Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: peacock, piracy, wrestling, wwe

Peacock's WWE Censorship is a Feature of Streaming, Not a Bug

On April 4th, the WWE Network will shut down in the United States, leaving Peacock as the only place where viewers in the U.S.  can legally stream old content from WWE, WCW, ECW, and other promotions for which WWE owns the tape libraries. But Peacock has caused controversy in recent weeks as viewers have discovered that NBC/Universal is editing out some of the most racist moments in WWE history, such as Vince McMahon saying the n-word to John Cena, or "Rowdy" Roddy Piper wearing blackface in a match against Bad News Brown. The latest removal is the skit where DX dressed in blackface to mock The Nation of Domination in 1998.

In a statement to the New York Times, NBC said that Peacock was "reviewing WWE content to ensure it aligns with Peacock's standards and practices," while WWE said, "Peacock and WWE are reviewing all past content to ensure it fits our 2021 standards."

Setting aside the question of whether this means NBC and WWE will live-censor Hulk Hogan's planned appearance as the host of WrestleMania 37 next week, it's worth pointing out that WWE has always edited content in its archives, both for streaming and for home video release. The most prevalent reason for such edits has to do with licensing deals, where WWE used licensed music at a live event but doesn't want to pay royalties in the future. It's the same reason we can't have f*cking Muppet Babies on Disney+, or a release of Beavis and Butthead with the actual music videos in there. At least, not as "official" releases. But that's not the only reason. WWE has also frequently edited things for content, like when they recently edited Nia Jax shouting "aaaahhhhh my hole" off YouTube and Hulu before changing their minds the next week and celebrating Nia's viral moment.

Peacock may have a new category of reasoning for censoring old WWE content, but the tactic itself is nothing new, for WWE, or for anything else. It's simply a fact of life when corporations are allowed to control the rights to all content in perpetuity, as global copyright laws have increasingly allowed over the last century. Corporations can be trusted with neither preservation nor access. These are goals that will always conflict in some way with the corporation's primary goal of making money. Those functions must be performed by institutions and by individuals, and we should all support the rights of institutions and individuals to engage in that kind of preservation, and for the expansion of the public domain, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for the convenience of streaming services too.

It's just that customers must be aware of what they're paying for, which is convenient access to whatever the rightsholders feel like making available, subject to change at their whim for a monthly fee. And it means that, if the preservation of historical wrestling content is important to you, you'll have to look elsewhere. For more on this, we spoke to renowned wrestling piracy expert, Professor Thaddeus T. Puffinbottoms.

"Yarrrr," said the Professor. "It be Captain Thaddeus T. Puffinbottoms now, matey."

Are you saying that you, yourself, have become a wrestling pirate?

"Those landlubbers at Peacock left me no choice," explained the professor, taking a swig of rum. "*Cough* It's the only way I can watch Vince McMahon say the n-word. Arrrr."

Right, but why would you want to watch that? It was dumb and pointless when it happened. Plus, you know, it's on YouTube. And if it gets taken off YouTube, then it'll be on DailyMotion. And if it gets taken off there, you can find it somewhere else. Nothing on the internet ever truly goes away.

"Yarrr. People may want to see it for archival or historical purposes," said Puffinbottoms. "I was a WWE Network subscriber since day one. I've been paying $9.99 a month since 2014 to preserve this content. And now, NBC is swabbing my poopdeck for it!"

Whoa! Wait a minute. Professor, you know we usually respect your opinion, but we have to disagree with you here. You can't expect to rely on streaming services for preservation. It's against their nature. We need to look elsewhere for that. Like we were saying above, we need–

"That's what I'm doin', matey!" Puffinbottoms said. "I've been torrenting all of wrestling's most offensive moments. Vince saying the n-word. D-Generation X wearing blackface. Other controversial Roddy Piper matches, like the time he gay bashed Goldust in a parking lot. That time Vince McMahon made Trish Stratus bark like a dog. Val Venis and the 'choppee choppee your pee pee' thing. 90% of the jokes Bobby Heenan made on commentary whenever an ethnic character was on screen. Basically anything involving anyone of Samoan heritage before 2015. Cryme Tyme. The Mexicools. Muhammad Hassan. 'Tis me booty. No one can take me booty."

We'll take your word for that. But isn't that a lot of questionable content to collect? Do you watch it all at one time? It's kind of like people who collect Nazi memorabilia from World War 2. At some point, you're not just a fan of history, right? You're a fan of Nazis.

"Oh yeah? How would you feel if they started censoring everything you love?" asked Professor Puffinbottoms.

You love racist content?

"No, but where do you draw the line?" the professor brushed us off. "What if the powers that be decide something you think is okay is offensive next? What if they start editing all the cool music out of old episodes of ECW, for example?"

Oh, WWE has been doing that for years. That's why we collected all the old episodes on VHS recording. There was even a fan-driven project in recent years to restore the audio with high definition video for the ultimate preservation experience, which is exactly what I was talking about earlier. Those old ECW eps… they are our personal treasure.

"Aye. Would you say they're your… booty?"

*Jude Terror grabs the bottle of rum and takes a swig*

"Yarrr! So that's all I'm sayin', matey!" Professor Puffinbottoms agreed. "And once I'm done collecting all of the most horrific moments in WWE history, I'm going to make sure they're available for anyone who wants to see them forever… for a price."

Oh no. You don't mean…

"That's right, lubber! I'm minting them all as NFTs!" the professor revealed. "They'll be around longer than human civilization itself, though, with enough NFTs, that won't be very long anyway. But you know, there's one group of people for whom rising sea levels would actually be considered a good thing."

Pirates.

"Yarr."

You are the absolute worst.

Content from the WWE Network is available to stream on Peacock for $4.99 a month, but the WWE Network is still online until April 4th. Watch your favorite racist moments now before they're gone!

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