Jim Ross reveals why Vince McMahon wants WWE Superstars to have only one-word names
Jim Ross is an expert on all things WWE having spent multiple decades in the company, working alongside Vince McMahon and seeing how the WWE Chairman works. Now that he has left WWE, Jim Ross often opens up on the reasons that Vince McMahon acts in the way that he does. In the most recent episode of the Grilling JR podcast (h/t Wrestling Inc), Jim Ross talked about Vince McMahon not liking WWE Superstars to have more than one-word names all the time.
Talking about Vince McMahon, he said that he revealed how and why he removed Bobby Lashley's 'Bobby' name to make his just Lashley during his earlier name in WWE.
Jim Ross on Vince McMahon wanting WWE Superstars to have one-word names
The behavior of the WWE Chairman is not always easy to understand, but Jim Ross explained that Vince McMahon wanted the names of WWE Superstars to be something that was memorable as well as entertaining.
"It's a showbiz thing, simple as that. Vince wants to be Walt Disney. He wants to be an entertainment mogul, making movies, making T.V. shows, producing pay per views, all the things WWE has done as a publicly traded company."
He went on to explain how huge stars out in the world often had a single-world name and that was the same reason he had wanted Bobby Lashley to only be known by Lashley.
"It's like Cher, always one name stars. Bono - there's a zillion of them, one name. The theory is that it's easier to remember one name for a person than two names for a person. I don't agree with it. Now you've seen it's come full circle and he's being called Bobby Lashley, but at that time and to this day, look at all the people on the roster that have one name."
Even recently in WWE, Superstars like Andrade, Elias, Murphy, Otis, and others had lost their full names. Apollo Crews and Mustafa Ali were also known as Apollo and Ali until recently when they were given their names back.