Do Not Call WWE A Wrestling Company
 

Credit: TV Week

WWE sent a demand to a website that called them a wrestling company to change their wording. TVWeek.com had a headline that ran “‘Drew Carey inducted into pro wrestling Hall of Fame.” According to the site, they received an email from WWE publicist Kellie Baldyga, ordering them to change the headline because “We are no longer a wrestling company but rather a global entertainment company with a movie studio, international licensing deals, publisher of three magazines, consumer good distributor and more.”

The publicist further said “No, we don’t do wrestling events. They’re entertainments. And we don’t call them wrestlers. They’re superstars and divas.”

TVWeek refused the request and removed the article rather than change the headline.



Isn't the WWE going a bit far here? They're a fucking wrestling company I don't care what 2nd name lables they throw out. That's just retarded. Last I knew the second "W" in "WWE" stood for Wrestling.

LOL wtf, not calling it wrestling isn't gonna make people not think it's wrestling

They should take out all wrestling and see how many people will continue to watch their show.

PS I guess this makes TNA the #1 Wrestling company in North America*blech*

Good lord, this is really getting silly.

They need to change the company name....Again. "WEE" World Entertaining Entertainment

World Wide Entertainment

WSE

World Sports Entertainment

I would love for TNA to start advertising themselves as the #1 wrestling company in America. Just to see what WWE would do :D

No really, WWE is now gonna get heat like the Rock for essentially burying the industry and distancing himself from wrestling and the fans in his attempts to go legit and not be viewed as "wrasslin'." Only now it's the company distancing itself from... itself... and its fans...

the ring will soon be changed into a podium since its all about talking anyway

WWE is a wrestling company.

Hope Vince reads this and gets really mad now. :cool:

Yeah, this would be pretty cool if TNA did that. I doubt WWE would respond, but TNA should do it anyway.

i think they are the best WRESTLING company (in ring product for the most part), They are the worst in sports entertainment

I doubt this publicist would take it upon herself to do this without Vince knowing, so...

...I wonder if Vince McMahon is "ok" mentally...

On Paper TNA is yes the best in ring product in reality though their booking is so bad the in ring product ends up sucking too.

apart from the movie studio aren't all of those 'arms' of the company wrestling related

this is a bit funny. and gooooooooooooooood morning people

http://twitter.com/kbaldyga

The blonde in question.. Looks hot from that picture though.

Good job, WWE. Work like hell and pull every stupid gimmick so the mainstream media runs your story. Then when they do, bitch about the wording and get it pulled. Good PR. You should get plenty of more articles about you in the future.

And referring to WWE as an entertainment company and completely throwing out the wrestling is like McDonalds calling itself a health food store because they sell salads.

Zumba teacher? legend is gonna be all about her.

"Welcome to TNA Impact, the highest rated wrestling program in America!"

Not only would it be funny as hell, it would be highly ironic considering which company does and doesn't have "wrestling" in their initials.

The more I read this story, and the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off.

This is fucking stupid. Also does it not piss all over all the people who worked for the company in the past?

It kinda pisses all over the fans too, in a way.

anything can happen in the world wrestling federation

No link?

What did you say?

"Wrestling"?

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damn me. damn me straight to hell

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this would be a brilliant move.

People should start taking signs with the word "Wrestling" on it to shows. Just to see if they're blurred out.

I really hope someone in a conference call brings this up and asks why they would risk losing PR over this.

Also, the WWE name can be seen as MTV. MTV still has a bit of music on it, but for the most part, it isn't music. WWE still has "wrestling" on it, but for the most part, it isn't wrestling.

I'd imagine that's their line of thinking.

Talk about blowing up in their faces when the article gets pulled!!! why not just let it run and take whatever publicity it brings and then spend some $$ and run your own planted article saying "WWE more than just wrestling nowadays, they've gone global ,make movies, run magazines, make ice cream bars etc. who remembers old wrestling ice cream bars?those were good

Don't they already effectively do so? All the time?

Yeah, I'm sure the Cenation will be pissed.

Remember how they distanced themselves from wrestling fans when they called it "sports entertainment?"

And the wrestlers "superstars?"

lol why?

Pep'ridge Fahm remembers.

Kane Knight for the win!

'sports entertainment matches'

those motherfuckers trying to rebrand themselves

WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?!

OH MY GOD

:nono:

Workrate.

The posters at TPSEW will not approve of this.

If anyone is the #1 WRESTLING company, it has to be ROH. Might not be doing as financially we as WWE or even TNA, but surely they must be putting on clinics in the ring.

And I don't even watch that much ROH!

WE WANT <s>WRESTLE</s> ENTERTAIN!

I got a really shit memory, what's the name of the upcoming PPV everyone's excited about?

"entertainia" does sound kinda cool...

So if WWE are no longer claiming to be a WRESTLING company. Doesn't that mean that tna Is the number 1 company on television? This would be an awesome way to piss WWE off.

:|

Not a bad idea... heh...

Joey Styles was right all along.

It is entertainment. It's fake. Very little actual wrestling actually goes on. I don't know why people care about this.

I hate having my ming boggled.

Your ming?

I just think it's funny, I don't blame them, pro wrestling is seen as a joke by mainstream so anything they can do to distance themselves makes business sense. I just don't think this is gonna work. I mean putting on a wrestling show but not referring to it as wrestling is not gonna get you anywhere, wrestling by any other name will still be seen as wrestling by the mainstream. Soceity can be stupid sometimes but they aren't this stupid.

I don't know, I take it as if WWE somehow is embarrassed of its fans, in a way...as if being known as a wrestling company with wrestling fans is SO wrong.

Maybe that's not the way they mean it (emphasis on the word MAYBE), but it can be interpreted as such...that's how I take it, anyway.

Looks like someones over-reacting!

get the W out

I don't think people "care" as much as they are calling bullshit on this. Look here:
That's some dumb shit right there. International licensing deals? To make action figures of your wrestlers and video games featuring them. Puplisher of three magazines? Three WRESTLING magazines. And so on. Even their movie studio features their wrestlers.

It just sounds so desperate to appear to be something they are quite clearly not.
TBF, over here in the UK the MTV channel has been moved from the "music" listings to the "entertainment" section on Sky/cable TV. Not sure if that was their call or not.

Are we suggesting that WWE programming should be moved off of Sky Sports and on to one of their "entertainment" channels? Would that be a big deal?

I NOEZ. OMG I H8Z THEM SOOO MUCH!

Speaking of hate....

OMG HOW DARE YOU ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM! I HATE YOU! YOU SUCK!

Ah. So basically, you're pissed off because....Yo're imagining offense?

If you're a sport you fall under regulators from the goverment, if you're entertainment you can do all sorts like take drugs, murder your family, get beat up with weapons, cut yr own head open, etc.

They're not suggesting that, no. They're suggesting they're not wrestling.

Though I doubt Vince or WWE would lose sleep over being on a non-sports channel.

:y:

It was more a question of whether WE would lose any sleep over it, not so much Vince.

No doubt you'd get the standard IWC over-reaction until someone points out that it doesn't really matter.

Who gives a shit.

Yeah, tell me about it. And probably still after.

Remember in the Attitude Era, when WW<s>F</s>E respected its <s>wrestlers</s> Superstars and the fans? When you would have <s>5 minute table matches</s> 20 minute epic chain wrestling clinics and shit? When <s>blood and bewbs</s> Technical ability and hard work were king?

What? This is the same shit they've been doing for almost fifteen years? PANIC!

Kane, what are you talking about. Hogan, Austin and Cena are technical wizards. I wish I could transform their workrate into butter so I could spread it on toast.

As if you care about technical ability.

Austin was actually a great in ring worker btw

I must admit, their movesets were all awesome.

Awwww...The auspie misses the point for the technical niggle.

They were WWE for 10 years. Like someone posted earlier, I wouldn't mind it if they renamed the company WSE: World Sports Entertainment. That would be the perfect time to re-invent themselves

GET THE DUB OUT!

World Rasslin Entertainment

Good thing you're not running the company then. That would be the dumbest business decision ever. If a company is want to make a change in their look they change the design of their logo, or put a twist on their product. They don't change their name. Even when business's merge, they either keep the most popular name of the two, or combine the two names. They don't go and create another name for the company. Its bad for business. Its bad for sales.

And they haven't been WWE for 10 years either. 10 years ago they were WWF. I don't know exactly when WWF went to WWE, as I'm too lazy to google it. But it wasn't in 2001.

whoops my bad bro, in the spring of 2002, they first aired the Get The F Out promos

In the UK, MTV has recently moved it's channel out of the music section and into the entertainment section.

This is a laughable move, if they stop using the word wrestling then how do they describe what is happening in the ring?

"It's a match!"
"What sort of match?"
"A very entertaining one!"

the only time i see music on mtv is at like 5 in the morning, that ch should be renamed crappy realty shows. vince always hated the name wrestling even back in the 80's

I wouldn't mind if they started showing Raw and Smackdown on Sky One since I ain't got Sky Sports.