On the latest episode of his Hall of Fame podcast, Hall of Famer Booker T spoke about WWE returning to grittier content, stating that ratings would improve if they moved away from the PG-era.
I was reading earlier today and I saw that the caption of the WWE is getting rid of the PG Era and getting ready to take their gloves off again. I don’t know where the PG Era really came in or why the PG Era came in when the ratings back in the day was 3.1, 3.4, and to get 3.5 million people watching you daily is huge; it’s a monster. So, then we went away from that the ratings took a dip. I say, let’s go back to what is working and that is to go out there and giving the fans what we saw on Monday night’s show. That show was fast paced. It delivered and it made you want to watch next week’s product as well. Let’s get out of this PG Era and move into the PG-13 Era.
The former five-time heavyweight champion would then give his thoughts on AEW as legitimate competition for WWE, and explained that hires like Paul Heyman are smart because it involves individuals who truly understand the wrestling business.
It’s definitely going to be competition. It’s definitely going to make one think totally different as far as the way you put a show on. I think before when you were relying on different people writing the shows – from different walks of life like sitcoms, movies, or what not – that is cool and all but I truly believe that there are no greater minds to put together storylines than the wrestlers who actually did it. Those guys should be the producers to go into that war room and bring up ideas.
Me personally, you rely on that experience as opposed to go outside the box to find that experience. For example, the existence of Paul Heyman. I don’t think you can go outside and find someone from the soap opera life [like Heyman]. They’ve been great at writing General Hospital for the last 30 years and you want to bring in him into pro wrestling and say that maybe he can bring ideas? If he’s never done pro wrestling and never been part of that world he’s going to be totally lost. I remember one of the guys they had brought in who was a producer and I had to do a segment he was telling me how I should talk. One of the guys who was a friend of mine and worked with me for many years, he was standing behind the guy mocking him and he was saying he’s telling you how to talk. He was laughing behind the guy’s back. I’m sitting here trying to keep a straight face and not slap the guy for telling me how I should talk. So that right there, I think getting rid of people like that and bringing in guys who understand what the business is all about, I think it’s where the business is going and I believe the business is in much better hands because of that.
Check out the full episode of Hall of Fame here.
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)
