Select Answers: Keeping names in WWE, Maki Itoh, Interference (Patreon)

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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Given WWE's habit of changing names to copyright them, how did Toni Storm keep the name Toni Storm when she joined the company? Thanks.

It's always a case-by-case basis. For every Lexis King or Blake Monroe there's a Penta and Jordynne Grace. For every Royce Keys, there's a Rey Fenix. There are just times when WWE feels it serves them better to use the names. Some of the names they asked to be signed over to them are kind of wild, though. Some very obscure stuff for talent that show up.

Hey SRS, I know it’s lazy booking but every match on WWE seems to have interference. It is to the point that it seems like a miracle that it doesn’t have interference. Do the higher ups realize they use it way too much?

Yes. Sometimes they fall into habits. I actually had someone point out all of the upset wins this past week on Smackdown, with Kiana James, Tama Tonga and Aleister Black winning. I think that was an effort to make things less predictable. As for interference, I just hate the constant need for crutches in wrestling. Sometimes people should just win matches, including the heels!

I could be way off base here, but do you know if there's a big knock against Maki Itoh with the major US wrestling companies? It seemed like she wanted to go to the US when she was a free agent last year, but it didn't sound like any of them had interest in her. Her character stuff feels like it'd fit perfectly in TNA or NXT and she has a big built-in fanbase, so I've just been curious if there's some behind-the-scenes reason WWE/AEW/TNA wouldn't want her.

Maki Itoh is a great performer, and a solid worker. It has always seemed like to me that American Wrestling companies preferred to have her in a cameo capacity. From what I understand, she will continue to do occasional tours in the United States. I haven't heard of any forces actively working against her.