Former WWE 205 Live star Alex Zayne, the former Ari Sterling, provided some insight to Fightful Select regarding the process of how WWE picks ring names for wrestlers.
He referred to the process as “hectic,” but said he knows that a lot of people have it easier. Once it became clear he was going to be used on TV, they had him compile a list of preferred names.
He sent a lister over to them and was told that they needed more names to choose from. He tried to push through “Zayne” but was told they couldn’t do that because Zayda Ramier had debuted on television and they sounded too similar.
He stated that the name Ari had come from Jeremy Piven’s character from Entourage “Ari Gold,” and Ari Sterling was a reference to that. He also stated that the name got cleared for use just a few hours before he appeared on TV.
