Austin Theory Reveals How He Got His Name Back After Vince McMahon Took It Away

Austin Theory is steadily building his reputation as one of WWE’s up-and-coming talents, showcasing his skills on television each week. The young wrestler has established himself as a formidable champion, with a solid record as the United States Champion. He got his name back after it was taken away from him and he finally explained how he got it back.

WWE changed up his name to Theory last year and there was good reason for that. While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Austin Theory recalled walking into a creative meeting with a writer who presented a promo that read, “Don’t call me Austin. It’s just Theory.” He was surprised and wondered why his name was gone. He spoke with Mr. McMahon, who was the head of creative at the time, and learned that McMahon believed that “Theory” could be a name that stood alone and had enough power behind it.

McMahon also wanted to distance himself from the comparison to Stone Cold because of the WrestleMania stuff they had just done. So, the name change happened out of circumstance.

However, Theory never felt negative about the change because the name “Theory” meant the most to him. As a kid, he had come up with the name and had given it a special meaning. A theory is unproven, which means that one can always get better. If one is proven, then that is it for them. Being a Theory means always being able to change, adapt, and evolve, which still works for him to this day.

Interestingly, Theory found out that he was Austin Theory again in a funny way. He received a text one day that simply said, “Your Austin Theory.” When he arrived at the show, he saw his full name on the matches board, and he knew that he was Austin Theory once again. Despite the name change, he knows that people will always know him as Austin, and he is proud of the name “Theory” and what it represents to him.

“Yeah, so I remember walking into, and this is the time Mr. McMahon was head of creative, I remember the writer bringing my promo and the promo said, ‘Don’t call me Austin. It’s just Theory.’ I was like, ‘What? The name is gone?’ I was wondering why. I spoke with Mr. McMahon about it, and he felt that, you know, Theory could be a name that stood alone. He felt it had enough power behind it. Also, I think he just wanted to get away from that comparison of Stone Cold because we just did the WrestleMania stuff. So I think maybe out of circumstance, that’s maybe why it happened.”

“The funny story about Austin Theory coming back is I just got a text one day, or like that just pretty much said, ‘Your Austin Theory.’ Then I showed up to the show and the matches were on the wall and there was my full name again. I’m like, I guess I’m Austin Theory again. So I thought it was kind of funny. Like, that’s how I find out, you know what I mean?”

“I never felt negative about it because Theory just meant the most to me, because I’ll always have my first name. People are always going to know me as Austin. But Theory was just that name I came up with as a kid. Even as a kid I was searching for, you know, besides it being a cool name that I came up with, and nobody had it like how can I give it meaning. For the longest, Theory was supposed to mean, you know, a Theory is unproven, but to me when you’re unproven, that means you’re not proven, so you can always get better. If you’re somebody that’s proven, that’s it for you. So me being a Theory always being able to change, to adapt, to evolve, that’s what it’s all about, and I still feel like to this day, it still works for that.”

Austin Theory is set to defend his United States Championship against John Cena at WrestleMania 39 in a highly anticipated match. We will have to wait and see how the match will turn out.

What’s your take on what Austin Theory said? Are you glad he has his full name back? Sound off in the comments!