Wrestling - Names?

[tripleddd]

There seems to be a trend of late of just using proper names John Smith vs Joe Bloggs and we seem to be loosing character names why are there no more kanes or Triple H's coming through - why the change - personally i like character names - and why do some wrestlers change their names John Morrison aka Johnny Nitro - i liked that name for instance Dolph ziggler i can understand as he was some bloke from the spirit squad mikey or something.
So why? why is there no more character names?

 

[Big Red One]

You can blame Eric Bischoff for that. Before Diesel and Razor Ramon went to WCW and used their real names almost all wrestlers had a gimmick name. Bischoff thought it would add an element of realism to have guys fighting using their real names. It seemed to work, so Vince started doing it too. I think the gimmick names will come back though, you've got Sin Cara that just debuted. I also seriously doubt that they will call Awesome Kong by a regular name. I don't think you'll see the return of names similar to The Honkeytonk Man and The Ultimate Warrior but who knows.

 

[TheMaskedNewton]

The Miz is a character name...although very similar to his real name, but yet very different.

But in WWE, they give new names to most of their acquired talent so that they can have rights to the name with themselves in case a wrestler decides to leave.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

Well, in this day and age gimmick names don't really work. It was good when they used those names 15-20 years ago, but with the advent of Internet (mostly with wikipedia.com) you can find out the wrestler's real name. As a poster above me said, all the gimmick name served as a purpose to trademark the name of wrestlers when they jump ship to another company.

 

[TheKingHustla]

But most of these names are actually gimmick names. John Morrisons real name isn't john morrison. most of the guys in the wwe today aren;t using their names. so it depends on what you call a gimmick name. do you mean like the undertaker, or hunter hearst helmsley? the rock, or rocky maivia? there are only a few superstars who use their real birth name. even shawn michaels was a gimmick name if you consider his real name. i think names like kane, x-pac, road dogg, and all of those are cool, but nearly every name is still some kind of gimmick name. just not as imaginative

 

[ccotreau1]

In the case of The Miz, it was a name that he created in college. I wouldn't be surprised if Awesome Kong uses a variation of the Kong name, she was Amazing Kong as well. But to get back on track with gimmick names, there isn't really any more gimmicks outside of guys like HHH, Kane, Taker etc, so there isn't really a need imo for gimmick names. If the WWE decides to go back to the gimmicks like they did in the 90's, then the gimmick names will work IMO

 

[whoopin' ass]

If wwe keeps up with their idea of trying to reinvent 80's wrestling(or whatever name they want to call it), you could see names like Warrior, etc returning but right now, since reality is supposed to be the gimmick, you get names like Wade Barrett, Evan Bourne, etc. I am actually surprised by the number of people who use a different, usually plain sounding name. But unless you want to see the cartoony characters return, don't expect those type of names to return. Having said that, look for nicknames. Scott Steiner has used Big Poppa Pump, The Genetic Freak, Freakzilla. I think you will see more nicknames instead.

 

[Remix]

There seems to be a trend of late of just using proper names John Smith vs Joe Bloggs

Not quite. The names wrestlers are chosing for themselves in FCW are just designed to be similar to real names, and are infact usually derrived from the names of real people (e.g. Wade Dooley, Syd Barrett, Harry Rollins, Jim Morrison etc)

and we seem to be loosing character names why are there no more kanes or Triple H's coming through - why the change -

Because the wrestling world has changed. Silly characters like bluebloods from Conneticut, or scarred masked monsters don't get taken seriously unless they've got tenure. The days of outlandish gimmicks are over in favor of more realistic chatacters... or as realistic as it's possible to be in WWE.

personally i like character names - and why do some wrestlers change their names John Morrison aka Johnny Nitro

Johnny Nitro was a silly gimmick with no future in it. changing his name to Morrison allowed for him to change his gimmick to that of a "rockstar" as vauge as that is and vaugely allude to Jim Morrison.

Dolph ziggler i can understand as he was some bloke from the spirit squad mikey or something.

Nicky.

So why? why is there no more character names?

Because the days of gimmicks are over. They died in the Attitude Era. Thanks Stone Cold.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

Bryan Danielson to Daniel Bryan = BRILLIANT!

But then again, Ric Flair is a play on Richard Fliehr. I think it worked.

Or Michael Shawn Hickenbottom to Shawn Michaels. That worked too.

Von Erich was also a fake name.

But anyway, the time of crazy names like Undertaker (who if he debuted today everyone would mock and laugh at) is over.

 

[SomeAreSet]

It still seems to me that we still have a fair bit of gimmicky names.

Christian
Sheamus
R-Truth
The Miz
CM Punk
Sin Cara

Anyway,back to answering your question.Wrestling has evolved and the fans have outgrown the stage where they can suspend their beliefs and buy into gimmicks.It's past the stage where we can have guys like the Ultimate Warrior and The Undertaker debut in the WWE and not have fans shit all over them.You can have a good story about the wrestler without the wrestler having to use a gimmicky name.Like Cody Rhodes.

 

[hollowpoint]

I think it's a thing of the past, but everything seems to come back around full circle. My thing is as long as it's a character, I don't care if you use your real name or not. I like the fact that Shris Jericho, The Miz, John Morrison, CM Punk, R-Truth are characters. As long as you have a persona, that's cool with me, but I have a problem with those that don't differentiate between the person and the character. John Cena as the Dr. of Thuganomics gimmick was great because it was a difference between who he was in the WWE and who he is as a person. Not someone who you would bump into on the street. Now he and guys like Randy Orton are everyday people. Although they are great...there is no difference.