Elias, Cesaro and WWE's Misguided Practice of Shortening Ring Names

Somewhere between his win over Finn Balor on the July 24 edition of WWE Raw and his bout with Kalisto the following Monday, Elias Samson lost his last name.

He stepped on to the stage on the final Raw of July as simply "Elias." That's how he's now listed on WWE.com.  

The tweak of the guitar-strumming heel's ring name is nothing new. 

WWE has made a habit in recent years of chopping off parts of its Superstars' monikers. Cesaro, Rusev and Big E have experienced the completely unnecessary move. It's a baffling practice. 

For one, this has sometimes come after a wrestler is well into the process of establishing himself. 

Cesaro had won the United States Championship and formed The Real Americans with Jack Swagger before WWE decided to slice the "Antonio" from his name. This was nearly two years after his call-up from NXT, too.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc), the move was made because someone within the company didn't believe Antonio sounded tough enough. That's an odd sentiment when the roster boasts wrestlers with first names like Seth, Dean and Jimmy, which aren't especially intimidating.

Big E Langston became Big E after winning the Intercontinental Championship. WWE waited until fans connected with Adrian Neville as NXT champ and been with the company for more than two years before removing his first name.

WWE didn't wait long for Elias' switch. The company halved his name about three months into his main-roster run.

As former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas pointed out, Elias joined a list of one-named stars:

For what? What does Elias gain by scrapping the Samson part of his moniker? Why up the chances for him to be confused for someone else in a Google search?

There are times when a shorter name simply flows better. Cain the Undertaker morphing into Undertaker was a smart move, for example. But a number of these recent changes feel pointless and actually make the Superstars sound less cool, less imposing, less like fighters.

There is no way Neville is a better wrestling name than Adrian Neville.

The cruiserweight champion's name sounds dorkier now. It's ill-fitting for the prowling, unfeeling predator that he is.

Former NXT tag team champions Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake went by Murphy and Blake respectively for a stretch. Those are the kinds of names that are better suited for cartoon dogs than bruisers who roam wrestling rings.

And WWE taking the Neidhart from Natalya's ring name will always be a head-scratcher. Rather than have her ring name point to her family legacy, she now sounds like a dancer for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Ring names are a part of the package for a wrestler. They are a detail for the character. They help shape how we view these grapplers. 

This name-compacting trend provides less opportunity to do any of that.

Imagine if Bruno Sammartino had reigned as world champ as just "Bruno." It's hard to imagine "Austin" connecting with fans as much as Stone Cold Steve Austin. Elias isn't likely to have the success those two men had, but he's not any better off now that he has the same name as a famous sports bureau.