Vince McMahon runs a tight ship.
From the way the WWE markets its Superstars to its soap opera-like storylines, larger-than-life pay-per-view events and continued impact on pop culture, the WWE Chairman and CEO has his finger on the pulse of everything World Wrestling Entertainment does, even how the announcers call matches.
On Wednesday (July 8), Deadspin caught hold of McMahon's rules for his WWE announcers from a few years ago thanks to an alleged leak. McMahon's rules, over eight pages of notes, show how calculated the company wants to be with the information it lets out on the air.
Announcers should look directly into the camera at times, should prepare notes but never read from a script on-air, be equipped with personable knowledge about WWE Superstars to share with viewers, avoid being crude, particularly about the Divas, enhance their experience and vary the intensity of their tone of voice during different points of the match are just some of McMahon's zingers toward his announcers.
Although those are just some of McMahon's general, broad-stroke rules, the WWE CEO also got into specifics with these allegedly-leaked notes, including: imploring announcers to speak directly to the audience and call them "you" instead of "fans," to use "Superstar" over "pro-wrestler" and to never refer to WrestleMania as the "grandaddy of them all" because it makes the annual mega pay-per-view "feel old." In other rules, he also demands that announcers have fun because if they don't feel any excitement, the WWE Universe won't either, and that they should dress to impress.
These allegedly-leaked rules only help further explain the stress that a WWE announcer experiences. In speaking with Sports Illustrated prior to WrestleMania 31 this past March, WWE veteran announcer Michael Cole tried to explain the chaos behind calling a WWE pay-per-view or even Monday Night Raw, for that matter.
"People think I sit down in a chair and I look at the ring and say, "Okay there are two guys fighting and this is what they are doing" and call the match. That is, and I swear to God, so far from the truth," Cole told SI. "I sit down and in my headset when I am calling Monday Night Raw for three hours, I have my executive producer, I hear my audio technician, I hear whoever is producing us backstage whether it is Mr. McMahon or Triple H or whoever it may be at the time. I also have two guys I have to listen to that I am working with so we can have a conversation on the air.
"So at any given time I have my voice, the two guys at ring side, audio, the executive producer and whoever is producing that night," he continued. "So I sometimes have six voices in my head at once while we are on the air on live television."
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