When did the WWF become the WWE? Is this something faily recent?
Just within the last couple months. The World Wrestling Federation lost a court case to the World Wildlife Fund (the panda people) regarding the use of the initials WWF. Apparently in the 1980s the two reached an agreement that the wrestling people could use the inititals in the US, but worldwide could not, as the panda people were using them more worldwide than in the US. However, with wrestling’s increased marketing and “manifest destiny” of the world, so to speak, the panda people decided that the original agreement was being broken, went to the courts, and won. So the wrestling people switched to World Wrestling Entertainment, with the lovely ad slogan “get the F out.”
Yes, it is very recent. The World Wrestling Federation lost a court ruling to the World Wildlife Fund over a month ago that said that the latter had the rights to the initials “WWF”.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/17/wrestling.row/index.html
When they got tired of the World Wildlife Federation hounding them. Recently.