Joe Gacy Reflects On His Pre-WWE Character, How He Kept His Ring Name

Joe Gacy said that he was actually confused when WWE let him keep his ring name and had wanted to move on from it. Gacy is now going by Joseph Sawyer after his WWE release, and he used the Gacy name before he was signed to the company.

Gacy talked about the original incarnation of his character on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He noted that he originally wanted to be Mason King in WWE NXT, but was surprised when they said that liked his ring name. You can see the highlights below:

On Who His Joe Gacy Character Was Before WWE:

“Well, I probably was a little bit of a dark character, but I do have a fun side. I think before I went to WWE, I was, lack of a better term. I had like a little bit of a dark character, but I still was still was me. I didn’t really have like a full-on gimmick. I guess I just had more of a vibe. So you know, I had times where I had fun, so I wasn’t always like a dark character. I would probably joke too much at times, and I’d have to reel myself in to not become a comedy wrestler. So that was when I kind of started to try to really focus on trying to be more serious at the time.”

On If He Owns The Name:

“So at a time I did. When I got hired, just like anybody else that gets hired and begins at the Performance Centre. They suggest, ‘Hey, come up with a list of names.’ I had like a list of 20 names, and I went through a bunch of them, and I’m like, ‘I don’t like a lot of these’ or whatever. And then I had one I really liked. Funny enough, it was called Mason King. This was before Lexxis King, so that was when I was really pitching. Then they were like, ‘We actually like Joe Gacy.’ I was like, ‘You do?’ I was very confused because at the time I was trying to get away from the Gacy name. I thought of it when I was very young, and then when I grew up and matured a little bit, I’m like, ‘Well, this is probably not a name I want to keep using.’”

On Moving On From the Name:

“Joseph Sawyer is the name I have chosen.”