WWE Lawyers Up over a Hand Signal

The Bucks got slapped with a cease and desist for throwing up the Hook 'Em Horns?
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

The Bullet Club has always tread a fine line of gimmick infringement. The rogue group that originated in New Japan Pro Wrestling but that has sort of grown and expanded into any promotion which its members work is nakedly a tribute to both The Kliq and the New World Order, the late '90s bad boys of wrestling who made heeldom cool and subverted the entire order of how mainstream companies book heels and faces, perhaps irreparably. The group has gotten away with its homages, mainly because it has the blessing of legendary Kliq/nWo member Scott Hall, and because WWE hasn't really had to fear an attack from a nascent group since it signs anyone and everyone of note that it can before they can get enough momentum to challenge.

Things changed when Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Brandi Rhodes, and Adam Page "invaded" RAW in Ontario, CA this past Monday. It was a stunt that was reminiscent of Degeneration X "invading" Monday Nitro, an act of real-life shitposting that WWE likes to trump up as a big "victory" along the way of winning the Monday Night Wars. Much in the same, this little thing they all did was more or less material for their YouTube show, Being The Elite. While one wouldn't expect a company run by a septuagenarian who was last in touch with pop culture 40 years ago whose average viewing age for the flagship program is north of 30, it could be reasonable for WWE to do what its been doing with respect to the Bullet Club's antics outside the company — ignoring them.

However, never underestimate the depths of pettiness that Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, and their legal team will stoop to, as WWE slapped the Young Bucks with a cease and desist letter over use of the "Too Sweet" hand gesture. That's right, WWE claims to own a copyright on a hand gesture that is frighteningly similar to the University of Texas' "Hook 'Em Horns" hand sign and the devil horns that every metalhead throws up at their concert of choice. This action sparked a Twitter meltdown of sorts from certain Club members, but honestly, I don't blame them at all. WWE is the largest wrestling company in the world, one that sops up wrestlers at an alarming rate and tries to choke the scene through contracts, trademarks, and other legal bindings. It's big enough to skate by without worrying about agitation, not from New Japan Pro Wrestling, but from its independent contractors. Independent contractors, hm, now that's a phrase WWE knows but doesn't really know. But I digress.

The worst part about it is how the company has tried to co-opt the Club in its own narrative while circumventing all the trademarks set up by the NJPW and the members of the group itself. It signed Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Prince Devitt, and AJ Styles. It tried branding Styles, Gallows, and Anderson as The Club in WWE, with a big wink wink, nudge nudge to history it didn't build. It gave Devitt/Finn Bálor the branding of "Bálor Club." It's okay when the whale does it to the barracuda because of the sheer size difference, but when the barracuda bites back, I'm supposed to feel sorry for the whale? Fuck. That.

Anyone defending WWE's right to pursue legal action (and sadly, it does have the right, I don't need to be lectured on that like I was born yesterday and have naivete as pure as a newborn babe's) should step back and see the big picture. These actions are monopolistic in nature, and in the face of WWE's revised history, hilarious given how the poor widdle World Wrestling Federation was the severe underdog to bloated, corporate World Championship Wrestling, ironic and infuriating at the same time. In a perfect world, the entire office, especially Levesque, would appreciate what the Bullet Club did, and realize that maybe WWE has tread down the same road it lampoons WCW for. But instead, it'll continue to laud DX's "brave" acts at the Norfolk Scope that hazy 1998 night as something substantial in the war against WCW as if the company's collective head was lodged up its shitty asshole like the world's worst Ouroboros.