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Post by EoE: Well There's Your Problem on Jul 12, 2022 17:12:58 GMT -5
Didn't they briefly try to take Bobby away from Lashley at some point during his original run? Lashley by itself was weird though. Very early on, yeah. Early 2006. But because they weren’t as draconian on this kind of thing as they are now, it never stuck. |
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krozor
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,427
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Post by krozor on Jul 12, 2022 17:29:54 GMT -5
Cesaro and Rusev ended up being fine, but I still don't like the idea of dropping the full name, just use it less. "Alexander Rusev" and "Antonio Cesaro" sound like names of world class athletes that they came in as and embodied.
Goldberg and Batista were perfectly fine, but in those cases, they didn't pretend like they never had first names, they just didn't get called them regularly because "Bill" and "Dave" were especially normal first names for huge guys like that. But you'd still get people occasionally addressing them by their first names (like people will sometimes call Miz "Mike") which helped make them feel like actual fully formed characters and not just empty brands.
"Theory" is the worst. Riddle, at least, is a real last name. Theory isn't a name. It doesn't relate to his character at all. And the idea of potentially building your company around some guy just called "Theory" is ridiculous. Whatever else you want to say about them, "John Cena" is a real name, a guy you can send out to do appearances and represent your company and be in movies and shows and could be free to do what he excelled at in the way of connecting with people, and "Roman Reigns" is a spectacular wrestler name, sounds like it could be real and also sounds like a comic book character. The idea of some guy named "Theory" going onto a talk show as the face of your company and people calling him "Theory" and it's not even tied to a gimmick... I hate it.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Jul 12, 2022 17:38:45 GMT -5
Theory is just god awful. And there was a ready made storyline reason to rename him. Have Vince say he can't go by Austin anymore after what Stone Cold did to them and have him rename him as Ashton Theory or some shit like that.
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CMWaters
Ozymandius
Rolled a Seven, Beat the Ads.
Bald and busy
Posts: 63,286 
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Post by CMWaters on Jul 12, 2022 17:46:00 GMT -5
Riddle and Theory without first names sound like they should be wondering how to kill Batman for their boss.
I see people against the Alexander for Rusev...eh, I get the normal sounding name, but then think back to a great historical conquer: Alexander the Great.
I kinda miss the Langston last name for Big E, personally.
Here's a weird one to think about: AJ Lee when she was around at first started as just "AJ". Adding the "Lee" was much better IMO.
EDIT: Similar also happened with Charlotte adding the Flair, but that's one I could take or leave either way. At the very least she gets to keep the character last name of her parent, unlike the current at time of this typing NXT Champion.
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Post by nevthebassist on Jul 12, 2022 18:06:35 GMT -5
Once Rikishi quickly dropped the Phatu was one of the earlier ones I approved of.
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CMWaters
Ozymandius
Rolled a Seven, Beat the Ads.
Bald and busy
Posts: 63,286
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Post by CMWaters on Jul 12, 2022 18:08:46 GMT -5
Actually thinking about it, here's an old school example:
Hercules Hernandez just becoming Hercules between 1986 and 1987.
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Ozman
Unicron
Chi-Town!!!
Posts: 2,667
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Post by Ozman on Jul 12, 2022 18:38:54 GMT -5
Vader always sounded better than Big Van Vader to me.
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CMWaters
Ozymandius
Rolled a Seven, Beat the Ads.
Bald and busy
Posts: 63,286
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Post by CMWaters on Jul 12, 2022 18:40:32 GMT -5
Vader always sounded better than Big Van Vader to me. Yes, but there was always a...looming problem with that name (hence why he was announced as "The Man They Call Vader" when he came out for matches).  |
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Post by Natural Born Farmer on Jul 12, 2022 18:43:18 GMT -5
Theory and Riddle are just bad wrestling names.
Austin Theory and Matt Riddle sounded great, and absolutely no one was saying "too many syllables" or something. I don't understand why WWE wanted to f*** with the program so bad.
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Rhody Codes
Ozymandius
The King of North America
Posts: 61,840
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Post by Rhody Codes on Jul 12, 2022 18:58:38 GMT -5
Elias did ok for himself without the Samson part of his name In his case, it worked for his sorta-musician gimmick, since musicians often just go by a singular name. On a sidenote, given Elias’s lost surname, it’d presumably make Ezekiel’s last name “Samson”. |
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Post by welshpenguin on Jul 12, 2022 19:58:30 GMT -5
Elias did ok for himself without the Samson part of his name In his case, it worked for his sorta-musician gimmick, since musicians often just go by a singular name. On a sidenote, given Elias’s lost surname, it’d presumably make Ezekiel’s last name “Samson”. Don’t forget Elrod Samson |
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 122,023
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Post by Mozenrath on Jul 12, 2022 20:09:03 GMT -5
Cesaro, Big E and Goldberg I think all worked all better with just the one name. Angel and Humberto are the dumbest ones, followed by Theory and Riddle. The only way Humberto's name would be worse is if they had changed it to Humberto Humberto. |
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Post by Pipe_Bomb2k13 on Jul 12, 2022 20:10:24 GMT -5
Didn't Nakamura lose his first name for a very brief moment or was it just simply changed to King I can never keep up with this stuoid trend.
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Post by A Platypus Rave is Correct on Jul 12, 2022 20:16:16 GMT -5
Didn't Nakamura lose his first name for a very brief moment or was it just simply changed to King I can never keep up with this stuoid trend. I think he was just King Nakamura for a while. But they didn't act like King was his first name. |
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Post by Pipe_Bomb2k13 on Jul 12, 2022 20:21:25 GMT -5
Didn't Nakamura lose his first name for a very brief moment or was it just simply changed to King I can never keep up with this stuoid trend. I think he was just King Nakamura for a while. But they didn't act like King was his first name. That's what I thought at first but with this company whether they had been changed or taken away I could beleieve that it had happened. |
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Post by Starshine on Jul 12, 2022 20:35:04 GMT -5
Big E is bad on it's on cause that's not who people think of first, and that should always be the goal with a stage name.
Nevilla was bad too. They didn't even give him a Harry Potter gimmick. So what's the point?
In TNA Christopher Daniels became just Daniels for a minute. That's right, 'The Fallen Angel' Daniels.
Theory and Riddle sound like Batman villains. I don't know if that's good or bad, but I also don't care, so there's that.
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Post by Main Event Mark on Jul 12, 2022 20:54:09 GMT -5
A good case was shortening Andrade "Cien" Almas to just Andrade. The former was too much of a mouthful.
Same goes for Carlito Carribean Cool to simply Carlito.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2022 21:39:43 GMT -5
Best:
Alexander Rusev to Rusev
Antonio Cesaro to Cesaro (even though I thought the full name was cool)
Big E. Langston to Big E
Elias Samson to Elias
Worst:
Austin Theory (which already wasn't a good name) to Theory
Matt Riddle to Riddle
And I'll throw in Xyon Quinn as a guy who should have his changed. Just Xyon on its own would work IMO.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,890
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Post by agent817 on Jul 13, 2022 0:49:36 GMT -5
Shotzi losing "Blackheart" as part of her name was a bad move. I don't understand why she had it taken away from her.
Also, I could have sworn that when Eve Torres was around that after a while, she was just called "Eve."
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Post by Sparvid on Jul 13, 2022 2:18:33 GMT -5
Riddle is so stupid since he'd already been in UFC for years. Great job making him less recognizable for casual fans in advertisements.
Imagine if they had insisted on only referring to Cain Velasquez as "Velasquez" all the time.
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