WWE PG- Compelling?

For the last three years, the current PG era of the WWE has been associated with things such as neglecting to take risks, lame toilet humor, an overemphasis on Hollywood with guest celebrities as hosts of Raw, talented wrestlers losing to midgets in embarrassingly bad gimmick matches for several weeks straight, the same people in the main event every month, among other things. Given the success of the Attitude era of the late 90s-early 2000s, a period in which the storylines were very adult-oriented in nature and featured two of the biggest stars in company history in The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin that was many fans' first taste of televised pro wrestling, it would be only natural for them to think that PG is what's prohibiting WWE from being as good as it can be. That is definitely not the case, as shown by the last few weeks of WWE, especially on Raw. The storyline involving CM Punk that's gone on since late June has been nothing short of brilliant. In the months leading up to the promo that started it all, CM Punk's contract issues were a major fixture in the news. Punk was hesitant in signing a new contract due to how he was used since his last World title reign in 2009, putting over every babyface thrown at him such as Rey Mysterio, Big Show, and Randy Orton, as well as getting squashed by John Cena and Undertaker in a couple TV matches, while not being able to buy a PPV win, and wanting to maintain control over his name, which he's used throughout his wrestling career. In June, things started to look up when he defeated Rey Mysterio at the Capital Punishment PPV and pinned John Cena in a non-title match on Raw before the PPV. He became the #1 contender to the WWE championship one June 20, one day after Capital Punishment.

On June 27, Punk cut what is considered to be one of the best promos ever since the Attitude era. In that promo, he mentioned his contract issues and stated that his contract would be up on July 18, one day after the Money In The Bank PPV, criticized WWE at several points, such as saying that he's the best wrestler in the company and has proven that, yet doesn't get half the promotion Cena gets, how Cena's only better at one thing than he is (asskissing), and how WWE should be better with Vince dead except that it would be taken over by his doofus son in law (HHH), mentions the names of people who are no longer with the company such as Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar, the Vice President of talent relations John Laurinaitis, ex-WWE wrestler Colt Cabana who wrestled for a short time as Scotty Goldman, the independent promotion Ring Of Honor, which is the company that put him on the map before he signed with WWE, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. His mic got cut off afterwards and he got suspended after the show. A LOT of the things he said are things that any fan who doesn't follow the online dirtsheets wouldn't have a single clue about, and all those statements along with the WWE bashing, cut off of the mic, and suspension made everything seem so real. It made you HAVE to tune in next week to see what was going to happen. The next week Cena would threaten to walk out if Punk wasn't reinstated into the company, and out of fear of losing his top star, Vince McMahon reinstated Punk and allowed the PPV match to happen, but if Punk left MITB with the belt he'd be fired. It created many different possible outcomes, most of which were very compelling, such as Cena turning heel and aligning with Vince in order to save his job, Punk winning the title, only to lose the title to whoever cashed in their MITB briefcase, and the big one with Punk winning the title and leaving with the belt. It made you want to buy the PPV to see what was going to happen. At MITB, Punk actually won clean over Cena and escaped a MITB cash-in from Alberto Del Rio to leave with the title, making you need to tune in to Raw to see what would happen next.

All of that content is within the realm of PG. When WWE wants to, they can still put on VERY good programming that makes you want to shell out money for their PPVs. They just don't most of the time because there isn't any major competition out there, unlike the late 90s when WCW was around. When there's no challenge, it can be very hard to stay motivated, and most fans are disappointed with WWE for that reason, beause they have the talent and the ability to be much better than they have been since they purchased WCW. It has nothing to do with PG at all. The last few weeks have been VERY compelling while falling under the PG rating.