Vickie Guerrero Came Up With ‘Excuse Me’ Catchphrase After Forgetting Her Lines

Vickie Guerrero is a veteran who has consistently supported female wrestlers throughout her career. She is currently the manager of Marina Shafir and Nyla Rose as part of All Elite Wrestling. Prior to that, she enjoyed quite a career in WWE. Guerrero recently revealed she came up with ‘Excuse Me’ catchphrase after forgetting her lines.

While a lot of pro wrestling success is predictable and the result of rigorous planning, some things happen by pure accident. Vickie Guerrero’s usage of the words “Excuse me,” which have become synonymous with her because of her unique delivery, is a prime example of this. She even went so far as to trademark the phrase.

Guerrero explained in an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated that her famous catchphrase was born out of her struggle to prepare for a promo on WWE Raw. She recalled that the promo was altered numerous times throughout the day, which caused her to lose her train of thought when speaking on-air. Guerrero claimed that she used the defensive line “excuse me” after realizing that she was being jeered by the crowd.

Our wrestling fans are incredibly intelligent when they know something is wrong. They guessed it. 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.

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The writers said ‘Hey, just use excuse me again,’ 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.

Guerrero acknowledged that she didn’t think “Excuse me” had much of a chance. However, she kept using it because WWE’s writers insisted on it. You can watch the full interview below.

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