Former WWE star Ariya Daivari was interviewed on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” this week.
During it, he opened up on trying to keep his name when he first joined WWE and more. Here are some of the highlights:
Keeping his name:
“Luckily for me, everyone in the CWC (Cruiserweight Classic Tournament Tournament), they wanted everyone to have their names because I think they wanted to capitalize on buzz. They said it was the best free agents, so they kept everyone’s names. The only people who had their gimmick names were guys who had gimmick names on the indies. Guys like Lince Dorado and Mustafa Ali kept their gimmick names, but everyone else it’s our shoot names.”
“I kept going back and forth on it. I didn’t want people to think, ‘Oh, he’s just Shawn’s brother’, and I have to admit he was in at a time when the wrestling industry was even hotter. He had a lot more eyes on his career back in 2004. Some people went, ‘Oh, cheap ripoff’, but, whatever. I was proud of the fact that I made it to the WWE at my size and keep my name. It’s all me being presented to me.”
WWE trying to take his real name away:
“They sent me a legal letter that had a bunch of mumbo jumbo, stuff you use, blah, blah. It said in parentheses ‘Ariya Daivari’. I had to call my lawyer just to double check. I said, ‘You know that’s my real name, right?’ All of my platforms are going to say Ariya Daivari.’ They said yeah, and it was a formality letter, and they just kind of pushed that stuff in there. But I wanted to make sure. The lawyer laughed on the phone and said, ‘Yeah, it’s your real name.’ I didn’t want to get screwed by giving my name away.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co