Some more clarity on why Penta El Zero M recently changed his ring name.
Dave Meltzer reported in the September 7 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Penta owned the trademark on ‘Penta Cero M’ in Mexico and he would be using that name moving forward in All Elite Wrestling. That name is incorrect, as the wrestler owns the trademark on PENTA ZERO M. He has also applied for its use in the United States after the previous owner, Lucha Libre FMV, abandoned the trademark earlier this year.
LL FMV is the parent owner of Lucha Underground and they also filed for the US trademark on “Penta Zero M” themselves, essentially stealing it from Pentagon. After he publicly announced his new name and intended to apply for it himself in January 2017, Lucha Libre FMV then filed to trademark the name on February 3, 2017. Although LL FMV filed for the trademark, it was under the ‘intent to use’ category and they never actually fully owned it, with their actions really just keeping Penta from using it himself. Penta ultimately left the promotion but they continued to control the rights to the name, filing an extension on the name several times until they exceeded the number of times they could file. Their last filing came in August 2019 and it expired on March 9 of this year.
Penta also still owns the trademark on “Penta El Zero M” in Mexico, but his current name in AEW is slightly different than the one he has applied to trademark in the United States. There’s a minor difference with the ‘el’ but the US Patent and Trademark Office considers that to be a term that’s not distinguishable enough from the currently trademarked name, Penta Zero M.
Penta Zero M is the name he uses for all of his officially licensed products sold through Masked Republic’s Legends Of Lucha Libre brand, but as seen on his personal social media accounts and the official AEW website, the name listed there is ‘Penta El Zero M’. That is the one he’ll use on AEW TV going forward.
One major reason Penta opted for a name change in AEW is related to his previous name, Pentagon Jr, still being owned by AAA Lucha Libre. AEW was able to continue calling him Pentagon Jr on television since they had a working relationship with AAA but want to minimize risks moving forward by using names the wrestlers own themselves instead of a separate promotion having control.
Read More: AEW Dynamite Results (9/30/20)
