Vince McMahon has released new rules when it comes to naming WWE Superstars moving forward.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently touched on the name changes that have been going on within WWE, revealing the roster recently received a memo about Superstar names. Vince McMahon has instructed that he doesn’t want anyone using their real names anymore, or names they used on the indies before WWE.
As noted, WALTER recently had his name changed to Gunther. Also, Raul Mendoza is now Cruz Del Toro as of this past week. However, there’s no news on if he’s being called up to the main roster just yet. Pete Dunne also had his name changed to Butch after being called up to the main roster.
Raquel Gonzalez was also called up to the roster with a name change, now going by Raquel Rodriguez, seemingly being allowed to keep her first name. Of course, there will be obvious exceptions to this rule for the likes of Gable Steveson and Cody Rhodes. But for the likes of Austin Theory, who now goes by simply, Theory, no such luck.
For those who don’t know, the “Austin” from Theory’s name was dropped as his real name is Austin White. There was speculation the change was due to Stone Cold Steve Austin’s involvement in their WrestleMania angle, but this is said to be untrue.
WWE has been pretty weird about changing names randomly for some time now, however, it sounds like they’re getting a lot more strict when it comes to naming their Superstars. What do you think about Vince McMahon and his new naming decree? Sound off in the comments!
