Vince McMahon is a big fan of taking names away from WWE Superstars. However, he might be about to start giving them all back again.
Every now and again, a WWE Superstar will undergo an unannounced name change. Nine times out of ten, that will involve them losing names so that they are known by just one word. Mustafa Ali became Ali, Apollo Crews is now just called Apollo, and Andrade 'Cien' Almas goes by Andrade. We're not sure why this keeps happening and assume that it is a weird quirk of Vince McMahon's.
While plying their trade as The Bludgeon Brothers, Harper and Rowan also inexplicably lost their first names. They were previously known as Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, as you likely remember. Shortly after that, Harper was refused a release from his contract, and Rowan has been working alongside Daniel Bryan.
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Normally, if fans suspect that a Superstar has lost a name, they head to their bio on WWE.com. That's how we discovered that Rowan has actually been given his first name back. At the time of typing this, the former Tag Team Champion appears to have been rechristened Erick Rowan once again. As far as we can remember, this is the first instance of WWE giving a name back rather than taking it away.
Our theory behind this is based on something Bryan has been hammering home on SmackDown each week. Rowan has been the number one suspect in the hunt for Roman Reigns' attacker. Bryan has been extremely unhappy about his good friend's name being dragged through the mud. Perhaps the thinking behind this is that the Erick Rowan name has not been tainted by the incidents and accusations.
All of that being said, there's every chance that there has been a miscommunication and this should never have been changed. By the time you read this, Erick Rowan might have become Rowan once again. We likely won't know for certain until next week's SmackDown when we hear what WWE's announcers refer to him as. Plus, if this is going to be a trend, keep an eye on the rest of those one-named bios for more changes.