10 Astonishing Times Wrestlers Swore On Live TV
An article about f*cking wrestling.
Since a mainstream US wrestling entity has not to date aired its programming on a premium cable service, like HBO or Showtime, the art of proper swearing has rarely made it past the censors.
Imagine if that weren't the case.
Seth Rollins wouldn't have to do a cringeworthy impression of Brock Lesnar on RAW, mugging for the crowd like a lame John Cena clone. He could instead refer to the Beast as a "mercenary c*nt who pisses dirtier than all the magical sex I have with my girlfriend, Becky Lynch". Kevin Owens could get over as WWE's next antihero not just by levelling Shane McMahon with the Stunner, but by eviscerating him as an "entitled motherf*cker who sweats more than his dad bathing his sister."
Man, it would be great, but alas, WWE is tethered by PG guidelines. Even under the relative freedom of the TV-14 rating, the old WWF mostly traded in "ass" and "bastard" and the synonym "puppies". Fun, edgy fare for the teenage audience - your writer would be lying, if he said he didn't get a cheap thrill from all this in 1998 - the real art of swearing, the articulation of heightened aggression, is not a part of the big-time.
Except...
10. Corey Graves
...when WWE is desperate to pop a rating next week or keen to pronounce a new era of sorts, depending on how cynical of disposition you are.
On the first Monday Night RAW of the 'Paul Heyman Era', ever the storyteller, Heyman sought to start off with a bang. The bruising Falls Count Anywhere match between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley, itself an excellent departure from the strongman b*llocks that had marred their programme, ended in a no-contest when Strowman sent Lashley crashing through the staging area.
It was a great angle in itself, and in its sweeping calculation. With it, Heyman both advanced the programme, which could now only end in a big daft violent fight, and set the tone for this new chapter of Monday nights by addressing several fan complaints in a festival of fan service. The show didn't start with an interminable, contrived opening talk segment. The eruption of pyro reminded fans that WWE was still capable of putting on a spectacle.
And, the disbelieving "Holy sh*t!" let out by Corey Graves promised not just edgy swearing but a sense of extemporaneous, unhinged excitement, should the angle call for it.