In a letter sent by the WWE this week to Chris Shays campaign, WWE Executive Vice President Robert Zimmerman touched on the issue brought up by Shays in an interview with The Weekly Standard, noting that Linda McMahon’s family business is about violence, bullying, degradation of minorities and women and more.
The WWE responded in the letter to Shays noting:
“With regard to our content being violent, WWE programming, like Hollywood movies and Broadway shows, is an exciting blend of action, characters and fictional storylines of good versus evil that entertains millions every week, including approximately 300,000 fans here in Connecticut. Our performers are professionals who have spent many years training to perfect the athletic and choreographed maneuvers in our shows. Your assertion that our content is “violent” is in direct conflict with the standards and practices departments of our current TV Network distributors who have rated our programming TV-PG.
With regards to the degradation of minorities and women, you should know that our shows are some of TV’s highest-rated programming and are watched by the very audiences, minorities and women, you claim that we disregard and degrade. In fact, Monday Night RAW is the most-watched entertainment program on primetime cable among Hispanic viewers and number four among African-Americans. Also nearly 40% of our audience is female. We would not have 13 million weekly TV viewers in the U.S. if they felt our programming was insulting or degrading.”
The Hartford Courant picked up on the story and posted the letter in full, which you can see below: