10 Rejected Wrestler Names WWE ACTUALLY Pitched

"Getting stupid stuff over" is company policy now more than ever before.

It's WWE's take on the big lie; tell something long and loud enough and through sheer force of will it'll become true. In the company's case, they just force their own garbled lexicon on everybody until it's easier to just except it. Wrestler names are not immune to the phenomenon.

"Dolph Ziggler" was the old go-to for this, but look how long he's stuck around and how even longer it's been since anybody mentioned how daft that moniker is. "The Viking Experience" nearly killed The War Raiders, but the mix of the two somehow salvaged yet another impending calamity. The given first name of the guy set to one day run the company is Triple.

WWE pays teams of people to come up with names that can be crossed out by Vince McMahon when he thinks of something even worse. Where better to start than with one of the more infamous examples for one of wrestling's most famous stars?

WWE seem to love this story, oblivious to the fact that it removes them from the origin story of one of their most important figures.

It's well known and well-told, but Steve Austin wanted something akin to the chilling serial killer Richard Kuklinski when he asked for a temperature-based tone to replace The Ringmaster. What he got was right out of the worst excesses of the company's cartoonish instincts. The repetition of the "Mc" sound is funny, but saddling your toughest, cruellest character with "Ice Dagger" before he even gets over with the gimmick is no laughing matter.

The second part of all this was Austin's then-wife telling him to drink his tea before it went "Stone Cold" - a lightbulb moment for the pair of them that was both awesome in its aura and packed with the alliterative powers Vince McMahon loves to market.

Much like the Austin 3:16 promo, this wasn't in WWE's script.