10 Most Embarrassing NXT Renames

There’s nothing corporations love more than trademarking things, and WWE is nothing if not corporate. Even in the promised land and haven for good wrestling known as NXT, many incoming wrestlers are given brand new names that WWE can easily trademark and wrestlers can’t use if and when they leave the company.

The renaming isn’t consistent -- wrestlers like Adam Cole, Keith Lee, KUSHIDA, and others have come in unscathed -- and not every rename is unacceptable -- Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn could have done worse -- but there have been many standout talents that received NXT names that are frankly embarrassing. There have been so many stinkers over the years, but the following ten easily earn the distinction of being the most embarrassing NXT renames of all time.

10 Adrian Neville (f.k.a. Pac)

Pac showed up on NXT during the early Full Sail days, back when the company barely acknowledged the indie scene outside of the occasional snipe at the “bingo halls.” So the name Pac -- not the most evocative name, but at least it was about his physical attributes, namely his six-pack -- had to go, to be replaced by the moniker Adrian Neville. At #10 on this list, Adrian Neville isn’t the most embarrassing rename, but it’s also not a very exciting ring name. At best, it’s just a generic name for a British person, and Pac is anything but generic.

9 Jordan Myles (f.k.a. ACH)

Albert Christian Hardie, Jr. has spent the past decade as an underrated star on the indies, a high flyer with tons of charisma and a simple but effective moniker -- his own real name, shortened to memorable initials. When he came to NXT, nothing changed about him except his name, which became the super blah Jordan Myles. Apparently inspired by Michael Jordan and Miles Morales, it sucks that ACH was forced to resort to using other people’s names instead of his own. No wonder he quit the company in a huff.

8 Damian Priest (f.k.a. Punishment Martinez)

To be honest, Damian Priest isn’t a terrible name -- it comes from the specific school of NXT renaming that gave us awesomely dramatic names like Solomon Crowe and Aleister Black. But when your original ring name is something as evocative as “Punishment Martinez,” Damian Priest just doesn’t stack up.

Punishment Martinez is such a wrestling name, the kind you rarely see anymore. His name’s Martinez, and he delivers Punishment. The name “Damian Priest” further complicates matters when you consider his muddled gimmick, where he’s a hedonistic rock star who’s also an archer.

7 Marcel Barthel (f.k.a. Axel Dieter Jr.)

Marcel Barthel is a great name for a French wrestler from the 1950s or, like, a mime, but it’s actually the name of a German NXT wrestler from the 21st century. Barthel is actually his real last name, but his old ring name from the European indie scene is the ridiculously German moniker of Axel Dieter Jr. Barthel’s heritage aside (Dieter Sr. was a wrestler, too), we can’t get over the name Axel Dieter Jr. -- it’s a memorable name that rolls off of the tongue and is not at all reminiscent of Ross’s monkey from Friends.

6 Dexter Lumis (f.k.a. Samuel Shaw)

Dexter Loomis isn’t the worst ring name Samuel Shaw has gone by -- he originally made his TNA debut under the name Lupus (???) -- but it’s a name way too on-the-nose. He’s been working a creepy serial killer gimmick since at least 2013, so when he came to NXT he got a new name to reflect that. The first name Dexter is a shout-out to the Showtime TV drama of the same name, while the last name Lumis is probably a reference to the killer from the first Scream movie. The worst part of this rename is that Samuel Shaw is a way better wrestler and serial killer name, and that’s the man’s real name.

5 Apollo Crews (f.k.a. Uhaa Nation)

We will never understand WWE’s need to name wrestlers after the most obvious things possible. Uhaa Nation, a ridiculously talented man with lots of muscles, gets a WWE ring name meant to draw comparison to actor Terry Crews, a ridiculously talented man with lots of muscles. As a result, Apollo Crews has a needless hurdle to overcome: being seen as a carbon copy of someone more famous. It’s like if they gave John Cena the ring name John Schwarzenegger because he looks like a Terminator. If trademarking human beings is that important to WWE, the better decision would have been pulling a Kevin Owens and tweaking his name to Apollo Nation. That would have been way cooler.

4 Dominik Dijakovic (f.k.a. Donovan Dijak)

Donovan Dijak was a standout on the indie scene, the winner of Ring of Honor’s 2015 Top Prospect Tournament whose matches with Keith Lee in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla put him on the map and forged a rivalry that continued into their time on NXT.

After one appearance on NXT television under his real name of Christopher Dijak, he got a name change to the clumsier Dominik Dijakovic, a name that reeks of WWE needing to trademark a name at the expense of its own talent. It’s a good thing that he’s such a physical marvel, because that name isn’t doing him any favors.

3 Kassius Ohno (f.k.a. Chris Hero)

Chris Hero is one of the great indie wrestlers of the 2000s, having put on epic matches with CM Punk and forming a dope tag team with Claudio Castagnoli (later known as Cesaro) known as The Kings of Wrestling. When he signed to NXT, he adopted the borderline TNA ring name of Kassius Ohno. Ohno is still the amazing wrestler he’s always been, but the name is incredibly silly, and not quite in the self-aware Oney Lorcan way. Back in his early NXT days, he’d have the talking point of “When people see Kassius coming, they say OH NO!” That’s kind of funny, but is it worth being stuck with the name?

2 Michael McGillicutty (f.k.a. Joe Hennig)

Better known as the less-bad name of Curtis Axel, the son of “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig debuted in 2010 on Season 2 of the bad game show version of NXT under the endlessly mockable name of Michael McGillicutty. It’s a cartoonish, kind of demeaning name for a wrestler, especially egregious because the ring name he used in his WWE Developmental days -- Joe Hennig -- is his actual real name. And it’s not like a Bray Wyatt situation where talking about his heritage undercuts the character. With McGillicutty, they talked about who his dad was all the time.

1 Rik Bugez (f.k.a. Eric Bugenhagen)

Of all the pointless NXT renames in history, “Rik Bugez” is somehow even more heartbreaking than that time NXT spent weeks hyping KENTA only for him to announce that he was changing his name to “Hideo Itami.” When Eric Bugenhagen first appeared on NXT television, his unbridled charisma and incessant air drumming, immediately won over the Full Sail crowd as well as the viewers at home. It didn’t even matter that he was there to get squashed by Drew Gulak -- we as a society instantly became Bugenmaniacs. Renaming him “Rik Bugez” undercuts all the enthusiasm the dude naturally generated for himself. To make matters worse, how do you even chant for “Rik Bugez”? Bugenhagen perfectly fit in the obligatory four-syllable soccer chant.

Next: 5 Biggest Successes From NXT's Game Show Days (& 5 Who Vanished)