Julian Cannon is back for another post, this time is to reflect on the WWE current PG era product, and the response of Linda McMahon’s failed senate campaign from 2009-2012. Good thing that she lost both times because she wasted about 100 million dollars (can we have Tidus o’ neal and Darren Young say “millions of dollars” please)

I thought I’d write about something that almost blew up Twitter last night among wrestling fans as soon as it was announced that Linda McMahon had failed in her attempt to get elected to the US Senate. Almost as one, wrestling fan asked the question: “Is the PG Era over?” Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but no. Like it or not, “PG” wrestling is here to stay.

I’d be lying if I said that I’d always been happy with “PG” wrestling, because it wasn’t what I loved to watch in the late 90’s. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that today’s wrestlers have to be more talented in order to work in the business. They can’t just haul out a steel chair and smack someone in the head repeatedly to get the crowd involved in their match. They have to use more of their character and wrestling ability. I’m not saying that some of the guys in the Attitude Era weren’t talented, because they were, but they had other ways to get that “shock factor”. The current WWE superstars rarely, if at all, have that opportunity, so they have to use other things.

WWE’s product isn’t suffering because of the PG rating: it’s suffering from a lack of fresh, creative ideas. The rating of your show is no excuse for producing mediocre storylines and expecting fans to react in the same way they did a decade ago. It simply won’t happen. Society isn’t the same as it was during the Attitude Era and the 93-97 era. Many People don’t watch wrestling (or TV in general) the way they used to 10-15 years ago. DVR, TiVo and Sky+ all let us choose when we sit down to watch Raw/Smackdown. In fact, that technology is a godsend sometimes, especially since Raw has gone to 3 hours. But for me, I still watch Raw and Smackdown because I’m still a dedicated fan to professional wrestling no matter what’s going on backstage.

The other reason why “PG” is here to stay is down to one simple fact: money. WWE makes a boat load of cash from merchandising deals with various companies and as a publicly traded entity; they have a responsibility to their shareholders to make as much money as they can. Put yourself in the shoes of a shareholder. Would you care if the product was crap, but you were making money? Of course you wouldn’t. At the end of the day, it’s about making money. As long as WWE are doing that with a “PG” product, nothing will change.

I reckon that WWE needs to start building more “superstars” who are at the level that John Cena and CM Punk is at. Those of you who have read my posts in the past know that I’m not a fan of Cena’s character, but the problem is that as soon as someone says “PG Era” they think “John Cena”, so all the frustration gets fired his way, which isn’t fair. It’s not his fault that he’s seen as the poster boy and the biggest star in the business today; it’s WWE’s fault for not building up enough stars at his level to share the load. Granted, they’ve started to do that in the last 18 months or so with the likes of Sheamus and CM Punk and Randy Orton, but those guys aren’t “there” yet.

I’m not a businessman or wrestling promoter. I’m just a fan and I know what I’d like to see, but the fact is that for everyone on the internet who bitches that WWE aren’t “doing things the way they should”, there’s another 10/20 people who are quite happy with what they’re watching. The people who hate “PG” wrestling are in the minority. Fact. Until that changes, WWE’s product will continue to be family-friendly and the rest of us will just have to deal with it

And also, the only reason whyWWE went to the attitude era is because of a few things:

1.WCW was kicking their ass in ratings every week.

2.ECW’s involvement

3. Im sorry to say it but if there was not for vince russo, the feuds of the attitude era from 97-99 would have not existed

So in my conclusion, there is no need for the attitude era to come back because that era had great feuds, but it did not have 10/10 match quality that it did before, plus after the attitude era, we got to see match of the year quality matches on PPV.

I rest my case for now

Julian Cannon back again for another post. Sorry everyone for the slowdown i have been very busy lately. This one is a look back on the heart attack angle by Paul Heyman and CM Punk. Also follow me on twitter @julianexcalibur

The most talked-about event on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw was not related to the build to Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view. Instead, what most wrestling fans are talking about was the way that the heel WWE Champion CM Punk and Paul Heyman mocked Jerry Lawler for the heart attack he suffered on September 10.

Did I expect it to happen? Yes.

Did I expect it to happen as quickly as it did? Yes.

Did I expect it to happen in the manner it was done? Yes.

It’s all about the expectations. If you didn’t think WWE was going to use the heart attack in an angle, then you are underestimating what WWE does. If you expected it to do it, then you’re like me and you realized it was just a wrestling angle used as a device to get more heat on the current WWE Champion.

History Repeats Itself

There are many things that WWE has done over the years to push the envelope in terms of the health of somebody on the show. If you’ll recall they had Eddie Guerrero’s mom suffer a heart attack in 2004 due to the heel tactics of John Bradshaw Layfield. JBL has since said he had to get a police escort to the next town because they were worried about his safety. Look here at this clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvgRpMgE5q8

Remember the angle in 2006 when heel Randy Orton was feuding with Rey Mysterio? It was a few months after the death of Eddie Guerrero, who was a close friend of Mysterio. As a way to get heat for Orton they had him say that: “Eddie Guerrero’s not in heaven. Eddie’s in hell.” That angered a lot of people. While I’m sure that somebody probably thought Eddie would be OK with it, there’s no way of knowing if that’s true.

If you’ll recall in 2011 while Lawler was feuding with Michael Cole, Lawler’s mother passed away. Once Lawler returned, Cole used the death of Lawler’s mother as a way to get heel heat as well. Watch this clip and listen to the crowd reaction at the 4:30 mark. You can hear how angry the crowd is just by their reaction. I’m sure that Lawler was OK with it because as a heel he said some very nasty things about Bret Hart’s family among others over the years.

The WWE Champion Is a Jerk? Heels Are Supposed to Be!

This week on Raw, Punk basically took credit for Lawler’s heart attack saying that the beatings that Punk gave him are the reason Lawler nearly died. It’s not true, but heels lie and that’s just part of the wrestling business. We know that.

Where things might have went too far was when Paul Heyman faked a heart attack in the ring. Then he, along with Punk, laughed at Lawler. I think that’s what probably pissed off people the most because they were making a mockery of a very serious situation. Don’t get mad at Punk or Heyman. They are just doing their jobs as wrestling heels who are being booked to act that way.

Later on Raw, CM Punk got beat by John Cena. He tried to run away from him, but Ryback prevented him from running away. That is WWE’s way of saying “he paid for what he did” because he got his ass kicked. On Sunday if you want to see Punk get his ass kicked, buy the Survivor Series pay-per-view and see if it happens. I’ll save the predictions for another column.

There Are No Limits

Wrestling fans complain about a lot of things. In this case if somebody complains about WWE using a very real heart attack for the purposes of a storyline, I think he or she is justified for having that opinion. It was pushing the envelope.

The question shouldn’t be: “Did WWE go too far?” The question is does WWE really think it’s necessary to use a real life serious situation like a heart attack as a way to add heel heat to its top heel?

The answer to that question, in the eyes of Vince McMahon and the WWE creative team, is obviously yes. They did it on Monday. They’ve done it many other times over the years.

There’s no exact way to measure if doing angles like these hurt or help the product. You can’t look at television ratings because while they are used for accuracy, who is to say that somebody turned the show off because of a previous segment or because they had no interest in watching Tensai get squashed?

If you look at the pay-per-view buys for Survivor Series, we won’t be able to tell if people were put off by the Lawler angle. If the buyrate number is perceived as low you can blame it as the main event switching two weeks before the show aired or the lack of depth on the card. Maybe there’s some big NFL game that night—there usually is on Sunday nights. There will be no exact way of knowing why a number is down.

Is Jerry Lawler OK With It?

The best thing to do is to look at this storyline from Lawler’s perspective. He’s been a part of the wrestling business for 40 years. He’s been an announcer and part-time wrestler in WWE for nearly 20 years (he started in 1993).

Think about it. If Lawler suffered his heart attack alone in his hotel room or while driving a car, the chances are very high that he would be dead right now. Because of where suffered his heart attack—live on Raw—he was able to receive medical attention right away. The WWE doctors saved his life. The EMTs in Montreal saved his life.

Remember this. He was given a second chance on life. He was dead for a few minutes on September 10. Medical personnel had to revive him. Think about what the last nine weeks have been for that man. He went literally from his deathbed back to work in two months. It’s amazing. Nobody was happier on Monday than him, and that’s what I most enjoyed about Raw this week.

If you’re Lawler and WWE says: “We want to use your heart attack in an angle to get CM Punk heel heat” what do you think he’s going to say? Chances are if he said no, then they wouldn’t have done it. He probably said it was fine. McMahon was there for Lawler when he suffered his heart attack. They are very close friends. If it was an issue on Monday, I really doubt it would have made it onto Raw.

What I’m trying to say is that if Jerry Lawler is OK with WWE making fun of him for having a heart attack on their television show two months ago, then we, as wrestling fans, should be OK with it too.

I’m not saying you should love it. I just think it’s acceptable because everybody involved with it knows it’s part of the story for the greater good of the company (in the minds of WWE Creative), so it’s important to realize it and get past it.

Heels are mean. Babyfaces are nice. That’s wrestling. That was what we got on Monday just like we get every single week and will continue to get for the rest of our lives as wrestling fans.

Monday Night Raw, Friday Night Smackdown and any other WWE show is no different than any television show with a script. They are Wrestlers on a television. Just because they used a real life situation to further a storyline doesn’t make them wrong. It just means they know what they are: a scripted television show that is trying to gain viewers. More than anything WWE is a business.

What did the WWE prove by using Jerry Lawler’s near-death experience to further a storyline? That nothing is off limits.

Business as usual.