WWE spent weeks teasing Lola Vice’s jump to the main roster with Miami-heavy vignettes, then filed to lock down the name “Vice City” right before she arrived. Now that plan appears to be dead, because WWE has officially abandoned its trademark application for the name just as Vice is settling into life on Monday Night RAW.
The company originally filed for “Vice City” on August 4, shortly after Vice wrapped up her run in NXT. Ringside News covered WWE’s original “Vice City” trademark filing, which covered wrestling performances, television appearances, online content, fan clubs and other sports entertainment services tied to the name.
The timing made the direction pretty obvious. Vice, whose real name is Valerie Loureda, is from Miami, and WWE soon began airing slick vignettes built heavily around her connection to the city before she finally showed up on RAW.
Whatever WWE had planned for the “Vice City” branding, however, the company has now backed away from trying to own it. As of September 21, the United States Patent and Trademark Office listing for WWE’s application shows the filing as abandoned after WWE submitted an express abandonment on September 2. The USPTO description makes it clear that this wasn’t simply an application sitting around waiting for approval.
“The owner of the trademark application withdrew (e.g. abandoned) the application and the application is no longer active.”
That means WWE itself pulled the application rather than waiting for the trademark office to make a final decision on it.
There was plenty of attention on the filing from the beginning because “Vice City” is already heavily associated with Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto franchise. WWE’s filing was limited to wrestling and entertainment services rather than video games, so there is still no confirmation that Rockstar or parent company Take-Two had anything to do with WWE abandoning the application.
The original filing still raised eyebrows because Take-Two has spent years protecting branding connected to Vice City, and WWE trying to attach the exact phrase to one of its wrestlers was always going to get people talking. Whether that actually became a legal headache for WWE remains unknown, because no reason for the abandonment has been made public.
What makes the timing even stranger is that WWE didn’t abandon its push for Lola Vice at all. Vice made her RAW in-ring debut on September 14 and immediately qualified for the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match, giving her a major win right out of the gate.
One week later, WWE made the move official. Adam Pearce introduced Lola Vice as a member of the RAW roster on September 21 before Roxanne Perez crashed the celebration and the two immediately got into each other’s faces. So WWE clearly hasn’t cooled off on Lola Vice — it just appears the company has cooled off on calling her presentation “Vice City.”
WWE could always come up with another Miami-inspired nickname or presentation for Vice, but this particular idea appears to have been tossed before it ever became an official part of her RAW character.
What do you think made WWE abandon the “Vice City” trademark, and should they still find another way to work Lola Vice’s Miami roots into her RAW presentation? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
