Professional wrestling organisation.
On May 6th 2002, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment debuted a long-rumoured change of corporate identity, the first such change since the change from the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) in 1979.
The change was forced by WWFE's defeat in a London court of a lawsuit brought by the World Wide Fund For Nature (known until 1990 as the World Wildlife Fund in Europe and still known by that name in the USA). According to the ruling, WWFE was guilty of violating an agreement reached between the two organisations whereby both would continue to use the acronym WWF, but in which the wrestling organisation would not attempt to use the WWF name in any expansion or diversification outside wrestling. In particular, the success of the WWF.Com internet site (itself one of the top 20 most visited sites on the entire Internet) was named as a major factor in the Fund's decision to serve the suit.
The change from WWF(E) to WWE was backed up by a campaign both on the Federation's TV shows and the internet which used as its slogan 'WWE: Get The F Out'.
This change in corporate identity was the fourth since Vince McMahon bought the company from his father over two decades ago. Bringing the WWWF under the banner of his own Titan Sports company and renaming it the WWF was the first. In 1999 Titan Sports was renamed World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc, and in April 2002 the WWF was 'split' into two distinct brands - WWF Raw and WWF Smackdown. This 'brand extension' was regarded by most as a failure, mainly due to the failure to properly split the company and poor storyline writing featuring wrestlers 'crossing over' between shows, thus muddying the public's perception of the two brands as seperate entities.
Interestingly, the new logo which replaces the famous 'scratch' logo, the symbol of
WWF Attitude is nothing more than a poor
Photoshop retouch. Simply removing the two cross strokes of the 'F' to leave two 'W's
piggy-backing on top of each other does not a new logo make. However, as I'm sure Vince would tell you, WWE is now the only game in town - so WW just about sums it up...