Road Dogg Says Name Changes In WWE Can Be “Problematic”
WWE Senior Vice President Road Dogg has given his views on character and name changes for WWE Superstars and says they can be “problematic.”
Name changes were not a new concept in WWE with many stars throughout the years undergoing a change of some sort no matter their background when they joined Vince McMahon’s company. This policy shifted back and forth over time but towards the end of McMahon’s time in charge, it was clear that those coming from NXT would have their name, their character, or even both altered in some fashion.
LA Knight became Max Dupri, a non-wrestling model fanatic, Keith Lee was nicknamed Bearcat, and Karrion Kross was put in a helmet Faarooq Assad would have shaken his head at and was torn from his wife Scarlett on TV.
In an appearance on Superstar Crossover Road Dogg explained how under the leadership of Triple H the absence of such big shifts will be a weight off a lot of people’s shoulders:
“All these people come up, and they change their name and they change the character, and I feel like it was problematic from the get-go.”
“I think individually it’s a weight lifted off people’s shoulders. They came up with this character because it was something that they can sink their teeth into and to have it stripped away when they come up to the main roster is gut-wrenching for them personally and I know that from just having conversations with several of them.”
“You’re going to see people get more comfortable with delivering their act because it’s more closely to who they are and I think that’s where we’ll be going in the future.”