>>16234054RA was definitely edgier. Vince tried to push the boundaries more because he was losing ratings and popularity, and he thought that by amping up the risque content, he could draw people back in, not realising that the ship had long sailed on people wanting that type of television anymore.
I will say, though, that what really set the AE and RA eras apart was not so much in terms of how risque the content was but in how the shows were formatted and produced. AE TV always felt much more frenetic and chaotic. You tuned in thinking that anything could happen, which was largely an effect of the ratings war with WCW. They needed their product to be continually compelling, which dictated the car-crash style of storytelling they utilised; titles changed hands, guys changed allegiances, and storylines progressed in quick-fire fashion.
RA may have had the edgier content, but with WCW out of the picture and the ratings war hence far in the rear-view mirror, their production style changed. It went from being quick-fire, car-crash style television where anything could happen to slow, meandering and predictable, particularly on the RAW brand where fans were exposed to the formulaic "Triple H starts with a 20m promo, sets up the main event, the main event ends with he and his group fucking over the babyface". Vince became much safer in how he did things. There were few surprises, and certainly not on TV because everything had to be saved for PPV. And without competition, Vince could push he wanted how he wanted, so you got a lot of lame characters and poor wrestlers placed in prominent positions.
So if you think that bringing back "edgier content" is the answer or the key to being successful, that is wrong, and it wouldn't really work today anyway. What made the AE work was compelling characters, strong narratives and a feeling of unpredictability. Nowadays WWE is further away from that than ever with its very long reigns and by-the-book storytelling.
