Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, has such a short leash on his announcers that he reportedly has an eight-page set of rules regarding what they can and cannot say on the air, according to a Reddit user who posted an alleged photo of the policies this week.
The user uploaded McMahon's eight-page guide on the Squared Circle sub-Reddit site for professional wrestling, claiming that the rules were given to
WWE announcers several years ago, according to Deadspin.com.
View post on imgur.com
While some of the rules appeared standard, others seemed arbitrary. For example, on the second page, a 2009 note from Stephanie McMahon — Vince's daughter who serves as WWE's chief brand officer — reads: "Vince would like to reinforce to all announcers NOT to say 'the referee didn't see it' when the referee doesn't see illegal action. It makes the product feel cheap, like we're in grade school. It is OK to say 'the referee's vision was impaired' or 'the referee's vision was blocked.'"
The document, according to the Reddit document, also outlaws the pronouns "me" and "I"; "shot," as in title shot; "pro wrestling"; "war"; "feud"; or the phrase "the title is on the line."
"All eight pages are worth reading to understand how the WWE works to tightly control exactly how its product is presented to the fans," Deadspin.com noted.
Blake Oestriecher, of Forbes, wrote that the leaked document is proof that Vince McMahon cannot seem to get out of the way of the successful franchise he created.
"One on hand, it's refreshing to see the owner of a huge company take a hands-on approach instead of letting others run the show for him," he wrote.
"However, McMahon's enforcement of a strict set of announcing rules has severely stifled the ability of its announcers. Every announcer — from Michael Cole to Byron Saxton — is a carbon copy of the announcer sitting next to him, so afraid to accidentally say the word 'feud' or call someone 'he' that the announcing — and in turn, the entire WWE product — has made fans continuously hit the mute button while watching Raw."
Chris Yuscavage, of Complex.com said it appears that McMahon laid down many of these rules over the course of several years, but "it's still interesting to see them since we're guessing they were never supposed to see the light of day."
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