AEW announced that they were going to be using former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) pay-per-view name Bash At The Beach for an upcoming show on January 15th, at the Watsco Center in Miami, FL.
Initially, it was thought that it must have been some sort of error as the name is owned and belonged to WWE, as part of its buyout of the company in 2001. WWE would even recycle the name for a couple of more years and showcased it to coincide with another recycled WCW name, The Great American Bash.
However, the name had been trademarked by AEW Executive Vice President, Cody Rhodes, after capitalizing on the fact that WWE let it expire. The advertisement above clearly lists the name as it relates to the event, complete with a makeshift logo reminiscent of famed tv show, Miami Vice.
It has also been revealed that aside from Bash At The Beach, Cody also had trademarked the following: The American Dream, The American Nightmare, Dusty Rhodes, The Match Beyond, Battlebowl, Bunkhouse Stampede, and The Prince of Wrestling. Many are old and forgotten pay-per-view names from WCW while others are names to trademark as gimmicks and/or monikers.
As of this writing, it has been brought to our attention that trademarks were also filed for both Slamboree and Superbrawl. “Slamboree” was a WCW PPV event that ran from 1993 through May of 2000, while “Superbrawl” was a WCW PPV event from 1991 through February 2001. The impression now is that WWE may have also let those expire as well.
One thing that can be said about Cody is that he is all about tradition – pure wrestling tradition. With AEW racking up names of these old WCW, Cody may seem to be locking on to them as a way to restore, preserve and keep them “in the family” since they are in many ways associated with his father, the late, great Dusty Rhodes, who both wrestled, served on Creative as was head booker for many years.
We now have to wait and see if and will these trademark filings are approved, and how will they be used in the months to come — not to mention WWE’s reaction to all this and whether they may try to use legal action ▪