AEW star Kip Sabian recently participated in a virtual signing with Captain’s Corner, where the Superbad Boy answered a ton of different questions about his career, which included him sharing details about what his original in-ring name could have been had it not been for Saraya. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he originally thought of calling himself JETT:
So, when I used to backyard (wrestle), I had a different name and when I started at W.A.W., the first show, they asked me what I wanted to be? ‘What do you want your name to be?’ And one of my backyard names was ‘Jett’, J, E, double T and I wanted ‘Jett’-something but there was someone else in the company called ‘Jett’ so I didn’t have ‘Jett’. So, I have no idea what I’m gonna be called… My nickname since I was a kid has always been ‘Kip’.
How he eventually became Kip Sabian thanks to a suggestion from Saraya:
So, it was actually Saraya at the time, who, they asked me what I wanted to be called. I said, ‘Oh, I don’t mind, whatever’ and it was ‘Raya who came up with just putting Kip and I think I wrestled the first match as ‘Kip Jones’. I think it was Kip Jones… And then it went from Kip Jones to Kip Sabin because I was a Chris Sabin mark back in the day and then it went from Kip Sabin to Kip Sabian. So, I told Chris that story… when he was backstage.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)