Christopher Hooton of The Independent in the UK is featuring an interview with John Cena and is asked about a common criticism about WWE “not being good anymore.”
Cena addressed the question in detail, including making points about the previous presentation during the Attitude Era and how the show is now PG.
“Well, every response is legitimate. If you tell me right now you miss the Attitude Era I can’t tell you you don’t. What I can tell you is that we’re a PG program and if you look at the Attitude Era it was TV-14 or TV-MA. We’re a PG program, there’s nothing else I can tell you. There will be no cussing, there will be no blood, there will be no headshots, there will be no inappropriate clothing, and those aren’t our laws those are the laws of the rating system.”
Cena also talked about how WWE was able to expand globally with the changes.
“So to operate under a PG platform, which has totally globally expanded the WWE and created more fans – albeit geeky or not geeky – around the world, and allowed all of these performers including myself to go to new and wonderful places, like places in South America, China for the first time, we keep returning to Japan, the Arab Emirates – just because we have made our program more digestible – I totally understand, as a 40-year-old man, and if you’ve seen me in Trainwreck I have a pretty adult sense of humor, I totally understand someone saying, ‘I miss mature content in sports entertainment’. We are not the place for that. We are not. Is a promo easier when you can cuss? Sure, because you’re talking trash and trash talk is filled with cusses. But, as a professional, you can’t speculate and be like, ‘Agh I wish I could just say this,’ because you can’t, those are the rules, and every once in a while we can walk the line and push into grey, but at the end of the day the program is PG and has to be treated as such because that’s the business model of the folks who own the place.”