-Aaron Zaremski
Since I am the self-proclaimed, "King of the Indies"* here at BTTR, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some current WWE wrestlers who have undergone name/gimmick changes since arriving on the main roster or in NXT.
Some of those wrestlers have received similar names that harked back to their days on the independents.
Case and point: Seth Rollins.
The current Kingslayer was formerly known as: Tyler Black, clearly a direct play on his old persona.
However, some wrestlers were made barely recognizable from their indie days.
Case and point: Daniel Bryan.
Before he had folks chanting, "YES! YES! YES!" in a WWE ring, he was an American Dragon with the completely unrecognizable name of... Bryan Danielson.
The first couple additions of F.K.A.yfabe will take a look at wrestlers who have undergone the most prevalent gimmick or appearance changes. Sure, it would be fun leading off the series with a guy like Kevin Owens, who was formerly known as Kevin Steen. But since the names and gimmicks are so similar, he will not be covered until later.
Instead, the first addition will focus on one of the more overlooked superstars currently on the WWE roster, the Swiss Superman, himself, Cesaro.
Formerly known as: Claudio Castagnoli.
You might be thinking, "Claudio... Cesaro... That's similar!" And whilst that is true, let me show you a pic of Claudio from the independents:
As you can tell, Mr. Castagnoli looks like a cross between a guy who is very insistent on the fact that this 1997 Nissan Ultima is THE car for you (and it has very good trunk space) and when Danny DeVito showed up as Phoebe's stripper for her bachelorette party in the television show, Friends.**
A far cry from his persona in WWE today.
Claudio Castagnoli is the actual real-life name of tCesaro. And he is also legitimately from Switzerland. His road to becoming one-half of the current RAW Tag Team Champions (with Sheamus) and a former United States Champion, as well as the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale winner, has been about as long as that run-on sentence.
Instead of inundating you with with every single company, accomplishment, and faction he was apart of in his independent career that stretched from 2000-2011, I will just focus on his most prominent and well known work with Kassuis Ohno, formerly Chris Hero, who will also be apart of this series.
They formed a team in 2005 while apart of the wrestling promotion Chikara.
Castangoli, Hero, and Arik Cannon became known as, "the Kings of Wrestling"- Cannon would soon leave the promotion, leaving Castagnoli and Hero as a tag-team. From there, they would go on an on-again-off-again run for the next six years. A run that saw them compete in Chikara, Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and Combat Zone Wrestling, just to name a notable few promotions.
As they captured gold as a team, Castagnoli also branched off to challenge for the ROH World Title and also captured the PWG title. During that time he had feuds with the "who's who" of indie names that dominated the 2005-2011 scene.
With the success of C.M. Punk, WWE became more open to indie guys that did not have the typical Vince McMahon "look" and Castagnoli was signed to WWE before NXT- as we know it today- was even a thing.
In fact, Castagnoli was signed to the then WWE developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.
While there, his name was changed to Antonio Cesaro- a former rugby player and member of the Swiss Militia, once debuted on the main roster, his name was shortened to just, Cesaro.
And from there, the Swiss Superman, took flight.
Since then, he has been dazzling fans with his feats of strength and his James Bond-esque persona, leading many fans to form the Cesaro Section at WWE events.
After injuries and dwindling in the mid-card scene, Cesaro has seemed to literally strike gold with his tag-team partner, Sheamus on the RAW brand.
However, Cesaro has always been viewed as one of the best and most underutilized individual wrestlers on the roster. This was proven as he took home the title of "Most Underrated Wrestler" from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from 2013-2016.
Cesaro even had a series of "shoot" promos after being drafted to RAW in 2016, about how he was being used, his subsequent under-utilization, and his over-all frustration with the company leading many to believe that the days of Claudio Castagnoli could be on the horizon, leading him to become of King of Wrestling once more.
*Please do not tell any of the previous 978 wrestlers who used that persona/the current 21 that still do, that I said that. #GimmickInfringement
**Please do not tell Mr. Cesaro that I said that. I was just being humorous. The pink is nice. Manly. Strong.
Since I am the self-proclaimed, "King of the Indies"* here at BTTR, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some current WWE wrestlers who have undergone name/gimmick changes since arriving on the main roster or in NXT.
Some of those wrestlers have received similar names that harked back to their days on the independents.
Case and point: Seth Rollins.
The current Kingslayer was formerly known as: Tyler Black, clearly a direct play on his old persona.
However, some wrestlers were made barely recognizable from their indie days.
Case and point: Daniel Bryan.
Before he had folks chanting, "YES! YES! YES!" in a WWE ring, he was an American Dragon with the completely unrecognizable name of... Bryan Danielson.
The first couple additions of F.K.A.yfabe will take a look at wrestlers who have undergone the most prevalent gimmick or appearance changes. Sure, it would be fun leading off the series with a guy like Kevin Owens, who was formerly known as Kevin Steen. But since the names and gimmicks are so similar, he will not be covered until later.
Instead, the first addition will focus on one of the more overlooked superstars currently on the WWE roster, the Swiss Superman, himself, Cesaro.
Formerly known as: Claudio Castagnoli.
You might be thinking, "Claudio... Cesaro... That's similar!" And whilst that is true, let me show you a pic of Claudio from the independents:
A far cry from his persona in WWE today.
Claudio Castagnoli is the actual real-life name of tCesaro. And he is also legitimately from Switzerland. His road to becoming one-half of the current RAW Tag Team Champions (with Sheamus) and a former United States Champion, as well as the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale winner, has been about as long as that run-on sentence.
Instead of inundating you with with every single company, accomplishment, and faction he was apart of in his independent career that stretched from 2000-2011, I will just focus on his most prominent and well known work with Kassuis Ohno, formerly Chris Hero, who will also be apart of this series.
They formed a team in 2005 while apart of the wrestling promotion Chikara.
Castangoli, Hero, and Arik Cannon became known as, "the Kings of Wrestling"- Cannon would soon leave the promotion, leaving Castagnoli and Hero as a tag-team. From there, they would go on an on-again-off-again run for the next six years. A run that saw them compete in Chikara, Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and Combat Zone Wrestling, just to name a notable few promotions.
As they captured gold as a team, Castagnoli also branched off to challenge for the ROH World Title and also captured the PWG title. During that time he had feuds with the "who's who" of indie names that dominated the 2005-2011 scene.
With the success of C.M. Punk, WWE became more open to indie guys that did not have the typical Vince McMahon "look" and Castagnoli was signed to WWE before NXT- as we know it today- was even a thing.
In fact, Castagnoli was signed to the then WWE developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling.
Since then, he has been dazzling fans with his feats of strength and his James Bond-esque persona, leading many fans to form the Cesaro Section at WWE events.
After injuries and dwindling in the mid-card scene, Cesaro has seemed to literally strike gold with his tag-team partner, Sheamus on the RAW brand.
However, Cesaro has always been viewed as one of the best and most underutilized individual wrestlers on the roster. This was proven as he took home the title of "Most Underrated Wrestler" from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter from 2013-2016.
Cesaro even had a series of "shoot" promos after being drafted to RAW in 2016, about how he was being used, his subsequent under-utilization, and his over-all frustration with the company leading many to believe that the days of Claudio Castagnoli could be on the horizon, leading him to become of King of Wrestling once more.
*Please do not tell any of the previous 978 wrestlers who used that persona/the current 21 that still do, that I said that. #GimmickInfringement
**Please do not tell Mr. Cesaro that I said that. I was just being humorous. The pink is nice. Manly. Strong.
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