WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has come out in support of the recent name changes to Superstars on both NXT 2.0 and the main roster.
In recent weeks, several Superstars have had their names changed including (Austin) Theory, Raquel Rodriguez (formerly Gonzalez,) Butch (Pete Dunne,) and Cruz del Toro (Raul Mendoza.)
These changes are part of a new policy for WWE that will stop any Superstar using any part of their real name.
Speaking on his Strictly Business Podcast, Bischoff used GUNTHER (previously known as WALTER) as an example:
“He was WALTER in his indy career and he’s going to be WALTER on Monday Night RAW or SmackDown, then there’s a cloud over who owns that trademark,” Bischoff said. “WWE doesn’t want to have intellectual property, talent, storylines, creativity, promotion, all of the other things that go into the value of building that intellectual property if they don’t own it. Who would do that?
“That would be the same thing as you or I deciding we’re going to rent a piece of property, a beach-front property, we don’t own it, we’re going to rent it and then we both decide I know we’re only renting that property, we don’t really own it but let’s build a house on it. We built a big beautiful home on this big piece of beachfront property and then the guy that owns the title to the property shows up and goes, this is awesome, you guys did a great job, built my dream home on the property that I own. See ya, here’s your eviction notice. You’ve invested all of this money on a beautiful home, on a piece of property that you don’t even own. In this case, WALTER is the property that they don’t really own and in this case, Gunther is the home.”
