5 Dumb Name Changes In WWE (& 5 Dumb Ones From TNA)

The history of pro wrestling is full of name changes as big promotions like WWE alter wrestlers’ ring names for reasons such as creating a unique trademark or to make a performer more marketable. Sometimes this works out, but other times seems like a phenomenally stupid, arbitrary, or baffling name change.

RELATED: Impact Wrestling: 10 Most Embarrassing TNA Renames

Once WWE’s biggest competitor, TNA (now known as Impact Wrestling) is no stranger to this practice either, as they too have tried to establish trademarks. In other cases, TNA had to change a guy’s name because WWE owned the trademark. Either way, it was stupid and there are some dumb examples from both companies.

10 WWE: War Machine to The Viking Experience

One of the most infamous and mercilessly mocked name change in recent wrestling history happened in 2019, as the NXT Tag Team Champions War Raiders -- already tweaked from their original indie name War Machine -- debuted on Raw as “The Viking Experience.”

It not only sounded like an Icelandic travel package but made an exciting tag team seem like a revival of old school WWF goofball gimmicks like The Warlord or The Berserker. As a result, Hanson and Rowe -- now “Ivar” and “Erik” -- went from “tough guys who dress like Vikings” to “guys who actually think they’re Vikings.”

9 TNA: The New Age Outlaws to Voodoo Kin Mafia

In 2005, “Road Dogg” Jesse James and Billy Gunn found themselves reunited in TNA and eventually reformed their classic New Age Outlaws tag team. Because WWE owned all the trademarks, however, they had to come up with new names, so “B.G. James” and “Kip James” became The James Gang.

After a while, they quickly pivoted to the dreaded Vince Russo worked shoot and The James Gang reinvented itself as Voodoo Kin Mafia, its initials a pointed reference to that of Vincent K. McMahon. From there, they waged a one-sided war against WWE.

8 WWE: Michael “P.S.” Hayes to Dok Hendrix

Michael “P.S.” Hayes is a tag team legend thanks to his run as one-third of The Fabulous Freebirds. While the Freebirds had some brief runs with WWE, Hayes returned to the company as a solo performer in 1995.

RELATED: The Viking Experience & 9 Other Bad WWE Names That Had To Be Changed

However, an injury forced him to take a non-wrestling role with the company, working as a backstage interviewer and commentator. Instead of capitalizing on a pro wrestling legend, WWE decided to rename him Dok Hendrix for some reason.

7 TNA: Mike Knox to Knux

One of the more forgettable WWE washouts, Mike Knox first appeared as the jealous boyfriend of Kelly Kelly on ECW in 2006, failing to gain much traction over some of the more impressive heels on the show.

Eventually, he became a jobber on Raw and SmackDown and left the company in 2010. In 2013, he was revealed as one of the many surprise members of TNA’s Aces & Eights heel stable, hilariously renamed Knux because it sounds kind of like Knox.

6 WWE: Joe Hennig to Michael McGillicutty

Sometimes, it’s okay to just go with your birth name as a pro wrestler. It worked out for Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar, after all. Joe Hennig was a pretty good name with added value, given that his father was Curt Hennig, otherwise known as Mr. Perfect.

He was known as Joe Hennig in developmental, but when he was put on television for the game show version of NXT, he was suddenly renamed Michael McGillicutty, which does not sound like the name of a tough person. By 2013, he’d be re-renamed to Curtis Axel, which is better than Michael McGillicutty but worse than his famous name.

5 TNA: Balls Mahoney to Kahoneys

A perfect example of TNA coming up with a trademark-dodging soundalike name came with its 2010 pay-per-view event Hardcore Justice, which was basically an ECW reunion show. Because WWE owned all of ECW’s old trademarks, wrestlers like Spike Dudley became “Brother Runt” and Justin Credible worked under his real name, P.J. Polaco.

Balls Mahoney had the most hilarious and unfortunate version of this, as he became Kahoneys. A better version of this would have been if he just came out as BALLS -- in all caps, like KENTA.

4 WWE: Terry Taylor to The Red Rooster

Terry Taylor was a pretty accomplished star in the NWA territories before signing with WWE in 1988, where he initially debuted as “Scary” Terry Taylor. A couple of months later, he’d rebrand as The Red Rooster, complete with all-red gear, a little red mohawk, and a bird-like strut.

RELATED: WWE: 10 Most Embarrassing NXT Renames

In the years since, The Red Rooster gimmick has gone down as one of the worst of all time, so much that WWE itself mocks it from time to time. Accounts vary as to whether the gimmick was meant to be a parody of Ric Flair or if it was a way to embarrass Taylor himself for backstage political reasons.

3 TNA: Nigel McGuinness to Desmond Wolfe

When Nigel McGuinness signed to TNA in 2009, he was already well accomplished through his work in Ring of Honor, where he remains one of the company’s longest-reigning World Champions of all time. Joining fellow ROH alum Jay Lethal and Samoa Joe in TNA, McGuinness suddenly got a name change in the form of Desmond Wolfe.

It’s not the most demeaning rename on this list but seems completely arbitrary given that the name Nigel McGuinness already had a prestigious reputation.

2 WWE: Road Warriors to Legion of Doom

There aren’t many wrestlers with multiple ring names so well known that they’re interchangeable. Animal and Hawk rose to fame as The Road Warriors in the National Wrestling Alliance and affiliated promotions throughout the 1980s. When they signed to WWE in 1990, however, they remained Animal and Hawk but their tag team name became Legion of Doom or LOD for short.

It’s very telling that the duo went from being named after a violent post-apocalyptic movie in NWA to being named after the bad guys in the cartoon Superfriends in WWE.

1 TNA: Luke Gallows to D.O.C.

Originally known as the simpleton Festus, a rehabilitation at the hands of the faux-messianic Straight Edge Society era CM Punk turned Festus into Luke Gallows, which is a pretty awesome name. Eventually, the SES storyline ended and Gallows was released from WWE in 2010, making his way to TNA as part of the Aces & Eights storyline.

Rather than adopt a soundalike name like Brick Fallows, as is the TNA tradition, Gallows became D.O.C., which stood for “Director of Chaos.”

NEXT: 10 Wrestlers Who Got Over Despite Having Terrible Ring Names