wwe

In the not-too-distant past, WWE was a different animal. It was raw (no pun intended), unfiltered (ok, well, a little filtered), and it appealed to an older demographic with elements that are not seen today: blood, intense violence, offensive words. John Cena was a part of that more adult product in his formative years in WWE, and he’d routinely spout an offensive rap freestyle demeaning his opponent. He also wasn’t afraid of a little blood-letting. These days, WWE caters to a younger audience, and with that directive, the sports-entertainment giant’s product has been toned down extensively. Cena isn’t too happy with that.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Cena displays his animosity toward the youth-skewing product that his company — the one he’s been the face of for more than a decade — is pumping out:

I’m a 38-year-old man. I’d much rather it be a program geared toward me, whether that’s TV-14 or sometimes even more graphic than that, which is what I like. For one thing, profanity brought fire out of people with personalities that backed the language. It’s very difficult to say, ‘Oh, you’re being poopy,’ especially when they’re meant to be fighting words. And now, if someone starts to bleed, the referee intervenes to stop the bleeding. But before, you’d just let it fly. Blood is one of the things that made fights cool. Like, you knew it had gotten serious. I understand why we don’t do it anymore. Vince has been a coach to me, a father figure, a boss and a friend, and his goal and my goal are the same: to make the company be as big as it can be. But, yeah, the blood is one thing I miss.



Cena makes a great point: Blood intensifies the matches. A great example of this was the Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor match at the recent Takeover event in Dallas. Joe was spewing rivets of sanguine, and it most certainly added to the dynamics of the feud and contest. Unfortunately, that match is also the perfect example of WWE’s “PG era” getting in its own way. The match was stopped several times, and what could have been one of the best, most intense brawls in pro wrestling this year was reduced to just a fine outing for both performers. There was once a time when Ric Flair would bleed during almost everyone of his matches (and Steve Corino after him) — that was perhaps too much, but this is a fight we’re talking about here. Pro Wrestlers aren’t going into a ring to play hopscotch.

A good curse word or two, if used correctly and sparingly (the same can be said about table spots), also intensifies a battle of words, much in the same way blood-letting enhances the in-ring product. Cena is perhaps a bad example of this, as he wasn’t always so great on the microphone during his earlier years in the company, but there have been plenty of intense feuds that could use some heavy cussing. We don’t need an F-bomb on every episode of Raw, but even a bleeped-out F-bomb would serve as a great reminder that pro wrestling is meant to be real, even though it’s not. Did you ever listen to all the cusses dropped in the corner of a boxing match in-between rounds? It’s awesome!

Cena also mentions that he understands why they don’t do it anymore, and I do too. In the heyday of the PG-13 era, WWE was bringing gout the big guns to battle WCW, and an edgier product is what the day called for. WWE has no enemies anymore, and what’s “best for business” is to try to appeal to the kids who goad their parents into buying merchandise. Also, sponsors are big business, and they don’t want the companies they associate with to propagate dick jokes all the time.

We know wrestling is scripted (don’t you dare say fake). We know it’s pre-rehearsed, sketched out on notebooks, finishes and segments plastered on the walls of the arenas it inhabits for the night. We — and I’m speaking for the wrestling fans who loved the PG-13 era — just want it to seem as real as possible. Instill the fantasy, cover the wizard behind the curtain, and just give us some blood again.