Billy Gunn Sends Cease & Desist Stopping Indie Wrestler From Using Name He’s Had For Years

Billy Gunn recently filed a copyright for his own name and his sons’ name. They are the Gunn Club in AEW, but then WWE put stop to Billy Gunn using his own name. Now Billy Gunn is stopping another wrestler from using a name that they’ve built for years.

Gunn has handed a cease and desist letter down to Tony Gunn. He is now no longer allowed to use the name “The Gunn Show.”

Ted McNaler appeared on The Monday Locker Room Show with Bin Hamin and he revealed that OVW wrestler Tony Gunn has received a cease and desist letter from Billy Gunn telling him that he is no longer allowed to use the name “The Gunn Show.”

“Tony Gunn got a cease and desist from Billy Gunn over the usage of the term ‘Gunn Show’ which as far as I know, Billy hasn’t even used that term in AEW yet. Apparently he got the rights to use it back in February. But Tony Gunn has been using that literally for the last few years on OVW and on YouTube and on YouToo America, but he has it on his tights, he has it on his T-shirts, he has it in his music and now it’s all being taken away. Now I did talk to a lawyer friend of mine and he did say Tony has a leg to stand on. But talking with Tony, I don’t know if he just doesn’t want to have any heat with possible future opportunities. But unfortunately, I don’t think he is going to legally fight it which is a shame. And the crazy part is Gunn is his shoot… it’s his real name, but now it’s being taken away. Yeah, his shoot name is Tony Gunn and based off what my lawyer friend tells me because Tony has documented, prior use, and not only that we have done two documented shows with Billy Gunn on the show in which he said, I guess from a lawyer standpoint, that Billy had the opportunity to approach Tony Gunn about the legal rights to that name and did not approach Tony about that prior. And to me like he had two prior opportunities to address it and didn’t.”

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He then explained the situation in more detail. He didn’t seem too happy about it either as he encouraged indie wrestlers to protect their brands by registering trademarks.

“I was recently told that “Tony Gunn, you can no longer use the gimmick ‘The Gunn Show’”, that’s it’s been trademarked by someone on a bigger stage, a bigger platform. And that means that what I’ve been building over these past three or four years, building my brand, building who I am, is gone. Down to the music that I’ve had made, I cannot use. Down to my wrestling gear, my catchphrases that I say on the mic, what I’m referred to in the wrestling business ‘The Gunn Show’. To my merchandise that I have I cannot sell anymore. I can’t do any of it. I’ve been stripped away of it all. And I’ve never felt this way before. I’ve never had my wrestling identity stolen from me. I never thought that could happen to me.

It hurts. It hurts a lot. And I’m pissed off. Really pissed off. I’ve been wrestling for 15 years and I’ve had a lot of gimmicks, a lot of characters along the way and I finally found something that works for me, something that translated to the people and on TV and now I’ve had it ripped out from under my feet. It’s bullish**.

We’ll have to see how this situation plays out. The pro wrestling business is getting very litigious as intellectual property becomes even more important.

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked on something, because if another person can hire a copyright attorney then your days with that intellectual property might be numbered.