Former WWE Star Recalls Stephanie McMahon Not Allowing Name Change
A former WWE star who had a terrible name on screen wanted to change it, but Stephanie McMahon refused that request.
It was a different time in the mid-2000s era in WWE known as the Ruthless Aggression Era. The product was a lot edgier, there were some characters with unique names/gimmicks and many of them never would see the light of day today.
In October 2005, a new tag team debuted on the main roster called The D**ks – Chad D**k and James D**k. While they were featured on Smackdown for a few months, they never really made it that far and were released about five months later in February 2006.
Stephanie McMahon in those days was in a number of different roles during her WWE career from an on-screen character to being in charge of the creative team under her father Vince McMahon.
The fact that WWE even had a tag team called “The D**ks” is ridiculous enough, but as Chad revealed, Stephanie McMahon wouldn’t allow them to change the names.
John “Tank” Toland portrayed James D**k and he was recently interviewed on the Cheap Heat Productions podcast where he revealed that Stephanie McMahon didn’t let him alter the name at all.
“I was like, ‘Steph, can we at least spell it Dix?’ and she’s like, ‘No, it’s gotta be the correct spelling.’ I was like, ‘All right.’ She’s like, ‘It’s gonna be Chad D**k and you’re gonna be James D**k.’ I was like, ‘All right, I guess I’m gonna be James D*ck.'”
As Toland continued, he spoke about how couldn’t use his real first name “John” since there already was John Cena and John Bradshaw Layfield.
“It wasn’t John D**k, which is my real name because there’s already John Cena, John Bradshaw. My whole thing was why couldn’t you have called me Tank D**k? I just don’t get it. Tank D**k would have at least been cool, like Tank D**k, you know? But yeah, so it is what it is.”
The reason that The D**ks were fired was because they got into a fight with eachother during a hazing incident.