Five things WWE should do With the TV-14 rating coming back

Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast reported on Thursday that starting on July 18th WWE Raw will have a TV -14 rating on the USA Network. More came out about the potential of that change, as it may not be as decided as initially reported. But what would WWE look like if it did go back to TV-14?

The WWE PG Era began in July 2008, with the company moving away from the TV-14 to make the product more family-friendly programming so that it could attract better sponsors. When WWE made changes to NXT last September and rebranded it to NXT 2.0, it loosened up some of the language allowed on the show and changed its presentation of women. The idea was to bring in more younger viewers for the brand. The views the company was hoping for never came, but NXT 2.0 has created an entertaining environment for wrestling fans to get connected to.

With the news of Raw potentially returning to its TV-14 roots, it can only make fans wonder what changes we will see in 2022. In this article, I will be discussing five things WWE should do With the TV-14 rating coming back

Five things WWE should do With the TV-14 rating coming back

5. Focus on giving more talent television time

One of the biggest problems with the WWE regarding their programming is how repetitive their storylines can be. Many things happen that go unexplained to the viewers, such as matches with no substance or meaning. The WWE has released a lot of good talent over the last three years, but they still have talent on the roster that doesn’t get the time on television they deserve. They are placed in meaningless matches on TV to fill in the 3-hour air time.

It clearly shows that WWE doesn’t have enough storylines written to fill an entire episode of Raw. The content limited the WWE that they could produce. This is why many storylines are repetitive, and the storylines fall flat at various times. The number of restrictions TV networks have placed on WWE is over the top. The change to TV-14 will allow the writers to become creative again and think outside the box. A fresh set of storylines needs to be seen, and having the TV rating changed back to TV-14 will allow more for WWE to produce that.

4. The return of blood on WWE programming

The return of blood to WWE programming is something that wrestling fans have wanted for years. When it comes to blood in professional wrestling, it is something that can be added to show the level of hatred that wrestlers have for each other. The WWE can use blood to its advantage because they are going so many years without it. AEW has spoiled wrestling fans because it seems like they were getting blood in random matches every week, but if WWE saved the blood for wrestling matches that mattered, it would help the product a lot. The return of blood could also help the women’s division on Smackdown and Raw to be taken more seriously.

3. More serious characters 

The WWE has the chance to create more serious characters that fans can get behind now that Raw will go back to TV-14. The era of WWE having comedy characters should start to slow down now that WWE has the freedom to create more serious characters that fans can love to cheer or boo.

2. Focus on The ratings 

The WWE has been slowly trying to move towards an edger product for some years now. The WWE has been slowly trying to target a younger audience so their ratings can go back up. For example, when Bray Wyatt was signed to the WWE, he introduced a new character in his Firefly Funhouse segments. This character can work if sponsors and shareholders want to let WWE run with it. At that time, the Sponsors were reportedly calling for WWE to remove the character, believing it unsuitable for kids. The WWE would eventually book the Wyatt character in horrible situations, take him off the television, and then soon after release him.

Bray Wyatt is one of the most creative wrestlers of this generation and took every horrible idea WWE creative came up with and turned it into gold. Bray could make any gimmick work. The fiend gimmick would have been the perfect character to push with WWE Raw returning to TV-14. The viewership of Monday Night War will never reach its viewership in the 90s because wrestling fans are not as glued to their television because of so many different streaming options. The WWE needs to do a hard reset and focus on building towards getting new fans and trying to keep their old fans happy.

The other concept WWE tried to bring back is the 24/7 Championship. This championship was created as a title for lower mid-card guys who aren’t doing anything. It is a modern-day version of the Hardcore Championship, which was also defended in a 24/7 fashion. This is a comedy-type concept that can fill in time on Monday Night Raw. It was popular in the Attitude Era, but things were more hardcore in the title defenses back then. The 24/7 belt is awful looking, but with WWE returning to TV-14, they can slowly reintroduce the championship as a Hardcore division championship.

The PG rating being ended can open the doors up to some better content again. It seems to be the only future way to keep Superstars and fans invested in their product. WWE certainly can’t keep losing viewers and putting out poor content. There needs to be a significant power shift in WWE to make it great again.

1. To allow some creative freedom.
One of the biggest problems fans have with the WWE is that the wrestlers have no creative freedom. When wrestling fans look at AEW, they see a company that puts wrestling first and entertainment second. The WWE is a business first and a professional wrestling company second, so I don’t expect them to give their wrestlers as much freedom as they do in AEW, but they should give some.

Over the last couple of years, many wrestlers have left the company for not having creative freedom. Only mega WWE performers, who management trusts, can show us their creative abilities. Most WWE talent is expected to read promos written by creatives in complete or bullet points. While it helps those who aren’t good on the mic, it can also damage their character by sounding unauthentic and rehearsed. It also exposes the environment backstage to a certain degree, with how WWE wants their talent to appear on camera for us and how controlling the company can be towards a wrestler.