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Post by SirLucas on Apr 1, 2022 10:42:47 GMT -5
In recent times, WWE has a tendency to shorten the names of certain performers. For instance, Antonio Cesaro, Alexander Rusev, Buddy Murphy and Matt Riddle were all changed to Ceasaro, Rusev, Murphy and Riddle.
Then I was thinking back to the Ruthless Aggression Era where the renaming of talent started to take off. Here are some of the more peculiar renamings I could think of.
The Big Bossman becomes The Bossman. This was during Ray Traylor's final run in the company in early 2002. The only reason I can think of as to why the "Big" in the Big Bossman was mysteriously removed from his moniker was maybe Vince felt there couldn't be two people named Big anymore, since Paul Wight had been using Big Show for a few years at that point.
Val Venis becomes The Big Valbowski. There was another 2002 stink. Val was returning after a long hiatus since RTC disbanded and reprised his porn star gimmick. He was still Val Venis at the Royal Rumble and some of the following tv. Then after the 2002 draft, he showed up on Smackdown with the nickname he used to describe his genitalia. During this time, he was no longer referred to as Val Venis on air. This was short lived as he was moved back to Raw as Cheif Morley, then back to Val Venis until he left the company.
Lance Cade becomes Garrison Cade. I always felt Lance Cade has a good ring to it for the cowboy gimmick, especially since both names were one syllable words. He worked the house show loop at Lance, but when he got called to TV, it was changed to Garrison. Garrison Cade sounded longwinded compared to Lance Cade. I guess it was another situation like Gregory Helms where there couldn't be two Shanes on TV. At least Gregory was Hurricane's legal first name. It seems like they just pulled Garrison out of a hat and assigned it to Lance. But it seems like after Lance Storm retired or left the company, Garrison was switched back to Lance.
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Post by Hypnosis on Apr 1, 2022 10:54:07 GMT -5
In recent times, WWE has a tendency to shorten the names of certain performers. For instance, Antonio Cesaro, Alexander Rusev, Buddy Murphy and Matt Riddle were all changed to Ceasaro, Rusev, Murphy and Riddle. Then I was thinking back to the Ruthless Aggression Era where the renaming of talent started to take off. Here are some of the more peculiar renamings I could think of. The Big Bossman becomes The Bossman. This was during Ray Traylor's final run in the company in early 2002. The only reason I can think of as to why the "Big" in the Big Bossman was mysteriously removed from his moniker was maybe Vince felt there couldn't be two people named Big anymore, since Paul Wight had been using Big Show for a few years at that point. Val Venis becomes The Big Valbowski. There was another 2002 stink. Val was returning after a long hiatus since RTC disbanded and reprised his porn star gimmick. He was still Val Venis at the Royal Rumble and some of the following tv. Then after the 2002 draft, he showed up on Smackdown with the nickname he used to describe his genitalia. During this time, he was no longer referred to as Val Venis on air. This was short lived as he was moved back to Raw as Cheif Morley, then back to Val Venis until he left the company. Lance Cade becomes Garrison Cade. I always felt Lance Cade has a good ring to it for the cowboy gimmick, especially since both names were one syllable words. He worked the house show loop at Lance, but when he got called to TV, it was changed to Garrison. Garrison Cade sounded longwinded compared to Lance Cade. I guess it was another situation like Gregory Helms where there couldn't be two Shanes on TV. At least Gregory was Hurricane's legal first name. It seems like they just pulled Garrison out of a hat and assigned it to Lance. But it seems like after Lance Storm retired or left the company, Garrison was switched back to Lance. When Lance Cade was changed to Garrison, I thought he was going to get this gimmick:
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Cvslfc123
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Post by Cvslfc123 on Apr 1, 2022 17:52:01 GMT -5
There was a brief time in 2002 when Ron Simmons wrestled under his real name as there was a link between the name Faarooq and Al-Qaeda.
He went back to being Faarooq when he reunited with Bradshaw in 2003.
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Post by Jindrak Mark on Apr 1, 2022 18:46:09 GMT -5
Didn’t Crash Holly have his Holly status revoked at some point and just went by Crash?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2022 19:01:57 GMT -5
Jimmy Wang Yang was originally "Jimmy Wayne Yang"
Rodney Mack was renamed Redd Dogg for a brief stint where he was John Cena's new bodyguard.
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mattyy
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Post by mattyy on Apr 1, 2022 21:14:42 GMT -5
Didn’t Crash Holly have his Holly status revoked at some point and just went by Crash? as did Molly Holly, though that was on and off. Crash, I think, dropped the Holly before the RA era. I remember him really only going back Crash in 2001.
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Venti
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Post by Venti on Apr 2, 2022 0:02:35 GMT -5
Albert becoming A-Train, which I always thought was a silly name. But I mean, how much better is "Prince Albert"?
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Apr 5, 2022 9:40:12 GMT -5
Jimmy Wang Yang was originally "Jimmy Wayne Yang" Rodney Mack was renamed Redd Dogg for a brief stint where he was John Cena's new bodyguard. Redd Dogg was his name from the indies and OVW. He debuted with Cena, so the name made sense to keep. They changed it to Rodney Mack when he became Teddy Long's replacement for D'Lo Brown.
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Post by Celexa Bliss 54 on Apr 5, 2022 9:43:56 GMT -5
Also, re: Garrison Cade...
Keep in mind that his debut was vs. Lance Storm, with JR on commentary. And remember the Raven/Maven and Jericho/Benoit botched calls. I can see why they did that lol
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Post by James Fabiano on Apr 5, 2022 10:02:30 GMT -5
And on top of that, he briefly dressed like Big Bubba Rogers again before returning to the SWAT outfit.
"Billy G" between Mr. Ass and The One.
Not a name change, but Godfather, upon his return, has an escort service instead, then turns heel and has no women-centric gimmick.
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auph10imitated
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Post by auph10imitated on Apr 5, 2022 10:56:31 GMT -5
Both Terri Runnels and Luna Vachon dropped their surnames but that was more Attitude Era
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petef3
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Post by petef3 on Apr 5, 2022 13:25:20 GMT -5
Both Terri Runnels and Luna Vachon dropped their surnames but that was more Attitude Era Another Attitude Era one: at one point, late in '98, Jeff Jarrett became just plain "Double J." That's how he was introduced at SummerSlam that year. There's been some weird trademark battles over the name "Val Venis," with the WWF/E losing the rights to it seemingly on multiple occasions to somebody else with a claim on it. One of those disputes is why he was renamed the Big Valboski as was mentioned earlier.
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Post by Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!! on Apr 5, 2022 13:49:19 GMT -5
Both Terri Runnels and Luna Vachon dropped their surnames but that was more Attitude Era Another Attitude Era one: at one point, late in '98, Jeff Jarrett became just plain "Double J." That's how he was introduced at SummerSlam that year. There's been some weird trademark battles over the name "Val Venis," with the WWF/E losing the rights to it seemingly on multiple occasions to somebody else with a claim on it. One of those disputes is why he was renamed the Big Valboski as was mentioned earlier. Who the hell is running around trademarking freaking Val Venis of all things behind WWE's back?
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Post by Feyrhausen on Apr 5, 2022 14:02:01 GMT -5
Another Attitude Era one: at one point, late in '98, Jeff Jarrett became just plain "Double J." That's how he was introduced at SummerSlam that year. There's been some weird trademark battles over the name "Val Venis," with the WWF/E losing the rights to it seemingly on multiple occasions to somebody else with a claim on it. One of those disputes is why he was renamed the Big Valboski as was mentioned earlier. Who the hell is running around trademarking freaking Val Venis of all things behind WWE's back? I had never heard of trademark issues. I always heard that UPN didnt want Venis because it sounded too much like Penis.
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Post by Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby on Apr 5, 2022 14:35:42 GMT -5
Who the hell is running around trademarking freaking Val Venis of all things behind WWE's back? I had never heard of trademark issues. I always heard that UPN didnt want Venis because it sounded too much like Penis. If that's true, my reaction is deeply torn between "So what do they think about the planet Venus?" and "Well, yeah, reasonable, that was the point of the name."
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petef3
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Post by petef3 on Apr 5, 2022 15:16:59 GMT -5
Another Attitude Era one: at one point, late in '98, Jeff Jarrett became just plain "Double J." That's how he was introduced at SummerSlam that year. There's been some weird trademark battles over the name "Val Venis," with the WWF/E losing the rights to it seemingly on multiple occasions to somebody else with a claim on it. One of those disputes is why he was renamed the Big Valboski as was mentioned earlier. Who the hell is running around trademarking freaking Val Venis of all things behind WWE's back? Supposedly someone whose real name was that and that pre-dated the WWF's use of it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2022 15:29:03 GMT -5
Road Warrior Animal being renamed "The Road Warrior" in 2006-2007 and wrestling in singles and without facepaint will always be the strangest one of these for me.
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Post by crowley1986 on Apr 5, 2022 16:41:08 GMT -5
Thought the Big Valbowski change was him due to doing a wing man type gimmick, to deflect him away from the porn star gimmikc
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Post by 06vwgti on Apr 5, 2022 16:51:20 GMT -5
Albert becoming A-Train, which I always thought was a silly name. But I mean, how much better is "Prince Albert"? It was weird hearing Albert being called A-Train when in Tampa, the Bucs already had Mike Alstott who was known as A-Train also lol
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Apr 5, 2022 17:03:53 GMT -5
Albert becoming A-Train, which I always thought was a silly name. But I mean, how much better is "Prince Albert"? It was weird hearing Albert being called A-Train when in Tampa, the Bucs already had Mike Alstott who was known as A-Train also lol Additionally, I think D-Von Dudley had used "A-Train" as a name before, but only very briefly, and that was in ECW, so by then, it'd have been pretty obscure.
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