In professional wrestling, nothing is ever set in stone. Crowd and fan reactions to the product offer crucial instant feedback, and so if an angle, gimmick, finishing move, or even entrance music isn’t working, it has to be changed or tweaked. This is especially true of ring names, which can completely sink a wrestler if it doesn’t accurately convey the gimmick or — even worse — work actively against it.
World Wrestling Entertainment is full of bad names, some of which have actually stuck for better or worse. But sometimes WWE miraculously comes to its senses and makes a much needed change for the better. Here are ten examples of that.
10 The Viking Experience
NXT call-ups getting name changes made more sense when the developmental promotion felt like a secret pocket universe that the main roster WWE never acknowledged. But the debut of The War Raiders on Raw happened as NXT was well established as a “third brand” for WWE, so the NXT Tag Team Champions suddenly having the newer, stupider name of The Viking Experience was an instant source of criticism and mockery. WWE quickly changed it to The Viking Raiders, which was less bad.
9 Michael McGillicutty
Wrestling fans will never understand why Curt Hennig’s son got the goofball name of “Michael McGillicutty” when his real name was Joe Hennig, which sounds like a wrestler name even without the context. Making matters weirder, McGillicutty’s wrestling heritage was regularly acknowledged! A contestant on the game show version of NXT, McGillicutty would have a main roster tag title run with David Otunga, before becoming an undercard jobber and being banished to the new Full Sail NXT. Months later, he’d be reintroduced on the main roster, but with a new name: Curtis Axel.
8 Beaver Cleavage
Headbanger Mosh’s repackaging as “Beaver Cleavage” has become one of those forgotten little artifacts of the Attitude Era that remind fans of the worst excesses of the period. In 1999, WWE started airing lewd vignettes parodied of the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver with some weird incest jokes thrown in for good measure.
Soon after his actual in-ring debut, he would “shoot” on the Beaver Cleaver gimmick, shedding it onscreen to become “Chaz.” It’s unclear if this was always the intention, or if it was a “clever” way to abruptly shift gears on a gimmick that wasn’t working.
7 Skip Sheffield
Like Michael McGillicutty, Skip Sheffield was an NXT contestant with an unfortunate name who made waves on the main roster. Sheffield’s stint was probably more significant, because he was part of the original lineup of the Nexus faction that invaded WWE, but he’d suffer an ankle injury in 2010 and disappear until Spring of 2012, where he’d be reintroduced under the name of Ryback. That’s a weird name, too, but he certainly got over more than he could have if he remained saddled with the name of Skip.
6 Hirohito
There are likely loads of awful WWE ring names that were changed at the last minute that fans don’t even know about, but one that actually surfaced is the one assigned to Kenzo Suzuki. A former New Japan Pro Wrestling Young Lion, Suzuki was given an anti-American foreign heel gimmick and named Hirohito — quite possibly the laziest ring name ever assigned to a Japanese wrestler. However, the whole thing was dropped and Suzuki debuted in WWE under his real name.
5 The Submission Sorority
“The Divas Evolution” storyline on the main roster was considered by many fans to be DOA, with odd booking and weird faction divisions. Sasha Banks was bafflingly thrown in a team with Naomi and Tamina Snuka while Paige got Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. The latter trio were named The Submission Sorority, a moniker that resulted in some extremely NSFW Google results. Once WWE found out, the team was quickly renamed Team PCB. Which isn’t a better name, but at least it wouldn’t lose them a toy deal or whatever.
4 Leakee
Before he was the most instantly controversial top guy in WWE history, Roman Reigns spent about two years in their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling performing under “Leakee,” a name you are currently mispronouncing as “leaky.”
While it’s a play off of his real first name, Leati, Leakee doesn’t quite sound like the ring name of a future WWE champion by their own standards, so eventually they renamed him. There was barely a gap, either — one week he was Leakee, the next Roman Reigns.
3 Colin Cassady
Before WWE signed indie guys without changing their ring names, NXT was full of dudes with perfectly unspectacular monikers like Jake Carter and Mike Dalton. Colin Cassady was such a man, a tall but generically named pro wrestler who ended up paired with a small non-wrestler interestingly named Enzo Amore. Enzo would cut promos and refer to his partner as “Big Cass,” so eventually WWE just went with that instead.
2 The Ringmaster
“The Ringmaster” is the perfect name for a P.T. Barnum themed pro wrestler, but it was the initial nom de guerre given to Steve Austin before his stones got cold. Pushed as Ted DiBiase’s new “Million Dollar Champion”, Austin was literally billed as “The Ringmaster” for like three months — because he was good at wrestling — before the moniker was dropped and Steve Austin started developing the persona that made him a sensation.
1 Charlotte
Old WWE “Divas” naming conventions required that women be born with no last names for some reason, including the woman who would become Charlotte Flair. Debuting on NXT under the mononymic “Charlotte,” it was no secret that she was the daughter of Ric Flair. She even basically had the same entrance music that she does now! Eventually, once she made it to the main roster, WWE finally gave her the Flair last name that she rightfully deserved.