WWE is entering the Lesslmania season with its biggest show fast approaching. However, the move to Peacock has been a major topic of discussion, as Peacock is reportedly "reviewing WWE content to ensure it meets Peacock's standards and practices," and racist moments are being left out of WWE history.
These moments include Roddy Piper in blackface at Lesslmania VI and WWE CEO Vince McMahon saying the N-word with his top down. And while I've never felt the need to see these moments again in the years since I joined the WWE Network, I still think this is the wrong approach. Peacock just needs to watch Disney Plus (and HBO Max).
To backtrack a bit, the first news of WWE moving to Peacock was a press release in January of this year declaring that the WWE Network archives "including all WWE, WCW and ECW pay-per-view events in history" were headed to Peacock. The only problem is that not all of these events will be offered in their entirety.
This is the latest chapter in an ongoing story in today's culture in which huge back catalogs are being reanalyzed with new scrutiny. The jokes that were popular decades ago are no longer valid (not that they were popular in the first place). This is happening in every aspect of streaming.
That said, it seems odd, and definitely wrong, for WWE and Peacock to pretend that these moments simply never existed; WWE and Peacock can't simply pretend that they don't exist; they can't simply pretend that they don't exist.
Disney Plus, arguably the most family-friendly streaming service, has decided to retain content with racist depictions. Films like "Dumbo," "Peter Pan," "Aristocats," and "Swiss Family Robinson" are still shown on Disney Plus, but the decision is very unpalatable (remember, for example, the crow in "Dumbo" was named Jim Crow?)
Instead of removing these films, which are an indelible part of Disney's history, Disney did two things. First, the children's profiles would not be able to see these films. This way, if a child wants to see them, an adult around them can explain. Then, before the films are shown, Disney Plus broadcasts a short message. It is neither a warning nor a condemnation of what is about to be shown. The message says:
"This program contains negative and abusive portrayals of people and cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than removing this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful effects, learn from it, and spark a conversation to create a more inclusive future together.
Disney is committed to creating inspiring and aspirational themed stories that reflect the rich diversity of human experience around the world."
And perhaps this would have been better addressed. Peacock has parental controls that force you to enter your PIN if you exceed certain limits, and WWE content has recently moved to make it more family-friendly." The phrase "PG era" is synonymous with John Cena, which is why older events with inappropriate content may receive higher ratings.
An interstitial message similar to Disney's would also undoubtedly look better. This is because acting as if WWE did not do anything racist could go down the wrong path in the wrong direction. And yes, I am presenting a slippery slope argument.
Yes, Peacock can be removed every time Vince drops the N-word on camera. It's not that hard (Hulk Hogan did this at Gawker Media). But where does it end? Does the company also remove the questionable race-based decisions it has made over the years?
What about a black tag team called Cryme Tyme? What about having Ghanaian-born Kofi Kingston use a Jamaican patois. Or Triple H telling his challenger, Booker T (who is black), "A man like you doesn't deserve to be world champion," and then beating Booker T at Lesson Mania, as if to justify his claim.
Oh, and what about Eddie Guerrero? Will the Latino Heat superstar's "lie, cheat, and steal" gimmick be erased for stepping into inappropriate territory? If these moments, and the matches and stories surrounding them, are erased, then the contributions of wrestlers of color would also be erased.
However, it is not a terrible idea to delete one or two here and there. Disney knows this; the 1946 film "Song Of The South," which is tied more to racist content than anything else, never saw the light of day on Disney Plus. And it probably never will.
One need only look at Hulu's removal of the "Golden Girls" episode "Mixed Brends," in which two characters wore mud face masks, to see that. The argument for removing this episode is that this could have been seen as blackface.
As is the case with many sitcom stories, the backstory is complex and simple. In short, Lorraine's mother (Virginia Capers) is angry that Dorothy's (Beau Arthur) son is white and her daughter is black. And when Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Rose (Betty White) meet Lorraine's mother for the first time wearing these face masks, she says, "This is mud on our faces. We're not real black people," she says.
And it was not at all insensitive; Hulu's decision to remove this episode, like the WWE segment that popped out of the Peacock, did not come out of a public outcry that screamed that these bits should not be allowed to live on. These edits were made out of corporate sensibilities.
Certainly, Peacock is a service of NBCUniversal and will host what they want. But the decision to go into business with WWE is a complex one, requiring reconciliation with the past.
HBO Max provides a good example of how this could end up right. The service removed the film "Gone with the Wind" from its archives, but added it again with the proper context.
TCM host Jacqueline Stewart addressed the issue, saying that Gone with the Wind "portrays the antebellum South as a world of grace and beauty without acknowledging the cruelty of the chattel slavery upon which this world is based."
Perhaps the best person from WWE to deliver such a message would be Chief Brand Office Stephanie McMahon. Wrestler Chris Jericho (who was a good man back then) screamed that McMahon was "nothing but a filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutish, skanky, bottom-feeding, trashy bitch." That certainly does not fit modern standards and conventions. So does the storyline in which the rebellious anti-hero, Triple H, drugged young Stephanie and seemingly married her in a Vegas drive-through chapel. Confusingly, McMahon would later team up with Triple H and reveal that he was involved in the "drugged" wedding from the beginning.
McMahon himself was able to present the audience with a message of how these storylines happened, how they were not the best ideas at the time, and that instead of hiding from the past, WWE would acknowledge what they had done to move forward. It seems like a much better way to package a long, complicated, and often uncomfortable history than just clicking the Delete key and saying, "It wasn't us."
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