Current NXT Champion Joe Hendry credits a former WWE performer, Massive Damo, with the decision to wrestle under his given name. Hendry, speaking on the TMZ Inside The Ring podcast, revealed he initially doubted whether “Joe Hendry” possessed the necessary impact for a professional wrestling persona.
According to Hendry, he sought guidance from Big Damo – known as Killian Dain during his time with WWE – during his training. Damo advised against hastily adopting a wrestling name without a fully formed character concept. “He was like, ‘Appear, just use your own name because you don’t have anything that you’re super set on right now. Rather than rushing that or being something that you don’t want to use, just use your real name just now,’” Hendry recalled, as transcribed by WrestlingNews.co and shared with a h/t to TMZ Inside The Ring.
Hendry initially questioned the suggestion, but later recognized the advantages of using his real name, particularly in relation to his increasingly popular musical parodies. “I remember at the time thinking, ‘Oh, does Joe Hendry have much of a ring to it?’ But then over time, I realized that I could say my name in different ways to rhyme in songs,” Hendry explained. “So there was Joe Hen, Joe Hendry… I can rhyme it with almost any song. So that really helped with my viral videos. It gave me much more options when I was doing the viral parody songs.”
The wrestler also clarified a long-standing inaccuracy on his Wikipedia page, confirming that his legal first name is Joe, not Joseph. “For a long time on Wikipedia, it was saying Joseph Hendry… but my legal name is actually Joe.”
Hendry’s career has seen him compete in both TNA and NXT, according to SEScoops. He recently gained attention for a humorous pitch involving his theme song and the unreleased Grand Theft Auto 6, as reported by the Times of India.