The days of WWE wrestlers being forced to go by only their last names are coming to an end, thankfully.
After reports by several outlets leading up to this week’s episode of Raw in Pittsburgh, Riddle was subtly referred to as Matt Riddle during the broadcast prior to his interview segment/argument with Seth Rollins. Later in the show, Theory popped up during a pre-recorded segment with Johnny Gargano, though he wasn’t officially referred to via graphics or the like.
However, Mike Johnson of PWInsider has confirmed that both men will soon be officially going by their first and last names.
Theory is no longer Theory. He will officially return to using his full ring name of Austin Theory going forward, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
Matt Riddle will indeed 100% be going by his full name going forward as well, as seen on last night’s edition of Raw.
The practice of dropping wrestlers’ first names was an oft discussed and generally mocked staple of Vince McMahon’s time in charge of WWE. McMahon apparently thought having performers go by just a single name helped make them more memorable and more likely to get over with fans.
But in practice, the shortening generally came off as silly. Both Riddle and Theory were great examples; Riddle because he was forced to give up using his actual first name while keeping his real life surname, and Theory since his ring name just sounded strange without something in front of it (plus Austin is his real first name as well).
Interestingly, at the time of this post, Riddle’s entry on the WWE.com Superstars page has already been updated to reflect the change, while Theory’s has not. It also remains to be seen if similar thinking applies to others who have lost their first names while transitioning to the main WWE roster, including Ciampa, or wrestlers who switched to a single name while getting creative makeovers, like Butch (formerly Pete Dunne).
Regardless, the stamping out of first names was one of the tropes people associated with Vince McMahon that also happened to be true. The impression is that it won’t be missed by many, if any, WWE fans.