We reported late Tuesday night here on eWn that Drake & Gibson have have dropped their first names as well as their Grizzled Young Veterans tag team name.
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason for this is simply because Vince McMahon doesn’t want talent using their real names or names they previously used on the independents.
Prior to joining WWE, the two men used the ‘Grizzled Young Veterans’ tag team team. Additionally, Gibson used the name ‘Zack Gibson’ on the indies. Gibson’s real name is Jack Rea.
Drake was forced to drop ‘James’ because his real name is James Dowell.
And finally, despite their loss to Legado del Fantasma on this week’s episode of WWE NXT 2.0, that is simply a storyline angle and the two men will not be leaving WWE.