Freddie Prinze Jr Details Wrestling Term That Angered Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon infamously forced his employees to speak a WWE-specific language when on television, with one key term nowhere to be found as detailed by Freddie Prinze Jr.
Vince McMahon hated the term ‘strap’.
This is according to Freddie Prinze Jr., who worked with WWE for a few years on their writing and creative teams. Speaking on his Wrestling With Freddie podcast, Prinze revealed how ‘strap’ wasn’t the only championship-centric term that offended Vince McMahon:
“You weren’t even allowed to say ‘belt’ when Vince McMahon was running things. You had to say ‘title’ or ‘championship.’ I think those were the only two things you could say.
If you said ‘strap,’ oh, Vince would just go off, man. ‘Aw, godd*mmit, did he just say strap? Jesus Christ, promo sh*t.’ “He would go off on one word, and the rest of the promo would be dope, and he wouldn’t even hear it.”
Vince McMahon is known to have banned other words that were deemed either offensive to his style of wrestling, and words that didn’t suit the family-friendly aura of WWE, such as ‘kill’. Furthermore, the former WWE boss created a litany of approved terms for basic things, such as ‘local medical facility’ for hospitals.
This has since changed since following Vince’s 22 July retirement, with the new WWE regime giving a broader range of what their Superstars can say in promos. Though they can’t use explicit profanities, promos can now have an edge to them, as discovered in Matt Riddle’s personal feud with Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins.