Former WWE Star Reveals How He & Jim Cornette Came Up With His Ring Name

WWE

A former WWE star has recalled the story of how he and Jim Cornette came up with his ring name as he debuted for Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

D’Lo Brown, a former Intercontinental Champion and four-time European Champion in WWE, has revealed how his name came to be.

Speaking with Rewind Recap Relive, he explained:

“Training at the Monster Factory, there were several guys that had a connection to Smoky Mountain. Chris Candido, Tammy Sytch and Balls Mahoney, who had just been hired to do the Boo Bradley gimmick.

“When he came back from his first set of TVs, he came in to train that week, and was like, ‘I gotta go back to Tennessee in two weeks, anyone wanna drive me down there?’ Full disclosure, Balls didn’t have a driver’s licence. Before he could even finish, I raised my hand, ‘I’ll take you.’

“In exchange for driving him down, Cornette promised to give whoever drove him down a dark match, so I get there, and the way they had described me to Jim Cornette was I was Ernie Ladd, Big Cat like. Ernie Ladd is 6′ 8″, I’m 6′ 2”. Ernie Ladd is long and skinny, at the time I am close to 400lbs, I am nothing like Ernie Ladd.

“Thankfully Cornette looked past the opening remarks about what I was and allowed me to have my eight minutes, and from those eight minutes I got hired and became part of the Gangstas.

“So I started out the night as AC Connor in a dark match, and in the main event I was D’Lo Brown with the Gangstas.

“D’Lo was my name, I came up with D’Lo, and Brown he just threw in there because it rolled well together, because he liked ‘Downtown’ D’Lo Brown.”

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Brown has also commented on one of the best moments in his life after he almost made Ron Simmons cry on TV – read more at this link.

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• wwe
• d'lo brown
• Jim Cornette

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