Not too many years ago, WWE was a totally different product as it was not in the midst of non-PG era which made things boring and predictable. The elements like blood, violence, and offensive words are totally missed from today’s WWE tapings and that does not appeal to the older audience today. Those things made the Attitude Era the most successful in the history of WWE. Fans have complained about the fact numerous times and apparently now, John Cena, the face of the company also admitted the same.
John Cena was a part of that more adult product in his formative years in WWE with ruthless aggression and we have seen him covered with blood after many of his memorable matches. But, WWE caters to a younger audience now and they wiped out those violence products years ago. Cena did not look happy with it at all. He gave an interview on his occasion of 39th birthday and here’s what he had to say:
“I’m a 38-year-old man. I’d much rather it be a program geared toward me, whether that’s TV-14 or sometimes even more graphic than that, which is what I like. For one thing, profanity brought fire out of people with personalities that backed the language. It’s very difficult to say, ‘Oh, you’re being poopy,’ especially when they’re meant to be fighting words. And now, if someone starts to bleed, the referee intervenes to stop the bleeding. But before, you’d just let it fly. Blood is one of the things that made fights cool. Like, you knew it had gotten serious. I understand why we don’t do it anymore. Vince has been a coach to me, a father figure, a boss and a friend, and his goal and my goal are the same: to make the company be as big as it can be. But, yeah, the blood is one thing I miss.”
John Cena addressed a great point. Blood automatically intensifies a match. There was a time when wrestlers like Ric Flair was seen covered with blood in most of his matches. In recent days, a match is stopped numerous times if blood is seen on television. The latest example of the same is Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor at NXT Takeover. Vince McMahon was not even happy after seeing blood in the iconic Undertaker-Brock Lesnar Hell in a Cell match.
Some blood between the match and an F-bomb out of nowhere reminds us of good old pro-wrestling days. Cena also added that he understands not using the violence on TV is not “best for business”, as of now. Sponsors don’t want it and WWE also wants it to take it to the kids to sell more merchandise. But, as a fan, we want at least some blood to spill out, scripted wrestling is not what we always want.