WWE Shifted Away From TV-PG This Week

It would certainly be different. There are a lot of criticisms about modern WWE and one of the biggest is that it is too PG. Several fans are not pleased with what is considered a more family friendly version of the company, which has been in place for a very long time now. While you will see flashes of different kinds of programming, it is rare to see WWE offering more mature, adult style stories. That might be changing, at least for the short term.

Some of these complaints make a lot of sense, but at the same time the PG model makes sense for families. If younger people are watching the show, they might not be able to get to a show on their own. That means coming with their parents, which means two (or even three) tickets sold, plus more concessions and possibly merchandise. Throw in better advertising opportunities and it is a fairly easy concept to follow. However, that philosophy was not the case this week.

According to Wrestlingnews.co, this week’s SmackDown was rated TV-14 instead of TV-PG. It is not clear if this is a one off change or the start of a new direction for WWE programming. The show ended with a rare instance of man on woman violence, as Braun Strowman slammed Alexa Bliss in the final segment of the show. This comes after Extreme Rules featured the Eye For An Eye match, which focused on a violent ending.

It has been a while. Check out some of the more intense days:

Opinion: I know this is going to get quite the big reaction but at the same time, you can only get so many positives out of something like this under the given circumstances. WWE is not exactly doing much right at the moment and bringing back more adult storylines is not going to matter if the stories are still build around the same scripted storylines and uninteresting characters. Changing the style can work, but not without changing the system behind the style.

What do you think of the change? What else should WWE change? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!