WWE: What’s in a Name?
Adam Cole, Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly, known collectively as “The Undisputed ERA”, are currently riding a wave of momentum as NXT’s hottest stable. Fans rejoiced the first time they were presented as a group, but were less than ecstatic when their name was announced.
Creating a compelling wrestling character is complicated. Many ingredients – storyline, motivation, ring attire and theme song – are mixed together in an effort to depict an overall portrait that’s meant to engage and intrigue the crowd. Lately, WWE’s choice of names for their talent has become a growing concern in the eyes of many wrestling fans.
A simple Google or Twitter search of “the undisputed era name” following its reveal was telling, highlighting the opinions of those who take umbrage with new monikers and name changes within the company.
It may very well have started with WWE’s apparent obsession with shortening wrestlers’ names. Remember Antonio Cesaro, Alexander Rusev, Big E Langston, Adrian Neville and Elias Samson? With each name change, fans’ frustration has grown.
However, the hindsight question needs to be asked: does anyone truly wish Big E had kept the “Langston”? Is that the magical element missing from his character, preventing him from reaching his untapped potential as a WWE superstar?
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For the record, each and every one of the previously mentioned men went on to become bigger and more important as one-name stars. Does this imply a causal relationship between success and dropping part of your name?
Of course not. Big E became more successful than Big E Langston because of his inclusion in the New Day, which has allowed him to show off his true range and to flourish as an on-screen talent. That being said, there was clearly no net downside in the change.
Wrestling fans may simply be opposed to change, as many one-name performers – Asuka, Edge, Kane, Sting, Sheamus, Bayley, Paige and Goldberg, just to name a few – haven’t faced the same criticism, perhaps because they’ve always been presented as such, ruling out the perception of front-office interference.
The same critical thought process seems to exist when it comes to allotting a new name to an incoming performer. Remember when Prince Devitt was set to debut in NXT and would now be known as Finn Bálor?
Then? Silliness. “What does that even mean?”
Now? Complete non-issue.
“Samoa Joe” may very well be the laziest name ever created. Not only is it simply a overt mention of his background, but also “Joe” is a 10 on the lame-name scale. Do fans care? Not one bit, because it wasn’t a WWE invention.
Can you imagine WWE trying to pull that off today? Let’s pretend for a second the current Samoa Joe we know and love doesn’t exist (thankfully, we’re only pretending) and WWE decided to introduce a new Samoan character under the same name. You can easily picture the tweets.
“Seriously? He’s Samon, so they just call him “Samoa” Joe? Common! Be a little more creative #WWELogic.”
“The Heartbreak Kid” moniker wasn’t given to Shawn Michaels because of who he was – nothing he did with the Rockers merited that moniker – but coming out of a tag team split, a new gimmick was planted on him and along with that came a new nickname.
As a newly minted heel and even in his early babyface run, Michaels grew into it, and in the post-back injury, second act of his career, the name became a complete afterthought. He was a 40-something, born again Christian nicknamed “The Heartbreak Kid” and absolutely no one cared.
Fans may have been upset with the appointment of “The Undisputed ERA” name because they felt it had little to do with the actual group. Maybe they would have preferred a name that referenced the current millennial generation? It sure worked for one of wrestling’s most important factions of all time.
Of course this argument isn’t foolproof, as the proliferation of the Internet wrestling community has allowed fans to find a new kind of voice, one that is as outraged about a new name as it was about the unveiling of a red title belt.
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However, the facts are undeniable: most of the time, a bad name is innocuous as long as it’s attached to a strong wrestler. The performer makes the character and the name has little or nothing to do with it.