Beating words to death

By Scott Keith on 28 January 2020

As someone who works with words and IP laws etc every day as part of my job, I try to cut slack to WWE when it comes to some of their dumbass branding. For example, do I like that every variation on “title shot” or “title match” must now be a “championship opportunity?” No I don’t, but I understand trying to make that the primary, formal term you use to make it seem special (I don’t agree with it, but I understand).

But there is a reason people use a thesaurus – you can’t constantly use the same word over and over and over without it beginning to lose all meaning. And I feel like we’ve reached that event horizon with WWE commentary and the word “opportunity.” I physically cringe now when I hear it. Is this going to be like the word “wrestler” that was instant death for a while until a few people like Daniel Bryan started saying “fuck it, I’m a wrestler” and it got them over? Is Drew McIntyre going to come out and say he wants his “title shot” against Brock to make himself even more of a badass? Or are we stuck with people talking in phrases that normal humans, normal people talking about fighting one another, would ever use?

Until Vince is gone, yeah, we are.