Origin Of WWE's Famous "Scratch" Logo Revealed?
Guess what the red bit is supposed to represent?
Bruce Prichard has lifted the lid on how WWE came to use the iconic "scratch" logo during the Attitude Era.
Speaking on his podcast Something To Wrestle With, Prichard told guest Conrad Thompson that the initial inspiration for the logo was a doodle Vince McMahon saw him doing during a creative meeting. The chairman, intent on injecting some edge into his product, apparently held it up to the room there and then as an example of what he was talking about.
While the crude drawing produced by Prichard wasn't actually used itself, the idea of a rough outline of the original gold and yellow block WWF logo was later developed by the company's creative team. Vince was said to have been particularly insistent on including a red line underneath, which he thought resembled a "scar".
"I was in a meeting, and I'm scratching through the logo and I'm just tracing it out," Prichard explained. "And Vince goes, 'God damnit, we need Attitude, we need something like this' - and he takes my paper - and creative services took it literally."
WWE altered the logo slightly in the wake of 2002's World Wildlife Fund row, but aside from that it was in continuous use right up until 2014. So, if Prichard's version of events is true, he's (albeit inadvertently) had a huge hand in the company's history.