What’s the story?
According to Cage Side Seats, WWE is going to be giving new signees new names, regardless of whether they are established talents or not.
In case you didn’t know...
After the arrival of Samoa Joe to NXT, WWE has been very lenient in letting established talents from outside keep their names in WWE.
Some of the examples of this include Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Roderick Strong and Eric Young. On the main roster, AJ Styles and Karl Anderson are two established talents who got to keep their original ring names when going to WWE.
The reason WWE want talent to take up new names is so that they can apply for a trademark for these names. The trademark benefits them as they can use it on merchandise, among other things.
Also read: WWE News: WWE recently applied for trademarks on big batch of new wrestlers
Two big names who many felt would have been able to keep their names had they come in a few months later are Finn Balor and Hideo Itami. Balor went by the ring name “Prince Devitt” prior to joining WWE while Itami was named “Kenta” all throughout his career in Japan.
They were the two names with the biggest hype joining NXT at the time. An argument can be made for Kevin Owens as well, as he created a huge buzz when coming into NXT. Owens was previously known as “Kevin Steen” (his real name) during his career in the indies.
The heart of the matter
The notion that WWE is going to be giving new names to new talent came about when two recent WWE signees, Tommy End and Big Damo got new names. Tommy End was renamed “Aleister Black”, while Damo was renamed “Killian Dain”.
Damo has already made an appearance twice on NXT television, and he was referred to by the name “Damo” both times. For a vast majority of new signees, a name change is mandated. It looks like that will start happening for future established talent coming in as well.
What’s next?
WWE will continue to get more aggressive in renaming all new talents, including established talents. However, it may just be a deal breaker for some of them.
Sportskeeda’s take
From a business standpoint, WWE has more to gain by this move. For the most part, it shouldn't be a problem for WWE except for a few outside talents who have already established their identities.
Regardless, it should be extremely interesting given that there are a few rumoured big names coming to WWE in 2017 such as Adam Cole, Kyle O’ Reilly, Ricochet etc.
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