WWE Announcers Notes Leak Online

By John Canton / July 8, 2015

World Wrestling Entertainment has strict guidelines for their announcers that they must follow because ultimately the company wants everybody to sound the same in terms of how they describe the action. A user on Reddit was able to obtain some information as it pertains to these rules and posted about them for wrestling fans to see. There are eight pages of notes that are dated May 11, 2010. There have probably been some changes for the announcers in the last five years (and this just likely one week worth of programming), but a lot of what's there remains consistent with what we hear on WWE TV every week. http://imgur.com/a/NW1WG Here are some of the more interesting notes: - Announcers are told to watch the monitor and not what they might see in the ring. That's something announcers have been doing for years as they get to see what the viewer sees and ultimately it's them they are calling the action for and not the people in the crowd. - Vince McMahon specifically doesn't want them saying "grandaddy of them all" for WrestleMania because he feels like it makes WrestleMania feel old. This is something he still believes in because he no longer uses numbers when talking about WrestleMania. - Don't use pronouns like "he" or "she" to describe talent. They want announcers to use the wrestler's names or nicknames like "The Viper" for Randy Orton as an example. - Some of the words to avoid: belt, strap, the business, our industry, feud, backstage, pro wrestling, pro wrestler, interesting (that's a weird one), me, I, U.S. (they want them to say United States), hospital, faction and they don't want them to say "the title is on the line" either. - Announcers are told that they don't need to call every move that a Superstar makes because it is television, not radio. They are told to call high spots and all three counts because they want to portray the idea that any time a ref counts that a match could end. - This part raised a few eyebrows: "Fully understand the history and heritage of the business as it gives what we are doing today more credibility." Considering the company ignores history a lot (remember... they don't actually want you to say belt, strap, pro wrestling or pro wrestler!!!) and only bring things up when they are relevant, it shows that WWE are as hypocritical as you imagined. - It said that "announcers are not the stars." That's generally true, but in late 2010 and early 2011 they turned Michael Cole into a heel announcer with storylines, so that idea changed a bit at that time. - They don't want announcers to scream. It was written in all caps too times because they want to have the announcers build up emotion before getting to those bigger moments. There are obviously some exceptions when major events are happening. It's well worth spending a few minutes to read just because it will give you an insight into how Vince McMahon wants his television show produced, or at least did five years ago.