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Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live and now NXT are all streamed live on various networks all over the world, which means that there have to be some rules for the company's commentary team if they are hoping to not be sued.
Swear words are obviously banned on all of the shows since they are all PG branded, but there are also several other words that wrestlers and announcers are banned from using. Many of these terms were banned by Vince McMahon himself to maintain the illusion that surrounds the fact that wrestling is a real sport.
Others have been banned over the years because of issues between WWE and other companies or wrestlers. All Elite Wrestling is something that many fans wouldn't expect to hear on WWE TV, whilst the commentary team also avoid using CM Punk's name now even when talking about records that he made that could be broken.
#5. House Show
There was once a time when WWE's commentary team were allowed to talk about the fact that a title had recently changed hands at a house show, which was one of their recent events that weren't televised, but ever since the WWE Network was unveiled back in 2014, the company decided that 'House Show' was no longer the right term to use.
According to The Wrestling Observer, these shows are now referred to as Live Events instead since there have been a number of title changes and advancement in storylines on these shows over the past few years, so, it appears that Vince McMahon is looking to move away from the definition that House Show once had and move into a new era where anything can happen at a WWE Live Event even though the cameras aren't rolling.
#4. Strap/belt
WWE superstars have a lot of respect for the business that they are part of, which is why it means so much to them when they win a Championship. When Championships are disrespected, they start to mean less, which then rubs off on the superstar that is holding the title. This could be why Vince McMahon decided that the terms Strap and Belt should both be banned since they seem to take away from the importance of the Championship.
After all, the wrestlers don't work for most of their career to lift a belt, since that's an item of clothing, they work hard so that they can become Champions and lift Championships. The term 'title shot' is also banned since Vince McMahon was once reported to be fuming because Braun Strowman requested a "title shot" on WWE TV which was poor wording on his behalf and with resulted in Braun receiving quite the ear-bashing from his boss.
CM Punk was one of the superstars who got quite upset about many other stars stating that the Championships were belts, since he's someone who is well educated within the English language and wanted the titles to be respected whilst he was holding them.
#3. War
The term War is quite an obvious banned word when the reasoning is broken down, since wrestling is something that takes place inside a ring and there are legitimate soldiers out fighting a war in different countries, WWE doesn't want to put themselves into a politically correct argument.
War is also a term that many members of the WWE Universe would relate bad experiences to, so it makes sense for the company to not want to put a downer on their show from the offset. This came to light recently since the War Raiders were called up from NXT and had to be given a new name, Hanson and Rowe had spent a lot of their careers being called The War Raiders without a problem but when they were promoted to the main roster, they became The Viking Experience.
This name gained a lot of backlash from the WWE Universe online, but because of the rules in place the company was forced to change the name and one week later they became The Viking Raiders instead, which is a much more suitable name for the duo.
#2. Wrestler
Much like many other terms on this list, the term "wrestler" is only banned from being used because the company is trying to remain inside their own bubble. It's like the fans are not supposed to know that the wrestlers are wrestlers, instead, according to The Mirror, they are only allowed to be referred to as superstars or stars.
Much like the WWE Universe, they are no longer allowed to be referred to as fans, they have to be called The WWE Universe at all time unless they are referred to as someone's fans like Cena's.
A lot of these rules are just to maintain an illusion because the company wants its fans to be fully invested in the product and aware that they are watching a show. Fighters are referred to in that way when they are part of companies like UFC, and that's not the way that WWE wants to promote their product.
Every now and then someone will drop the term into a promo, which like when Cesaro told John Cena that he "couldn't wrestle", this was put in to pop the crowd and because they are aware that it's a banned term, it worked.
#1. Chris Jericho
Perhaps the most recent name to be banned by WWE, since reports now suggest that the commentary team are no longer allowed to refer to his move as The Codebreaker, but now they aren't allowed to use Chris Jericho's name either.
According to a report by The Wrestling Observer, it appears that the current AEW World Champion is not allowed to be referred to by name on WWE TV anymore after the company failed to mention him at Clash of Champions. The Miz took on Shinsuke Nakamura as part of the show where he could break Jericho's record and become a nine-time Intercontinental Champion, but when the commentary team talked about The Miz breaking the record, they only stated that he would, not that it was still held by Chris Jericho.
Y2J is one of the greatest wrestlers to have ever stepped into a WWE ring and he still holds a number of records, so it will definitely be hard for the company to erase him completely, but the fact that the name of his finisher and his given name have now both been banned by WWE, means that he isn't expected to make his return anytime soon.
