Rants

Wrestlers names

By Scott Keith on February 5, 2019

Hey Scott-

When a wrestler leaves WWE, I know that they obviously can’t use their ring name if it is the IP of the WWE. But how close can they get?

Will we be seeing Gene Lambrose against Mack Jagger in the near future?

Also. When they bring in veterans like Samoa Joe and Ricochet do they attempt to get them to sign over their names or is it a given that they keep it?

If not- that really has to be quite the windfall for some the indie darlings. They are already semi-famous and being able to use the same name they used on raw or smackdown has to help sell tickets at any local show.

Keep up the good work as usual



It's kind of a case-by-case basis. The Dudley Boyz tried to trademark Team 3D (Brother Ray Deadly and Brother D-Von Deadly) when they left for TNA and that one turned into a legal snafu for them until we got the toned-down version that they ended up with. And sometimes the issue is whether WWE can even claim trademark on ideas like "evil clown". Usually, the general rule is that if you're just working indy shows as "the former WWE star Big Cass" or something like that, they don't begrudge someone the chance to make a living and you can get reasonably close to the original idea, but if it's going to be an active threat to their business, lawyers get involved and shut it down.

Comments are disable in preview.