6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (April 11)

4. Theory???

Theory WWE
WWE

WWE has a long history of shortening wrestlers' names: Cesaro, Riddle, Otis, Shotzi, Big E, Angel, Humberto and others.

But Monday’s latest renaming is just another dumb one, as Austin Theory dropped his first name, because he and Vince McMahon had a problem with the name “Austin.” While it’s not a tragic career-killer of a name change, it’s still dumb.

So if you’re keeping score, Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser, Raquel Rodriguez, Butch and not Theory have all undergone name changes in the last month or so. Look for Tommaso Ciampa to have his name shortened soon, and for Chad Gable to be forced to drop his last name because of Gable Steveson.

We just wish we were kidding.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.