Ex-WWE Star Served Cease & Desist For Ring Name
One former WWE star known by many, many names during their career revealed their first name change came as a result of a cease and desist.
Johnny Nitro, John Morrison, Johnny Impact, Johnny Mundo, Johnny Elite, and Johnny TV are some of the monikers that the real-life John Hennigan has been known as during his career. But fans might have forgotten that WWE audiences first got introduced to the current AEW star as Johnny Blaze.
In an interview with former NXT announcer McKenzie Mitchell, Johnny TV – as he is now known – explained why WWE was quick to change his name when he began appearing on television as the company received a cease and desist:
I didn’t expect to get called up to the main roster so quickly. Johnny Nitro was Eric Bishoff’s apprentice, right? And I didn’t really know what I was doing in the ring yet.
I was just kind of there every week, learning from Eric and Bruce. I started off as Johnny Blaze and introduced myself to Stone Cold Steve Austin as Johnny Blaze. We quickly got a cease and desist from Method Man and Ghost Rider, because it’s copyrighted.
Johnny TV Wishes He Kept WWE Name
Johnny TV then explained how ‘Johnny Nitro’ came to be and admitted he wished he had kept that name for his entire career:
Then it was Johnny Spade, which I hated because there was a Johnny Spade already in OVW. My God, back to Louisville that week, he was all upset. And then, I asked if I could please change my name to Johnny Nitro. To honor Eric Bischoff, which kind of made sense. And I still like Nitro. I still wish my name had never changed and just stayed Johnny Nitro.
I would’ve evolved my look, but I think it would’ve been cool to have one name my entire career instead of this confusing myriad of names. Johnny Nitro was really more of like a backstage lackey, and I ended up having only a few matches. I came out to the WCW Nitro theme song.
In June 2023, Johnny TV made a surprise return to AEW after previously having three matches for the promotion the previous year. So far he has only had one match under the AEW umbrella in 2024 but spent much of the year feuding with Dalton Castle in Ring of Honor.