The Following is an excerpt from a recent interview conducted with Chris Jericho:
With the company now being PG rated, was there ever any kind of adjustment period for you that you felt? That goes into this whole thing with Danielson.
Yeah, Not me. I was never really the big swearing guy. I had a couple of things - ass clown, shut the hell up and stuff like that. If you're creative and you're smart and intelligent, there's a million more where that came from. No choking – fine. No chopping – fine. It takes two or three matches to get used to it but that's it. And no choking, that's no blatant choking with a wire or tie. I mean, it's still wrestling. That's one of the reasons why I'm still on top. I've been able to adapt to the changes anywhere I've gone. And PG, I think, is a great idea. To me, the Attitude Era was stupid. Hot Lesbian Action and Meat with a (expletive) (expletive) in his pants because he has a (expletive) and Mark Henry getting a (expletive) from a guy and necrophilia. That's not entertaining by anybody's standards. That's just stupid and I never liked that stuff. For me, for them to go family oriented, I'm all for it. It's family oriented but in this day and age where you can still go out there and have kick ass matches. It's still edgy, there's still great characters. I've got no problem with it. I like it much better than the Attitude Era because I thought the Attitude Era was just childish, dropping (expletive) on each another and stuff. C'mon, that's not funny if you're five years old.
This answer is perhaps one of the most refreshing things I've read in a long time. I have long shared this sentiment, as I got back into wrestling due to Shawn Michaels and the Rock, but I left only a couple of years later due to frustration over a lot of the examples Chris Jericho was talking about. Even as a 16-17 year old, I was not amused by the low brow entertainment that dominated the programming. While some say that today's product "caters to children", I have long agreed with Jericho in that the Attitude catered towards immaturity, and only 14 year olds could really enjoy many of those antics. Call me crazy, but I very much prefer a cognitive storyline that is well written and well executed. To me, that is programming that an adult of 25 like myself can enjoy. I am quite tired of the simple minded "WWE is for kids" stereotype that is placed on programming simply because of the TV-PG label. If one of the biggest stars, who puts on quality matches and delivers promos with language only an adult can understand (with dictionary words, not 4 letter words) is in agreeance with me, I feel a lot better about my position. I stand strong in my belief that today's product is on a steady incline, and despite ratings being nowhere near the ratings from the wrestling boom period of the late 90s, this product is simply of higher quality in many ways. There may not be a Stone Cold or Rock, but on the whole, the product put out is more intelligent, better written, and not insulting to my or anyone else's intelligence. Thank you Jericho!
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