Vince McMahon is the poster child (poster man?) for someone who over-micromanages.
He has his hand in every little thing that happens in WWE, from the creative direction to the financial situation to the very words spoken by his Superstars. If you were to open a dictionary and search the term ‘control freak’, you’d find a picture of Vince McMahon, red-faced shouting at someone for doing something that he might not have approved of.
While it’s true that WWE is Vince’s promotion and he can do whatever he wants with and within it, no one is safe from criticism and Vince is no exception. We’ve reached an age where people can share their opinions on every little thing, including wrestling.
As a result, ordinary people who might not have any experience in a wrestling promotion can (and often do) provide constructive and useful criticism to a company that might otherwise be blind to the opinions and observations of someone watching them from the outside.
To this end, we must look at Vince McMahon and his litany of questionable business decisions. For each successful choice he has made, he has made at least one bad decision as well.
On several occasions, he has tried to expand WWE beyond the realm of pro wrestling and into other ventures. So far, only the WWE Network, his company’s attempt at on-demand entertainment, has succeeded. He has also failed in many creative ventures, as seen with the failed pushes of such guys as Lex Luger, Vladimir Kozlov, and Roman Reigns as John Cena 2.0.
But Vince’s poor decision-making has gone even further, as it now includes the language used within WWE and on the air. For some strange reason, Vince wants his wrestlers and other on-air talent to sound different from ordinary human beings, so he makes them use unusual grammar structure and odd words that most people don’t even use.
I’ve lost count how many times in the last year one they’ve used the word ‘contusion’ when describing an injury, or how many times poor Mauro Ranallo has been forced to say ‘malfunction in the junction’ during a match. This is Vince-speak, and it sounds dreadful.
But Vince’s insanity also reaches into words that have been banned from use by everyone within the company. Some of these word bans sort of make sense, while others seem completely harmless yet were banned anyway. We’re going to look at eight of the most egregious examples of Vince banning words without making any sense as to why.
#8 ‘House Show’
The first term on our list is one that has become rather confusion. ‘House show’ is a term used by wrestlers and those within the wrestling industry to describe a show that isn’t aired on TV.
It’s the show that takes place during every day of the week when the roster isn’t focused on Monday Night RAW or SmackDown Live. And yet, WWE has banned this word, emphasising that the proper terminology to be used is ‘live event’.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
WWE wants to call its non-televised shows ‘live events’, yet the problem lies with its two flagship weekly programs. Both RAW and SmackDown are live shows, and could easily be considered ‘live events’ by the people attending those shows.
So when people are talking about ‘that great match that happened at that RAW live event’, it’s guaranteed someone will be confused about the whole thing.
There isn’t really any harm in the words ‘house show’. Many former WWE Superstars use the term when discussing particular memories that happened at non-televised events. It’s also much easier to say than ‘live event’, especially given WWE’s current obsession with taping as little as possible.
#7 ‘Title Shot’
There’s a story circulating that Mick Foley witnessed Braun Strowman getting yelled at by Vince McMahon for using a banned phrase recently. That phrase happened to be ‘title shot’, and Mr McMahon told him, quite angrily, that the proper phrase is ‘title MATCH’.
This is just one example of Vince’s overemphasis of tiny details going off the rails. The logic behind this seems to be that since Vince wants his Superstars to be portrayed as larger than life individuals, he wants to separate them from ordinary people.
To that end, ordinary people get ‘shots’ at something, while only Vince’s Superstars can have ‘matches’ for something.
The problem with this mentality is that it makes it harder for the audience to relate to the wrestlers in front of them. The whole point of fans wanting to invest in a wrestler emotionally is if they can relate to those wrestlers in some way.
By using more exclusive language that makes the wrestlers seem more ‘distinct’ from ordinary people, it becomes harder for ordinary fans to care about these people.
It’s almost like how politicians try to use ‘laymen’s terms’ when talking about issues in order to convince voters to get behind them. Vince is taking the opposite approach, using more unnecessarily complicated language to tell the stories in the twisted universe of WWE over which he reigns supreme.
This seems to be nothing more than semantics, but ordinary people use the word ‘shot’ more than ‘match’.
#6 ‘Belt’
Yes, WWE wants you to forget that the title belt is, in fact, a BELT. You know, that piece of fabric you wear around your waist to keep your pants up. Apparently, the idea that a Championship is worn around the waist irritates Vince McMahon so much, he decided to ban the word entirely (along with a frequently-used synonym, ‘strap’).
So he makes his talent use the term ‘Championship’ instead, seemingly in an effort to make the item in question sound more prestigious.
That approach is failing horribly. You do not make something more prestigious by giving it a fancier name in the hopes that’ll catch on. There’s an expression in English that goes like this: ‘polish a turd, it’s still a turd’.
This means that no matter how much you might clean something up on the outside or disguise it to be something nicer than it really is, deep down it’s still the same piece of crap, and people aren’t buying its fancy new look. This mentality works the same way for words used to describe something as it does for an item’s physical appearance.
Vince can call his belts ‘championships’ all he wants; everyone, from the most die-hard WWE fan to its youngest audience member will still consider it a championship belt. Because that’s what it looks like, and no amount of Vince trying to suggest otherwise will change that.
#5 ‘Faction’
‘Faction’ is a term used to describe a group of more than two persons working together for a common goal. For example, The Four Horsemen were a faction, as were Evolution, the D-X, the Ministry of Darkness, and even the Shield.
This word was useful to help distinguish between large groups of wrestlers working together from tag teams and other thrown-together pairings or groups, whose goals were not as unified.
WWE has not come up with a replacement term for this one. Instead, Vince commands his employees to simply refer to such factions either by their collective name or as ‘groups’. Because nothing says unity more than being grouped together.
The problem here is that the term ‘faction’ or ‘stable’ actually has a stronger meaning than the loosely-fitting term ‘group’, because this latter word has a very loose meaning. Being ‘grouped together’ implies multiple individuals being thrown together without much forethought, while ‘faction’ implies a degree of common goals and togetherness that strengthens the collective image of those individuals.
Simply put, Vince is being stubborn with his understanding of the English language on this one, and prefers a more vague and interpretable term like ‘group’ over a more proper word like ‘faction’.
#4 ‘Feud/War’
For this entry, one could probably blame WWE going PG and its family-friendly sponsors.
Because apparently, the narrative of a rivalry between two or more Superstars cannot be considered neither a feud nor a war, presumably because such language is inappropriate for WWE’s target audience, who are apparently too impressionable to hear the words ‘feud’ and ‘war’ (though these same sponsors are totally on board with the same audience being exposed to choreographed and dangerous physical violence every week).
I can almost picture these same people demanding this change as Sheila Broflovski from the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, when she throws out the following line: “Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words!” Apparently, ‘war’ and ‘feud’ are naughty words in WWE, and so they’ve been banned.
The problem here is that those are useful terms in describing the bitterness and personal level of a rivalry. It’s painfully obvious to virtually everyone watching that these wrestlers aren’t literally going to war with each other, but saying such a thing helps build of a feud to make it feel important.
Moreover, ‘feud’ is a better term than ‘rivalry’ because ‘feud’ implies a longer length and greater importance to the conflict between those wrestlers.
It’s a weird term to have banned, really, considering WWE has a loose-fitting rule regarding actual curse words, but the terms ‘war’ and ‘feud’ to describe what should be a bitter rivalry are taboo words. The mind boggles.
#3 ‘Fans’
Now we’re really getting into the weirder parts of Vince-speak.
When was the last time you actually heard either the commentators or the wrestlers refer to you or anyone else watching as ‘fans’? It must’ve been a very long time because the alternative term ‘WWE Universe’ has been shoved so far down the fans throats for years.
There doesn’t really appear to be any reason behind this weird term ban other than ‘let’s create something unique to WWE’. This appears to be part of a trend where influential people bestow a special term upon their fans to make them feel special in some way.
Beyonce has her ‘Beyhive’, the Insane Clown Posse has ‘Juggalos’, and WWE has ‘the WWE Universe’.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to distinguish your fanbase from another one, this term feels forced. It sounds really weird when WWE’s commentators are using the term to describe its fans, and feels horribly out of place when being used in a promo.
That wrestler/authority figure would be talking like a normal person, then all of a sudden, they mention the ‘WWE Universe’ by name and, bang, there goes the realism of the promo.
By forcing all of this Vince-speak into a promo, it emphasises the lack of realism in those promos. Look at John Cena. When he’s not cutting the WWE-approved kiddie promos and he’s talking like an ordinary person (or at least as close to ordinary as he can get), his promos are great.
But as soon as he starts throwing WWE catchphrases and using Vince’s twisted version of English, he turns into a corporate shill and his promo loses its impact.
If the whole point of cutting a promo is to sell an upcoming match, you want to make it seem as real as possible. Using such glaring corporate speak as ‘WWE Universe’ in order to make something trend on Twitter more is not the way to go about doing that.
#2 ‘Interesting’
Interesting.
Intéressant.Interesante.
I could translate this word into any language, and it would still have the same meaning. The word ‘interesting’ has a positive meaning in every language; it’s a word you want to be used to describe something.
Whether you’re writing comedy, drama or something serious, you absolutely want someone to describe is as interesting, so that people are interested in what you’re showing them.
So why would Vince up and ban this word from being used?
For what reason would he forbid his commentators from describing their own product as, ‘interesting’? There is no logical reason to ban this word. In fact, this word ban screams of a decision that isn’t based on any common sense whatsoever.
If you were watching a show and wanted to sell it to potential new viewers, ‘interesting’, would probably be the first word you’d use to describe it to them. That way, you’re not showing any bias to one type of entertainment or another, while still using the proper word to convince them that this entertainment product is worth watching.
It’s really hard to top this word ban on a list of stupid word bans, but in true WWE fashion, Vince McMahon manages to find one more to prove just how much of a deranged micromanager he really is.
#1 Pro Wrestling/Wrestler
Throughout this article, I have tried to refer to the actual athletes of WWE as wrestlers, and have tried to use the term ‘Superstar’ only when referencing Vince McMahon in some way. The reason for that is because no matter how much he or anyone else in his inner circle may try to deny it, his athletes are PROFESSIONAL WRESTLERS!
Vince has tried to call his product ‘sports entertainment’ for over a decade, and for a time the word ‘wrestler’ was banned entirely. Now, you might see a handful of wrestlers use the term ‘wrestler’ or ‘wrestling’ in a promo, but WWE and Vince McMahon will always use the term ‘sports entertainment’ to describe their product.
This is despite the fact that, by its very definition, WWE and all of the shows it puts on are wrestling shows. Featuring professional wrestlers. Wrestling in a wrestling ring. Wearing wrestling tights and wrestling boots.
There really isn’t any justification for this approach other than shame. It’s possible that Vince and other higher-ups in his inner circle are so in denial about being wrestling promoters that they’ve come up with a new terminology to convince themselves (and hopefully, their fans by extension) that they’re not part of the wrestling business.
Vince himself once even said he’s not in the wrestling business, but is instead, ‘in the entertainment business’.
Good luck convincing anyone of that, Vince. Ask any person around the world that watches WWE, knows what WWE is. That person is 99.99% likely to answer, ‘it’s wrestling’. The only 0.01% of people that would respond ‘it’s sports entertainment’ would have been paid to say so.
*NOTE: Several of these examples do not apply to John Cena, as he has used some of these words in his promos before*
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