A lot of wrestlers have lost their first or last names in WWE, but few have gotten them back. Austin Theory is one of them.
WWE United States Champion Austin Theory was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about losing his first name in WWE for a while and getting it back during the Triple H regime, Theory reflected on finding out that his first name got dropped.
“Yeah, so I remember walking into, this is the time Mr. McMahon was head of creative. And I remember the writer bringing my promo, and the promo said, don’t call me Austin; it’s just Theory. And I was like, what? The names gone? And I was wondering why,” Austin Theory said. “And I spoke with Mr. McMahon about it, and he felt that Theory could be a name that stood alone; he felt it had enough power behind it.
“And also, I think he just wanted to get away from that comparison of Stone Cold because we just did the WrestleMania stuff. So, I think maybe out of circumstance, that’s maybe why it happened. But the funny story about Austin Theory coming back is I just got a text one day that just pretty much said, your Austin Theory.
“And then I show up to the show, and the matches are on the wall, and there was my full name again. And I’m like, I guess I’m Austin Theory again, so I thought it was kind of funny. Like, that’s how I find out, you know what I mean? But I never felt, I guess like, negative about it. Because Theory just meant the most to me because I’ll always have my first name, people are always going to know me as Austin. But Theory was just that name I came up with as a kid.
“And even as a kid, I was searching for, you know, besides it being a cool name that I came up with, and nobody had it, like how can I give it meaning? For the longest [time], Theory was supposed to mean, you know, a Theory is unproven.
“But to me, when you’re unproven, that means you’re not proven, so you can always get better. If you’re somebody that’s proven, that’s it for you. So, me being a Theory always being able to change to adapt to evolve. That’s what it’s all about. And I still feel like to this day; it still works for that.”
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What do you make of Austin Theory’s comments? Are you happy that he got his first name back on WWE programming? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.