Vince McMahon says fans can expect a new ‘edgier’ direction for WWE programming, but no one should be expecting a return to the infamous Attitude Era.
McMahon was on hand for today’s WWE 2nd Quarter Earnings Report call, and fielded questions about the direction of programming under Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff, among other items. A reporter asked Vince why the time was right for Eric Bischoff to come on in new executive roles, and Vince said it gave him an escape and a broader overview. He said he can’t personally ‘be in the weeds’ all the time now, but praised Heyman and Bischoff’s prior work and said it’s good for business. He added that they’ll both have a lot of latitude moving forward, and the new roles allow them to spend more time on quality storylines and talent, and also compared it to a ‘relaunch’ of their product.
In regards to possibly seeing grittier content and keeping their partners in mind, Vince said they’ll still be PG, but it will also have some ‘edgier’ aspects to it. Vince said the general direction of content will be different and he’s happy with it, but at the same time it won’t be the Attitude Era ‘blood and guts’ nature or something that a new competitor might be doing.
Later in the call Vince referenced the ‘blood and guts’ aspect of reference and made a more direct reference to All Elite Wrestling, saying he “can’t imagine TNT will put up with that” kind of content.
It’s worth noting AEW’s Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes have both said fans will not see the type of violence they’ve had on pay-per-views on their TNT TV show. Khan told the media in Jacksonville that their show will be more in line with the format of what we saw at Fight For The Fallen, and that they “100%” would not advertise that kind of violence on TNT.
Other details from the call included Vince saying with the move to FOX with SmackDown, WWE is led to believe that NBCU will also ramp up promotion for RAW on their networks, noting that it’s a more competitive situation and NBCU wants to make a better effort.
