The End of "Wrestling"

Vince McMahon has decided to drop the name "wrestling" from all things WWE. His feeling is that with all the negative stereotypes about the professional wrestling business, it would just be easier to distance the company from the wrestling name and focus more on the entertainment aspect. Ironically, the three most recognizable wrestling organizations in the United States are missing the word wrestling from their names. With Vince McMahon's organization now know as just WWE; three letters with no meaning, Ring of Honor and Total Non-Stop Action, the word wrestling is seemingly invisible in the United States.

Of course there are good reasons for the world's most recognizable wrestling organization to distance itself from the term wrestling. With all the negative press the wrestling business has received in recent years, it only makes sense that in his recent paranoid state, Vince McMahon would try to gain the public's trust again by distancing himself from the word wrestling. With all the recent deaths and wrestlers with drug and alcohol problems, there is reason for his concern. The wrestling business is not a very forgiving industry and the performer ’ s bodies often pay a higher price to over compensate for the pain they feel on a daily basis. Kevin Nash wrote a very eye-opening blog about his best friend Scott Hall and how every time they talk, Kevin feels it could be the last time they talk. Scott Hall was one of the biggest wrestlers in the world in the ninety's as WWE's Razor Ramon and as a founding member of the nWo. But personal problems eventually dragged him down and no matter how many second chances he gets, his old ways seem to resurface and cost him his job.

But no matter what, the WWE will always feel haunted by the Chris Benoit tragedy. Ever since then, the WWE has made strides to calm their product down to the point that some long-time fans see it as being barely recognizable. Gone are the pg-13 promos, now replaced by goofy insults and slightly threatening verses. Gone are the hardcore antics like chair-shots to the head, hardcore matches and blood; now replaced by weak chairshots to the back and very unimpressive ladder, elimination chamber, and hell in cell matches. And gone are any storylines that could conceivably be construed as controversial; replaced by the same rehashed storylines that make the WWE suffer as a whole. But these PG measures needed to be taken as the WWE feels the need to stay clean to keep investors and to make new fans.

But long-term wrestling fans aren't going to be too excited about the word wrestling taken out of the wrestling business. Young fans will grow up not knowing what wrestling even is. And fans of the older generations will be sitting in front of the TV saying things like "in my day, there was wrestling. There was blood and real storylines". Those things may be of the past. Removing the word wrestling removes the history of the business. Now we have three unidentifiable letters. Fact of the matter is that professional wrestling is being called an action soap opera by the WWE. That just seems like a slap in the face to wrestling fans. It takes a once-manly form of a sport and turns it into a men's version of General Hospital. Not exactly a traditionalists idea of a blood, sweat and tears business that many athletes have sacrificed everything to become a part of.

There are rumors the TNA is trying to push the name IMPACT and rename themselves Impact Championship Wrestling or a version of that. I hope this happens so that at least one organization can keep the wrestling name alive. Because I sure don ’ t want to ask people if they watch sports entertainment or action soap operas. I want to ask them if they are wrestling fans. I want my wrestling back.