WWE quirks, linguistic and otherwise

[Bix]

Loss and I were talking about this on IM and he noticed a good one in addition to the buzzwords like medical facility/physicality/championship/antagonist/WWE Universe/Superstars/Divas etc:

 

When a heel is asked a question by an interviewer, he always repeats the question:

 

Interviewer: "Can you explain your actions?"

Superstar: "Explain my actions?"

 

So, what else?

[Loss]

* No announcer enthusiasm

* No cable ropes

* No time calls

* No referees with names

 

Also, lying about what town they're in if they don't think the town sounds big enough is funny.

[Loss]

Oh, managers are too Southern.

[sek69]

Not so much a WWE quirk, but I never noticed until last night how Layla pronounces it "Deever" instead of "Diva". I know she's got an accent and all but it's like her version of Regal always referring to "Triple Haitch".

 

 

Also it's funny when the commentators start speaking like Vince, like using "be that as it may" as a bridge from one train of thought to another when calling a match.

 

Don't forget they aren't straps or belts, but championships.

[Bix]

Chops remind people too much of Ric Flair, so they're banned, except if you're Oriental. Then it's ok.

[Bix]

Also it's funny when the commentators start speaking like Vince, like using "be that as it may" as a bridge from one train of thought to another when calling a match.

The authorities!

[sek69]

There was that period where JR worked "surcease" into every main event match, which never sounded like a word someone like JR would use in those occasions.

[rovert]

Lawler repeating and rephrasing the "funny bit" after a skit as a question to Cole. He did it twice tonight.

 

Does any announcer have a racial quirk like Rogan's "explosive" and "athletic"?

[sek69]

Black wrestlers are always the best "pure athletes" it seems.

 

 

Also Lawler having to make a choking noise every time someone gets grabbed by the throat.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

I noticed that directly after the Benoit incident they tried to avoid any death references, to the point of Cena talking about his "never say quit" attitude and Orton telling Dusty, "You're a legend, and I'm the legend...you know what."

[Johnny Sorrow]

* No referees with names

Unless you're Kane, who always loudly calls the refs by their first names during matches, ala : "Come on, Charles!"

 

Our old favorite from the late 90's was "collusion". Somebody was always either in collusion or suspected of being in collusion.

[Guest Cerebus The Aardvark]

Also, lying about what town they're in if they don't think the town sounds big enough is funny.

Not to derail, but plenty of "sports" (or games) do this. Saying your event is in Washington, D.C. is a lot better than whatever random suburb 95% of the country has never heard of from a marketing standpoint.

 

Unless you mean something like that they're in, say, Harrisburg, PA and say they're in Philly or Pittsburgh instead, which a a whole different level.

[sek69]

They do the name thing a lot in the midwest. They'll say something like "RAW tonight live in Illinois" instead of whatever town not Chicago they happen to be in.

[Jingus]

They get even worse abroad. "Live from England!" because they thought the name Birmingham sounded crappy for whatever reason. Or how many foreign wrestlers often never get specific hometowns: Tajiri was just from "Japan".

 

Speaking of wrestlers with just one name: why do they do that with the divas more often than with the dudes? You get your occasional Sheamus, but mostly it's always the women who are reduced to single-word names.

[sek69]

It's even more odd considering that Sheamus's worked last name was O'Shaunessy, which you'd think Vince would have marked for since he loves all things Irish.

[ohtani's jacket]

They get even worse abroad. "Live from England!" because they thought the name Birmingham sounded crappy for whatever reason. Or how many foreign wrestlers often never get specific hometowns: Tajiri was just from "Japan".

I don't see what Tamana, Kumamoto means even to hardcore fans, and Birmingham is pretty infamous for its crappiness.

[sek69]

They get even worse abroad. "Live from England!" because they thought the name Birmingham sounded crappy for whatever reason. Or how many foreign wrestlers often never get specific hometowns: Tajiri was just from "Japan".

I don't see what Tamana, Kumamoto means even to hardcore fans, and Birmingham is pretty infamous for its crappiness.

 

 

So is Cleveland, but they still announce the Miz from there.

[Dan]

It's even more odd considering that Sheamus's worked last name was O'Shaunessy, which you'd think Vince would have marked for since he loves all things Irish.

Too long, I would guess. Wrestling is designed for kids and, well, not very smart adults. Same reason there can't be two wrestlers with the same first name on the roster (see Garrison Cade). That's probably helpful for the announcers as well. Remember when JR would think Chris Jericho was Chris Benoit every week?

[MJH]

They don't even trust the crowd to understand how to pronounce Seamus (hence the "h"), and expect a very obviously Irish surname?

[ohtani's jacket]

They get even worse abroad. "Live from England!" because they thought the name Birmingham sounded crappy for whatever reason. Or how many foreign wrestlers often never get specific hometowns: Tajiri was just from "Japan".

I don't see what Tamana, Kumamoto means even to hardcore fans, and Birmingham is pretty infamous for its crappiness.

 

 

So is Cleveland, but they still announce the Miz from there.

 

Presumably, Cleveland means something to US fans that Birmingham doesn't.

[artDDP]

The Undertaker's "symbol."

[Log]

Tonight on NXT, during the Summerslam recap, I loved Josh talking about Kane's tombstone that sent the Undertaker to "his place of torment".

[sek69]

Tonight on NXT, during the Summerslam recap, I loved Josh talking about Kane's tombstone that sent the Undertaker to "his place of torment".

 

As a subset of that, it's apparently OK for souls to go go hell (Kane and Taker have both said it numerous times) but saying a person will go to hell is a no-no.

[Dan]

The Undertaker's "symbol."

That came to mind. I think that was more a self-censoring thing, rather than WWE jargon. In either case, also from that era: the blood in Gangrel's goblet was always called "that viscous red liquid."

[Jingus]

Is there anything resembling an "official" list of banned moves? Chops, piledrivers, choking, certain top-rope moves, and established finishers all seem to be on there. But it's pretty confusing, since you'll often see someone doing one of the banned moves at some point or another, and sometimes it seems like they forget that a move is supposed to be off-limits. I remember Chris Harris bitching about that from his infamous cameo as Braden Walker, supposedly they told him so many moves he wasn't allowed to do that he just brainlocked and threw nothing but clotheslines once he got out there.

 

As a subset of that, it's apparently OK for souls to go go hell (Kane and Taker have both said it numerous times) but saying a person will go to hell is a no-no.

Unless it's Eddie Guerrero. Apparently it's okay to explicitly state that he's suffering in eternal damnation and hellfire, because "Eddy was a worker and would have understood" or something like that.