WWE has opted to change the names of several stars in the last 24 hours.
During Vince McMahon’s tenure as creative lead, he implemented a policy mandating the inclusion of talent nicknames in their official names. He would require these monikers to be used consistently across all social media and television appearances.
WWE has made a change to several talent names, removing nicknames from their official profiles. Specifically, “Freakin'” has been dropped from Seth Rollins’ name, “Big” from Bronson Reed’s, and “Dirty” from Dominik Mysterio’s.
This is reflected in their updated profiles on WWE.com. Check it out below:
Seth had previously revealed the origin of his “Freakin'” nickname. In an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, he explained that it was McMahon’s idea.
“I give that credit to the old man [Vince McMahon],” Rollins said. “The middle name was his idea back in the day. I don’t remember why, I don’t remember how it came about. I think he was just bored with Seth Rollins and he was like ah, you’ll be Seth Freakin’ Rollins again.
Okay, cool. Sold a lot of T shirts when we did it, so whatever. The thing that killed me was when we first did it, when we first brought the freakin’ back in. Because it was just like The Monday Night Messiah Seth Rollins or whatever, for a while.
And then there was the Drip God, which was never my idea. I didn’t like that nickname at all. I tried to push The Visionary on him, and he didn’t get that character at all, and then added freakin’ in there at some point.
But then everybody had to say freakin’ every single time they mentioned my name on commentary, anywhere. The first thing I did when I had the opportunity was let’s just pull back on that, how about I just say it?
If someone’s introducing me in a grandiose manner, they can say it. But if they’re just talking about me they could just say Seth Rollins, it’s okay. You don’t have to say The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns all the time. No one said The Hitman Bret Hart all the time.”
Rollins is expected to wrestle Roman Reigns and CM Punk in a triple-threat match at WrestleMania 41.
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