Terrible Wrestling Names of Late
 

WWE has been coming up with some pretty horrible fucking names for their new wrestlers. Like, really really bad names, and frankly, I do not understand why they do this sort of shit. Before they would just add extra letters to people's names (RhYno, TazZ), now they're just coming up with horrible names all together.

Take Jack Swagger for instance. How can I take a guy seriously whose last name is apparently "Swagger," who is also not a pirate, and is not a black rapper. It's just a terrible name for someone who you want to push to the main event. It's like the name itself is trying too hard to be cool. The guy's real name is Jake Hager, which in my opinion is a perfectly acceptable name for a professional wrestler. But no, they call him Jack Swagger instead.

And then there's "Sheamus," which is just about the least intimidating Irish name I've ever heard. I'm not saying it's a completely awful name like Jack Swagger, but they certainly could've done better than Sheamus.

R-Truth. The guy's name is RON KILLINGS! Just about the greatest God given professional wrestling name you could ever possibly ask for, and they decide to take away the dude's last name all together and call him R-Truth instead. How in the fuck is "R-Truth" better than Ron "The Truth" Killings?! Fuck! He'd probably be a main event by now if they had called him Ron Killings instead of R-Truth!

Dolph Ziggler is a pretty horrendous name for a wrestler. How can a guy with the last name "Ziggler" ever headline a WrestleMania? It's just ridiculous. And the dude's real name is "Nick Nemeth;" not a GREAT wrestling name, but definitely a million times better than Dolph Ziggler. Hell, Anything Ziggler! Dolph isn't even that terrible of a first name for a wrestler, but Ziggler?! It sounds like that computer game where you make the worm eat through the dirt without hitting any walls.

And flipping Bryan Danielson's name into Daniel Bryan... I just don't even know where to go with that. What a pointless exercise in pointless exercises, changing a guy's last name with his first name because... why? What sense does that make? None. That's what sense it makes.

Enough with the terrible names already, WWE, for fuck's sake.

http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/s...0ROH/IBY2J.png
Is an Awesome Picture.

Anyways, I love the names Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler. Neither is really more ridiculous than "The Big Show".

I agree with R-Truth.

Don't care about the whole Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan thing. Its all the same. (Except one they can copyright).

I'm not a fan of most wrestlers, male or female, that are only known by a first name. There are one or two people who escape this rule, but the Tiffany's and Maria's and Layla's are just.... bland.

Sheamus is one I actually have grown to like. He's got the unique spelling of it. I dunno, something about it works. I decided I liked it when JR referred to him as "the man simply known as Sheamus" in one of his blogs. It's like the dude is so bad-ass he doesn't need a last name. Like Omar from The Wire (although he had one). He's just Omar to people.

Jack Swagger has grown on me, too. At first I thought it was stupid compared to "Jake Hager," especially when they try to put over his real-life accomplishments. The same goes for Nick Nemeth. It's all about trademarking. Although I think the wrestler becomes bigger than the name, especially when it is just a name and not so much a moniker owned by the performer, I can understand why the WWE doesn't want "Jake Hager" to be a household name before he goes to TNA. Even though Hager is the star and not "Swagger," if that makes sense.

I think it would benefit the WWE to hold back on renaming some wrestlers. Especially considering I think Nick Nemeth is quite a bad-ass real name for a wrestler to have. I think Dolph Ziggler was meant to be a joke that got elevated due to Nemeth's work. I could one day see him dumping the Dolph Ziggler name, ala John Morrison getting rid of "Johnny Nitro."

Dunno why WWE just give Daniel Bryan his real name after that promo he had when he was eliminated weeks ago. And i agree w/ R-Truth and the Ziggler names....But at least R-Truth is better then K Kwik, lol..

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Jack Swagger should be pitching me Old Spice Body Wash.

Im in the ring. Now I hit my finishing move. You just got pinned. Now Im in the back banging your GF. Thats Swagger.

or something like that.

I like Jack Swagger :$

It is a common name...... Maybe only 1 in wrestling, but about 20 in my school.

<font color=goldenrod>You can't copyright someone's real name, and WWE likes to hold copyrights in the event that the person ends up becoming a huge success and then later gets future endeavored, so they can't use that name anymore. Very rarely do WWE bring somebody in and allow them to use their real name unless they were already highly established by working under their real name (Benwho, Guerrero, etc.) and despite what you might say, no, Bryan Danielson was in no way, shape, or form as established as those guys were to warrant such a treatment.

That promo when Daniel Bryan was eliminated from NXT about "well Daniel Bryan may be done, but Bryan Danielson has a ways to go" was more or less a cocktease. NXT seems to be geared towards the IWC anyway, so referencing his real name is sort of just a "tip of the cap". Yeah I'd love to see him continue his worked shoot promos about how he "wasn't made by the WWE machine" and decide to use his real name, but it's not going to happen.

This practice of re-naming guys so that they hold the copyright seems to have come into effect in the past few years. Cena and Batista debuted under their real names, but Swagger and Ziggler didn't. It makes you wonder - if Cena were to debut nowadays, he may have been given a new name by default.</font>

Ya I think they only started this policy of not using real names a few years ago. I remember a bunch of developmental guys all of a sudden getting their names changed at once. When these guys get released, why can't WWE just allow them to use the names they got over with outside WWE? WWE has such a monopoly on wrestling, do they really need to worry about Ken Anderson using Mr. Kennedy in TNA and such?

I remember Billy Kidman not being allowed to use that name outside. Give these guys a break, let them earn some money.

I also don't like how the young Dibiase is called Ted Dibiase, instead of Ted Dibiase Jr. I think the junior adds a bit to the character. I thought the same when Rey Mysterio Jr. simply became Rey Mysterio once he came to WWE.

I don't really like R-Truth. I'd rather be it Ron Killings, or R-Killings or something. Maybe cause WWE is PG now so they cant say the word KILLINGS!

And if WWE is PG, how can there be a Rated R Superstar?

Ron Truth

I'm so with you on Swagger but his real name is not much better it's a big part of the reason I haven't bought into him he should have randomly changed it like Morrison.

As for Sheamus I can't help but wonder why they dropped his last name that he used in FCW which was O'Shaunessey to me that is a very celtic souding name.

R-Truth well I don't mind this name but I like his character more when he was K-Kwik his entrance and music was so much better GET ROWDY!

Dolph Ziggler I think is a great name for midcarder but i'd have to agree that in the main event scene it doesn't seem very imposing but then again I could go back to the first guy mentioned.

Alright lastly Daniel Bryan I have to agree with this one was almost under the impression that they simply didn't to use his real name and wanted to at least go with something close to it.

It all comes down copyright. I think I remember reading/hearing somewhere that at some point Heyman offered ECW guys the chance to buy the rights to their names. When Taz and Rhino went to WWE, they obviously didn't wanna hand over the rights to Vince, so since they were decently popular with those names already, they just altered them slightly and copyrighted it as their own.

And as Vito said, real names aren't copyrightable. So unless you were already well known with it, you're getting slapped with a new name that'll be owned by WWE

<font color=goldenrod>The participants for NXT Season 2 is just even more proof that WWE doesn't want guys to come up with their real names at this point.

Two second generation guys - Joe Hennig and one of the Rotundos. It was acknowledged on air that they were both second generation. And yet, Hennig's son is inexplicably named Michael McGillicutty, and Rotundo is Husky Harris.

I think the only reason Rhodes and DiBiase got to use their real names coming up is because they came in with their dads introducing them.</font>

Oh my, they are calling Joe Hennig as Michael McGillicutty yet still acknowledging him as Curt Hennig`s son. That is just stupid.

Well its obvious to the non smart fan that Curt Hennig's real name was Curt McGillicutty!

/obvious

Ok, now it is getting a bit ridiculous. Next generation wrestlers should definitely be allowed to keep their names at the very least. Instantly gets them the slightest bit over.

<font color=goldenrod>Lucky Cannon might just be the worst name I've ever heard. I mean, Johnny Prime seemed like a good wrestling name. He could have kept that and still allowed him to have a "lucky" gimmick.

I dunno. Season 2 will at least rule because of Kaval</font>

I wonder if Palmer Cannon is any relation to Lucky Cannon? hmm..

My God Hennig's name is horrible. Who's fucking idea was that? I was hoping he would get a "Perfect Son" moniker to go with Ted's "Fortunate Son" themed stable thats was rumored.

Husky Harris? Lucky Cannon? Fuck me I hate creative. They want to create new stars and they give them shit names.

Husky Rotundo

Husky is just a terrble name period. Rotundo doesn't exactly roll of the tongue either. But it's miles better than "Husky".

I'm hoping they run with this only to have it planned for Teddy Jr. to intervene after their run on NXT and have them drop the WWE names and reclaim their family's lineage.

...If you have Mr Perfect Curt Henning's son...and you actually ACKNOWLEDGE he is "Mr Perfect's son"...why name him "Michael McGillicutty"?...I mean...why not name him "Michael Henning"? What's the logic behind mentioning he is Curt Henning's son but not having the last name?

indeed

Even if they just named him Joe Perfect or something would have been better.

<font color=goldenrod>Watched the intros for all the NXT rookies over again - for what it's worth, when introducing his rookie, Kofi Kingston makes it clear that "Although he is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Mr. Perfect, this man is going to make his own mark" so I guess we're meant to assume that he purposely changed his name so as to not immediately get saddled with the family name.

If there are still plans for The Fortunate Sons stable once Brett DiBiase heals up, he'll probably simply write off "Michael McGillicutty" as a stage name and go back to Joe Hennig, or Michael Hennig, or something.</font>

I didn't even know about this Michael McGullicutty business until just now. I mean, that should really be my prime example for this thread. Mr. Perfect's son, Joe Hennig, has all the aspects of an awesome professional wrestler (great look, 6'3", 235 lbs, can actually wrestle and a GREAT NAME.) All they need to do is give him a cool nickname to go with his third-generation star name "Joe Hennig," and they've got a built in main eventer.

But that's too easy. No. They have to change his name to Michael McGuillicutty. I mean what the fuck? This is essentially WWE creative shooting a guy in the dick. And you don't shoot a guy in the dick. Ever.

I mean fuck. What if Randy Orton had come in as Gary Greenhorn? Or Ted DiBiase came in as Billy Blabberwood? It's the most retarded thing I've ever seen in regards to WWE naming their wrestlers. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase were allowed to come in with their own names not that long ago; what's different about Joe Hennig?

WWE probably want people believing Mr. Perfect was his real name and they've never heard of anybody with the name Hennig... oh except that one redneck guy that was in WCW.

It's obvious that he's the bastard son of curt hennig and beulah mcgillicutty

...so maybe we'll see the return of Tommy Dreamer and he'll feud with Michael, defending Beulah's "honor".

Yesss!

Agree 100%, the names are terrible. Also, why was Jonny Nitro changed to John Morrison?

Sorry, but I fail to see any logic in that. You need a last name only if you're weak?

WWE Names - Something that has been bothering me
 

There is something about how the WWE hands out names that has been annoying me.

I know this has been discussed on the board before with regard to Joe Hening (Michael McGillicuty), but I was watching NXT on Wed (DVRd) and saw Alex Riley cut an awesome promo. So I googled him to see who his father was etc, and saw his REAL name is Kevin Kiley. That's fine (Alex Riley actually sounds better), but don't sit there and tell me that "Alex Riley" played at BC and his father was a Jet.

Even more insulting was having Michael McGillicuty cut an entire promo about how his father is Curt Henning, and so on. So why change the last name?

You can take is further, nobody named Jack Swasgger ever played football at OU, Jake Hager did.

Kofi Kingston - why is he billed from Ghana? Where did the accent go? Why the Jamaica Titantron?

The list goes on. I know the intitial reaction is, they are actors and the names dont mean anything, however, its not like you hear Charlie Harper claiming to be Martin Sheen's son on 2 1/2 Men.

Just a Rant, but something that has been bugging me.

why is he named the big show? he isn't a show, he's a wrestler!

Wrestling is different.

I agree with you man, sometimes their name choices bug me too. I think some of it has to do with the characters evolving over time, but sometimes the name choices just plain don't make any sense.