Who Needs Last Names?
It looks like American Airlines lost whatever bag was carrying everyone's last names this week. Both Big E Langston and Antonio Cesaro got the chop – they'll now be known as "Big E" and "Cesaro", respectively.
Big E is still sort of an intimidating sounding name. It's just weird, because "E" was an acceptable middle initial – now it's just a meaningless letter. What does the "E" stand for? Big Easy? Big Eater? Big Elephant? Before he had a name, and now the Intercontinental Champ just feels a bit more ambiguous. Big E sounds like a bouncer at my local club. Like a mafia heavy. Not the name of an international Superstar I'd book in the main event of a PPV.
I'm not sure why these changes are necessary. Everyone knows Antonio Cesaro by his name. I guess "CE-SAR-O" is easy to chant, but they've managed to figure it out so far. More proof WWE thinks fans are idiots? Seems like a case of change for the sake of change, which is meaningless. Push the guy. Give him a real place on the roster. Maybe a story, or a decent feud. Chopping off his first name doesn't change a terrible creative team.
This is pretty indicative of the time, though. It's not Nattie Neidhart – it's just Natalya, even though the association is still used. Same thing with Tamina. Bring things down to the lowest common denominators. Instead of telling stories to make characters memorable, they're just making everyone as interchangeable as possible. Maybe John Cena should just be Cena. Kingston. Swagger. Maybe J-Swaggs, and he can steal Zema Ion's gimmick.
