TNA Wrestling Star Reveals WWE Owns His Name

WWE/TNA Wrestling

A TNA Wrestling star has revealed that WWE still owns the trademark for their name, but allow both he and TNA to continue using it.

In January 2023 Santino Marella made his debut in TNA Wrestling as the company’s new Director of Authority – a position he still holds to this day.

With it being almost a decade after his full-time WWE career ended, Marella’s return to a top American wrestling promotion was big news, but what was arguably just as surprising is that he did so whilst still using his WWE name of Santino Marella.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Marella recalled former TNA President Scott D’Amore attempting to acquire the name, only to run into some resistance from WWE:

“So that was actually almost bigger news than me appearing on TNA, was the fact that I was Santino Marella. So in 2021, I imagine the COVID confusion or whatever, there were people getting fired and hired, and it seemed like it was team Hunter and team Vince, and they were changing regimes or whatever. Somebody didn’t renew the trademark.

“So Scott D’Amore, as a habit, because if he’s getting a former WWE guy, he kind of checks the trademark to see if they’re available, because he has to get creative and come up with a name. If it’s not Fandango, it’s Dango or something that’s legally not going to be too close to the intellectual property. He checked, and all of a sudden he goes, damn, Santino Marella is available. So he bought it.

“It’s not as simple as you can just buy it and it’s yours. There’s a case that they created the character, they developed the character. It’s still on their library. I mean, there’s still tons of Santino stuff in the library. But when it’s library use, I think it’s not considered like current use, because it’s from a library.

“So they sent an email or a phone call to Scott, and they say, ‘Yeah, you’re using our intellectual property.’ And Scott’s like, ‘Actually, I own the trademark.’ So they’re like, ‘Let me get back to you.’”

“It’s kind of sitting there for a while. Then they filed an extension to the time they can appeal it, and then when Scott was no longer with TNA, Ariel [Shnerer], in hopes of having a good relationship with WWE, kind of just gave it back to them. So they own it, but I’m not sure if a part of the deal was we’ll give it back to you but can we use it? And we’ve been using it.”

Marella has appeared on WWE TV during the companies’ ongoing partnership, with his daughter Arianna Grace featured regularly on iMPACT as the liaison between TNA and NXT.

For more WWE NXT news headlines follow this link here.

Transcript via ChrisVanVliet.com