In a tweet sent yesterday, former WWE Superstar Ryback pleaded publicly to Vince McMahon and Triple H to abandon the Ryback trademark so he could move on with his career.
“It wasn’t created by them and trying to make someone spend nearly 200K to keep their legal name and brand is petty and unnecessary. Please move on and erase me from your history and programming,” he said.
Ryback legally changed his name to his wrestling persona from his birth name Ryan and has applied for the trademark under his name of Ryback Reeves for “entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network.”
But the former star now doesn’t want WWE to profit off of his name and if he is awarded the complete trademark, WWE would have to pay him to license it for any future projects. WWE has owned the trademark of the name Ryback since December 18, 2012 and it is a live trademark.
The two parted ways in August 2016 after a few months before he decided to quit due to a contract dispute, citing lack of equal pay for talent and creative frustration as primary reasons for his departure. He used the name The Big Guy when he performed on independent shows.
