'Some of this footage has been misused in political environments,' the WWE said. WWE scrubbing McMahon-era clips

World Wrestling Entertainment announced late Thursday it was scrubbing some “dated and edgier” footage from its website, a day after its co-founder’s political opponent used clips in an attack ad.

“Some of this footage has been misused in political environments without any context or explanation as to when it was produced,” WWE’s Brian Flinn told The CT Mirror. “This damages the corporate reputation of our company.”


Flinn said the footage’s removal wasn’t related to an ad released Wednesday by Rep. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat running for Senate against WWE co-founder Linda McMahon, a Republican. The ad briefly uses WWE footage while attacking McMahon for allegedly offshoring profits to avoid taxes and failing to provide health coverage for the company’s performers.

WWE said the footage’s removal was part of a rebranding effort. While the WWE had a PG-14 rating for much of the late 1990s and early 2000s — generally called the company’s “Attitude Era,” when Linda was running the company with her husband, Vince McMahon — its current content is rated PG or G, the company said.

“For years WWE has produced programming that is rated PG in prime time, and most recently rated G on Saturday mornings,” Flinn told the Mirror. “To better reflect our current family-friendly brand of entertainment, WWE is removing some dated and edgier footage from digital platforms.”

Since McMahon’s first run for the Senate in 2010, when she lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal, opponents have used WWE footage to criticize the Republican for promoting violence and sexism. The Mirror reports one such clip, in which Vince McMahon orders a female wrestler to strip, get down on all fours and bark like a dog, has been wiped from YouTube.

“This is what Linda McMahon doesn’t want Connecticut voters to see: the sum total of her business experience comes from selling explicit sex and violence to children while laying off 10 percent of her workforce and taking multimillion dollar paydays funded by Connecticut taxpayers,” Murphy spokesman Ben Marter said in a statement. “But spending millions of dollars on a political image make-over isn’t going to fool Connecticut families, and Linda McMahon can’t hide from her miserable record of promoting the abusive, demeaning, and degrading treatment of women. The question is: is the WWE now coordinating with McMahon to cover up her embarrassing past?”

The McMahon campaign dismissed the idea of colluding with the company, of which Vince is now CEO.

“That’s absolutely false,” McMahon spokesman Todd Abrajano said in an interview. “The campaign doesn’t coordinate with the company.”

Abrajano declined to comment about the rest of the statement’s attacks. But earlier this week, McMahon’s campaign told The Associated Press the company expanded its workforce by 30 percent after a restructuring following the layoffs. The “paydays funded by Connecticut taxpayers” are an apparent reference to tax credits WWE said helped create new jobs.

“Chris Murphy’s implication or assertion that WWE is coordinating with Linda McMahon’s U.S. Senate campaign is untrue; to do so would be unlawful and in violation of Federal Election Commission regulations,” WWE spokesman Bob Josephson said in a statement.

Josephson pointed to a 2011 FEC report in which the agency found there was “no reason to believe” the WWE was involved in making corporate contributions to McMahon’s 2010 campaign. The FEC did rule McMahon’s appearance in a Make-A-Wish Foundation ad violated the law, but let it slide. Democrats filed a complaint with the FEC shortly before election day in 2010.

After her expensive loss to Blumenthal in 2010 — she spent $50 million on her campaign — McMahon has retooled her image in 2012, focusing less on her business experience than her life story, often mentioning a bankruptcy she went through early in life. A late August Quinnipiac University poll found McMahon leading Murphy, 49 percent to 46 percent, in the race to replace retiring independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.