As was noted over the weekend on WrestlingNews.co, upcoming live event line-ups indicate that Theory will go back to being called Austin Theory. It wasn’t official at the time but PWInsider.com has now confirmed that he will be using his full name going forward.
Also, as noted last night during Monday Night Raw, Riddle is now using his full name Matt Riddle going forward. A graphic was shown on the screen last night to reflect the change.
The idea to shorten names came from Vince McMahon and it’s something he’s done for many years for various reasons. Now with Triple H running the creative end of things, it looks like we won’t see many name changes (if any) going forward.
The previous regime’s edict stated that wrestlers could not use their real and/or independent wrestling name while in WWE. That was one of the reasons for the name changes but there were exceptions to the rule. In Riddle’s case, it was reportedly because McMahon didn’t want Riddle’s sexual assault allegations to come up if someone typed in his full name on Google.
