The buzz about WWE letting talent keep their names when they leave is actually a non-story.
On Monday, fans buzzed about rumors that WWE had started letting talent use their names after they left the company. In actuality, WWE owns the trademarks for the name of talent that are actively under contract, but they relinquish those rights when they leave.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that there was nothing to the claim. He noted that a talent retained the rights to a name or intellectual property once they left WWE if they owned it. However, they licensed the use to WWE while under contract with the company.
“Gimmick Attorney” Mike Dockins responded to the reported change by saying that it was a non-story and it was nothing new. He wrote that the company had done this for a while of talent knew or remembered to ask for the registrations back. Dockins wrote that it only applied to people who used the name first outside of WWE and brought the name with them, not for names that the company created.
More Details On Usage Of Names
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful (via Fightful Select) then reported that WWE typically does not have the ability to stop a talent from using a name they utilized before coming to WWE. This example can be seen with various stars, such as Chris Jericho and Samoa Joe.
Sapp noted that there was no way to stop people from using their real names outside of the company. Sapp wrote that numerous sources in WWE confirmed the elements of being able to use names.
Furthermore, Sapp cited examples of partial names, such as Christian Cage and Christian, and Metalik and Gran Metalik, among others.
