WWE not Wrestling?
By: Jason Spencer
4.2.11

It’s becoming more and more a known fact that Vince McMahon has a love-hate relationship with wrestling. The bottom line essentially is that he doesn’t want it to be known as “wrestling” but simply entertainment. That’s fine to an extent, after all the athletes in the ring have not been referred to as wrestlers for quite some time, and the championship cannot be called a belt. Instead the athletes are Superstars and Divas and the championship is a title. Aside from the fact that a title is an intangible object, I really have no problem with that vernacular unless the context of the story or scripts causes it to sound childish, goofy, or otherwise incorrect. For example the line “Edge and Christian are one of the most decorated tag teams in entertainment history!” Really? I’m pretty sure they’ve only ever been wrestlers so as much as they may hate it, wrestling history was definitely more appropriate. Plus I’m sure the likes of Batman and Robin would dispute the claim.

However, Vince McMahon apparently wants to take his decree against wrestling nomenclature a step further. Presumably after a blow up over the announcement was made by TVweek (dot) com that actor and comedian Drew Carey would be inducted into a Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame, and one of his employees was embarrassed in her argument to get the phrase removed from the article. Yesterday news broke that meetings had taken place for the company to follow the lead of fast food chain KFC, and rebrand the company as only the initials. Meaning the company would cease to be World Wrestling Entertainment, and instead simply WWE. That’s right. Letters… that mean… nothing!

I was unaware of the supposed “rebranding” of KFC, but just like WWE’s strategy, it doesn’t seem to me like it’s going to work. KFC used to (and in my opinion, still does) stand for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’m assuming that once they launched their new line of grilled chicken products that they wanted to cease using the name. However, they still in fact serve fried chicken, and they are still in fact a company that was founded and started in the state of Kentucky. Thus… the name still applies. You still serve and still are Kentucky Fried Chicken. You just serve more than that now.

It might be different if the original acronym was somehow made into a pronounceable word like NASCAR. It may not be pronounced or written N.A.S.C.A.R. but it is, in fact, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. You cannot pronounce KFC nor WWE without sounding somewhat uneducated or mentally challenged.

WWE’s argument for the change is much weaker than KFC’s. They are not changing their product as drastically as KFC did. KFC launched a whole new product that accounted for half of their menu. Everything they offer now comes in either fried or grilled form. In fact WWE has offered other media products such as Movies and Music for a few years now. So if we discount Movies and Music which did in fact already exist, but were not the primary focus of the company, let’s see what else WWE does.

They feature multiple shows on cable television and the Internet that feature grown men and women, in what has been perceived to be known as a wrestling ring, performing wrestling holds that most of them learned at a wrestling academy or a developmental wrestling promotion. Sure seems like wrestling to me.

They also feature an On Demand service that features their video library. A good portion of this library was not originally their footage, but footage they purchased from collapsed or bankrupt organizations. Let’s see the list according to Wikipedia.

American Wrestling Association (1957-1991)
Georgia Championship Wrestling (1944-1985)
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994-2001)
Eastern Championship Wrestling (1992-1994)
Ohio Valley Wrestling (1998-2008)
Florida Championship Wrestling (2007-Present)
Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1992-1995)
Stampede Wrestling (1948-1989)
Ultimate Pro Wrestling (1998-2007)
Championship Wrestling from Florida (1961-1987)
World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001)
Eastern States Championship Wrestling (1945-1973)
Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (1973-1988)
Central States Wrestling (c. early 1950s-1986)
Championship Wrestling from Georgia (1984-1985)
St. Louis Wrestling Club (1959-1985)
World Class Championship Wrestling (1966-1988)
Maple Leaf Wrestling (1930-1995)

That’s quite the list, and quite a lot of wrestling footage for a company that has nothing to do with it.

Let us also not forget that this weekend is the biggest event WWE puts on all year, the 27th edition of Wrestlemania. How exactly are they going to push that under the rug?

I’m a wrestling fan. I don’t have a problem with the term, nor do I really know anybody who does. I don’t know anyone who if they somehow figured out this not so well kept secret that WWE is in fact a wrestling company they would be disgusted and stop watching. People know it’s wrestling. If they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t. WWE is not going to gain any new fans just because they’re perceived as not wrestling. In fact they are probably going to receive more negative publicity as they did with TVweek (dot) com for having a self inflicted identity crisis!

What’s even more sad is that the other top 3 companies putting on wrestling shows in the United States embrace that identity, yet they don’t have the term in their name. Total Nonstop action, Ring of Honor, and Dragon Gate USA are nowhere near WWE’s popularity. Some might say they’re not even in the same league. But at least they’re not trying to hide themselves, or say they’re something that they’re not. They’re not trying to fool anyone.

Just as Vince has a love-hate relationship with wrestling, I have a love-hate relationship with WWE. Sometimes they do these amazing things like Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at Wrestlemanias 25 and 26 and I love it. Then they do stuff like this, and I hate them for being so ridiculously stupid and out of touch. On one hand I want them to succeed and perhaps send us into a new boom period. On the other hand, I wish they would finally learn from these stupid mistakes.

Then again WWE only seems to learn lessons through failure and competition. I don’t get to see much Ring of Honor, and I have more or less been boycotting TNA recently. But I hold out hope that these two promotions along with Dragon Gate USA can eventually make their presence known and let the world know that they are here, they are wrestling.