A lot is being made about the WWE Raw TV rating situation and now we know who made the call.
Andrew Zarian initially reported that starting on July 18, WWE Raw would be moving on from the PG era and returning to TV-14. As it turns on, the internal memo jumped the gun and a date has yet to be finalized.
It’s been said since that report that there were mixed signals internally regarding a TV rating change within WWE.
As it turns out, this wasn’t even WWE’s call.
USA Network Made TV-14 Rating Decision
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that the USA Network actually made the call to change the Raw TV rating.
Meltzer has expressed his belief that the new rating probably wouldn’t lead to performers blading because the network has been vocal about not wanting blood on the show. With that said, Dave notes that the mentality can quickly change just as it did in the 90s.
The feeling is that there’s probably no chance the show would revert back to how female talents were portrayed in the Attitude Era, especially in this day and age. WWE has also made great strides in building female stars as main eventers.
It was also noted that USA Network initially planned to allow Brock Lesnar’s “sh*t-kicking” line to go through unedited during the July 11 edition of Monday Night Raw.
The line ended up being bleeped out.
