Fans watching WWE television may have noticed an increase in the amount of the profanity being used during WWE Raw and NXT broadcasts.
NXT wrestlers are now oftentimes saying “sh**” on the air and the dialogue is edgier than before. Fightful first reported a few weeks ago about plans to be edgier and it was very noticeable during some of the skits featuring Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis. The idea behind this is to attract younger viewers since WWE programming skews towards an older audience.
Ringside News reported that while fans can expect to see more profanity on Raw and “definitely” NXT, it won’t be the same on SmackDown because SmackDown has “standards and practices” that prohibits that show from using profanity but they are able to get in some adult lines such as the “missionary position” line that was in Roman Reigns’ promo about John Cena in August.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer said that WWE sources commented on this and said the following: “Smackdown doesn’t have Standards and Practices. FOX does. And FOX is not too keen on profanity.”
For what it’s worth, since SmackDown will be on FS1 next week and again on October 29, they are free to use profanity since FS1 is not bound by the same standards and practices as FOX.
