Officials at USA Network reportedly made the decision to censor a Brock Lesnar line that was presumably cleared before the event began.
In the opening moments of this week’s RAW, Brock Lesnar promised to give Roman Reigns, the undisputed WWE Universal Champion, a “country shit-kicking” at SummerSlam. According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, USA received the RAW script prior to the broadcast and were “accepting” of Lesnar using the word “shit-kicking” in his promo, which aired after 8pm ET.
However, because USA was aware of the statement in advance, they censored the term when Lesnar actually said it. Although it is unknown whether this cut is related to the rumored move to TV-14, the timing and the fact that it was a censored version of something that had already been approved in the script is noteworthy.
On Wednesday, it was announced that RAW would switch from TV-PG to TV-14 starting with the Tampa show on Monday. The original claim was reported to have been based on an internal USA Network memo that was put out too soon, but that date was later withdrawn. According to our latest update, the switch to TV-14 will not occur on Monday’s RAW but is being considered for a later date. Fightful confirmed the miscommunication problems.
A WWE insider told the Wrestling Observer that the decision to shift to TV-14 appears to have been made by USA Network, not WWE, as part of an update on the potential transition. That would also seem to be the case given that the modification was originally noted in a USA Network internal memo.
According to sources, the Attitude Era will not return, WWE won’t resume Bra & Pants matches, and most likely won’t use blood every week. However, we might see things like more mature language and edgier storylines.
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for more.
