WWE announcers have adopted the habit of using full names over pronouns, and former Superstar Maven explained the reason behind such practice.
WWE executive Bruce Prichard previously noted that Vince McMahon had instructed announcers to refer to talents by their names while calling matches.
Maven said, “No pronouns allowed. What they’re referring to is WWE is a brand and they want their talent to be branded. So rather than saying, ‘He shoots him off, and he gives them a clothesline,’ they want their announcers to use names, they want their names to mean something. So, rather than saying, ‘He enters the ring,’ they want, ‘John Cena enters the ring.’ Rather than, ‘he gave a good Superkick,’ they’d do, ‘Shawn Michaels with the Superkick.’ That’s all they mean by that.”
He continued, “Even during my time, it was the exact same. They wanted Batista to be bigger than life. They wanted Ric Flair to be the star. They wanted Kane, they wanted Trish Stratus, they wanted those names to come off of people’s tongues effortlessly. Why? Because if you say their names and you know their names, rather than using a pronoun, it’s going to help the show altogether.”
