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WWE has gone through a ton of changes since opening their doors, but few of those alterations were as big as when they had to change the name of the company. This was quite a moment in pro wrestling history, and a rather complicated legal issue as well.
In 2000, the World Wide Fund for Nature sued the World Wrestling Federation for unfair trade practice, as both parties had been using the “WWF” initials. In May 2002, the World Wrestling Federation officially became World Wrestling Entertainment as they relented to the lawsuit.
During the Mr. McMahon Netflix docuseries, Vince McMahon spoke about WWE changing their name from WWF. He made it clear that this wasn’t “necessarily a good thing” that they had to change their name, after all, it also came with an expensive rebranding campaign.
“When this lawsuit was filed, we tried to fight it, as we do most lawsuits. It looked like, ‘Wait. We’re not gonna win this thing.’ They had, in fact, used the initials WWF long before we did. So it changed from WWF to WWE because we were entertainment. It wasn’t necessarily a good thing that we had to change our name. I didn’t want to change, but you can’t do anything about it. Once something is closed, you have to move on. Whenever there is a failure, and there’ve been a lot of failures in my life, if you allow it to fester like, ‘I wish that would have worked. If I’d have done this, that would’ve worked.’ It’ll drive you nuts. Let it freaking go and think about something positive and work at something positive, not anything that’s negative.”
WWE started the campaign to “Get the F out” in changing from WWF to WWE. In the process of changing the name, initials, and logo, WWE edited references to WWF in archived footage. This caused WWE to hire editors for years to go back and edit the old Attitude Era logo from all the company’s DVD releases.
The series included interviews with Vince McMahon, where he discussed various topics, but it was later said that he isn’t the most reliable narrator. He also had lapses in his memory, like pertaining to Sable’s lawsuit against his company. He also asserted that nobody can understand his thought process. After all, McMahon needed to be reminded about many things that happened during his own life.
Fans did hear Vince’s hot take on The Undertaker’s WrestleMania XXX concussion. He addressed the Chris Benoit tragedy as well, as he made it clear that the situation had nothing to do with steroids.
Fans who haven’t been able to watch the Mr. McMahon docuseries still have plenty of time to watch it. Netflix also makes it very easy to sign up and subscribe for their service, one that will host WWE RAW every week starting in January 2025.
What did you think when the company first changed it's name? Which name do you prefer: WWE or WWF? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
September 30, 2024 10:30 am
