WWF pg era

[Mr. Showtime]

Wat if the WWF was always pg and there never was an attitude era.... Do u think the likes of stone cold, dx, new age outlaws, and others would have been as over as they were bcuz they probably woulda been limited on the things they could hve done and said..

[whiteyford]

The guys with talent would have got over no matter what.

[Xero]

WWF was PG until 1999.

[Lara Emily]

WWF was PG until 1999.


DX began in 97 and that wasn't PG. WWF was PG until say 96.


Attitude era officially began in 1998 after Wm 14

[Xero]

The TV rating for RAW didn't change until 99.

It's a fact. The product WASN'T PG, but the actual rating was, in fact, PG.

[Innovator]

TV PG shouldn't be a factor in having a great show or not.

[Lara Emily]

The TV rating for RAW didn't change until 99.

It's a fact. The product WASN'T PG, but the actual rating was, in fact, PG.


Ahhh well weird, still though this thread is more about content, IE what if Attitude never happened. SO official rating isn't really relevant.

[Xero]

In all seriousness, it comes down to the writing. They're writing for a younger audience. They can absolutely be a GREAT show without being TV-14, they just choose not to.

The Attitude Era was based on sex and vulgarity, so obviously it wouldn't work in a PG world. But I honestly believe that, with the right writing, they could still have flourished. But it would have been much different.

[Mr. Showtime]

Like stone cold was the middle finger showing fuck my boss I cuss alot character... And dx was sexual and vulgar... They wouldn't hve been able tondo all of that n a Pg situation and those things were wat made everyone love them

[MoFo]

Honestly didnt know about PG till 1999.

Makes me kinda mad how loads of characters have been 'watered down', considering the stuff Stone Cold did back then.

[Xero]

I just like to throw that fact out whenever this topic comes up. By today's standards, they may have even been TV-MA at times. In fact, I know some PPVs were considered TV-MA for a long time, probably because of the Miss Kitty incident.

It's more likely that they had evaluated WWE around 96 or early 97 (when the ratings system was put into place) and hadn't re-evaluated them until 99.

Though SmackDown! was ALWAYS PG. Never went to TV-14.

[Mr. Showtime]

Like think if Val Venis,stone cold, the godfather ppl like that made their debut today how watered down they would b

[Xero]

Venis and Godfather wouldn't exist in those gimmicks. They'd have different gimmicks, and I believe both would have been over. Godfather was around for a long time before the gimmick as Papa Shango and Kama.

As for Austin, yeah, the Stone Cold character never would have flown, but he was always a great worker and was over from his time in WCW. He would have made it and probably been a top name, but he wouldn't have been Stone Cold.

[Rammsteinmad]

I don't think this subject requires any discussion. It's fairly obvious that everyone who was over in the Attitude Era due to violent/sexual/vulgar content would be watered down today.

A more interesting discussion, and something I thought this thread might have been about when I saw the heading, was if the WWE had remained PG throughout the 90's, and the likes of Stone Cold, DX etc remained 'watered down', would there still have been a wrestling boom, and would wrestling be as popular as it is today?

Once WCW's thunder (no pun intended) started to die down, without the WWF Attitude Era stuff picking up the ball and becoming as big as it had, what would have happened?

[Lara Emily]

WCW would have won the Monday Night Wars, that's what would have happened.

[JJT420]

I recall an episode of Smackdown! back in the day having a TV-MA slapped on it.

[ThePhantom]

WWE shows here in Canada are still rated TV-14.

[seapig4]

I think people are putting to much into and ratings, stone cold could of still worked with out cussing people out, the appeal for most people with stone cold was that the vast majority of people would like to hit there boss and thats what austin did. Just let him stunner the bosses and im happy as a pig in shit.

[TheAdamEvansFan]

When I watch old episodes of Raw in the attitude era... It feels as if writing was more trashy, and not on a global stage as it is today...

We were on TNN for a while and everything looked like TNA looks today, like a high school gym..

WWE is so much better off now, even if you look back 5 years ago, WWE keeps evolving for the better...

But old storylines, gimmicks, and edgyness can always be brought in on special events...

Just not on a weekly basis...

[Swish]

DX began in 97 and that wasn't PG. WWF was PG until say 96.


Attitude era officially began in 1998 after Wm 14

I'm agreeing with Lara on this, it also began way before wm 14
remember Marc Mero and Sable... Sable constantly showing her puppies etc.

[Rammsteinmad]

WCW would have won the Monday Night Wars, that's what would have happened.

But without the huge boom period that was brought on by the WWF Attitude Era, would WCW have been able to maintain itself afterwards? Remember how shockingly bad things got once the NWO angle lost it's heat. (and I say that judged by their ratings etc, I was a huge WCW mark back in the day).

[dingdongyo]

this got me thinking... why can't the pg era still have attitude?

i'm thinking back to cena's response to the rock on raw. nothing he said broke any pg standards that i can remember, but when you read into them, they had adult interpretations, and some were pretty good.

i used to listen to a morning radio show that talked about adult content sometimes but had to meet fcc standards, so were forced to be creative about it. and the more i listened, the more i enjoyed the creativity and the play with words to get around the rules. just as an example, and i can't remember the context, but sometimes they made passing references to jizzing on someone's face. had they just come out and said that, it wouldn't have been that funny to me. but using the phrase "made to look like a sad clown" was.

i think it's fun to be entertained by people who aren't so predictable, and who can use imagery to their advantage. help the audience make the connection instead of constantly handing it to them. it's like an inside joke between you and your entertainers.

do you think this type of approach to infusing more "attitude" back into the pg product is plausible and/or desirable for wwe?

[Kane Knight]

Wat if the WWF was always pg and there never was an attitude era.... Do u think the likes of stone cold, dx, new age outlaws, and others would have been as over as they were bcuz they probably woulda been limited on the things they could hve done and said..

I'm not saying you're retarded, but if you were any dumber you'd have a green font.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

Don't associate green font with being dumb. G on the video game forum isn't dumb.

[Lara Emily]

But without the huge boom period that was brought on by the WWF Attitude Era, would WCW have been able to maintain itself afterwards? Remember how shockingly bad things got once the NWO angle lost it's heat. (and I say that judged by their ratings etc, I was a huge WCW mark back in the day).

In many ways Nitro got so bad because they went crazy trying to one up WWF, without a big WWF rival I could see WCW being smarter with their TV maybe. That being said the people who ran WCW were idiots so who knows, either way without that awesome Attitude Product to lure fans away Nitro would maintain an audience at least for a good while.

[Mr. Showtime]

I'm not saying you're retarded, but if you were any dumber you'd have a green font.

And ur problem is?

[seapig4]

The attitude era wasn't just foul language and tits. It fed off of how things were 12 years ago. Also I was a teenager during the attitude era and that kind of language of sexuality apealled to me. Now i just wanna be entertained

[Kane Knight]

Don't associate green font with being dumb. G on the video game forum isn't dumb.

And he is outnumbered like a Jew at a Klan rally.

[Kane Knight]

The attitude era wasn't just foul language and tits. It fed off of how things were 12 years ago. Also I was a teenager during the attitude era and that kind of language of sexuality apealled to me. Now i just wanna be entertained

It fed off counter culture. The tits, the language, the "extreme" violence were all symptoms of that. It's why DX, Austin, and the Negro World Order were the big icons. It's also part of the reason we cheered soem of the worst shit to ever happen to wrestling, because good or bad, it was different, and different in a way that made us salivate like the proverbial pavlovian dog.

Kind of like how in the 70s, music fans got bored with people who had talent and started backing musicians who couldn't play for shit.

Though WWF could have done this without blood and tits. Just like they could make the PG era far more successful without any imperative to drop the PG part. It is, however, the wy the wind was blowing and it was certainly easiest.