Fans were taken off guard by the recent news that WWE would be changing their TV rating from TV-PG to TV-14, and at the time the new era was thought to be kicking off rather soon, starting with the next edition of Monday Night Raw. A new report from Andrew Zarian then said that a memo went out to those within USA Network that said the change was set for July 18th, but evidently, that was sent out prematurely, and the day of the switch hasn’t been finalized. Fightful Select’s report added that there were conflicting messages internally at USA about the change and that just because the rating changes doesn’t necessarily mean the content will drastically change.
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As the post points out, NXT typically has edgier content than seen on Raw or SmackDown and it still has a TV-PG rating. WWE doesn’t have to fulfill certain content requirements to maintain the TV 14 rating, so WWE might use the new rating for one-off moments as opposed to drastically shifting the product from its current format.
As of right now, WWE Raw is still listed as TV-PG for the July 18th show, so odds are we won’t see anything drastically different there. As for what comes next, it will be interesting to see how or if WWE shifts its content a bit and what that does for the product overall.
AEW has embraced the edgier rating and has incorporated things like hardcore matches, blood, and cursing into its product. WWE has remained steadfast that they aren’t producing the same type of shows as AEW, so it would be odd to see them completely break from that and change up everything to be more like AEW in that regard. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
What do you think of the new TV 14 era? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
