Road Dogg Defends Vince McMahon Banning Words
WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg has said he understands why some words were banned by former WWE boss Vince McMahon.
For some in business, branding is king and that is something former WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon clearly identified with. With McMahon professing to be in the entertainment business, WWE’s product has strictly been described as sports entertainment with professional wrestling not part of the lexicon of the company.
While the men and women who compete in the ring outside WWE are wrestlers, those under McMahon’s umbrella were WWE Superstars – a name meant to elevate them over mere wrestlers.
These apparent bans and many more arguably stranger choices on the banned word list – hospitals, belts, etc. – caused much derision in some quarters over the years but one man who sees the logic in McMahon’s thinking is former WWE Superstar and producer, Road Dogg.
Speaking on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, Road Dogg explains why he doesn’t disagree with Vince McMahon’s thinking when it comes to using certain words:
“People always made fun of Vince banning words. For me, and this is straight from my heart and straight from my brain, he taught me a ton of words, and he extended my vocabulary because he would not let you say certain things. So you had to find other ways to say it and I think he thought there was a negative connotation against wrestling, and the wrestling world, and wrestlers.”
“So he created World Wrestling Entertainment and has WWE Superstars, you know what I mean? There’s nothing wrong with that. I think if it’s your company, you can definitely call your people whatever you want. I think he thought it brought it up to a classier level. I don’t disagree with him.”
“I think it did exactly that. The John Cenas of the world, The Rocks of the world. These guys have been accepted outside of the wrestling business because WWE is kind of bigger than wrestling. It will go back to being a wrestling company now and we’ll see how that fares financially, whether it’s prosperous, or not, only time will tell that but, that’s up to the viewer.”