WWE Trades Ruthless Aggression For PG | Wrestling Timelines
July 23, 2008 | It’s Official
Vince makes official the changes he discussed back in May: WWE has now formally received a TV-PG rating. That’s their story.
WWE seems to spin this as a conscientious and necessary response to the Benoit tragedy, which of course is a significant factor, but the reality is that WWE is no longer able to monetise sleaze. Given that Vince felt born to promote low-brow trash in 1998, and performed his Mr. McMahon character with a passionate red-faced relish, the move is made under duress. It is not the result of introspection; it’s a market opportunity. Vince McMahon, who complained about this in a 2005 interview with the Wall Street Journal, is obsessed with the idea of attracting car manufacturers to air commercials during his programming.
This is not just because a car ad is amongst the most lucrative slots going; it would represent a symbolic win for a man who longs for acceptance as a legitimate businessman. He is perceived by Wall Street as a carny lunatic, a stigma he fiercely resents. In the coming years, this defensive mentality will manifest in a very desperate and laughable marketing campaign. Vince wants to clean up WWE’s image for monetary gain, but there’s a personal element in play also.
But he’s a businessman, first and foremost, and live event ticketing data indicates that kids are more interested in attending WWE shows than adults are by themselves. After a decade of marketing WWE towards grown-ups, the last several years of which have marked decline and stagnation in popularity, Vince realises that now is the time to go back to the 1980s. This is where it all begins again.
The kicker here is that the actual rating is meaningless. SmackDown - a show on which an elderly gentleman was once fornicated to death, on which Kurt Angle once sexually assaulted a woman - was PG-rated since its inception. There is no TV trade association equivalent to the Motion Picture Association of America; TV producers and the network sort this out themselves.
The “move” to “PG” is an exercise in optics announced in order to rehabilitate WWE’s public image in front of the corporate world and to bring the deal with Mattel over the line.