Details On Why Bludgeon Brothers Lost Their First Names

As we previously noted, the Bludgeon Brothers (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan) lost their first names on Smackdown and are now just called Harper and Rowan. It continued a long trend of wrestlers losing their first names, including (Antonio) Cesaro, (Adrian) Neville and (Alexander) Rusev. In the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer gave a possible reason as to why WWE shortened their names.

According to Meltzer, it was Vince McMahon that decided on the change, as he felt having shorter names made the team come across as more dominant. The team has so far been portrayed that way on TV, defeating the Hype Bros with ease on consecutive episodes of Smackdown.