Levi Cooper (aka former WWE star Tucker) recently appeared on the OTR Show to talk about a wide range of topics.
During it, he talked about the reasons why he and Otis lost their last names when they moved to the main roster:
“From what I understand the reason behind that was purely and simply, which is funny, it doesn’t make any sense, but in WWE logic, it makes perfect sense, that whenever Vince heard us being announced when we had a TV match, and the announcer had to say, ‘Tucker Knight, Otis Dozovik, Heavy Machinery’, that was too long, so he sh*t canned the last names. It was just Tucker and Otis, Heavy Machinery. From what I understand, and we weren’t consulted at all. I found out about that name change via social media. I got a text from the social media guy saying, ‘We’re going to change your handles because you guys’ names have changed.’ I’m like, ‘What? What do you mean our names have changed?’ He was like, ‘Oh, you guys haven’t heard? Vince wanted to get rid of your guys’ last names.’ We weren’t the first ones, and we weren’t the last ones to have that happen. That’s happened several times before and after. That’s the reason from what I understand. The reason why people lose part of their names is because it saves seconds on television.”
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