When it comes to wrestling a good ring name is important as a wrestler has to carry it with them for years. Summer Rae’s name became well known to WWE fans throughout her run with the company, but she recently explained during a Q&A session with Golden Ring Collectibles that wrestlers were supposed to submit somewhere around 10 ring names when they first joined the company. WWE originally wanted her to be Kylie Summers which was apparently a name that Dusty Rhodes wasn’t fond of.
“Mine came back and I said I wanted the name ‘Kyle,’ like a boy’s name. I didn’t say Summer and they just put ‘Kylie Summers’ as my name. And Dusty Rhodes said, ‘What the hell is a Kylie Summers?’ He’s like, ‘I f***ing hate it.’ In front of everyone, he made me stand up in front of the class and was like, ‘Tell them what they named you, it’s bulls***.'”
Summer Rae went on to note that when WWE agreed to let her use Summer as her first name Dusty Rhodes encouraged her to come up with a last name that started with the letter “R.”
“And he wanted everything one or two syllables so when people chant your name it’s not anything crazy. So, I think I said ‘R-a-y,’ like a summer ray, like a ray of sunshine, and they came back ‘R-a-e’ because they’re difficult.”
H/T Wrestling Inc.
