WWE has increased its use of the term “professional wrestling” since Vince McMahon’s resignation in January 2024. At the end of WWE WrestleMania 40, announcer Corey Graves declared that “pro wrestling is back.”
Following the event, Ibou of WrestlePurists.com wrote on Twitter/X, “Spoke to someone from WWE who told me that the promotion is deliberately moving away from the terminology of Sports Entertainment.”
Corey Brennan of Fightful.com later wrote, “Fightful Select was able to confirm @BackupHangman’s report that WWE are intentionally looking to move away from the Sports Entertainment moniker and back to pro wrestling.”
A list of guidelines and “banned” terms for WWE’s promotional partners was obtained in 2021, leading up to WrestleMania 36. The list went on to say: “Sports Entertainment and Superstars were preferred terms over ‘wrestling’ and ‘wrestlers.'” The terms “wrestling” and “wrestlers” were considered “banned” by the company.
Spoke to someone from WWE who told me that the promotion is deliberately moving away from the terminology of Sports Entertainment.
— Ibou, of WrestlePurists (@BackupHangman) April 8, 2024
