WWE is set to make a significant change to its flagship Monday Night Raw show, as it's been reported that the television rating will be shifted from PG to TV-14 starting on July 18. The red brand has been aimed at younger audiences and families ever since the end of the Attitude Era. WWE going public in October of 1999 also necessitated a shift in direction, as the company needed to appear more family-friendly as a publically traded company.
The company went through the Ruthless Aggression Era before settling into the PG Era in July of 2008. It was at that point that WWE received the TV-PG rating from the TV Parental Guidelines, and WWE began heavily scripting promos and directing content toward younger viewers. This has also been referenced as the Reality Era, as the federation continued to spin its wrestlers off into other kinds of television shows. This ranged from Total Divas to Miz and Mrs.
It seems that the PG Era is coming to an abrupt end next week, however. Andrew Zarian of the Wrestling Observer News shared the following from his @AndrewZarian handle on Twitter: "Starting July 18th WWE Raw will have a TV-14 rating moving forward on USA Network. The PG Era is over."
At this juncture, it's unclear exactly why WWE is making this change. The company hasn't stated anything publically via its official website or social media handles. It also has not sent any sort of press release regarding the change at this time. So this could either be a very big deal that dramatically changes how Raw is written and produced. Or this could be WWE giving itself a bit more wiggle room when it comes to issues with standards and practices. It could also be a ploy to boost ratings, but that would seem short-sighted, even for World Wrestling Entertainment.
Fans on Twitter immediately began speculating what the changes would mean for the July 18 broadcast. It's highly unlikely that a superstar is going to snag a mic and start cursing up a storm, but the reality is that if WWE wants to begin veering towards more adult-oriented content, they now have the ability to do so. It'll also be interesting to see if this TV-14 distinction creates any noticeable differences for premium live events. Those are only available on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming app. The same on-air rules don't apply to those kinds of streams, but it wouldn't make a lot of sense for WWE to try and shoehorn storylines that have been TV-14 on weekly television into TV-PG premium live events. The upcoming SummerSlam show will likely be a good litmus test. This is a change that some fans might not even notice. Or it could create a very real division in eras for WWE fans. Audiences will just have to tune in to find out what this shift will affect and entail.
Source: @AndrewZarian/Twitter