The WWE is a multi billion dollar company that’s had it’s highs (Rock N Wrestling, Attitude, and Ruthless Agression Eras) and it’s lows (New Generation Era). One of the main reasons millions of fans have turned their backs on the WWE has to do with the fact that the PG content that’s on the main roster specifically caters to mostly young children and that many longtime fans can’t relate to it which in turn makes them feel alienated from the current WWE product.
The WWE apologists out there on podcasts and social media are often the first ones to come out and voice their support for the current product by saying things like “a three hour Raw is actually helping the product” when in fact, it’s actually killing the current WWE product.
Here are several reasons as to why “The PG Era” has been the most detrimental thing to have ever happened to WWE.
1. Oversaturation - Back during The Attitude/Ruthless Agression Eras, there was quality wrestling content with a two hour Raw and Smackdown as well as a one hour Velocity and Sunday Night Heat which brought about a total of six hours of quality wrestling content to enjoy. Nowadays in The PG Era, The WWE has greatly over saturated it’s product by having three hour Raw, two hour Smackdown, four hour PPVs, and 1 hour of 205 Live and NXT which totals about 11 hours of mostly meaningless content on the main roster that many fans don’t have the time and patience for it. The extreme over saturation is one of the main factors that’s killing the current WWE product because they value quantity over quality nowadays.
2. It Brought About Three Hour Raw - I have written several articles as to why three hours of Raw is also killing the current WWE product. I am definitely not a big fan of the the three hour Raw for several legitimate reasons: 1) Redundant Storylines 2) Rushed/Compounded Builds 3) Too Much Filler Garbage 4) Too Many Meaningless Filler Matches 5) Too Much Overexposure Of Certain Performers On The Main Roster via Bobby Roode/Chad Gable vs The Ascension throughout the past 6-8 weeks weeks this year. The ratings of Raw have continued to drop every week, every month, and every year because of the three hour format.
3. Scripted Promos - Back in the day, wrestlers could say whatever they wanted to say while given a few bullet points to follow. Even though I wasn’t a big Ric Flair guy back in the day because of the way he was so basic in the ring by doing the same stuff and the same spots over and over as well as the racially offensive promo he cut on Booker T back in 2003. Ric Flair would’ve never been as good on the mic as he was if his promos were meticulously scripted by some writer backstage. Nowadays in The PG Era, main roster performers are extremely over scripted which takes the personality away from them and immediately halts character development so that they can’t interject their character and personality to connect with the fans. Every one sounds extremely robotic on the main roster through these extremely over-scripted promos.
4. The Lack Of Creativity On The Shirts and Finishing Moves - Back in the day, there was so much creativity on the shirts such as “Fuck Fear”, “Hell Yeah”, “Game Over”, “Just Bring It” as well as the creativeness Of finishing moves like The Spear, Five Star Frog Splash, and Pedigree. But nowadays in the PG Era, you hardly see any creativity on the shirts that have no meaning to them like “Been There, Done That” and “Pancake Power”. The PG Era has also ruined finishing moves of certain performers such as Seth Rollins being forced this year to change his finishing move from “The Curb Stomp” to “The Stomp” which means nothing.
5. The Overuse Of Part-Timers - One of the biggest detriments of The PG Era has been the WWE’s over usage of old washed up part-timers like Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Kane, The Bellas, Lita & Trish that are given part-time schedules which often comes at the expense of taking main event and time spots away from the young full-time performers who are wrestling for almost an entire year that are trying to make a name for themselves and dream of one day main eventing WrestleMania. The WWE also buries and stifles any momentum the full-time performers manage to get by booking part-timers to go over them. The over usage of part-timers are among the main factors that’s killing the current WWE product.
6. The Watering Down Of Gimmick Matches - Back during The Attitude/Ruthless Agression Eras, gimmick matches such as The Inferno Match, Hell In A Cell, and Hardcore matches were so special because they added a significantly extra element to the quality of the old WWE programming with moments such as Mick Foley being thrown off of the top of the cell against The Undertaker to the Hardcore title being defended 24/7/365. Nowadays in The PG Era, these same gimmick matches have been extremely watered down such as nobody being burned during the Kane/Bray Wyatt match and most of the matches at Extreme Rules and Hell In A Cell this year were either singles/tag matches which diminishes the significant history of these types of gimmick matches.
The Conclusion - For all the WWE apologist out there who like to say that “The PG Era” has been great for the company need to check out how much the ratings for Raw and Smackdown have fallen during “The PG Era.”
By Kwame Shakir
