By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

WWE's toned-down product has ranged from John Cena renaming his finisher to the elimination of female gimmick matches to appeal to a growing kids audience.

If WWE is going to subscribe to the "cradle to the grave" marketing strategy and avoid scrutiny for aiming violent TV towards kids as young as five years old, there has to be a public pronouncement of change in the company's content.

WWE Smackdown announcer Jim Ross fielded several angry questions from his readers at jrsbarbq.com regarding the change to "PG" wrestling, but he points out that edgy content can still be featured without having to be crass or appealing to the lowest common denominator.

"Think about this for a second," Ross said. "The WWE has pulled back on some elements of their content to make it more family friendly but many aspects of the shows will still remain edgy. Nonetheless we are still talking about a TV show here and if a viewer 'hates' a TV show so much because of what they perceive to be philosophical changes then why doesn't one simply eliminate the anguish and watch something else on the tube?"

John Cena said in an SI.com interview recently that he sees so many kids in the audience these days that he understands many of them look up to him. Although WWE chairman Vince McMahon wormed out of a government inquisition by claiming wrestlers should never be considered role models, it's clear kids are looking for someone to invest some hope in.

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps damaged his reputation this week through the media's outlash against him for being caught with an illegal substance.

WWE doesn't want its stars, especially Cena, to fall into the same traps, especially after the Chris Benoit scandal. Removing the crass and crude content that were a staple of WWE TV during the Attitude era is one step toward shifting the company away from those negative stereotypes.

Former WCW president Eric Bischoff contends, however, that WWE's business won't be helped any by the shift to PG because the company is stuck in between children's programming and adult TV.

"You're not really children's programming but you're not adult programming either," he said in the U.K. Sun today. "Advertisers who are targeting children are not going to be comfortable doing so in a wrestling program, because of the inherent nature of the content. And at the same time you're not going to be able to sell to advertisers who are looking for 18-35 year-old men, because you've created a children's program. It's very tricky."

Bischoff says it's "very risky" and he doesn't see a long-term benefit to the company. "When you are producing that content (pro wrestling violence) for children, it is at the very best uncomfortable for advertisers," he said.

Essentially, it's a marketing and P.R. move designed to get John Cena at Hollywood events and hosting Nickelodeon award shows.

Business impact will be minimal at best, and perhaps not the advertising solution WWE is looking for when they have the highest-rated TV show on cable (Raw) most weeks, but without the ability to command ad dollars due to the historically low-brow nature of the program.

Tracking how long WWE sticks with the plan of marketing toward kids to hook them long-term will be interesting to follow. Regardless, WWE is still delivering compelling TV, even if the Language, Sex, and Violence factor has been turned down. And for the better.

Link: U.K. Sun interview with Eric Bischoff and Jim Ross blog on jrsbarbq.com.

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