Right To Censor? by Matthew Evans (30/8/02)
Wrestling probably gets censored more than anything else. You know why: It's STILL judged as being kids stuff and not as entertainment aimed at teenagers and young adults. Ever since Steve Austin cut that world-famous "acceptance speech" at King Of The Ring 1996 and the WWE began to develop "Attitude", the company has faced many problems with media watch-dog groups in America (especially the PTC) and various advertisers who decided to pull out of sponsering the programming. ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) caused offence as well, but due to the lack of mainstream exposure the group had, the media (as far as I know) left it alone. (I do know that the group were told to tone down their act when they arrived on TNN in 1999).
Now let's look at the UK situation. WWE (then WWF) made itself a house-hold name in February 1989 when it arrived on Sky TV. Ok, so not many people had it at first, but word soon spread that this Sky thing was a good idea and soon many people were tuning into WWE programming (The WWE hit its first peak in the UK in 1992 when Summerslam took place at Wembley Stadium). As I didn't have Sky television at this time, I can't tell you how often WWE programming was censored. However, my guess is very little as there was very little to censor back in the "say your prayers, eat your vitamins" days. It's obvious that there are tighter guidelines today, as I remember having Royal Rumble 92' taped for me and seeing Shawn Michaels hurl Marty Janetty through a glass window on The BarberShop in a suprisingly violent tag-team break-up which was shown well before 8 pm (Sky's watershed). It should also be noted that WCW appeared on ITV in 1989 in a late-night/early-morning slot which soon changed t o a Sunday afternoon slot when the popularity of American Wrestling in the UK went through the roof. There was little, if anything to edit out there aswell.
However, by 1996 the WWE's act was getting stale with many fans and it was time for a new direction (one that ECW adopted years earlier). This meant bad language and more violence (Mick Foley had a great deal to do with the latter. He arrived on tv as Mankind and had a memorable feud with The Undertaker. We all know his willingless to endure pain, and as the WWE were in need of a new direction, they allowed Mankind to do what he does best). This led to numerous complaints to Sky Sports from concerned parents asking them to re-schedule Raw in a later time-slot. I don't know whether Sky censored it back then either, but I do know that there were things cut in 1998 and 1999, by which time the WWE truly wasn't "kids stuff" anymore.
WCW also returned to our screens (terrestrial, that is) in July 1999 on Channel 5. For the first few months, C5 left that chair-shots intact and would even show Hardcore Matches. But inevitably, the complaints flew in and C5 were forced to censor such scenes. However, their choice of censorship caused outrage with many fans. Batman-style captions like "Pow!" "Whack!" and "Splat!" were placed over the offending actions (in truth, they did little to disguise the actions, they were just damn annoying). WCW wasn't all that popular with many fans before the C5 deal, and were made even more unpopular by the channel's censoring techniques.
Here's a classic case of wrestling censorship. In December 1999, UK terrestrial channel Channel 4 signed a a contract with the WWE to air Heat and 4 pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, Backlash, Fully Loaded and Armageddon) for two years. C4 began airing the shows in January 2000 and immediately made a mistake by scheduling it at 4pm, a time which would attract young children and their concerned parents and noisy busy-bodies with nothing better to do than compalin about it. The first episode was enjoyable, but was featured on 4T which is aimed at kids and was completely LOADED with censorship. For example, at the end of the show, highlights from 1999 were shown. Pity that 95 % of it was frozen pictures.
However, the real trouble came when C4 aired Royal Rumble, possibly the WWE's most extreme show ever. Hyped up on a show that was shown at 4pm to children, it's no wonder that parents who weren't familair with the WWE (and C4 bosses) were horrified when they saw the brutal Tables Match be tween The Hardy Boyz and The Dudley Boyz, Mae Young go topless during a bikini contest aimed at the mature fan and Triple H and Cactus Jack slaughter each other in a brutal Street Fight. Channel 4 couldn't believe what they'd got themselves into.
Not wanting a similar thing to happen again, C4 put their foot down with Backlash in April, much to the disgust of many UK wrestling fans. Shown on a 50 minute delay (to allow C4 to add in adverts without disrupting a live show, as with RR), C4 digitised the blood on X-Pac's forehead in the opening match, and froze the picture when Trish Stratus went through table (although they DID show footage of Lita going through a table later on in the show). Needless to say, fans were outraged (there was around 4 pages of complaints in WOW magazine alone). In July (and from then on), C4 got their act together and showed the PPVs uncut (apart from advert breaks). Soon however, Heat became hidden away in late night slots due to football and cricket coverage. Some weeks it dissapeared altogether. After receiving complaints from non-fans with nothing better to do than moan (one complaint was about Rikishi threatening to use a sledge-hammer on JR, even though C4 didn't show it), Heat became a per manent late-night fixture. However, the new late showing still didn't stop C4 from editing out chair-shots and the like.
On July 26th, Channel 4 announced that they were to drop WWE programming for good when their deal expired, due to it becoming "increasingly difficult to edit" and its violent scenes and "misgivings over its portrayal of women" (C4 had a problem with the women being used sexually, but they also didn't like them competing in matches against one another either. What did they want?). The deal was said to expire in December (as they signed it in December 99') but it continued on C4 until January. Then C4 pulled the plug on WWE and it's UK terrestrial exposure for good. Many people (myself included, as I had Sky anyway) saw it as a blessing in disguise.
But what about Sky? Well, they began calling the late night shows "WWF Late Night" in January 2000, with a warning before the shows. However, this hasn't stopped them from editing parts that they feel are unsuitable for viewing by anyone (mostly violence towards women). I should also point out that the day-time shows are heavily edited for content and have been for many years, but you probably knew that. In March 2001, the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) and the ITC (Independant Television Commision) stuck thier oar in and compiled a report on wrestling's effect on society. The report achieved very little, and was more hilarious than informative (they thought there was a tag-team called The Jericho Brothers and that Hardcore matches were called "Power Fights"). It did suceed however in giving wrestling a bad name. (The BBFC also censored ECW: Living Dangerously 2000 on tape: they would have banned it if Delta didn't remove Rhyno goring The Sandman's wife through a tabl e, despite giving the tape an "18" certificate). They have also made some minor cuts to a few WCW releases. Fortunately, the video editing seems to have ceased now that all the C4 negative press has died down.
Sky still censor WWE from time to time, even pay-per-views on Box Office. Sky claim that they must do this to comply with ITC rules, but those rules don't apply to Box Office programming that you pay to order! I will agree however, that sometimes Sky's censoring is necessary. For example, the Trish Stratus "Bark like a Dog" segment on Raw in March 2001 was humiliating and in poor taste, as was The Island Boyz recent attack on Mae Young and Moolah. But Sky still insist on censoring less offensive material and stronger language. When you look at what else is on tv, WWE isn't all that bad. But Sky still hasn't got round to our way of thinking, at least not completely. Wrestling is treated differently to everything else, which is why wrestling censorship will always exist.