WWE's PG Era Could Potentially End With SummerSlam 2022

By Connor Casey

A report dropped last week via Andrew Zarian that the PG Era of WWE's Monday Night Raw was officially coming to an end with this week's episode. That report later had to be retracted as an internal memo within USA Network jumped the gun on when the shift from TV-PG to TV-14 would take place, but Zarian maintained it would still be happening in the near future. WWE has yet to comment on the situation, but Peacock might have accidentally given away the news by listing the upcoming SummerSlam premium live event as TV-14. Every other WWE pay-per-view from 2022 (with the inexplicable exception of WrestleMania Backlash in May) has been listed as TV-PG, which could potentially signify the change will begin with the July 30 event. 

WWE has yet to comment on the situation. All of its programmings shifted to a TV-PG rating in July 2008 after initially shifting to TV-14 in 1997, leading to a significantly edgier product throughout the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras.

WWE's main competition, All Elite Wrestling, has been operating with a TV-14 rating since AEW Dynamite first premiered in October 2019. The company has chastized AEW's product as a result, usually for its bloodier matches.

"If you look at the gory self-mutilation that bloodied several women in the December 31 event on TNT, it quickly becomes clear that these are very different businesses. We had an edgier product in the 'Attitude' era and in a 2022 world, we don't believe that type of dangerous and brutal display is appealing to network partners, sponsors, venues, children, or the general public as a whole," the company wrote in a statement to the Toronto Star back in January.

Various WWE wrestles have also defended the shift to TV-PG, including Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. He wrote on his Facebook page back in 2020, "I think the PG Era is good for wrestling. I understand that we had more creative control over our characters before PG, but the fact that the PG Era came around has helped the wrestlers stay healthier. Drug tests, physicals, doctors, trainers, have become important to taking care of the health of Superstars."

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