10 Reasons Why WWE Fans Are Rapidly Losing Faith
5. The PG Identity Crisis
The PG rating remains one of the WWE fanbase’s most common complaints against the current product, but it has been largely beneficial to the company. Switching to PG has washed away much of the Attitude Era’s crudeness, and while the programming often feels overly sanitised (particularly in the ring), it has made WWE infinitely more family friendly, and increasingly attractive to advertisers and investors.
Unfortunately, PG has also created a huge identity crisis within the product. WWE is the safest wrestling promotion on the planet, but they keep going out of their way to convince the audience that they’re edgy and dangerous. This is a farce, and nothing exemplifies it better than the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, the 2017 incarnation of which was one of the tamest shows WWE have produced in recent years.
WWE promise blood and violence with their gimmick pay-per-views, but they know they can’t deliver. This is incredibly disingenuous, and while fans should really know this by now, WWE’s ‘extreme’ matches still feel like a letdown. Until the company stop intermittently pretending that they’re capable of producing the hardcore matches of old, the disconnect will continue.