What’s the story?
On a recent edition of his podcast Bischoff On Wrestling, Eric Bischoff opined that the reason WWE keeps the majority of its main content PG is that the advertisers are interested in promoting their products mainly to children, pre-teens, teenagers and the female demographic.
In case you didn’t know...
The WWE has been around since the 1950s, but it truly broke through when Vince McMahon took over the promotion from his father in the 1980s.
McMahon would eventually change the direction of the WWE in the 1990s, bringing in edgier storylines, controversial characters and putting forth more risqué content.
Nevertheless, the Attitude Era is widely regarded as the period during which professional wrestling’s popularity saw unprecedented success, owing to the ‘edgy’ content produced by WWE.
The heart of the matter
The WWE, however, would change up its strategy in 2008- a year that marked the advent of the PG era. It’s intriguing to note that the WWE has since had two ‘eras’- ergo the Reality Era (2014-16) and the New Era (2016 to the present day). Regardless, the content that’s being produced by WWE still caters to children and women, instead of the adult male demographic; since the commencement of the PG Era back in ’08.
Bischoff addressed the aforementioned change in the WWE’s approach of catering to its audience, and revealed why WWE chooses to do so-
“That (children, teenagers and female demographic) is where the money is. One of the tough things about pro wrestling, sports entertainment or whatever you want to call it is that you get massive numbers. WWE even on a bad week when they dip below three million those are massive numbers in the world of television. Especially in today’s environment.”
“The difficult part is that the real money is in the youngest part of that demo. Kids, teens, pre-teens and women probably represent the largest percentage of discretionary income to advertisers.
Furthermore, Bischoff cited the example of Impact Wrestling’s current status, by alluding to the fact that the company doesn’t wield much influence in today’s day as its audience is almost non-existent.
Also read: How do millennials remember the Attitude Era
What’s next?
The WWE presently shows no signs of going back to generating more adult-oriented content, with several top executives including Stephanie McMahon strongly asserting their intentions to stay true to their current core audience, i.e. the children, teenagers and women.
Author’s take
Now, I know that every loves the sort of content that is oft credited for the success of the Attitude Era.
However, given the advertisers’ tendency to stay away from associating their products with risqué content, fans can expect more of the same PG content from the WWE.
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