There have been rumors floating around the WWE for years regarding Vince McMahon’s level of control and whether the man who sculpted the league into the powerhouse it is today might soon be stepping back.
But according to one recent report about McMahon’s almost obsessive attention to detail regarding on-air talent, he is apparently not stepping back at all. In a report from Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Newsletter , McMahon banned talent from using the word “briefcase” during programming.
The report came out just after the Money in the Bank event and noted that McMahon wants WWE talent to refer to the Money in the Bank Briefcase instead as the Money in the Bank Contract. While that may seem like a small or inconsequential point, it follows a pattern of McMahon being very careful about presentation.
As Pop Culture noted, Vince McMahon was behind a rumored list of words WWE talent were banned from saying on-air. According to the list, words like “wrestlers” were not to be used during broadcasts.
“Several years ago, a list was leaked containing some of the words specifically banned by Vince, as well as their preferred terminology. This included some seemingly ordinary words like ‘belt’, ‘hospital’, ‘house show’ and more. But even ‘faction’, ‘feud’, ‘wrestlers’ and ‘fan’” were among the banned terms, pushing the company’s standard for using sometimes awkward or made-up terms like ‘WWE Universe’ and ‘superstars’ instead.”
This list might give fans a glimpse into the level of control Vince McMahon still exerts and could give more context to the ever-present WWE rumors about when he will finally step aside.
Though it was McMahon who deftly built up the WWE into a fringe entity into an entertainment power, he has in recent years started to cede more power to those around him, including his adult children and Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H.
Levesque has shared a close relationship with Vince McMahon since making his wrestling debut in 1995. As News.com.au noted, Levesque’s character — the high-society snob Hunter Hearst Helmsley — was allegedly “a dig at high society types who spurned self-made millionaire Vince McMahon.”
Levesque is now seen as the heir apparent to Vince McMahon, and has already built up the WWE’s developmental brand and Performance Center training facility, News.com.au noted.
While it is no secret that Triple H will one day take over control of the entire WWE, that is still rumored to be some time away. And as the list of words banned by Vince McMahon shows, the league’s chairman and CEO is still very much in control right now.
[Featured Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]
