"I absolutely hate it" – WWE legend says Vince McMahon was right to ban word

Vince McMahon banned several words from being said on WWE programming during his 40 years as the company's creative figurehead. John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) recently explained why he agreed with his former boss banning the word "belt."

Triple H replaced McMahon as the main roster's head of creative in 2022. Some previously banned words and phrases, such as "pro wrestling," have been relaxed since Triple H took charge. However, WWE titles are still referred to as "championships" as opposed to "belts."

JBL commentated on hundreds of WWE shows during Vince McMahon's regime. On Something to Wrestle, he criticized people who use the word "belt" to describe a championship:

"I absolutely hate it," JBL said. "These idiots out there, 'Oh, we gotta say belt, we gotta say strap.' Okay, say something that just denigrates the product. I agree completely. A belt keeps up your pants. It's stupid. You wanna do an insider term just to try to get over with your 40 people that respond to you on Twitter? It's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." [31:44 – 32:08]

JBL also addressed why McMahon instructed commentators to use the term "local medical facility" instead of "hospital."

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Michael Cole's role in Vince McMahon's list of banned words

Since 2020, Michael Cole has worked as WWE's Vice President of Announcing. He has also been one of the company's lead play-by-play commentators since the late 1990s.

JBL added that Cole once compiled a list of banned words as part of an "announcers' Bible" for new WWE commentators. He believes the list might be the same one that went viral several years ago:

"I think the list of banned words, I believe, was in that announcers' Bible," JBL said. "I don't know that for sure but there was an announcers' Bible, I believe at one point, that Michael had written." [31:29 – 31:38]

In the same episode, JBL recalled how Vince McMahon fired a promising superstar after he said a "classless" word without permission in a promo.

Do you think the word "belt" should be banned in WWE? Hit the discuss button and let us know.

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Please credit Something to Wrestle and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.