Dwayne Johnson vs. Standards & Practices: Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the TV Network Rule That Irked The Rock & More

Dwayne Johnson has decided to return to WWE and has taken over his heel persona once again. While fans are happy to see Hollywood Rock back in action, some are not. The “some people” in question are the television executives at Fox and other streaming services. While they don’t have any problem with Johnson himself, it is the character he portrays.

Those who have been following his antics lately might have noticed that while the character is as blunt as it was back in the Attitude Era, some might not consider it appropriate for television and a PG audience. So let’s have a look at what exactly is the latest feud between Dwayne Johnson and ‘Standards and Practices’.

Content regulation & Censorship

Before getting to the meat of the topic, we first need to understand how content regulation and censorship are seen in the United States of America. All in all, there are four types of content regulation: Authoritarian, Paternalistic, Permissive, & Pluralistic. The United States is considered a perfect example of permissive content regulation. But what is permissive content regulation? In this type of regulation, public demand and the marketplace are the primary driving forces with very little intervention from the government. The little intervention by the government here is censorship.

While censorship had a different meaning back in the golden days of Rome, in modern times, it means the exclusion of certain topics, social groups, or language from the content of broadcast programming. If we compare the current censorship practices to that of the 1960’s we might realize that there is a huge difference. During that time, the content was structured around “normal,” dominant values of white, middle-class Americans. However, the definition of “audience” has changed over time and so have the censorship practices. To ensure that these standards are followed, the Broadcast Standards and Practices play a major role.

The BS&P and Pro Wrestling

Just like the definition of audience, pro wrestling has also undergone many changes. Unfortunately, the said changes came at the expense of many other factors. One classic example from the pro wrestling world is from WCW and how BS&P eventually led to the promotion’s downfall. In the late 90s, the most famous feud in the promotion was between Vampiro and The Demon. While WCW wanted to make the story as gritty as possible, their hands were tied by BS&P.

The original plan was that Vampiro would win the Human Torch match against the Sting and would then set the dressing room on fire. This will cause another WCW star, Asya, to sustain major burn injuries. While this is all kayfabe, her real-life fiance, Dale Torberg a.k.a The Demon will confront Vampiro and will thus replace Sting in this rivalry. However, as BS&P rejected all the suggested storylines, the two fought, but Demon had no motive behind confronting Vampiro. Many have claimed that this could have been one of the greatest stories from the late 90s era in the history of pro wrestling. But with BS&P trying to get involved in Dwayne Johnson’s storyline, will WWE suffer a similar fate?

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Dwayne Johnson and the BS&P

Now that we know how broadcasting censorship works and how it has affected pro wrestling in the past, let’s have a look at what’s going on currently. First things first, the Brahma Bull appears on SmackDown which in turn is broadcasted by Fox. The broadcasting network has its own set of rules aiming at safeguarding its image. One such rule under ‘Workplace Professionalism’ is focused on ‘Risk to Reputation’. In short, the network discourages people who are involved with the network from doing anything that might affect the network’s integrity. Dwayne Johnson also falls under the list of people. While Johnson’s public image has always been clean, his recent in-ring antics have landed him in trouble.

His promo from the March 2 episode of SmackDown included him referring to people of Phoenix, Arizona as “Cactus Loving Cr***h***s” along with some other obscene references. Along with that, the promos that he had posted online had some questionable content according to Fox’s standards. In a recent post, he stated his stance on the backlash he has been receiving from the network and it looks like he is not going to slow down. Johnson was able to break the BS&P’s rules in the past but that was more than two decades ago and the regulations were not that strict.

If this continues, do you think Dwayne Johnson will be written off the WWE script way before WrestleMania 40? Let us know in the comments below.

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