Want to make a t-shirt calling someone a jabroni? You’ll have to ask Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for permission to do it — and someday, even WWE parent company TKO will too.
It was big news last month when Johnson joined the TKO board and gained the rights to the moniker of “The Rock,” which had been held by WWE throughout his career. But as noted by The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets, there was more to that deal: Johnson now owns the IP and trademark rights to most of his famous catchphrases.
On the surface, that would mean that even WWE couldn’t sell, for instance, a shirt that says “The People’s Champion” because Johnson has the rights to that phrase, and he could hypothetically show up in another wrestling company and sell one there. However, THR also says that The Rock has granted a “license to use The Rock IP for certain categories and products for 10 years, and during that period Johnson can’t license the IP to businesses competitive with TKO.”
In other words, there couldn’t be any Rock merchandise in AEW until Johnson was into his 60s.
Perhaps the most interesting inclusion on the list of words and phrases that are now trademarked in Johnson’s name is “jabroni,” which has a history that predates his rise to stardom in WWE (though he certainly made it the most famous). Johnson has credited The Iron Sheik for introducing it to him.
Here’s a full list of the words and catchphrases included in The Rock’s trademark haul, just so you can see your dreams of monetizing any of them crushed for good.
- ‘The Rock’
- ‘Rocky Maivia’
- ‘Team Corporate’
- ‘Rock Nation’
- ‘The Nation’
- ‘Roody Poo’
- ‘Candy Ass’
- ‘Jabroni’
- ‘If you smell what The Rock is cooking’
- ‘The Samoan Sensation’
- ‘The Blue Chipper’
- ‘The Brahma Bull’
- ‘The People’s Champion’
- ‘The Great One’
- ‘Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth’
- ‘Team Bring It’
- ‘The Rock Just Bring It’
- ‘The People’s Elbow’
- ‘Rock Bottom’
- ‘Finally, The Rock has come back to … ‘
- ‘It doesn’t matter what … ‘
- ‘Blue Hell’
- ‘The millions … (and millions)’
- ‘Rockpocalypse’
- ‘Project Rock’
- ‘The most electrifying man in sports and entertainment’
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