now, as the kids grow older, the stuff can get more edgy. It's like a smart, slow transition. You get REALLY childish, lure in the kids and the parents, then slowly but surely, as the kids grow and mature, the product can grow and mature with them. Just, don't call it a "second attitude era" cause it won't be, it will be a new "something else era".

ALSO, as some have stated, you don't want the wrestlers dying early, or taking a load of chair shots to the head... but the OCCASIONAL one is NOT ALL THAT BAD, and it IS allowed. The WWE isn't even CLOSE to pushing the PG label. You can say ass, hell you can say bitch in PG, just not all that often. You can have blood & violent/agressive nature, just not gorey and TOO over the top.

This is what makes me mad about many PG TV-14 arguements, there really isn't THAT much of a difference, besides the amount of language and violence that can be used. Right now, the WWE is basically acting as if they are cought in C8 or G ratings, and if they didn't wrestle, that would be their rating.

Jericho could have easily said stay down you jackass, it wouldn't of broken pg rules. Hell they NEVER curse or anything, so even if he dropped "son of a bitch", it would be ALLOWED UNDER PG RULES, you can say sonofabitch on the radio for god sake, it's not that bad, same with bastard. They just can't overuse it. Jericho called Cole a Jackass on commentary a while back, that went unnoticed by parents and the FCC alike.

So sorry for the rant, but the way some people take to this subject gets my blood boiling. I'm sure the WWE knows all well they can push the limits quite the bit more than what they are right now, they just got to make sure the parents and kids are lured in nice and good so when they do start being like it, it becomes more and more unnoticed.
I can't see them going back TV-14, not for a good while at least. But they will start to actually push the PG limits slowly over the years in my honest opinon.

 

[Hazardous]

Ok.. first off, they wouldn't benifit YET. Now, as the kids grow older, the stuff can get more edgy. It's like a smart, slow transition. You get REALLY childish, lure in the kids and the parents, then slowly but surely, as the kids grow and mature, the product can grow and mature with them. Just, don't call it a "second attitude era" cause it won't be, it will be a new "something else era".

ALSO, as some have stated, you don't want the wrestlers dying early, or taking a load of chair shots to the head... but the OCCASIONAL one is NOT ALL THAT BAD, and it IS allowed. The WWE isn't even CLOSE to pushing the PG label. You can say ass, hell you can say bitch in PG, just not all that often. You can have blood & violent/agressive nature, just not gorey and TOO over the top.

This is what makes me mad about many PG TV-14 arguements, there really isn't THAT much of a difference, besides the amount of language and violence that can be used. Right now, the WWE is basically acting as if they are cought in C8 or G ratings, and if they didn't wrestle, that would be their rating.

Jericho could have easily said stay down you jackass, it wouldn't of broken pg rules. Hell they NEVER curse or anything, so even if he dropped "son of a bitch", it would be ALLOWED UNDER PG RULES, you can say sonofabitch on the radio for god sake, it's not that bad, same with bastard. They just can't overuse it. Jericho called Cole a Jackass on commentary a while back, that went unnoticed by parents and the FCC alike.

So sorry for the rant, but the way some people take to this subject gets my blood boiling. I'm sure the WWE knows all well they can push the limits quite the bit more than what they are right now, they just got to make sure the parents and kids are lured in nice and good so when they do start being like it, it becomes more and more unnoticed.
I can't see them going back TV-14, not for a good while at least. But they will start to actually push the PG limits slowly over the years in my honest opinon.

exactly my point when i referenced the video, i mean, even the president called Kanye West a "Jackass", yet Jericho cant call Cena one? thats taking too much out of it. i was a kid in the AE, and now i have a kid in the PGE, and really i wouldnt not let them watch if someone said "ass" or "bitch" once in a while. hell even the simpsons say it! and that show is loved by kids world wide.

 

[Max Headroom]

exactly my point when i referenced the video, i mean, even the president called Kanye West a "Jackass", yet Jericho cant call Cena one? thats taking too much out of it. i was a kid in the AE, and now i have a kid in the PGE, and really i wouldnt not let them watch if someone said "ass" or "bitch" once in a while. hell even the simpsons say it! and that show is loved by kids world wide.

Exactly my point! i was going to mention the Simpsons in my other post. I mean when I was a kid i used to watch it with my pop, and I loved it, my parents also didn't mind, and that was the goddamn Attitude era. I'm sure most parents wouldn't mind if the wrestlers did drop a few curses, but it's the stupid ones who complain over everything their kids see on tv that ruins it for everyone else. The WWE knows that can say a few words, and get a bit more agressive, they are just holding out and waiting, to slowly let it come out, so it's less noticable.

It's not like were begging for blood baths and vulgarity every match every week. But a bit of it can add to a fued or match making it more personal and realistic seeming. I mean Cena would be alot more beliveable saying "We got to get them sonofabitches and take them out before they get us!" about the Nexus instead of going "OMG My mom cancelled my WOW account and I think im aqua man, lets go battle them" would make the angle seem much more legit.

 

[Dave]

All we can really do at this point is try and speculate what will happen if they did go back to putting out a product that was as edgy as the Attitude Era but we are always blind to whether it would be a good idea or not until it would be too late.

The WWE has had a huge amount of success from the Attitude Era in a bygone age. However, these days the WWE have changed from top to bottom. It is a much more organised product and the problems that plagued the WWE during the Attitude Era seem to have all but disappeared for the most part. The fan base is more loyal and although the product is more predictable, it also means that it is more stable. The WWE don’t need to have Stone Cold driving a monster truck over some cars to make their product interesting and that can only be applauded.

As for monetary gain, I really cannot comment because I have no idea what the finance sheets of the WWE look like right now. We all know how interesting the Attitude Era was and the speculation surrounding how profitable it was for the company. However, we don’t know how profitable the current product is. It is a good fanbase that the WWE has built and you always have a feeling that they are performing well. For the purposes of this thread though, I think that they have gone too far now to go back to the Attitude Era. They have given far too much to the PG-Era to go back now and I think they would be likely to lose more than they would gain by switching back.

 

[Eck]

No it wouldn't be more profitiable. There would be no WWE with out the Attitude Era. They only created it becasue WCW was beating them in the ratings. They would have folded if they didn't think of somthing. People who watched in the Attitude Era still watch today with there families. Thats how WWE makes money. They would lose most of they're sponsers who want a family product if they went back to being edgy. Others have stopped watching because their favorite guys left. Bad storylines do play a part but it's not all on WWE being PG.

 

[kissfan85]

With concussions and neck and spinal problems. No the Attitude era does not need to come back. Look at that Era and look what happened to some of the Great Wrestlers of that Era... Most of them are either Dead or wishing they were due to all the risks that were taken. You can have great wrestling without taking chair shots, being put on fire, excessive blood loss and other things.

No ones health is worth enough money in the world, especially if they don't have to do anything that involves going overboard with what some idiot fan wants them to do. You don't have to go home to their families and explain to their kids why Daddy cant remember what their names are because he has been hit with a chair over 13 million times.

There is a difference between a calculated risk and a risk just to get fans to chant a stupid saying over and over. I applaud the WWE for taking wrestler health into the forefront and stopping some of the ridiculous stuff.

And besides the kids run this era anyway, you alienate the kids, you lose mega money. So it makes no sense at all to bring back the Attitude era. Its over. Move on with your lives. I surely did.

Getting hurt, injured and dead is all apart of the business.
They didn't get into the business thinking they would be safe from harm.
Thinking it's kids games and that they wont get any scraps or broken bones...
They knew all of this and took the job anyways

and kids watched back in the attitude era

Kids play grand theft auto, look at porn and there's kids that have little to no super vision these days...
We are in a time and place where most parents don't really care what there kids watch, and a lot of kids even find Cena to be too kiddie oriented.

Are we being a little nieve when it comes to what children want?
With kids playing gears of war, call of duty, halo, grandtheift auto, red dead redemption and so on do you really think parents are going to have a fit over a little blood and foul language?
Do you people really ever see what these kids are watching and playing?

Seriously Kids are not innocent like they used to be

There's more bad kids then good kids, and most kids want to see what WWE was and not what it is....and the parents that are happy with the product today are the conservative parents and there's more money in the none conservative parents and none caring because there's more of those kids...

I watch all the time, parent ask's what game do you want..
Kids says game, parent says ok

PG is TOO PG

 

[MonMan10]

NOOOOOO!!!!
Yeah some people dont like WWE for turning "PG" and went to TNA or ROH
but again WWE has dominated the summer of 2010 with their ratings going back up and their PPV sells.Sponsors sign with them for cleaning up their image plus their fanbase grew.
I mean it would be stupid if the WWE would go back to the "Attitude Era" cause Vince is a sucker for the money,and thats what he is getting with the "PG Era".

 

[Ming]

you REALLY think something like that would be said in the attitude era? now im not going to say taking all swearing out was a bad move and all that crap, but to resort to that? even for Jericho.. it did make me laugh at how childish it sounded.

Your right, when I was watching RAW I was expecting him to say something like "idiot", or one of his usual insults like "hipicrit" or "parasite". "Stupid man" was so so childish I laughed to myself when he siad that, I remember during the Attitude Era when he'd call wrestlers stuff like "son of a bitch". It's things like that which make PG far too childish for anyone older than 14, I remember a month or 2 ago with the Brady Bunch lady on RAW with them ads, I felt stupid watching it. It's lazy from the company to simply lay back while Cena merchandise makes their money for them and not put enough thought or effort into these storylines too. I don't mean to bash PG here but I have to give my opinion. WWE will not go back to the Attitiude Era because they have given too much to PG and they would lose their audience.

 

[kissfan85]

It's just too comical.
Grown men talking in words for six year olds and wrestling with No blood at all?
I mean you get hit and kicked and knocked around the ring and expect nothing?
It's boring, unrealistic, slow...
SSLLLOOOWWWWW sometimes I'm watching a match and it seems like it's going in slow motion.
I don't want to openly support tna cause me and my husband both are oposing sides...
He says TNA has more action and I'm sitting there trying to defend some of these WWE matches and it's like....I can't believe I have to watch TNA just to see some people moving in a ring

These big built men talking in a PG manner is just way out there and my mom even laughed at some of the current wwe product...

 

[nbda1997]

I agree with the majority of the responses here, but I wanted to add that one of the reasons the Attitude era worked is because it took place in the rebellious '90s. I don't claim to know what it was like in other countries, but in the US, it was like we didn't have any "real" problems. Rockers like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder were singing about being pissed off at nothing and kids were discovering all the anti-establishment behavior from the '70s but none of the causes. The WWE Attitude Era fit right in with everything that was going on, and it in fact drove pop culture to some extent (rather than simply trying to imitate it badly). Today, in this post-9/11, post-Janet-Jackson's-boob world, the media loves to rake organizations who put out "indecent" content over the coals, and people here in the US are truly worried about our future, and bucking authority just isn't quite as fun as it was back in the '90s.

Also, don't forget that during the height of the Attitude era, the WWE had an extraordinary cast of characters that just had awesome chemistry. Stone Cold, Rock, Mick, HBK, Hunter and the rest of them just meshed and made for captivating TV that anyone, whether they were a veteran wrestling fan or not, could get swept away by. Today, that cast of characters has been disbanded, and they're working with kids who didn't have the advantage of coming up through the territory system and instead virtually come off of the OVW/FCW assembly line. If you don't have the talent who has the natural charisma and experience to make something special happen, it's not going to happen no matter if you're G, PG or R..

 

[kissfan85]

I agree with the majority of the responses here, but I wanted to add that one of the reasons the Attitude era worked is because it took place in the rebellious '90s. I don't claim to know what it was like in other countries, but in the US, it was like we didn't have any "real" problems. Rockers like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder were singing about being pissed off at nothing and kids were discovering all the anti-establishment behavior from the '70s but none of the causes. The WWE Attitude Era fit right in with everything that was going on, and it in fact drove pop culture to some extent (rather than simply trying to imitate it badly). Today, in this post-9/11, post-Janet-Jackson's-boob world, the media loves to rake organizations who put out "indecent" content over the coals, and people here in the US are truly worried about our future, and bucking authority just isn't quite as fun as it was back in the '90s.

Also, don't forget that during the height of the Attitude era, the WWE had an extraordinary cast of characters that just had awesome chemistry. Stone Cold, Rock, Mick, HBK, Hunter and the rest of them just meshed and made for captivating TV that anyone, whether they were a veteran wrestling fan or not, could get swept away by. Today, that cast of characters has been disbanded, and they're working with kids who didn't have the advantage of coming up through the territory system and instead virtually come off of the OVW/FCW assembly line. If you don't have the talent who has the natural charisma and experience to make something special happen, it's not going to happen no matter if you're G, PG or R..

90's were tame comparing to the youth now...
We are more rebellious now then ever just in very much more worser ways.
I think in the 90's there were still a lot more parents that actually cared.
You don't see a lot of that now unless your in an uptight area but where we lived parents were smoking just as much as there teens are and teens are doing a lot more of everything then they were back in the 90's.

I just think it's cause we were in a wrestling phase....the merchandise was sole everywhere and everyone had a fav wrestler....a phase like anything els is I don't think it's rebellious youth, I think it was just a nation going through a phase of liking something....