Get the W out
 

Source: The Wrestling Observer
– A meeting was held yesterday where it was agreed that the organization would no longer be referred as World Wrestling Entertainment due to Vince McMahon’s decree to eliminate the term “wrestling” from the product. The company will be solely branded as WWE. Multiple sources indicate the meeting ended with this directive. Seriously.

This is a stupid decision.

check the calendar folks

It's not going to affect much, maybe it will improve WWE's social status in the long run, I mean when it comes to WWE how many times has Vince McMahon REALLY fucked up?

We all though that getting the F out was a bad idea, but it doesn't matter now. The stupid part is have the name of a multi-billion dollar company be acronyms that don't mean anything.

Sure, obvious idea. But this has been going on for a long time now, so I don't think it's got to do with the date.

I'm betting on this.

Why are you so hung up on the 'wrestling' part anyway?

like who cares what they classify themselves as, you can still call it whatever you want. You dont have to say 'hey guys im watching that sports entertainment ppv 2nite!'

dumb idea and it won't change a thing IMO.... everyone knows WWE is wrestling, taking the word out of the name will do little to change anything

When was the last time they even used "World Wrestling Entertainment"? I only see it on official sites for disclaimers and trademarks anymore.

It'd be more interesting (though not by much) if they offically change their name to "WWE, Inc" instead of "World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc".

Well like I said, I don't think it will matter and in the long run probably help WWE, I just think if they are gonna change the companies name they outa make something fit WWE other than World Wrestling Entertainment...

Like World Wide Entertainment, simple.

I wouldn't understand that.

It doesn't sound good, anyway...

I feel like World Wide Entertainment is better than World Wrestling Entertainment anyway.

Actually, just checked, and they ARE now WWE, Inc, even in WWE.com's footer.

"All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the United States, subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country."

Just say April Fool's already....please? Just as long as they don't change the name to "It's Entertainments!"

Apparently an arm drag is exclusive property of WWE, Inc.

Nobody says "National Basketball Association", they just say "NBA"...

...or take the NCAA..."National Collegiate Athletic Association"? Yeah, right!

When was the last time, when wanting to watch a game or watch "Sportscenter", you said "I am going to turn on THE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS PROGRAMMING NETWORK"?! (ESPN)

So it's actually not a HORRIBLE thing for WWE to just call itself "WWE"...

...now, the reasons behind it, are a whole 'nother story...'cause the NBA has no problem with the word "basketball"...ditto for MLB (baseball) or the NFL (football)...

...if WWE does this because somehow they are ashamed of being known as "a wrestling company", then I don't like it. But if it's for some other reason, then it's like, "whatever".

I didn't make this thread to say that it's a bad idea, as posted, it will do well for them as far as branching the brand out to other sources of revenue. Who knows, maybe in 10 years the stars of WWE could be considered real celebrities without going to movies, which is what I think they are going for.

My dream for WWE would be to be covered by newspapers and Sport Illustrated, ESPN etc... but obviously thats not going to happen because it's not legit. Now, if WWE bills itself as Entertainment, then eventually it will be covered on Entertainment news shows such as TMZ, E! Weekly etc.... Which is obviously happening. WWE it going to become a staple in pop culture and I think that Vince's vision is coming to reality now. All of the people who kept him grounded in "rasslin" are dead or retired, it's just him and the guys who he's trained for years to produce his vision of the greatest entertainment spectacle in the world. Which, it kinda is.

What would they do about WRESTLEmania then?

Entertainia? Sports-o-rama?

That's one of the reasons I don't think they will do the whole "getting rid of the word wrestling" thing.

If they change the name of Wrestlemania then I might stop watching. That would be too far.

They have, when was the last time you herd that word? Bret Hart maybe?

I posted a topic a while back about why WrestleMania is still known as WrestleMania and someone doubted them being against the term wrestling since the company is known as World WRESTLING entertainment.

Well, there's step one.

I FEEL like WrestleMania will remain WrestleMania for the fact that the name has taken on it's own stigma and can be thought of as NOT a direct reference to wrestling. But who knows. There's no official WWE World Champion anymore and even if it goes back, there will be a gap in history where two guys went "halvesies" on being the champ . Times have changed. I worry.

I just don't see how they can do this, get rid of the "wrestling"...

...what would a CHAMPION actually be a "Champion" of? Entertaining? "Here, you'e going to be Champion because you are the Entertainer among Entertainers!"

Just champion of WWE Agukate.... which is now a word, not acronyms.

Welcome to American Idol...

...right...a little too "show business".

Then again, Miz IS WWE Champion, so...

The Rock was just on CNN, with Piers Morgan last night, the word Wrestler was used at least 25 times.

So.... now all of those TNA being the highest rated wrestling program jokes will come true?

:-\

...What I'm about to say has NOTHING to do with the topic, but I'm watching some Bret Hart videos on YouTube, and as I do, at times this feeling comes over me and I start to feel like Bret Hart was overrated.

The part that bothers me about this is that only about a decade ago, the attitude was:

"PROTECT KAYFABE AT ALL COSTS!!!"
"Yeah, but everyone knows it's..."
"PROTECT FUCKING KAYFABE AT ALL COSTS!!!"

and now, they're all "We're not wrestling."

Sad turn of events indeed.

The 'seriously' at the end has me wondering if it was an april fools joke, yeah, i think it is. Calm down people.

...but, but...Ryan Clark said this:

"Just so everyone knows, we have never and would never do any April fools jokes here on the website guys. The earlier report about a meeting held yesterday where the subject was about no longer being called World Wrestling Entertainment due to the desire to eliminate the word “wrestling” from the product is the real deal. This comes on the heels of a WWE representative telling TVWeek.com that they were not to be called a wrestling company. They demanded a Hall of Fame headline be edited without the world ‘wrestling’ in it. TVWeek.com opted to remove the article instead and then posted a follow-up on how stupid WWE’s demands were."

...if Ryan Clark says it's true, it MUST be!

Yeeeaaah riiight Ryan.

Has this been reported anywhere else?

Don't you see the "feeling" and emotion behind Ryan Clark's words? It's like, he loves us...

Suuuuuuuuure you will. :roll:

Entertainia.

bret hart overrated:rofl:

seriously some people on this are just moronic at times

he could have a match with an announce table in his prime thats better than anything they do nowadays.

stupid is as stupid does...

Hey, this is a feeling that comes over me sometimes as I see him doing promos and stuff, I'm not talking about actual WRESTLING...

...but then I see some of his 1997 heel promos, and the feeling goes away...

...then I see him in WCW, and the feeling comes back.

Maybe they'll save the WRASSLIN for the WCW reboot

The official press release confirming it -

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...vince-mcmahon/

World Winning Entertainment

He said Entertainers, not Media Whores.

Better to link directly to the Corporate site.

http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2011/2011_04_07.html

Also, apparently Triple H now heads what is essentially a new talent relations department (from the corporate site):

In addition to focusing on the expansion of the company, the company will bolster its core business with the launch a new talent development department headed by Paul “Triple H®” Levesque. The new department will put a greater emphasis on worldwide recruitment, training and character development to identify future WWE Superstars and Divas. The first recruit acquired under Levesque’s new department was the signing last month of future WWE Superstar, Sin Cara™, formerly known worldwide as Mistico.

Realistically, over the next few years they can just start referring to their biggest ppv as "Mania" and eventually the unwashed masses will go along with it.

So they're simply calling it WWE, but does it still stand for World Wrestling Entertainment? Just, without them acknowledging it?

As said, I think we have to assume it's like MTV. It's just the letters now, and doesn't really mean what it originally meant, even though we know it does.

Well, that's not such a big loss for me then. It's not like I watch 'World Wrestling Entertainment Smackdown' every Friday.

But still think it's retarded trying not to be a wrestling company.

Agreed. I will NEVER view WWE as anything other than a wrestling company, no matter how hard they try to get away from it.

I have never and will never be entertained by their movies, music or any other entertainment venture they try to get into. In fact, I've never even seen, nor do I have any desire to see a WWE film.

You know what I will be entertained by though, their WRESTLING programming.

Vince McMahon : "Wrestling is dead!"
 

O.K. Vince didn't really say this, but lets get real here. World Wrestling Entertainment is no more. The word "Wrestler" does not exist in the WWE. I then present you ith this from the front page;


http://www.tpww.net/2011/04/wwe-plan...tling-details/


So is this a way of Vince saying he thinks the wrestling industry is dying? Or am I reading completely wrong into this?

He's trying to make more money. God forbid.

Vince McMahon is dying.

Thats what it means.

100% DIRECT LINK: Britney Spears In Tight Jeans – *NEW*!

Oh, I have no problem with it what so ever, I was just wanting everyone's opinion on it.

Its a wrestling company. At the end of the day its gonna be a wrestling company. Its been sports entertainment for years [they've been "Superstars" and not "Wrestlers" for a while now too. Nothing is really going to change, minus the wrestling in the name. I dont see it holding up [ex: XFL]. So we'll see.

Because people are complaining about capitalism, mirite? :roll:

When has Vince McMahon done anything successful outside of the Wrestling business?

Sticking his gigantic piece of man flesh into Linda and creating this;


http://img.listal.com/image/128714/9...ie-mcmahon.jpg

Why are you so against Vince making money? :shifty:

Don't know why that first quote is there, but whatever.

You wanna make sure people know what day it is, perhaps?

She went on to marry HHH and looked what that did. She is also largely responsible for the product we see today. So was that really successful?

I'll be nice and give it to you though. So that's 1, and Shane can be 2. Anything else?

#3


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._shilelagh.jpg

First off that's inside the wrestling business. So it doesn't pertain to my question. Secondly Hornswaggle was found out not to be Vince's son.

Then finally and most importantly Horswaggle is terrible. So forget that.

http://l.yimg.com/eb/ymv/us/img/hv/p...mallposter.jpg

or more specific;


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...udios_logo.jpg

lol

In all seriousness if you can go out and make money go do it. Let's just not act like your all above wrestling when that is the exact reason why you have all of your money.

Wrestling was at it's most profitable when it was still called wrestling. So really you think by not calling it "wrestling" it's going to make you more money? You think you are going to extend your brand? Like really, bro.

Also the you I am reffering to in this post is not Kane Knight, but one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

Gonna prove you wrong right here. BAM!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...e/XFL_Logo.png

It had some good ideas that the NFL has since used and executed better.

Still that is definitely not proving me wrong.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AbsRtuoIDSc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That is the quintessential Vince McMahon failure.

The problem with Vince is that he doesn't seem to understand, or just ignores the fact, that the wrestlers who have been able to crossover into the entertainment world, have done so as a product of actual WRESTLING...yet when he thinks of "reaching out", he wants to do so by doing things that have NOTHING to do with wrestling...which isn't necessarily BAD, but up until now, he hasn't had the success he (or anyone) would expect.

This. I wouldn't mind if Vince wanted to get into other avenues of entertainment if I felt like the wrestling product wouldn't suffer in terms of quality due to it.

Yeah, Vince has tried to be a multi-genre businessman for decades now, and even tried to erase wrestling from the product in the past. To what end? A bunch of failures and a hissyfit when people call the product "wrestling." But success? Well, wrestling certainly hasn't become more mainstream since the Attitude Era, and it's unlikely to do so just because of some more rebranding.

On the other hand, it probably won't hurt, but it's just....Goofy.

I can't help but feel that Vince is just trying to be 'bigger than wrestling' and prove that he's 'the man'. Like, he won't stop reaching out until WWE is accepted as a political party, or a religion or something.

Something that seems to be popping up a lot lately is people saying how WWE is trying to become 'mainstream'. Them dropping the term 'wrestling', doing away with chairshots and other wrestling mainstays of the last 30 years, is an attempt to be 'more accepted by the mainstream'.

Are you fucking kidding me? What does 'mainstream' mean if WWE isn't mainstream? WWE has shit loads of celebrity appearances every year, fuckit every month! They have films, music, television shows. They sell out arenas and stadiums all over the world. They do endless work for charities and media appearances. They have video games, toys and big-name sponsers behind them.

Sometimes it feels as though Vince won't be happy until traffic lights have WWE logos on them.

Chair shots are a safety measure to appease the shareholders.

It has nothing to do with being mainstream

You know what I meant, asshole! :foc:

Vince McMahon is an idiot