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Report: WWE is intentionally looking to move away from the term “Sports Entertainment”

Aaron Rift

Since the resignation of Vince McMahon in January of 2024, WWE has been using the term “professional wrestling” more frequently. At the end WWE Wrestlemania 40, announcer Corey Graves said that “pro wrestling is back.”

After the event, Ibou of WrestlePurists.com wrote via 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.”

In 2021, a list was obtained of guidelines and “banned” terms for WWE’s promotional partners heading into Wrestlemania 36. The list stated that “Sports Entertainment and Superstars were preferred terms over ‘wrestling’ and ‘wrestlers.'” “Wrestling” and “wrestlers” were considered to be “banned” by the company.