News regarding the decision to make WWE RAW a TV-14 show again
As previously noted, there are reportedly plans for WWE RAW to return to a TV-14 format although an exact start date is not confirmed yet.
According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, a source in the company said that the TV-14 rating looks to be a USA decision and not a WWE decision. The initial report from Andrew Zarian was said to have been from a USA internal memo.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer talked about the report…
“I would think that if they do it to Raw, they’ll do it to NXT. I think it’d be across the board. I don’t think it should be one show. Why do one show? SmackDown would be up to Fox. At the end of the day, this is a USA call, not a WWE call. Again, if Fox wants it, yeah. In both cases, it’s up to Fox and it’s up to USA. They’re the ones making the call. In fact, on this one, I was basically told, ‘It’s USA’s call.’
So, it’s not like Vince [McMahon] said this. I mean, obviously, Vince has to green light it. But, it’s USA, for whatever reason. If they want it that way and they think it’ll hurt sponsorship, maybe they won’t want it that way. I don’t know. I could see WWE going like, ‘Oh, God, on TNT, they’re allowed to say sh*t, and we say it and it’s bleeped out. Let’s change that. It’s such a minor thing, but absolutely they would want to do that.” (quote courtesy of RingsideNews.com)