Adam Copeland, Malakai Black, Mercedes Mone; other than working for AEW, what do these wrestlers all have in common? They had to leave their popular monikers behind when they left WWE in order to go out with their own new names on the indies.

Now for years, this has simply been WWE's policy, as they want to control the likenesses and intelectual property of everyone who appears on their weekly programming, with only a few exceptions given out to performers like Bobby Lashley, Adam Cole, Ronda Rousey, and the like for one reason or another.

And yet, according to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer and F4W.com, that appears to no longer be the case, as, according to his reporting, WWE has changed up their creative licensing strategy in such a way that should benefit fans and wrestlers alike heading into the future.

“I was told that these new TKO deals are such that when you go to WWE, they are going to trademark everything. For example, Ethan Page went and they trademarked Ethan Page. This is from someone in the company, when you leave they hand everything over to you now.”

“Apparently, when you leave WWE, and it's kind of the same thing I think with AEW, it's like she [Vaquer] can leave and take her name. Ethan Page can leave and take his name. While you're there, they own the rights to everything for pro wrestling. But that is a very big change from back in the day when they owned you into perpetuity. She very much wanted to keep her name and apparently, they're allowing her to keep the name in WWE. They're gonna trademark it while she's there…”

So what does this mean for performers who have already exited WWE but haven't signed elsewhere, someone like Becky Lynch, for example? Could she debut in AEW as “Becky Lynch,” or would it still need to be Rebecca Quinn, since she didn't enter the promotion with the moniker? And what about folks like Black, Copeland, or even Mone? Could they soon be returning to Alister, Edge, and Sasha Banks in one way or another in AEW? While only time will tell, it's safe to say this policy change has the potential to be very beneficial for talent in the future and could make a near-immediate impact on the scene, too, depending on how it all shakes out.

Brian Pillman Jr. wasn't able to keep his name in NXT

While the news of WWE's adjusted naming policy is certainly good news for talent and fans alike, as both parties will be able to enjoy the performer they like under the name they know them under regardless of where they wrestle, it wasn't too long ago when that simply wasn't the case.

Need proof? Well, look no further than Lexis King, who worked on the indies and in AEW under more or less his given name, Brian Pillman Jr. Discussing his jump from AEW to WWE with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, King noted that when he arrived in NXT, he was told he wasn't allowed to use his famous father's moniker, and would instead have to come up with something new for trademarking reasons.

“I don't want to get into the details. But like when I first got there, like everything was just Brian Pillman Jr., yada, yada, yada. Then I had some talks, they gave me the whole, ‘You know, we can't keep your name' kind of talk, and I thought ‘Well I don't want to make it seem like that's a bad thing,'” Lexis King told Chris Van Vliet via Wrestling Inc.

“Honestly, I've always sort of fantasized about having my own wrestler name. My whole career I've had his name. My whole life I've had someone else's name I've been I've been walking around for 30 years with someone else's name. Brian Pillman is a name that my father made. He made that name on his own. There's not much I can add to it.”

Now granted, there is a longstanding tradition of WWE not using Jr. in the naming of its Superstars, with Vince McMahon famously hating the term when it was used on himself and performers like Rey Mysterio having to drop the suffix as a result. While only time will tell if WWE will ease that stance into the future, as McMahon still technically worked for the company when King signed on the dotted line, this new policy should help to open the door for performers like Atlantis Jr. or El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. to enter the promotion's radar.