10 Wrestling Legal Battles That Turned Ugly

7. WWF Vs. WWF

Vince McMahon Legal Trouble
WWE/By Chen Wu from Shanghai, China (%u8D2A%u5403%u718A%u732B) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Protracted legal wrangling between World Wrestling Entertainment and the World Wide Fund for Nature (aka the World Wildlife Fund) forced Vince McMahon to change the name of his entire organisation after crudely neglecting to follow clear guidelines set out in a 1994 legal agreement over the shared initials.

McMahon promised to restrict use of the branding in business activities, then robustly went back on his word in liberally using 'WWF' alongside 'World Wrestling Federation' in every aspect of his presentation for the following eight years.

It became merely a matter of time before the breaches caught up with him, and the company's rampant success during the Attitude Era was enough for the animal charity to draw a line under the constant brand confusion.

A comprehensive victory forced McMahon's $35million rebrand in 2002, and hijacked countless hours of footage with jarring blurs and laughable dialogue censors. A follow up settlement in 2012 thankfully reversed that element of the 2002 case, allowing WWE to air any archive footage completely unedited.

Not only did it strip away the eyesore, but the decision rendered what would become the WWE Network a much more serviceable concept.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett