Yikes, take it easy buddy. No one's trying to start a fight here.
Oh yeah! That's a good point. Thanks for reminding me with some degree of tact on this copyright subject.
I knew his legal name-change to Warrior was done in an attempt to gain copyright, but always heard that it didn't mean much against WWE legally, but I forgot about the comic deal, which obviously says something about his copyright ownership. That's an excellent point.
My bad and my apologies if it came across harshly....
To further clarify:
Macho Man Randy Savage used the names and trademarks before ever entering WWF. He has always owned them.
That is why he was able to take them to WCW in the mid 90s and even to TNA in the mid 2000s.
Bret Hat is his legal name and so he owns it. 'The Hitman' and its colors and images were actually created while in WWF under contract but in an era where they weren't considered that important. Vince signed them over to Bret as part of a contract negotiation in the mid 90s.
That is why Bret was able to take them over to WCW in the late 90s and has used them independently ever since.
Ultimate Warrior is an interesting one as he had the character before WWF but the term 'Ultimate' was added after he signed. This was the basis of the court case. The reason the comic is called simply Warrior and he wrestled in WCW under that name is because the court case was still ongoing.
Vince made a mistake as he tried to claim the whole character despite a lot of video evidence existing of the facepaint/streamers/mannerism etc in smaller promotions before the WWF run. This caused Warrior to win the term 'Ultimate Warrior' outright and he's owned it since the early 2000s.
As another example, Shawn Michaels owns the ring name Shawn Michaels (which is not his birth name) but WWE own the later editions of Heartbreak Kid and other nicknames.
Jack the Snake owns everything.
Then you have guys that actually changed their name legally like 'Ravishing Rick Rude' in order to use the title anywhere they went.
You'll find that most big name wrestlers from the 80s own their gimmicks as they brought them to WWF wholesale and retain rights.
It was really in the 90s onwards that WWF began to lock up character gimmick rights.
(though I believe The Rock bought the rights to use his name from Vince for cash)
Then in the late 2000s they started offering the old guys 'legends contracts' to get the broke older guys to sign over exclusive rights.
Still waiting for Toy Seoul Mike Tyson.
With all of the variant Tyson's it could be awhile.
