The New York Times has posted an article regarding the controversial edits made by Peacock and WWE regarding material that was deemed racially, insensitive and offensive. Most notably, they have removed the entire angle featuring “Rowdy” Roddy Piper wearing “blackface paint” at WrestleMania VI in his match with Bad News Brown, along with Vince McMahon’s usage of the “n word” at Survivor Series 2005 in a segment with John Cena and Booker T.
Both Peacock and WWE are currently reviewing over 17,000 hours of WWE programming and will remove any material that the service believes doesn’t align with the media company’s standards and practices. The company (WWE) is also being informed of any and all edits being made to their content.
In a statement from WWE as offered up by NBC Universal, Peacock is “reviewing WWE content to ensure it aligns with Peacock’s standards and practices,” as it does with other shows and films on the platform. This also includes “all past content to ensure it fits our 2021 standards.”
The transition began from WWE Network to Peacock on March 18th, with Peacock officially becoming the one-stop streaming home for all WWE Network related content starting on April 4th in the United States, while the WWE Network will continue as normal in other countries. The current reported goal is to have all of WWE’s classic content reviewed and available to stream by before SummerSlam 2021 later this year.
