WWE Banned List - Why You Can't Say These 23 Terms
"Please use more creative terms".
Being an announcer in WWE must be excruciating at times.
Anyone who has listened to Bruce Prichard's excellent 'Something To Wrestle With' podcast will know all about Vince McMahon's quirky, ever-changing rules when it comes to language. "Pronouns, pal", the boss would remind his staff whenever they dared to use everyday words like "I", "him" or "her".
McMahon wanted to know specifically who his staff were referring to, and hated generalisations when he'd painstakingly set about the task of giving his stars individual brand names and gimmicks designed to eliminate such perceived problems. That dislike for pronouns extends into other words and phrases announcers and workers might reach for mid-match or mid-promo too.
A 2008 document (passed down from WWE management and seemingly aimed at the commentary teams) recently surfaced on Reddit, and it shows the lengths Vince has gone to when trying to eradicate select phrasing from his programming. Often, this has been deemed senseless, a waste of time and just another example of how ludicrously pernickety the most powerful man in wrestling is, but...why did he ban these terms?
Read on to find out...
23. "Belt/Strap"
Sometimes, Vince's own banned list ignores its own rules when it feels like it.
Case in point: 2019's branding of Becky Lynch as 'Becky 2 Belts'. WWE must've thought they were being super-edgy here, because they'd outlawed the use of "Belt" and "Strap" years ago. Still, there was merch to sell, and they were damn sure gonna' sell it. Why did they ban this though? Well, McMahon likes 'Championship' and 'Title' better.
Simple as that. They better depict the "hard work" and "dedication" of WWE's roster in Vince's mind.