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What's the story?
Josh Mathews is a prominent voice in Impact Wrestling but he cut his teeth announcing for WWE. While he was there, Josh Mathews witnessed a lot of rules and recently spoke about some of WWE's banned words on Interactive Wrestling Radio.
In case you didn't know...
Before joining Impact Wrestling as an announcer in 2015, Josh Mathews was an announcer who came into the WWE as a participant on the inaugural season of Tough Enough in 2001.
He was the voice of WWE ECW, Velocity, and often appeared on Monday Night Raw as well as SmackDown before he was released from his contract on June 25th, 2014.
The heart of the matter
Josh Mathews recently spoke to Interactive Wrestling Radio where he was asked about the verbiage WWE made so famous and their banning of certain words in pro wrestling vernacular like "wrestler" or "belt."
He stated he didn't say "wrestling" a lot while with WWE. Josh Mathews also said he rarely used it in TNA as well, even though the word was in the name of the company for so long. He remarked how there was just something about it he didn't like.
He said you could call pro wrestlers "stars" to signify that they were bigger than just normal wrestlers. He also really put over the branding of the Knockouts in Impact Wrestling and said the female talent in Impact Wrestling was branded better than anywhere else.
"Stars just seems to fit with the male talent - athletes. There are ways to work around it if you don't want to use the word 'wrestlers'. Look, I wasn't allowed to say the word 'belt' for a number of years but I still don't think you should call it a belt - It's a championship!"
What's next?
Josh Mathews has carved out a pretty nice niche for himself in Impact Wrestling. Hopefully, he can keep at it and continue to prove why he's the greatest announcer on the planet. Or at least that's what he says.
Author's take
When Josh Mathews was released from his WWE contract, I have to admit that I was very surprised. Some still say he should have won his season of Tough Enough, too. But if he would have been a wrestler, then he never would have become the commentator he is today.
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