Summer Rae had a memorable run with WWE, but she was almost given an entirely different name, one that the great Dusty Rhodes hated.
Rae revealed during a Q&A session with Golden Ring Collectibles that WWE originally wanted to call her Kylie Summers. When The American Dream found out about the name he openly criticized it before demanding to creative that it be changed. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On her original moniker of Kylie Summers and how much Dusty Rhodes hated it:
Mine came back and I said I wanted the name ‘Kyle,’ like a boy’s name. I didn’t say Summer and they just put ‘Kylie Summers’ as my name. And Dusty Rhodes said, ‘What the hell is a Kylie Summers?’ He’s like, ‘I f***ing hate it.’ In front of everyone, he made me stand up in front of the class and was like, ‘Tell them what they named you, it’s bulls***.’
How the name eventually morphed into Summer Rae:
And he wanted everything one or two syllables so when people chant your name it’s not anything crazy. So, I think I said ‘R-a-y,’ like a summer ray, like a ray of sunshine, and they came back ‘R-a-e’ because they’re difficult.
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)