Vince McMahon's Hatred Of Pronouns In WWE, Explained

Highlights

• Vince McMahon dislikes the use of pronouns in wrestling commentary to avoid confusing new viewers who may not know the wrestlers' names.
• Commentators would often receive backlash from McMahon if they used pronouns instead of constantly repeating wrestlers' names or nicknames on television.
• Jim Ross defended McMahon's rule, stating that using pronouns could be confusing for fans at home and that the best way to get talent over is to use their names and nicknames in commentary. Other WWE commentators have shared their thoughts on McMahon's style of yelling through the headset during commentary.

Wrestling fans know Vince McMahon’s quirks and how he likes to do things differently. Although the former head honcho of WWE no longer gets into the weeds, some of his ideas still live on. One of them is how commentators refer to wrestlers on television. Fans might have noticed that they never really use pronouns when talking about wrestlers. They only use their ring names or one of their nicknames. This is because Vince hates pronouns and would shout at commentators who'd sometimes forget to follow this rule.

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Vince McMahon Hates Pronouns In Wrestling Commentary

As with all things Vince McMahon, there was a reason behind his hatred of pronouns on television, and this one actually made sense. McMahon’s thinking was that if a new viewer watched one of their shows, they would not know who was on television. If the commentators used pronouns on broadcast, the fan would never learn the wrestler’s name and that would be a problem.

Mick Foley talked about this on the Jim and Sam show and explained that Vince liked the constant repetition of names so that the viewers at home would not get confused. He also joked they were “magical headsets” because “you put them on and everything you’ve accomplished over the course of last 15 years, it’s disappeared.”

Foley left WWE in 2008 sometime after McMahon yelled at him through the headset, something he has been very infamous for. And he was not the only one who faced Vince’s wrath on the headset. He seriously hated when commentators used pronouns because it was very easy to confuse new fans who could not understand who the pronouns referred to. Some people say this was another one of those Vinceisms, but it is pretty common in live broadcasting to not use pronouns often.

Jim Ross Defends Vince McMahon's Rule

JR is often regarded as one of the best wrestling commentators in history. Ross has worked as a play-by-play commentator for most of his life, so he knows more about it than anyone. Ross was one of the people whom McMahon would constantly yell at, but he also learned a thing or two from his former boss. Ross defended McMahon on the whole pronouns issue and reiterated that using them could be confusing for fans at home.

A few years ago on his Grilling JR podcast, Ross talked about his issues with today’s commentary and said that he really hated the use of pronouns and called this one of the “best things” his former boss taught him. “The other thing is the friggin’ use of pronouns. I know we’ve made fun of Vince about that, but one of the best things Vince taught me on commentary was to not over use pronouns. Who is he? If I said, ‘Conrad Thompson did, Conrad overcame the odds, he is the champion of the world’, or I could say ‘he did it, he’s the champion of the world’, it doesn’t have the same stick. I catch myself doing it and I hate it. The best way to get talent over, and that’s the only job a broadcaster has is to get talent over, you do it with their names, nicknames.”

RELATED: 10 Wrestling Performers Jim Ross Absolutely Hated (On Commentary)

Other WWE Commentators Shared Their Thoughts On Vince McMahon's Style

Several other wrestlers and commentators have also talked about Vince McMahon yelling through their ears. Jeff Jarrett said that McMahon would scream so loud, he couldn’t hear anything. Jerry Lawler, on the other hand, had something different to say. He said that McMahon never yelled at him during commentary, unlike his co-commentator, JR, who would complain that he was killing him. The current lead announcer, Michael Cole, once said that this whole Vince-yelling-through-the-headset-during-commentary thing was an exaggeration by some people who wanted to save face because they weren’t good at commentary. Cole said that Vince is just emotional about his product and defended him by saying that he wants the commentary to be in a certain way because it’s his company.

Also, it's not like McMahon doesn’t know anything about commentary. Long-time wrestling fans will know that McMahon worked as a commentator for many years before becoming an on-screen character, and he probably knows more about this whole business than anyone. Although fans do love to criticize his creative decisions, and most of the time rightfully so, from a business standpoint, Vince McMahon knows what he is doing.