The era of Kayfabe is mostly behind us, but there are still plenty of things us fans don’t know about. The wrestlers we love to love (or hate) very rarely use their real names. Sure, a few like John Cena and Brock Lesnar were somehow able to keep their given names, but most pro wrestlers are given names at some point in their careers.
The following quiz has 25 questions about pro wrestlers’ real names. Sometimes we’ll give you the ring name and ask you to identify the name their parents gave them. For other questions, we’ll give you their real names, and you’ll have to match them with their ring name.
Some will be pretty easy, but I think even ring aficionados will be stumped by a few. As always please let us know if we got anything wrong in the comments below, and if you liked the quiz, please share your results on social media so more people can try our quizzes.
Pro Wrestlers’ Real Names Quiz (25 Questions)
Results
You’ve obviously spent some time on the mat. Kayfabe has nothing on you!
You probably think Hulk Hogan got where he was by saying the prayers and taking the vitamins. That doesn’t work for us, brother.
#1. Love him or hate him, Hulk Hogan helped revolutionize the wrestling industry. What was his real name?
Hulk Hogan’s name was created in the early 1980s when Vince McMahon Sr. gave Terry Bollea the name to make him more marketable to the wrestling audience. The “Hulk” part came from his massive size, which some compared to Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk character. The “Hogan” part was chosen because McMahon wanted an Irish-sounding last name.
#2. Phil Brooks? Who? You might know him better by his current ring name.
He first started using the ring name CM Punk when he was put into a tag team named the “Chick Magnets” with CM Venom after another performer skipped out on the card; the “CM” originally stood for “Chick Magnet” but was later amended to have no meaning.
#3. Merced Solis was a popular wrestler from the 80’s and 90’s who wrestled for various organizations. Do you know what his ring name was?
Santana also once worked under the ring name Richard Blood, which is in fact the real name of Ricky Steamboat.
#4. Xavier Woods doesn’t sound like a ring name but it is.What is Woods’ real name?
Woods also makes public appearances outside of wrestling under the name Austin Creed.
#5. The name Bayley seems quite unassuming but she’s certainly done plenty with it. What is her real name?
Bayley also wrestled under the name Davina Rose, and actually first appeared on NXT as a masked Luchadora.
#6. You’ve probably never heard the name Rami Sebei but I bet you’ve heard of his current ring name.
Zayn has also gone by the names Stevie McFly and El Generico who was a masked Luchador.
#7. There have been a lot of monsters that terrorized pro wrestling. Frank Goodish played one of the best. Which monster did he perform as?
Brody died in 1988 from stab wounds suffered backstage in a shower during a wrestling event in Puerto Rico. The killer was José González, better known as Invader 1.
#8. What ring name does Demi Bennett go by?
Bennett came up with the ring name Rhea Ripley while mixing and matching possible names, settling on Rhea from the goddess of the same name, and Ripley after Ellen Ripley from the Alien film franchise.
#9. Sting went through a variety of gimmick changes and always seemed to find a way to succeed. What was his name in real life?
Borden originally began his career with Jim Hellwig as part of the Blade Runners.
#10. This man was known as Jesse Ventura both as a pro wrestler and as the governor of Minnesota. What was his real name?
Ventura created the stage name Jesse “The Body” Ventura to go with the persona of a bully-ish beach bodybuilder, picking the name “Ventura” from a map as part of his “bleach blond from California” gimmick
#11. Finn Balor has wrestled under several names but what was the name his parents gave him?
Devitt’s current ring name was derived from Irish mythological figures Fionn mac Cumhaill and Balor. The latter is also Gaelic for “Demon King” which accounts for his alter ego, The Demon.
#12. Lawrence Pfohl doesn’t sound like a very tough guy. The wrestler he portrayed was a lot more imposing. Who was he?
In 1978, Luger played for the Miami Hurricanes, a team that featured Jim Kelly, Jim Burt, Mitch Guittar, Fred Marion, and Mark Richt.
#13. Martin Lunde sounds more like an attorney than a pro wrestler. What ring name did Mr. Lunde use?
Lunde became known as Arn Anderson and was part of the re-formed Minnesota Wrecking Crew, replacing Gene Anderson and taking on the name of “Arn Anderson”, Ole’s kayfabe brother.
#14. Bray Wyatt comes from a famous wrestling family. What is his real name?
Rotunda was a third-generation wrestler, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, his father Mike Rotunda, and his uncles Barry and Kendall Windham.
#15. Ricky Steamboat was the total package (no not that Total Package) and could do everything in a wrestling ring. In fact his real name was once used by Tito Santana as a ring name.
Before Blood’s debut in Championship Wrestling from Florida, Eddie Graham gave him the ring name “Ricky Steamboat” based on his resemblance to Hawaiian wrestler Sammy Steamboat.
#16. Kamala, the Ugandan Giant, was somewhere between a monster and a sideshow attraction. His real name is a whole lot less extravagant.
Harris, with help from Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett, developed a new character for Harris. Kamala was a vicious Ugandan headhunter with face and body paint copied from a Frank Frazetta painting.
#17. The Big Bossman was a big and imposing dude and even before he became a wrestler, he lived the gimmick. What was his real name?
Before he was a professional wrestler, Traylor worked as a corrections officer in Cobb County, Georgia. This played nicely with his Bossman gimmick in the WWF.
#18. I came to know him first in WCCW as the One Man Gang. You might remember his name change in WWF. What was his real name?
Gray followed up his One Man Gang years with an extreme gimmick change into, Akeem the African Dream.
#19. Junkyard Dog, also known as JYD, was a fan favorite mid-carder in the WWF during the mid-1980’s. His real name was nowhere near as much fun.
When Ritter moved to Mid-South Wrestling, Bill Watts gave him the name and gimmick of Junkyard Dog, taken from Jim Croce’s song “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown”.
#20. The name Dusty Rhodes was famous in baseball, but this person made it more well known in the world of pro wrestling.
Gary Hart of World Class Championship Wrestling suggested that he change his ring name to “Lonesome Rhodes,” a character Andy Griffith portrayed in the film A Face in the Crowd. Rhodes reportedly replied: “Well … I don’t plan on being ‘Lonesome’. I think I’ll stick with Dusty.”
#21. Jim Hellwig had a short but eventful career, wrestling in WCCW, WWF, and WCW. What was his ring name in WWF?
#22. Seth Rollins is probably somebody’s real name but not the WWE wrestler. What’s his real name?
Rollins has also wrestled under the names Gixx and Tyler Black.
#23. The Undertaker has been a huge part of the WWF/WWE for a very long time. Do you know his real name?
Calaway wrestled under several gimmicks prior to being The Undertaker, including Texas Red, The Commando, and The Master of Pain.
#24. Stephen Farrelly sounds like a good bloke. What wrestler was born with this name?
One of Sheamus’s signature moves, The Irish Curse, is a reference to a slang term supposedly denoting a man’s inability to perform sexually after consuming an excessive amount of whiskey.
#25. Liv Morgan has risen much higher than most people thought she would. What is her real name?
Daddio was a former competitive cheerleader and worked and modeled for Hooters. There, she met her former partner Enzo Amore, who got her in touch with a wrestling gym and WWE.
