AEW News: Veteran Wrestler Gets His Name Changed Due To Trademark Dispute With WWE


A new report suggests that AEW wrestler Billy Gunn — who previously spent several years in WWE in a variety of roles — quietly had his name tweaked on account of trademark issues with his former employer.

As noted by WrestlingNews.co, Wednesday night’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured a segment involving Gunn and MJF where the former multiple-time WWE tag team champion was simply referred to by announcers as Billy. This was explained by Dave Meltzer on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, where he said that due to a live trademark on the name, WWE was not happy that Gunn was using the same ring name he was known by during his time in the company.

As further explained, Gunn — aka Monty “Kip” Sopp in real life — has his old ring name trademarked for a variety of purposes, including “sporting and cultural activities,” training, education, entertainment, and selling clothing, footwear, and headgear. Per WrestlingNews.co, this could mean he has the right to sell merchandise and operate his wrestling school using the name Billy Gunn but cannot be known as such when competing outside of WWE.

Per a separate report from WhatCulture, one interesting note about the current issue is how online searches reveal that the trademark on Billy Gunn is not owned by WWE, but rather by Gunn himself, as he had apparently registered it in 2016 following his departure from the promotion. The outlet also noted that the veteran grappler and backstage producer could potentially work around the issue if he and his son, who also works for AEW, are referred to as “Billy and Austin Gunn.”

With the apparent change, Gunn is the second former WWE superstar in AEW to drop his surname over a trademark dispute. While Cody Rhodes (born Cody Runnels) is oftentimes referred to by his full ring name, he is officially known in the latter company by his first name, due to the fact that WWE owns the rights to the Rhodes surname. He did, however, recently file a trademark application for “Cody Rhodes,” as reported in April by Comic Book.

In addition to Gunn and Rhodes losing their last names, several former WWE superstars who jumped to AEW have also had to use new names over similar trademark-related reasons. Two notable examples are Jake Hager, who switched to his real name after previously going by Jack Swagger in WWE, and Jon Moxley (born Jonathan Good), who reverted to the name he used in the independent scene.

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