Sheamus and Drew McIntyre’s short-lived team name was apparently dropped for an interesting reason.
According to a new report from F4WOnline.com (via The Wrestling Observer Newsletter), WWE has dropped “The Banger Bros” as their team name because the company found out there’s an adult entertainment company with a similar name.
The Observer noted that WWE dropped the name after finding out about Bang Bros, a brand that specializes in pornographic photos and videos. Bang Bros was founded in 2000 and first gained fame with its Bang Bus videos, and now has numerous other websites in its network.
Sheamus and Drew McIntyre were first called “The Banger Bros” on the January 6 episode of SmackDown, where they challenged The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. Now, the pair is simply referred to as “Sheamus and Drew McIntyre” in WWE advertisements.
This is not the first time, however, that WWE has had to change a name due to its ties to adult entertainment. Back in 2015, Paige, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were named the Submission Sorority. WWE quickly changed the name to PCB after finding out Google searches directed fans to several porn video links for a series called HazeHer, a series that was coincidentally owned by BangBros. The company later told TMZ that web traffic rose 56% overnight and they saw a 35% rise in subscriptions after WWE used the name.
While it’s not linked to porn, WWE also made a change to Gunther’s name after finding out it had links to a Nazi commander. WWE filed to trademark “Gunther Stark” as the ring name for WALTER, but soon abandoned the trademark after finding out it was also the name of a Nazi U-boat commander.
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