8 Weirdest word bans by Vince McMahon
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.