WWE Almost Named Tag Team After Rock Music Legends

WWE introduced Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins alongside Edge. Ryder and Hawkins were the Edgeheads, but they almost had much different individual names.

While speaking to Sam Roberts, Matt Cardona revealed that WWE almost gave them very different names. Those plans changed just like they did for the stenciled tattoos that WWE was supposed to get for them to use. Instead, they had to settle for Sharpee markers.

“What was supposed to happen, it was supposed to be a one night thing. They were supposed to have stencils, and they weren’t there. The makeup people had to draw them on with sharpies. That was on a Sunday. On Sunday and Monday, we are scrubbing these off. We got to SmackDown taping on Tuesday and they said you have to do it again. Luckily it was only a two night thing. One thing people don’t know is that we were supposed to be, when we first switched our names from Brett and Brian Major to our “real” names, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins. There was a miscommunication. We almost became Ketus and Kobain with K’s. Johnny Ace said we need something like Slash or Axle to go with Edge. A couple hours before, he said we need real names, but not your real names, so we went with Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins.”

WWE will often make someone’s name sound like something else as an indication to their roots. Ketus was likely an homage to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ singer Anthony Kiedis. The Kobain is a little bit easier to figure out as it is only one letter different from the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain.

Thanks to Wrestling News for the quote