page_title: History of WWE
section_title: PG Era (2008–2013)
hierarchical_section_title: History of WWE / World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE / PG Era (2008–2013)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Rock and John Cena agree to a match at WWE WrestleMania XXVIII
context_page_description: The history of WWE dates back to the early 1950s when it was founded in 1953 as Capitol Wrestling Corporation. It underwent several name changes throughout the years, from World Wide Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2002.
  WWE is the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world. It has promoted some of the most successful wrestlers and storylines, and featured some of the most iconic and significant matches and moments in the history of sports entertainment. WWE currently airs several high-profile programs such as Raw and SmackDown in more than 150 countries, hosts 12 pay-per-view events a year including WrestleMania, and holds approximately 320 live events a year throughout the world. In 2014, WWE launched the first ever 24/7 streaming network which would eventually showcase the entire WWE video library.
context_section_description: In the Summer of 2008, WWE began distancing itself from the edgier content of years past, going with a more conservative approach. On July 22, 2008 all WWE programming transitioned to a PG television rating, with the 2008 SummerSlam event being the first pay per view event held under PG ratings. Although the SmackDown brand tv shows were always held under TV-PG ratings since inception in 1999, in 2008 Raw tv shows which were broadcast in TV-14 ratings started to be broadcast under TV-PG ratings. While fans would dub this the "PG Era" early on, references from wrestlers themselves would come later such as Triple H in his "Thy Kingdom Come" documentary and Natalya on an episode of "Table for 3". Another most notable example was that John Cena's famous finishing move, the F-U was renamed Attitude Adjustment. Intentionally blading, which was common until then, became forbidden in the WWE. John Cena remained the top star of the company during this era. New superstars Sheamus and Alberto del Rio also registered notable success during this period winning the WWE Championship in the years 2009 and 2011 respectively. A rivalry between straight edge CM Punk and drug addict Jeff Hardy in 2009 over Hardy's real life drug addiction issues received critical acclaim, and after Punk forced Hardy to storyline quit the WWE, Punk would form the villainous stable Straight Edge Society that would feud with fan favorite Rey Mysterio throughout 2010.
  At WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, popular wrestler Shawn Michaels retired following a loss to The Undertaker. In August 2011, WWE began to phase out the brand extension when they gave Raw the tagline "SuperShow", meaning wrestlers could appear on both Raw and SmackDown. The year 2011 saw a highly acclaimed feud between the company's two most high-profile superstars at that point, John Cena and CM Punk. Their match at Money in the Bank on July 17, 2011 was named one of the greatest matches in WWE history. Punk, who had become a top star during the summer of 2011 due to his infamous "Pipe bomb" promo, would hold the WWE Championship for 434 days before losing to The Rock in 2013 at the 2013 Royal Rumble, a reign recognized by WWE as the sixth-longest championship reign of all-time and the longest in 25 years. The Rock defended the championship until he was defeated by John Cena at WrestleMania 29 in a rematch from their bout the previous year. Popular stable The Shield were prominently featured during this period. On December 15, 2013, the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship were unified in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between John Cena and Randy Orton, which Orton won and the unified championship was briefly called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but wound soon be renamed as just the WWE Championship.
caption: John Cena (left) and The Rock (right) in the April 04, 2011 episode of Raw, they had an on and off cross-generational feud between 2011–2013.
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