The Waterloo Woo is ready to channel Ric Flair as they style and profile onto the field.
Waterloo’s newest Arena football team will be known as the Woo. The Woo will play home games at the Hippodrome, located on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress. Waterloo joins Duluth, Kansas City and Springfield (Missouri) in the four-team Arena League. The league will begin play in 2024, and League Commissioner Tim Brown hopes to expand to 12 teams by 2026.
Woo General Manager Bailey McRae said in a press release (via News 7 KWWL) that many of the team name submissions featured variations of “woo” or “loo”, but the name is a nod to the wrestling and railway history in eastern Iowa.
“I’ll give you the background and y’all can figure it out. Waterloo is really rich in diversity and who we are matters,” said Tavis Hall, Executive Director of Experience Waterloo. “Part of that story of who we are is based on the railroad, so there’s that tie. This name has a tie to our community and we also like wrestling around here. You probably aren’t getting it quite yet, but we also like wrestling around here. Not just wrestling, but we also like ‘rasslin. Depending on where your grandma is from, it’s wrestling or ‘rasslin.”
In addition to the name itself, the team’s logos, designed by Fooser Sports, pay homage to Ric Flair with blonde hair and a sequined robe. Fooser has another pro wrestling connection, as the firm also designed the logos for the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes baseball team co-owned by AEW star Jeff Jarrett.
Check out the Waterloo Woo’s primary and secondary logos, courtesy of Fooser Sports, below:
