Give Me Some Attitude Damn It!
WWE are now publicly marketing towards children and putting on a much tamer wrestling product, but was the Attitude era such a bad business model?
After finally winning the ratings war and becoming the dominate leader in pro wrestling; in 1999 Vince McMahon’s wrestling promotion went public on the stock market. The attitude slowly became conformist and in the new millennium they “got the F out” and became World Wrestling Entertainment. Now they have to answer to shareholders and business (money) comes first. They reach an extremely wide audience (ever expanding) and have their hands in many profitable honey pots - from movies to action figures. But I ask what was so bad about the Attitude era, that they have to drop even the smallest amount of edginess and cater directly towards kids? (Ok Ashley Massaro’s ring gear isn’t exactly child friendly, but nobody’s perfect).
Firstly WWE are the market leaders in the industry. Casual fans think the word wrestling means WWE and don’t even consider that there are smaller groups beyond TNA. This means if WWE decide to sign “Ken The Box” from Chikara and literally have a big box in the ring for 60 minutes in an iron man match, then that is wrestling and that’s what we’ll watch. There’ll be box action figures, box dvds and the cardboard box PPV will reach every country in the world that have TV’s. So in a round about way they can do whatever they want, no matter how half assed because they are so far a head it wouldn’t matter. It would take 2 years straight of Ken The Box as the WWE champion before TNA’s ratings reach WWE’s level and that will only be because WWE’s ratings would have dropped, not because TNA’s rose.
So why do they market to children? It’s the same as having a box in the ring for the whole show. It’s easy. You don’t have to come up with complex storylines. Younger children wouldn’t even understand them. Keep it simple and tame, put John Cena at the front of the pack and there you have it.
John Cena is booed out of the arena in every region WWE runs. Older guys hate his cutesy hat, his childish wang jokes and at one point his lack of in ring talent, but children mark out for him, so he stays on top and he sells more merchandise.
Wrestlers are brands in themselves these days. WWE wouldn’t even consider pushing somebody without a catchphrase or marketable merchandise. So why is Khali pushed all the time? That’s because he is huge for Indian children. Business comes first, so WWE can afford to alienate their own country in order to make money from Indians. Have Khali come out, yell, chop someone on top of the head and India’s buyrate goes up, the profits go up and the shareholders grins go up.
The attitude era was a boom period in wrestling. The competition made all sides look for a competitive advantage - turning wrestling in to a more controversial product. There’s a reason why WWF brought ECW to Raw in 1997 - to test how their style would get over on the main stage.
Being a child during this period was the most enjoyable time of my life, I’d buy every magazine possible, all the video tapes, I’d tell my mom to suck it, Debra introduced me to my first hardon and playgrounds up and down the country were full of people’s elbows and stunner’s. If WWE brought out sandwich spread, I would have bought it and so would my mates.
My point here being, not matter how edgy, complicated or over the top the business is, children will still buy all the merchandise and mark out, whilst the real harsh stuff goes over their head and entertains the adults as well. For years WWE have gotten away with saying “We don’t market towards children,” and “don’t try this at home,” and still made a killing off selling WWE sticker books and crayon sets.
Now I know I maybe looking back through rosed colored glasses. I remember my mother getting worried when I’d backyard wrestle, I remember the schools banning play wrestling and I even remember the “my child was murdered with a wrestling move” headlines. That’s fair enough, then why not produce a late night one hour show each week, where it is strictly for the adults and the rest can have as much John Cena as they like? If it’s about diversifying a product and getting as many revenue streams as possible, then it is plausible to think they may test the waters with a controversial brand - like ECW was supposed to be.
I guess WWE are clever enough to know that no matter what they put on I’ll still be watching, whether I like it or not. If I didn’t I’d be out of a job, but sometimes it’s torture - please just give me some attitude damn it!
