There are a handful of wrestlers who have thrived in the business playing a comedic character. One such star is the current Director of Authority in TNA, Santino Marella. When most talent part ways with WWE, they tend to change their name. It will either be their real name or a gimmick name.
A few stars have had the liberty to use their WWE in-ring name outside the Stamford-based promotion as well. Santino Marella is one such talent who has been able to use his WWE in-ring name in TNA Wrestling.
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, Satnio Marella opened up about how he was able to use his ring name outside of WWE.
“So that was actually almost bigger news than me appearing on TNA, was the fact that I was Santino Marella. So in 2021, I imagine the COVID confusion or whatever, there were people getting fired and hired, and it seemed like it was team Hunter and team Vince, and they were changing regimes or whatever. Somebody didn’t renew the trademark. So Scott D’Amore, as a habit, because if he’s getting a former WWE guy, he kind of checks the trademark to see if they’re available, because he has to get creative and come up with a name. If it’s not Fandango, it’s Dango or something that’s legally not going to be too close to the intellectual property.
“He checked, and all of a sudden he goes, damn, Santino Marella is available. So he bought it. It’s not as simple as you can just buy it and it’s yours. There’s a case that they created the character, they developed the character. It’s still on their library. I mean, there’s still tons of Santino stuff in the library.”
Santino Marella reveals that WWE owns the rights to his name
During the same interview, Santino Marella recently shared that while there was some legal dispute regarding his name, currently the rights are with WWE.
“But when it’s library use, I think it’s not considered like current use, because it’s from a library. So they sent an email or a phone call to Scott, and they say, ‘Yeah, you’re using our intellectual property.’ And Scott’s like, ‘Actually, I own the trademark.’ So they’re like, ‘Let me get back to you.’ It’s kind of sitting there for a while. Then they filed an extension to the time they can appeal it, and then when Scott was no longer with TNA, Ariel [Shnerer], in hopes of having a good relationship with WWE, kind of just gave it back to them. So they own it, but I’m not sure if a part of the deal was we’ll give it back to you but can we use it? And we’ve been using it,” Marella said.
Read More: Santino Marella Is Normally Humble, But Has To Show Off His Impressive Flex
Do you think Santino Marella should own the rights to his name?
