fg
Unicron
Gaming
Posts: 2,986
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Post by fg on Apr 24, 2022 12:44:59 GMT -5
My how time flies. I remember how crazy it was that the company changed their name in 2002. It was weird calling the company WWE instead of WWF. I had been a fan for the better part of 15 years at that point.
Now, for the most part of my fandom, the company has been known as WWE. Crazy.
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Bo Rida
Fry's dog Seymour
Pulled one over on everyone. Got away with it, this time.
Posts: 23,589
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Post by Bo Rida on Apr 24, 2022 14:20:26 GMT -5
And people still pretend not to know it's changed, or maybe assume their audience won't.
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Fade
Patti Mayonnaise
Posts: 38,294
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Post by Fade on Apr 24, 2022 14:26:49 GMT -5
And people still pretend not to know it's changed, or maybe assume their audience won't. There’s still outliers. But I think the majority of the population are now aware of it as “WWE”. I’m still not used to it lol.one thing I loved about WWF was the whole thing could be said out loud (i.e “I will become the World Wrestling Federation Champion!”) and it sounded natural. You can’t do that with “World Wrestling Entertainment”. It’s weird. I even get irked when the captions on peacock spell out “wwe” when someone of the past says “wwf”. I get it lol..but still.
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Post by cornettesracket on Apr 24, 2022 14:38:12 GMT -5
Twenty years ? It’s amazing where time goes. Being from Ireland I don’t recall hearing anything about the court case which necessitated the name change but I remember going online and typing wwf.com into the browser and I remember it changing to WWE.com and it had the “get the F out” banner. I found it very strange for years after because of me WWE didn’t flow imo as wwf did. And we had the years of horrible editing on scratch logo era WWE which with the network thankfully was changed back.
I don’t when talking about for example Bruno sammartino refer to him as a WWE champion because like be real he wasn’t and never worked for the company under that name.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 27,989
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Post by chazraps on Apr 24, 2022 14:42:43 GMT -5
And people still pretend not to know it's changed, or maybe assume their audience won't. I genuinely don't think anyone is pretending not to know and deliberately making that error. Pro-wrestling is/was so divorced from so many lives at this point / by that point, it's an easy mistake to make.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2022 14:57:08 GMT -5
I don’t when talking about for example Bruno sammartino refer to him as a WWE champion because like be real he wasn’t and never worked for the company under that name. On a similar note WWE Shop has rereleased the classic title belts (Winged Eagle, Dual Plated Tags, IC, etc) with the WW Block logo instead of the WWF Block logo and that drives me insane as well.
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Post by Super Nintenjoe KBD on Apr 24, 2022 15:02:18 GMT -5
Probably, in retrospect, the day everything started going downhill. I know the InVasion wasn't great and 2002 started weird, but it was really never the same again after this even though there would be some good moments to come.
Edit: Thinking about it, it's like the macroversion of when for whatever reason they shorten a wrestler's name and to Vince it's like "ah nobody will care", when as a viewer like me it's impossible to buy into his universe when you know a major part of someone's character like a name can just change on the whim of a real life madman or some legal trademark motivation that has nothing to do with the character in storyline. I know WWF had no choice but to change the name, but as a fan it was still like "wait, 'WWF' is GONE?? WFT!?". WWE never had the same meaning.
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Post by AKIMan64 on Apr 24, 2022 15:34:11 GMT -5
2002 felt like such a drastic shift from 2000 & 2001. In wrestling, WCW & ECW get bought out leaving the WWF (now WWE) as the only mainstream company in the states Meanwhile, in sports, the NBC gives up its NBA coverage over to ABC. Then there was a shakeup in the Saturday morning lineup with 4Kids replacing the Fox Kids block as a result of the Disney purchase, with all of the leftovers migrating over to ABC Family/ABC Kids. Lastly, in video games, the sixth generation era consoles gets into full gear with the PS2, X-Box, and the Nintendo Gamecube to replace the N64. Weird.
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Post by eJm on Apr 24, 2022 16:39:49 GMT -5
I’m honestly still in awe that Vince McMahon, a guy that even now specializes in doing things low key and strategic (especially with other promotions for the most part) decided to try and go against a established mutually agreed to agreement, ignoring his lawyer basically saying it was a losing battle, all for some kind of pride about the use of a name in the one context he couldn’t in Europe. And for what? A brand change that has only really established itself in the last, like, 5-7 years in the mainstream?
Like, it’s probably the most un-Vince thing Vince ever did.
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MiLB Fan
Fry's dog Seymour
Posts: 20,397
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Post by MiLB Fan on Apr 24, 2022 21:43:41 GMT -5
True story: I gave the World Wildlife Fund the award for “Most Hated Group of the Year” in Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Unofficial Awards for 2002. And to my surprise, the magazine published it.
I don’t remember if I knew about the 1994 agreement before then or not; I may have learned about it from the Apter mags. And if you’re familiar with PWI’s Unofficial Awards, you know that the magazine encourages readers to be outrageous and creative with their awards. Well, that certainly was.
I’m just glad that we can enjoy classic matches without the blurry logos and “the WW(mute) champion” in most cases. To this day, I still think of the wrestling company when I see one of the Fund’s commercials on TV and hear “double you double you eff.” Sorry, panda people.
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Post by Heeltown, USA on Apr 24, 2022 22:02:54 GMT -5
I’m honestly still in awe that Vince McMahon, a guy that even now specializes in doing things low key and strategic (especially with other promotions for the most part) decided to try and go against a established mutually agreed to agreement, ignoring his lawyer basically saying it was a losing battle, all for some kind of pride about the use of a name in the one context he couldn’t in Europe. And for what? A brand change that has only really established itself in the last, like, 5-7 years in the mainstream? Like, it’s probably the most un-Vince thing Vince ever did. The move goes against everything modern day Vince, but saying “f*** it, Im Vince McMahon” is exactly what Vince’s business ego was after 2001
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Post by smokinvokoun86 on Apr 25, 2022 0:10:15 GMT -5
The name WWE still sucks to this day. There’s so much weight to the name “World Wrestling Federation”. Saying someone is the WWF Champion feels more impactful or powerful than saying someone is the WWE Champion.
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Post by eJm on Apr 25, 2022 2:13:40 GMT -5
I’m honestly still in awe that Vince McMahon, a guy that even now specializes in doing things low key and strategic (especially with other promotions for the most part) decided to try and go against a established mutually agreed to agreement, ignoring his lawyer basically saying it was a losing battle, all for some kind of pride about the use of a name in the one context he couldn’t in Europe. And for what? A brand change that has only really established itself in the last, like, 5-7 years in the mainstream? Like, it’s probably the most un-Vince thing Vince ever did. The move goes against everything modern day Vince, but saying “f*** it, Im Vince McMahon” is exactly what Vince’s business ego was after 2001 …considering the first XFL as a whole, that actually checks.
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Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Apr 25, 2022 2:18:36 GMT -5
And people still pretend not to know it's changed, or maybe assume their audience won't. I was one of those douchebags back in the day. I think it was like 3+ years before I started calling it WWE. I checked out for a couple months after Benoit, I think it was when I started watching again after that that I started calling it WWE.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Apr 25, 2022 3:44:54 GMT -5
Twenty years ? It’s amazing where time goes. Being from Ireland I don’t recall hearing anything about the court case which necessitated the name change but I remember going online and typing wwf.com into the browser and I remember it changing to WWE.com and it had the “get the F out” banner. I found it very strange for years after because of me WWE didn’t flow imo as wwf did. And we had the years of horrible editing on scratch logo era WWE which with the network thankfully was changed back. I don’t when talking about for example Bruno sammartino refer to him as a WWE champion because like be real he wasn’t and never worked for the company under that name. Bruno was WWWF champion in both of his reigns. The company didnt become WWF until Backlunds reign.
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Post by The Thread Barbi on Apr 25, 2022 6:29:07 GMT -5
Vince goes into this with the Pat McAfee Show interview.
He basically didn't know who the other WWF were and thought as the case was contested in England, he had no hope of winning it.
However, it took him all of 30 mins to decide to "get the F out" and moved on to other things he needs to do.
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hassanchop
Grimlock
Who are you to doubt Belldandy?
Posts: 14,796
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Post by hassanchop on Apr 25, 2022 6:53:36 GMT -5
It’s also almost 20 years since JR threw out Hayes’ ponytail
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Post by eJm on Apr 25, 2022 7:14:14 GMT -5
Vince goes into this with the Pat McAfee Show interview. He basically didn't know who the other WWF were and thought as the case was contested in England, he had no hope of winning it. I mean, if he didn't know about the World Wildlife Fund when they settled on the agreement in 1994 which Vince mostly ignored and kept promoting World Wrestling Federation as WWF in Europe and hoped they'd ignore it, hence leading to him losing the lawsuit, I could absolutely believe that was the case.
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Eunös ✈
Dalek
Duck Feet Expert
Tolerated, just not practically liked.
Posts: 59,201
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Post by Eunös ✈ on Apr 25, 2022 12:42:39 GMT -5
I still remember casually logging onto WWF.com that day and seeing "WWE" everywhere, I was seriously like "What the f***?!!".
Yeah it did take awhile for me to get use to but now I don't even really think about it anymore.
It's now been WWE a lot longer than it was WWF in my lifetime. I was 17 when the name change happened and now I'm 37.
I admit I'm sometimes guilty of calling pre WWE stuff WWE simply because it's the name I'm use to now.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Apr 25, 2022 15:15:50 GMT -5
I remember thinking at the time, and even now, that is was awesome that Hulk Hogan was the last WWF Champion and the first WWE Champion. Like... that's just poetic.
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