» Less Than One Quarter of WWE Audience is Under 18
In the opinoin portion of the article linked above, Jason Powell comments that one could conclude from the study conducted that WWE is perhaps statistically better off reverting to a less “PG” / more Attitude Era style of programming.
As little as I initially liked the switch, I feel like the WWE is beginning to hit their stride in their current creative outlook. After the initial switch to PG (which occurred roughly one week after I began watching after a 6/7 year hiatus), the writing staff was obviously clueless and confused on how to put together a weekly hour and fourty minutes of entertainment with such restrictions.
Now that we’re roughly two years into the PG era, I think the WWE is beginning to hit its stride. Yes, there are a lot of cheeseball moments… but in reality, those moments were always there. It may just be easier to complain about them because there isn’t a blade inducing chairshot to the head five or six minutes later to reset the palate.
Derek Walker wrote that Daniel Bryan could be the one that ushers in the new era of the midcard, “actual wrestling.” I feel that this is specifically why Bryan was brought in. As embarrassed as Vince may be to call himself a wrestling promoter, maybe he knows that the national spotlight will probably be fixed upon the WWE for some time (especially if Linda’s senate bid didn’t end with this past election). With this new, less than positive attention, the WWE has to come up with new ways to tell a story; Vince doesn’t like to stagnate anyway, and a quality wrestler who is capable of carrying matches with other high caliber / “high octane” performers could be the way to evolve the product into the next decade.
I feel as though the term “PG Era” carries too negative a connotation with the Internet Wrestling Community. I wish some other term could be coined (I’m no slogan machine), because I think this current era is good for all of us. If executed properly (and I believe it can, has begun to, will continue to be), it could lead to more and more compelling stories to be told that we have not seen already.
