The WWE PG Era showed a marked shift in how WWE presented its product. In a move to attract more advertising, the company shifted away from the more violent product we had grown used to. In its place, a more family-friendly era emerged; hence, it was dubbed the PG Era. It was a challenge for WWE to adjust its booking to the new television designation. It was the biggest change for WWE in decades.
As much as things changed during the PG Era, there was consistency in how the product was booked. There were still a plethora of PLE’s that came to us every month. PLE’s that had some of the greatest main events in company history, and others that contained main events that made us not want to watch wrestling ever again. Of course, we would always come back each month to witness which main event we would get. Below, we will look at the best and worst of these main events from the PG Era.
8 Best and Worst Main Events of the WWE PG Era
Best: John Cena v Daniel Bryan (WWE Championship Match; SummerSlam 2013)
Daniel Bryan was not the office’s choice, but that didn’t stop John Cena and the audience from pushing him into the main event of SummerSlam 2013. It was a fresh matchup that featured a man who always showed up for the big match and one who was the best technical wrestler on the planet. It was a dream match of the PG Era.
SummerSlam’s main event was the battle of WWE’s golden boy versus the audience’s choice. It was an incredible battle that saw great wrestling, amazing spots, and one of the best crowd reactions in years. The cherry on top was Daniel Bryan going over clean on John Cena to capture the WWE Championship. It was a finish that no one could have imagined, and one that left the crowd amazed.
Worst: John Cena v The Miz (WWE Championship Match; WrestleMania 27)
WrestleMania 27’s main event was a great story featuring personal issues between John Cena and The Rock. The only problem was that The Rock wasn’t the WWE Champion, merely just a side character in this quest. The Miz was the man with the championship, but was made to look like a second-rate wrestler and shoved to the back for the build towards WrestleMania 28.
The Miz and John Cena’s WrestleMania main event contained wrestling that would have been better off on a house show. This was a WrestleMania main event, and it wasn’t treated as such. The Rock and John Cena stole the attention from the match, making it a moot point when The Miz took home the victory. The PG Era was not exactly rife with great WrestleManias, and this led the bunch.
