WWE's List of 'Banned Words' For Their WrestleMania Press Conference Will Leave Your Head Spinning

As a publicly traded company and global brand, WWE is very careful when it comes to how their performers and events are described.

As for any company of this size, word choices and phrasing are carefully planned out before being broadcast to millions of people. Long time WWE fans are familiar with some of these choices, as WWE has transitioned to using the term "WWE Universe" in recent years. It's also been years since the company has called their performers "wrestlers" or the championship belts, well, belts.

Now, the Tampa Bay Times has revealed an explicit list of directions that was given to local officials immediately prior to the big press conference there this week that revealed the city will be hosting WrestleMania 36 next year.

Though fans (whoops, the WWE Universe) will be familiar with some of these directions and choices, there are also some directives that will come as a surprise.

When referring to our talent, we ask that you refer to them as WWE Superstars both for the men and women and NOT as "professional wrestlers."

As of March 2016, our female Superstars are NO longer referred to as WWE Divas, so please call them WWE Superstars.

Please refer to our company as WWE and NOT World Wrestling Entertainment.

Please do not refer to our company as "the WWE," but rather just "WWE."

Please do NOT use the term "professional wrestling," instead using WWE or Sports Entertainment to describe our brand (E.G. "We have many WWE fans in the Tampa area" or "I have always been a fan of sports entertainment.")

The WWE Championship or WWE Title are appropriate names for the title. It is not called a "belt" or a "strap."

Of note here is the directive to refrain from calling the company "World Wrestling Entertainment" and to solely refer to the brand by its initials, WWE. Also surprising is that they explicitly wrote to not use the phrase "the WWE" but to simply say "WWE."

Lastly, it's abundantly clear that WWE does not like to be associated with the term professional wrestling, so much so that examples are given on how to describe the product without using that term. Fans will probably roll their eyes at the directive to use the phrase "I have always been a fan of sports entertainment," probably because you'd be hard pressed to find a single wrestling fan on earth who has ever used that phrase.

What do you think about the length to which WWE has gone here to disassociate with the term professional wrestling? Sound off in our comments section.

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