WWE Goes PG | Moments That Changed Wrestling Forever
Two little letters that stood to change the biggest three in wrestling. How WWE went PG, and why...
In 2024, Paul Heyman was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Triple H’s first headline pick having not quite had full control of things one year earlier, Heyman was a worthy addition to the Hall if either the institution or its real historical meaning are themselves worthy of such scrutiny. There’s no set criteria, no democratic process for induction, nor any new kudos from the live crowds for guys like Heyman, who can get it whenever they want in their capacity as a decades-long TV regular. And yet, on an April 2024 night in Philadelphia that looked mostly like WWE paying atypically generous tribute to Extreme Championship Wrestling, there was actually something more significant occurring when Heyman told his to detractors to “suck [his] f*cking d*ck”.
Per the Wrestling Observer at the time, this night and the roads that led to it was considered the death, RIP, of what remained of an era long-cursed by fans. The days of WWE being wholly PG were, as we all knew it, dead. The clues were already there. This was the year of WrestleMania 40, of Cody Rhodes finishing the story, of The Rock returning to swear up a storm and bloody ‘The American Nightmare’ up in the midst of a Chicago hurricane. There were more reasons why this looked nothing like the WWE of the decade-plus before, principle among them the disgraced departure of Vince McMahon. But rather than zooming out and casting an eye over the seismic changes that had occurred en route to to Dwayne Johnson’s potty mouth, Cody’s love of a good old fashioned territory juice job, and Heyman donning the cap and duster to eff and jeff his way to another pop, an inordinate number of people pinned it not on the birth of TKO, the rebirth WWE or even the re-litigating of ECW.
On the precipice of this boom, apparently, was a gravestone engraved with the letters P and G. The supposed reason for all that was bad, was now gone. The hysteria Parental Guidance had brought and wrought could at long last be put to rest. Not that it stood a chance of being eulogised…