John Cena has done it all in the world of WWE. He’s won the Royal Rumble, main evented WrestleMania, and he’s a 16 time WWE World Champion. For many years John Cena was the face of the WWE, and because of that he also became the face of the PG Era.
When John Cena first started his ascent up the card, he was an edgy rapper character who got attention by talking trash about his opponents. But once he made it to the top, things began to change as WWE made the move to TV-PG, and Cena received the brunt of the backlash for being at the forefront of the movement.
The WWE product of today is a far cry from what it was like during the Attitude Era, and there are a number of fans out there who would like to see WWE commit to releasing edgier content again.
Cena recently spoke to The Independent about the shift, and he noted that producing PG content has opened new doors for WWE that were previously closed off.
“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. 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.”
Even though Cena understands where fans are coming from, he doesn’t believe that WWE is the place for mature content.
“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. And that’s our business model. And until it changes I am merely a carpenter building with the tools that are given to me. 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, ‘Ugh, 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.”
Do you want to see WWE produce more “mature content” in the future? Sound off in the comments below.
