20 Weirdest Aliases Once Used By WWE Raw Superstars

In wrestling, names matter. They are the foundation of a gimmick.

Not that you'd be able to tell from some of the beige monickers that make it through the machine that spat out "Wes Lee," "LA Knight," and more in NXT, but a wrestler's ring name is a key part of their branding.

The characterisation and entertainment aspects of professional wrestling are a creative artform like any other. It requires brainstorming, good communication between backstage and the ring, and a way to channel many ideas and inputs into a single vision.

Just as Joaquin Phoenix was once Joaquin Bottom, John Steinbeck first titled his novel Of Mice and Men ‘Something That Happened’, and Kurt Cobain’s pre-Nirvana band was called Fecal Matter, wrestlers, too, go through initial test phases and reinventions in an effort to stay fresh. Most performers who have worked their way to a WWE contract will have a body of work behind them, some of which they’d prefer to leave way behind them.

Whether self-chosen, given to them by writers or inflicted on them by commentators, the present Raw roster have their own share of bizarre former pseudonyms....