WWE aiming their product at kids is stupid.

[Moonlight Drive]

Note: This is not a rant, unlike what the title may imply.

Okay, so we all know that the WWE is aiming their product at kids. At first I thought, waht tha hekkas? but for a different reason than you may think. I'm not angry about it or anything, I was just thinking about why the WWE would do that.

Now, let's think about it logically. What do most males, from probably 13 and upwards want to see on TV? What drives the stereotypical man? Sex and Violence. If you need even more proof, Raw's ratings peaked in the Attitude Era, where the core of the show was sex and violence.

So WHY would WWE tone down their shows and aim at younger kids, a minority compared to teenage-middle aged males who's parents might not even let them watch wrestling? MMA is extremely popular, and it's just straight up violence. No storys, no stupid gimmicks, just two guys beating the shit out of each other. And most guys love that.

It seems pretty anti-logical to me to take something which is violent and racy and turn it into some softcore telly tubby hour. If the WWE wants expansion and ratings, why aim kids when you could aim at adults? It makes no sense imo. You could argue they want to develop fans for the future, but c'mon, if they aim at kids, people will grow out of it very quickly.

So, what do you think? Do you think it defies logic to aim at a smaller demographic (kids) than aim at males 18-59 or whatever it is, a much larger group who is addicted to sex and violence?

 

[The Rated R CMStar]

It makes sense.

WWE is not even aiming at thirteen years old. They are aiming to even younger kids. The point of all of this is to make sure that these kids get hooked to the WWE from this young age and then they grow up with the WWE as fans.

Let's be honest, sure, most adult fans will get sick if the tone down WWE, but most fans will see whatever WWE puts on screen.

 

[Ballin]

12 and under get them money. Their the ones who buy all of Batista and Cena's shirts they're the ones who beg their parents for the money to go to the shows. Not that the adults or higher teens dont do that but the kids do it more and even if they didn't WWE wouldnt notice.

Little Rey Rey always comes out and bops heads with the kids, now I hardly doubt that a 25 year old man is really going to buy a Rey mask. It was aimed at the kids [I think] in the 80's with all the Hogan maniacs.

Would I love to see Sex and Violence. Hell yes and always would. I would definetly like to see more Hardcore matches, hardcore title. I would like to see WWE's version of ECW be more old-school. Atleast have more hardcore matches.

This is coming from a 13 year old.


PS: CMS puts it good though "but most fans will see whatever WWE puts on screen"

 

[★Chuck Zombie★]

I've said this before somewhere, but I'll repeat it. This is what happens when you aim at kids.

As stated previously in this thread, the Attitude era was racy and violent. This is when i started watching wrestling. I was 13 and I had no memories of wrestling before that. I loved it then and I love it now.

A friend of mine who is 4 years older than I am used to watch wrestling when he was a kid. He claims to have bought so much Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan merchandise. Do you know what he remembers/feels about wrestling today? He said "Wrestling is so stupid. Only a kid could like it." Then he proceeds to bash me for liking it. He stopped watching when he grew out of it, and it has had a negative effect on his feelings for wrestling.

So my stance is, if you have characters and storylines geared towards kids, yes, kids will like them. But kids are only kids for a short period of time and they will automatically be alienated when they grow up like the rest of the adults. Where as if everything is geared towards adults, but still family friendly, you can please both at the same time. I don't NEED cussing and stripping women on my screen, so they can cut that. What I do need as a wrestling fan is realism and the presentation that characters are actual competing adults and not superheroes/villains.

 

[C4]

It makes some sense to me and so it's not completely "anti-logical" as you called it. It's these kids who buy 75% of the WWE merchandise. These guys get the new T-shirts when they come out, buy Action Figures, Replica Belts and Rey Mysterio masks for Christmas.

All the WWE wants is more money and a wider fan-base; and there is no better way of doing that, than targetting the product at kids.

 

[The Rated R CMStar]

Besides, the product they put on Raw, SD and ECW it's not completely for kids. Sometimes, we get moments like some things Cena says or anything Rey Mysterio does, but the show isn't entirely directed to kids in an obvious way

 

[Kaedon]

I dont think its anything other than the cycle of professional wrestling. It goes through times when its more racy and then times when its more conservative. Wrestling reflects what the majority of society wants to see. You saw a backlash when the WWE got TOO racy and a lot of their sponsors threatened to pull out during the attitude era.

 

[Rawkus Keyes]

This is the unbelievable truth.
Hopefully as kids grow up maybe the content will get more edgy.

 

[Evil Austin]

Well assuming my theory is correct and what i understand about this is it is a big cycle.

WWF (at the time) Had a super face always winning, being Hogan over Andre the Giant of Randy Savage or Bret Hart or Undertaker or Flair or Yokozuna etc... late 80's to 94 was the "Children Era"

Now the reason the wwf at the time had things like that is because they want a new range a new generation of kids to get into wrestling for it to be made for them and they will like it so much they will stick with it until they are in their adult years.

Now from 95 - 2000/1 it was the Attitude Era which pretty much ended with teh InVasion Feud. That was aimed at the same group of kids who were now in their teens between 13-16 and they were trying to make sure that they will not lose those kids that they worked to get years earlier.

Now from pretty much until present it is working on the new generation most of those other generation that was earlier has either had kids or they are at the age of doing so - so they the wwe board are now working on these new kids to get them into wrestling fans doing super hero things just like with Hogan but with John Cena and Batista. Hopefuly when these under 12 year olds grow up into around 16-20 the wwe will change their tone and edgyness again to what it used to be for the new teenagers and have a new era simmilary to the Attitude Era but a new version.

So basically us the fans have to sit and wait for the kids to grow into teens for the wwe to give us teen to adult related things.

 

[chessarmy]

All of you are wrong imo. Its very simple, WWE isn't trying to aim at kids just because they buy merchandise, and they aren't doing it because they want a fan base that will stick to WWE for a while. They are doing it because of the Chris Benoit murder suicide. At first, this may not make much sense to you guys, but you should think about it for a second, and I know you'll eventually understand my point. After the Benoit incident, not only the main stream media, but the general public started to think that wrestlers are animals, and they aren't human beings. They thought they were just a bunch of roid headed freaks who murder their own families. Even my own parents told me to stop watching wrestling because of what happened with Benoit. Vince Mcmahon once said in an interview "We're here to put smiles on faces, we're here to entertain our fans, not do something like this". The general public and the main stream media was turning on wrestling very quickly, so the only solution to all this is toning down the product so that everyone realises that its all entertainment, and its all made just to, as Vince said, "put smiles on people's faces". To do this, they stopped (or very rarely) have any blood on the show, there is barely any sex and violence like there was in the attitude era. They made the product family friendly to try and prove the point that wrestlers and everyone affiliated with wrestling aren't bad people, and they are just here to entertain you.

Now you may ask, why would Vince and the entire WWE care about what the general public thinks of wrestling? Well, its simple. If even your viewers are starting to turn on wrestling, thinking that wrestlers are bad people and stuff, then that will lead to lower ratings. If even my parents told me to stop watching wrestling (and I'm 16 years old btw), then imagine what all the other younger kids' parents said? WWE needed to prove that they're here for purely entertainment. They wanted to put smiles on faces (which is why we get so many comedy acts, and Hornswoggle) and they needed to separate themselves from the negative steriotype that was starting because of the Benoit incident. It was the smart thing to do, and it may have saved the WWE from some very bad times.

 

[TheAnswer]

WWE should be aiming at kids for these reasons.

1.) UFC dominates 16-30 year olds.

2.) Steriods and drug allegations cause them to tone down a bit.

3.) They were losing rating these past years, so they are making it more family friendly so kids parents say its okay to watch.

Their are other reasons but I just said few basic ones. Everyone needs to remeber WWE is a buisness and they think they can make the most money long term from this.

 

[WCW Rules]

All of you are wrong imo. Its very simple, WWE isn't trying to aim at kids just because they buy merchandise, and they aren't doing it because they want a fan base that will stick to WWE for a while. They are doing it because of the Chris Benoit murder suicide. At first, this may not make much sense to you guys, but you should think about it for a second, and I know you'll eventually understand my point. After the Benoit incident, not only the main stream media, but the general public started to think that wrestlers are animals, and they aren't human beings. They thought they were just a bunch of roid headed freaks who murder their own families. Even my own parents told me to stop watching wrestling because of what happened with Benoit. Vince Mcmahon once said in an interview "We're here to put smiles on faces, we're here to entertain our fans, not do something like this". The general public and the main stream media was turning on wrestling very quickly, so the only solution to all this is toning down the product so that everyone realises that its all entertainment, and its all made just to, as Vince said, "put smiles on people's faces". To do this, they stopped (or very rarely) have any blood on the show, there is barely any sex and violence like there was in the attitude era. They made the product family friendly to try and prove the point that wrestlers and everyone affiliated with wrestling aren't bad people, and they are just here to entertain you.

Now you may ask, why would Vince and the entire WWE care about what the general public thinks of wrestling? Well, its simple. If even your viewers are starting to turn on wrestling, thinking that wrestlers are bad people and stuff, then that will lead to lower ratings. If even my parents told me to stop watching wrestling (and I'm 16 years old btw), then imagine what all the other younger kids' parents said? WWE needed to prove that they're here for purely entertainment. They wanted to put smiles on faces (which is why we get so many comedy acts, and Hornswoggle) and they needed to separate themselves from the negative steriotype that was starting because of the Benoit incident. It was the smart thing to do, and it may have saved the WWE from some very bad times.

^ This. After the murders, I knew professional wrestling wasn't going to be the same again. Last year in the summer time, wrestling received the most publicity in nearly a decade, and it was because of a wrestler killing his family and himself (why, Benoit, why is all I ask..). It's an unfortunate truth, and the WWE needed a way to revert the stigma of this arduous and often life consuming career into something more fun and kid-friendly. It's a rebound, and though many of us may not like it, I see it as a recovery. The murders are still fresh in people's minds and it will be awhile until everything surrounding it has cooled off.