Vickie Guerrero Confirms Trademark Ownership Of Popular Catchphrase
While a lot of success in pro wrestling is predetermined and put together by careful planning, some things work out by complete and utter accident. A great example of this is Vickie Guerrero's use of her "Excuse me" catchphrase, a pair of words that have become so synonymous with her due to her unique delivery of them that she went ahead and trademarked it.
In an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, Guerrero revealed that the catchphrase came about after she had been having a tough time preparing for a promo on "WWE Raw." Guerrero recalled the promo changed several times throughout the day, and the changes led to her blanking on what to say next live on television. "Excuse me", according to Guerrero, was a defensive line, which she used after noticing fans were jeering her.
"Our wrestling fans are incredibly intelligent when they know something is wrong. They guessed it," Guerrero said. "You can hear people saying in the front row 'You forgot your lines. You don't belong here.' I was sweating and nervous. I wanted for Teddy [Long] to just take me backstage, I just wanted to go home," she added. "They were yelling, throwing fingers at me, horrible gestures. I was a heel, people hated me, so that was easy for them," she continued. "And I just yelled 'Excuse me!' And they roared back at me, and I said it again ... I got out of it, but nothing was produced from that whole segment."
Guerrero admitted that she wasn't convinced "Excuse me" had legs. However, she continued to use it at the insistence of WWE's writers. "The writers said 'Hey, just use excuse me again,'" Guerrero said. "I said 'It's not going to work. It was a fluke.' Every week, we wrote in 'Excuse me,' and that's how I started getting my entrance. Seventeen years later, I've trademarked it, and it's mine now. I'm pretty proud of how that progress has carried with me."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Pro Wrestling Illustrated and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription