WWE, now kid friendly?!?!

Hi

Im a massive WWE fan and has been that way for 10 years.
I was there for the best era in WWE.
By this I mean the Attitude Era(back in WWF).
This is when the wrestlers were themselves for example...
Stone cold steve austin broke new ground with his rebellious yet babyface character/personia.
D-Generation X was made by HBK and HHH being THEMSELVES.
This is what turned me into a WWE fan (aside from the wrestling bit.)

Now WWE has some what changed course.
What used to be cutting edge, raunchy, RAW!!!
Has now gone kid friendly.
Want proof ???
Remember the F.U???
Well you better forget it because its new name is the attitude adjustment.
And the STFU is now back to the STF.
Now i would usually be fine with that, but one thing is bugging me.
I see the ATTITUDE adjustment, as a slap in the face to the attitude era .
Its like saying "We,ve changed, get used to this.

What I want to know is why are they doing this????

reply to post by hypnodog619

Yes, I remember the Attitude era with fond memories.. Stone Cold at his best, The Rock at his peak, D-X, remember when they had Chyna, X-Pac, Road Dawg?! and not to forget..Mr. Ass also, remember the Acolytes? .. or the Ministry of Darkness?

Once WWF bought out ECW AND WCW.. then it became WWE.. everything became repetitive, un-original, and childish... it used to really cool and entertaining to watch..

I stopped watching WWE around 2003... I just got fed up with Rey Mysterio and the other WCW/ECW clan whom absolutely RUINED WWF..

Peace

[edit on 22/3/09 by Majorion]

I wouldn't say that the WWE has become kid friendly. From what I've been able to gather over here in Germany, the language is just as bad as it was back when I watched it in middle school. Also, the way the women dress, well, certainly isn't someting I'd want my kids to see.

I remember back in October of '08, I think, when the whole Edge/Vikki Gurrerro thing was going on, there were some sexual inuendos. Again, something I wouldn't want my kids to see.

I agree though that since the Attitude days, the storyline hasn't been up to snuff. I think that it's really stupid that each show is different with different champions and the whole bit. They should get rid of that, say I! I think that the last hurrah was the whole "WCW vs WWF" storyline where the overall winner of a payperview [Invasion I think] got to stay in existance. After that, they should've gotten rid of all the crummy WCW guys and kept going as normal.

Also, the WWE didn't change their name because they wanted to. The Word Wildlife Fund or WWF sued them for the rights to the initials--because we all know that when we think of WWF, we think of pandas.

I don't know what kids are going to think about this new
road map they have but there are kids in the audience.

I see this Edge/Vikki Gurrerro thing moving to Big Show being nice.
Big Show influences Vikki and then some other dude will do
it and.. well it may last years.

So the kids will see all you have to do is to soften up mom/ladies to
get what you want.

Guess it will beat temper tantrums.

i still watch/fast forward to the funny stuff like uncle randy reign of terror and complexes xD
im a grown up and i started to be like him...just like a child would copy the person he thinks its cool XDjee thx wwee
2 i cant stand vickie
3 wwe attitude ruled! i still have mamemories when i was little and watching guis
get assed,the sock in the mouth,humiliation..damn wwe...XD

Probably they are trying it to fill more seats in the arenas and draw higher ratings and just trying stuff to see what works.

Back before the "Attitude" they used to be pretty kid friendly. Hogan was the top face with his message of "Say your prayers, take your vitimans, etc.." Heck, they even had a Sat. morning cartoon show and the wrestlers char's in the ring were "cartoonish" - Honkeytonk Man, Hillbilly Jim, etc.

Big fan of the late 90s WWF, too. My favorite being Chyna. I hated the company for screwing her. I stopped watching because of that. I still watch it now as it's still entertaining but it's just not the way it used to be.

Frogs is right. In fact the 'Attitude Era' was the kids of the 80's all grown up and wanting to see something a bit more grown up. WWE happened to hit the right spot at the right time, just like they did in the mid 80's. Of course if anybody remembers the WWE between say '88 and '93, they'll remember just how awful it was.

Quite a "themed" roster... Duke "The Dumpster" Drosey (garbageman), Kona Crush (Hawaiian surfer?), Tugboat (Uhm... Man-boy reject of the Village People?).

Currently WWE is just trying to find that niche again, probably hoping the trend is cyclical and that things are going to come around to being more "kid friendly" again. Besides, kids have always been their bread & butter. Give it time and things will come back around again... maybe. The lack of competition hurts and while TNA was giving them a run for their money, they turned the route of WCW in terms of content and performer ego and I think lost their edge.

Oh, and btw, the World Wildlife Fund actually gave WWE permission to use the WWF logo on the basis that it didn't become enfranchised with the company. I think the "Attitude Era" is really what got the original WWF to rescind that.

people still watch those cartoons. Its a soap opera on steroids.
Sorry i know it has entertainment for some. But i just cant get past the cheesey crap every time, same thing, diffrent person.
How about a real fight, not planed or staged.

reply to post by hypnodog619


I remember the good old days of ECW and real blood.
Well i think it was real anyway
Now it's all kiddy.
Oh well, I don't watch it anymore, can't blame them though, they're just trying to appeal to a bigger audience.
Jacob

Originally posted by severdsoul
Sorry i know it has entertainment for some. But i just cant get past the cheesey crap every time, same thing, diffrent person.
How about a real fight, not planed or staged.

That is exactly why all of us (well, most of us) have stopped watching years ago. At least the superstars back then were fantastic stage actors... now what do ya got? ... same old same old.

And so the dumbing down continues.

Here's a reminder of the attitude for you...stfu!

Oh, the WWE/WWF/ECW/WCW... fond memories there.

I remember way back when Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Andre the Giant with an astonished Bobby "The Brain" Heenan looking on agape. I remember the "Ultimate Challenge" when Hulk Hogan took on the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania. I remember the old cast, many who are now hall-of-famers: Jake "The Snake" Roberts, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper ("Hot Rod"), The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetti), The Hart Foundation (Bret "Hit Man" Hart, Owen Hart, and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart), The Earthquake and Tugboat (who teamed up to form the Natural Disasters), "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, The Genius, Sergeant Slaughter, The Sheik, etc., etc., etc.

I remember when the Undertaker was introduced by the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase as his mystery tag team partner against the American Dream Dusty Rhodes and his manager Sweet Sapphire (and this was when Dusty was trying to make a comeback in his old age ). I remember when Shawn Michael double-crossed Marty Janetti to destroy the Rockers. I remember the Undertaker's manager Paul Bearer and the mysterious urn he carried everywhere. I remember the Wild Samoans, "Gorilla" Monsoon, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Yokozuma, and Bradshaw (before he dyed his hair blond, donned a suit, and became JBL).

I have watched pro wrestling (aka choreographed fights on demand) for many many many years. I have seen the transitions. Originally it was more of a childrens/young adults show anyway. There was no overt sexuality (that was reserved for GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling)). There was no cursing. There was violence, but it was always set in a good vs. evil match. And always, before the story line played out, good triumphed above evil.

What is happening now is not what I would call a return to those kiddie years, but rather an attempt to correct some problems. Wrestlemania (as well as the other PPVs) is the primary reason for the show. Monday Night RAW, ECW, and Friday Night Smackdown are little more than 1-2 hour infomercials advertising for the next PPV event. The bulk of the money is now made via PPV. But since the initial offering of PPV wrestling specials, the profits have been steadily declining. My personal feeling is that this is mostly due to the high price, the lack of available disposable income among their fans, and the sheer number of events (combined with the inability to really follow the storylines without buying the PPV events). To compensate, WWE is trying new concepts. They will tone down the cursing a bit for a while, then raise it bck up a notch. They will concentrate on the Divas for a while, then they will back off a bit for a while. They will keep the fighting in the ring for a while, then suddenly you'll see wrestlers going wild. and all the time, they are looking at what will get people interested more.

Example: The present HHH/Orton storyline. Randy Orton is the "heel" (bad guy) and HHH is the "face" (good guy). Orton has been playing the heel for so long, it is easy to identify him as such. He kicked the CEO (Mr. McMahon) in his head, then Sean McMahon (his son) came out to get revenge and Orton kicked him in the head as well. Then he used his signature move (the "RKO", a sideways bulldog with a twist) to stun the General Manager and Mr. McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon, who happens to be HHH's wife (actually they really are in reality... surprise! ). Orton is accompanied by his two henchmen, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase (sons of Dusty Rhodes and the Million Dollar Man) and a fleet of lawyers to explain that he is a 'victim' because he has a 'mental disease' that makes him not responsible for his actions. So far, HHH has threatened "I'm going to break your neck!", Orton has threatened lawsuits, HHH has busted Orton's house down and attacked him, Orton has had HHH arrested, HHH has trapped Cody in a steel cage and beat him senseless... you get the idea.

All this is perpetrated carefully to play on the average person's anger at people who use lawyers to get away with terrible acts, people who blame others for things they do (hypocrites) and who use the law to take advantage of others. We on ATS are not the only ones who are angry; we just try to find out who it is we should be angry at. The average Joe just gets angry at the clearest target. Now, Wrestlemania is being billed as HHH's chance to get Orton alone in a ring and beat the Hades out of him. The idea is, who wouldn't pay good money to watch this fool get his brains beaten out?

In short, this is nothing more than a tweaking of the storylines to try and compensate for the dwindling profits companies are seeing across the board. After all, it's a storyline, an act, a soap opera for guys. I went to a live WWE event years ago and saw someone (I think it was Bubba Dudley?) knock Bret Hart clear out of the ring. The only problem was, I had a good seat; the blow missed his face by a good foot. I tell you, that was a major blow for the air pressure to have done all that!

TheRedneck

I LOOOVVEE YYYOOOOOUUUUUU!!!!!
Anyone remember that?
When i was a real young pup back in the 80s we used to watch it.After about a year i got bored with the same formula of fights and storyline.
Fastforward 10yrs and wrestling becomes popular again.Watched a couple of episodes outta of curiousity still the same boring fighting script and more longer and intrusive story lines.
Fastforward another 10yrs and still the same good guy/bad guy pendulum, pin him/kick out, repetitive, same as the fight before fights and even more crumbier OTT intrusive storylines that take up about 3/4 of the programme.

Hey

Thanks for Replying (I did not think this would get as many replies!!)

Also i do agree that it does fill the seat with more kid fans.
I like the way they are trying to get different types of viewers, but i hate how they are approarching it.
For example:
They have made John Cena their main guy.
You ask any WWE fan who is under 12 who their favorite wrestler and chances are they will say Cena.
Im not "dissing" the guy, he is a good mic worker, but he is not a good wrestler.
People like Shawn Michaels who has worked up from the bottom, straight to the top and gives us (the WWE fans) 100% in the ring.
People like him should be made the model of WWE.
Yes he did drugs, but look at him now, a born again christian who works at churches.
Surely he should be the model of the WWE.

But sadly they are trying to recreate the Hogan Era, the Austin Era with what now what looks like the Cena Era.
I think they are trying to recreate this, because people grew up with Hogan as their (shall i say) hero.
Same goes for Austin, The Rock etc and WWE want kids to grow up with Cena now.

Dont think this has turned into a Anti-Cena Thread.
It hasnt.

All im saying is WWE (for the kids sake) are trying to recreate something that was special with a BAD WRESTLER John Cena

I watch it for the real superstars. The divas. God...I can only imagine...........

Well im pretty sure its for money reasons. Your going to make more money when parents are taking there children to these shows. And I still dont think its kid friendly. I dont like the fact of violence becoming entertainment. Im probably over reacting but I dont know.

I live in a house where EVERYONE here watches WWE religously. I personally just like the Diva matches.

I like TNA only for ODB. I love her.

maaaan,,, dont get me started, this is the first time i came to this forum ( i normaly bum about ats) so i could post something which is related to this topic but a different topic ..

what wwe have now became is a joke, they are doing it for no other reason than to make more money.. they want the small children as they are the ones that buy (well, parents buy) toys and merchandice, and if they are younger, they will be buying it for longer... also, their new child friendly policy draws them in alot more money from sponsors, as more companies will pay for the slow on a family based show than they would for a show thats aimed for say 15+ age group that potentialy has something that may offend someone on tv .

i got into wrestling watching wwe and was always loyal and for the most they gave the fans what they deserved, but in teh last 4-5 years wwe has went way down hill, one reason is that they have hardly changed in the last few years, maybe a few big deaths and storys, but nothing major changed, the mcmahons were still on tv,regals been on and off GM/wrestler, HHH still had the belt, undertaker is still unstoppable, big show is being big,edge is rated R and randy orton thinks he is the big cheese....

of course many have come and gone, but the base of it is the same and what makes it worse is than instead of taking in established stars or big indie tallent, they take in people that have came through their development federations and all learned to use the generic wwe style. most of these developmentals have no charisma, no actual flair (wooooooo) and no actual background in the world of wrestling to warrent them being close to worthy of standing in the same ring that made hulk hogan a legend.


the only saving grace, is that for the last 7 years, we have had an alternative which is coming to light as a contender now... and that is TNA! (their so close, just minus a few small tweeks! )

edit : also, anyone that watches lately, dont you think that many of their home grown stars look like randy orton, or is that just me that thinks that.

i have started calling legacy "randy and the ortonettes"

[edit on 12-6-2009 by boaby_phet]

yup it got kid friendly, sucks though. i can't even watch it for more than a few mintues than being angered by it.

i can watch tna but storylines aint that good though

thank god for youtube so i can watch the old new age outlaws, catcus jack, the real ecw, and others from back in teh day cause those were the times i would stay up past curfew just to watch a glimpse!

Pick the remote up and change it to Spike T.V. 3 words, Ultimate Fighting Championship