WWE's insanity regarding the banned word of wrestling and its derivatives knows no bounds. They've harassed a TV week reporter for calling the WWE Hall Of Fame a Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame. They're undergoing an expensive rebranding campaign to kick the word wrestling out of their corporate name. Even their unscripted reality show Tough Enough, co-produced with Shed Media, doesn't completely escape the WWE word police, as we found out last night when Bret Hart was bleeped out for using the word "wrestler" in the aired highlights of a speech he gave to the Tough Enough trainees. A video of this clumsy editing is included after the jump.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer, on their fortnightly free radio show, revealed that this was the end result of a compromise between WWE and Shed Media who have been squabbling over the terms that can be used on the show. WWE originally wanted the terms independents and indies (both shorthand for independent wrestling promotions) banned, but they acquiesced on this point. In return, Shed Media promised that they would edit out any WWE hired performers who accidentally or unknowingly used a banned term, but the contestants and anyone else hired by their production company (including "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) could say whatever they wanted to.
Bret Hart for his part was no selling the controversy on Twitter. He just shrugged his shoulders at a lot of what he said being edited out, but understood that's TV. Or should that be "that's crazy old Vince McMahon for ya"?