Reflections of... PG WWE and marketing to kids

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been on here (MMA and comics have dominated my writing time), but rest assured, after WrestleMania I will still be doing thoughts on Raw and Impact Wrestling (still probably not SmackDown because honestly, after Mania I expect its relevance to dip significantly).

But while we have some time, I'd like to share my thoughts on this article about WWE looking to aim itself more to kids.

I bring this up because a lot of people always seem to claim that WWE going PG is what has made them less interesting. I would argue that going PG hasn't done a damn thing one way or the other.

Consider the Golden Age of WWF in the 1980s. Wrestling was at a peak only surpassed in the Attitude Era, and that could be credited to WCW and ECW as much as WWF. But back to the '80s, their product could be defined as PG at best, and yet wrestling was still incredibly popular, and a massive portion of the current fan base joined up around that time because families could watch together.

I feel that where WWE's issue lies is in the same place as the issue that killed Batman and Robin in 1997. People didn't mind a campy Batman – look at Adam West's show in the 1960s and "The Brave and the Bold" animated series as proof of that – but they did mind a Batman who was executed poorly and broke from all his character growth in the previous three films in the Burton-Schumacher series.

The key point of difference between Golden Age WWF and 21st Century WWE is in the execution. '80s WWF had a large cast of interesting competitors from top of the card to bottom, each of whom was put over as somewhat of a threat. And feuds were thought out for everyone so that every match on the card would have someone emotionally invested in it – i.e. you didn't have to like the main event to find something on the card you liked.

Furthermore, the characters were fleshed out to the point that even if they made no sense in the real world (Ultimate Warrior or Kamala), you could figure out immediately what they were about and why people should care about them. Writers did help with lines, but they seemed more careful to not make the wrestler say something that wouldn't naturally come from the persona.

Lastly, the main storylines were planned months in advance, but they weren't so hard-lined that if someone was hurt or another wrestler was getting the crowd behind them, they couldn't gradually work the main feud over to someone else and give the fans a superior (or at least alternative) payoff.

Where WWE today seems to be struggling is that the focus on week-to-week ratings and month-to-month PPV buys leads to speeding up feuds and paying plans off quicker than they should be.

Moreover, WWE's desire to push a star into the spotlight requires the main 1-2 matches to receive exorbitant amounts of screen time and vignette time across all the programming (because, you know, the group of people who ONLY watch SmackDown or Main Event and don't know what the main feuds are is so freaking massive). As such, the lower card wrestlers go into this state of perpetual limbo where their feuds are haphazardly thrown together at the last minute, and the rest of the time they're putting over the main eventers.

This seems counterproductive to me. The main wrestlers can sell themselves fine on Raw by simply doing promos and interview segments. It would seem wiser to put the upper-to-mid card guys in matches on Raw to get them over, and have the main event guys work up a rotation of headlining SmackDown and Main Event.

That way, your prime air space is directly selling major feuds in promos and the B-list guys are getting time to impress. And your lower shows are getting big names in either squash matches or occasional tag team matches (playa!).

Most importantly, when the big names actually wrestle on Raw (most likely once a month or every other month), it's a big freaking deal. They get to show why they're so damn impressive and really should spike the rating that week.

But of course, that's just my view as a wrestling fan who is using logic to determine a business plan that doesn't put all WWE's eggs in a John Cena sized basket. WWE is so obsessed with their ratings that any type of shift like this would be seen as an unnecessary risk.

I find it hilarious that Vince McMahon will take monetary hits on movies, the XFL and his wife's Senate aspirations, but here he has become so conservative. We can only hope that Triple H and Stephanie have more of a plan in the future.

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