That Was Then, Is This Too? 01.19.10: Rated TV-PG

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. As usual, we have comments:

“When I’m in the mood, I can even enjoy the spectacularly bad XPW, when I’m in the mood.”

Where’s the Department of Redundancy Department?

Posted By: Phil (Guest) on January 12, 2010 at 10:27 AM

Aw crap. I’ll have to make sure to make sure that never happens again.

Hey fellow Dutch wrestling fan here. Too bad you missed the old WWE (Hogan etc) on Sky and WCW on Cartoon Network/TNT during NWO heights. That was my born again moment and still marking I was then born a third time via the internet.

Still Dutch power! And lets hope one of the Dutch channels has the courage to pickup WWE or TNA preferably with subtitles or good commentary.

Posted By: Hyde_Hill (Guest) on January 12, 2010 at 12:03 PM

Yeah, I’ve always thought that the ROH on HDNet show would be perfect for a channel like RTL 7 or SBS 6. If I recall correctly, RTL 7 already airs UFC’s Ultimate Fighter shows.

Hey buddy, I went to an XPW show when I lived in California. And paid for the ticket. That’s dedication. Or masochism.

Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on January 12, 2010 at 04:18 PM

Considering it was the California era, I’d have to say that it can still be justified as desperate dedication. Paying to see an east coast show would just be masochism.

Edge vs orton on raw in 2007

Posted By: Guest#2648 (Guest) on January 12, 2010 at 07:49 PM

Very interesting pick. I had to look up that match, and while I can’t say I particularly liked it myself I can see how it would leave an impression on a new wrestling fan.

That leads us to Banner 2.0!

When Mike Tyson appeared as guest host of last week’s episode of Raw, they obviously needed to replay the confrontation between him and Steve Austin. After all, the brawl between the two men was one of the highlights of the attitude era, signaling the passing of the torch from Shawn Michaels to Austin. Of course, since this was 2010 and not 1997, the segment was heavily edited, with Austin’s double digit salute blurred out and the words ass and bitch bleeped. This all to confirm to the TV-PG standards of today’s WWE product, which are defined as followed:

“PG – Parental Guidance Suggested – Some material may not be suitable for children under 10. These films may contain some mild language, rude/suggestive humor, scary moments and/or violence. No drug content is present. There are a few exceptions to this rule. A few racial insults may also be heard.”

WWE has been adjusting their programming to confirm to the TV-PG rating since late 2008, and the backlash from fans against this move has been enormous. In researching this article, the first Google results that came up for “WWE PG rating” were a Facebook group, an online petition and even a WWE Universe group all protesting the current rating system.

The first signs of WWE toning down its product for the sake of younger audiences actually came earlier than that, when the move was made to reduce the amount of diva ‘nudity’. Segments such as Extreme Stip Poker and the Extreme Exposé occurred as late as 2006, but since then, with some notable exceptions of course, divas have generally worn longer tights and less revealing tops. In addition, WWE.com photo shoots have become more tame, and I can’t even remember the last time there was a bra and panties match on WWE programming.

Another major change that has upset a lot of fans is the lack of blood. The first time this policy caught the fan’s attention when, at the 2008 SummerSlam PPV, Edge faced The Undertaker in a bloodless Hell in a Cell match. Since then there has been no intentional bleeding in any WWE matches, even at the Extreme Rules PPV. There have been two instances of wrestlers getting busted open the hard way during their matches, but when this happened they actually paused the match to bring out medical staff to close the cut before the match could continue.

One of the most dramatic shifts in character came for John Cena. At WrestleMania 24, he rapped his way to the ring announcing that he was itching to beat Big Show, “like a penis with an STD”. Since then Cena has first become a marine, spreading the gospel of Hustle, Loyalty and Respect, before moving on to poop jokes and saving midgets from the wrath of Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

The policy doesn’t just stop at current WWE programming. The WWE shows on Eurosport occasionally show clips from classic matches, such as the triple threat match between Kurt Angle, Triple H and The Rock. The match, as shown on Eurosport, featured two badly noticeable edits. When Stephanie got hit by Triple H, and whenever a wrestler was hit with the sledgehammer, the screen would actually freeze for a few seconds, not showing the actual blow. This was very crudely done, and really annoying.

But WWE isn’t the only company that has, in recent years, toned down their content…

That Was Then…

One of my earliest Ring of Honor memories was a promo cut by Homicide on the Briscoe Brothers, when the former was a face and the latter were heels. In the promo, Homicide repeatedly mentioned how the Briscoes have been fucking their cousins too much, obviously playing into their redneck gimmicks. At that point I had mostly been watching WWE, so hearing a promo like that was new for me.

Ring of Honor started out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the old ECW territory. As such, it catered to hardcore wrestling fans. This applies to both the type of wrestling they like, and their dedication to wrestling. While not going as far as ECW, Ring of Honor still featured a lot of profanity in their promos and violence in their matches. But in the past two or three years, it seems that Ring of Honor too has calmed their product down quite a bit. This is most noticeable by the absence of words like fuck in promos. In stead, most wrestlers just use “effing”.

No character demonstrates these changes quite like Julius Smokes. When he first managed Homicide and the Rottweilers he seemed to love violence, coming out to the ring wearing a flak jacket and frequently ordering his wrestlers to murder their opponents. In comparison, the Julius Smokes that managed Jack Evans’ Vulture Squad stable has mellowed out considerably, leaving the flak jacket at home and mostly just making jokes about his booty vulture.

Ring of Honor has definitely toned down certain aspects of its product, focusing less on characters like the Christopher Street Connection and the Rottweilers and more on wrestlers like Grizzly Redwood, Delirious and El Generico. The tone of the product has definitely changed, and while the main focus is still on intense athletic feuds, the undercards have generally become a lot more lighthearted.

…Is This Too?

Of course Ring of Honor toning down their product hasn’t been quite as dramatic as the way WWE has gone about things. After all, while they have toned down the language of their promos quite a lot, they’re still every bit as violent as they were almost eight years ago, with violent ladder wars, fights without honor and cage matches.

Unlike WWE, ROH mainly has to worry about its fans rather than its shareholders. Like WWE however, it seems that Ring of Honor crowds have been getting younger, especially at the HDNet TV tapings. Unlike WWE however, ROH doesn’t make the bulk of its money off children. Where John Cena shirts, Jeff Hardy armbands and Rey Mysterio masks continue to be top sellers for WWE, ROH mainly relies on its fans ordering their DVDs.

At this point it should be noted that PG-rated wrestling isn’t necessarily bad wrestling. If I had children, the one company I’d feel comfortable with them watching would be CHIKARA. It has bright colorful characters, very few truly violent matches and pretty much no profanity. Still, it’s one of my favorite companies to watch, with many deeply engaging storylines and fast-paced high flying action. Going PG isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it can certainly be a good business move.