10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2008
1. WWE’s PG Shift Wasn’t Too Noticeable
WWE officially went PG on 22 July, meaning the 25 July SmackDown was the first TV show under the new certification. Honestly, it was hard to notice much change on the surface. The first 2 things fans saw on the show were recaps of Edge cheating on Vickie Guerrero then MVP suggesting that Jeff Hardy’s substance abuse problems killed his dog.
So, yeah, they didn’t change much from the ‘Ruthless Aggression’ days. At least not initially. It took a while for the PG grip to kick in properly, although there were signs of it over on Raw with John Cena spraying "JBL Is Poopy" on a limo. Man, they should've blown that thing up rather than the one Vince was riding in.
There's far too much scathing criticism of WWE going PG, in short. It didn't create a seismic shift on week to week programming for a while. After all, the company were far too used to doing things their way anyway, and being kid friendly hadn't stopped them from pushing certain buttons during the Hulkamania era anyway.
The quality of the roster was high, they were having good matches, and much of the absent 'Attitude' or 'Ruthless Aggression' stuff would've been unwelcome. Ask yourself this: Would 2008 have been better with MVP feeding Jeff his doggo in a hotel room? Or how about SmackDown authority figures like Vickie Guerrero ushering in some HLA?
PG was restrictive, but not terminally so.
What else did you learn from watching every episode of WWE SmackDown from 2008? For more wrestling, check out 12 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 2007 and 9 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2007!